after only 17 hours at home, i’m back at the airport en route to vienna. although i was fully aware of this trip before i left, it still forces me to confront my normal working life head-on without any settling-down time. what aggravates the situation is that no-one knows that i’ve been gone and everyone assumes that they can come back piling even more work on me since i’ve resumed normal service with on-site availability… switzerland and austria are strange places to be after 3 weeks in india. the quiet, the calm, lane discipline, so much personal space (i.e. less […]
first day on official duties
we got back pretty late from customs. mumbai inner city traffic was very dense (we shall learn today, however, that the traffic we got to know was “light” traffic, according to locals, and now, after the fact, us, too!) for today, we are scheduled to attend a press conference and show our cars at a mall. we plunge back into bombay traffic. it is very dense but unlike european traffic, everyone looks out for the fellow driver. thanks to google and our indian sim, we easily find our way to the bombay press club. first journalists arrive and we are […]
releasing the twike from customs
after arriving at iitb at around 830am i decide that i will not go to sleep but rather stay up and try to sync to indian time the hardcore way. the 4 hours 30 minutes time difference to switzerland are quite noticeable. we head out to customs and a very long while later we arrive and meet our agent, john. entering customs free zone, we proceed to our container. the container looks very interesting, since there are cables coming from it and going into the local power distribution centre. the cables and the installation itself looks very dodgy. but interestingly […]
mumbai, 1st contact
touchdown mumbai 0450. did’nt get any sleep but still wide awake. got off plane and progressed though customs and immigration for over an hour. the sheer amount of people trying to get through customs is staggering. furthermore, being in india and all, queuing is part of life – it’s just interesting to see all the people from all walks of life trying to enter the country. be it the indian business man in a crisp suit (even after 8 hours of flight) or the european hippy heading off to you know where – every one of them is treated with […]
2nd TWIKE team member arrives
wow, time flies when you’re working hard and preparing at the same time… november 30th, 10am i leave from zrh to istanbul after an uneventful flight i settle down in the lounge and start working again. my communication setup works very well, routing swiss mobile calls down to a skype instance running on my computer. was on the phone for more than 2 hours and no caller suspected anything. leaving istanbul later that evening, we took off over the city and were treated to a very nice view of the bosporus – the gateway to asia. landing is scheduled for […]
TWIKE arrives in Mumbai
MSC Maureen has completed its voyage – the TWIKE has arrived in Mumbai! check out TW560’s exact position here. During the WAVE, TW560’s GPS position will be continuously updated and displayed in the sidebar on the main page and on the detailled page in various zoom levels.
1st team TWIKE member leaves for India
jean-claude left for india yesterday morning, together with most of the other swiss wave participants. i will be adding pictures as soon as jean-claude has uploaded them. since msc maureen is due in mumbai port tomorrow, they will try to get to the cars in the container as soon as possible. there are technical reasons for this: unlike the TWIKE, both think city and the clio rely on high temperature natrium-cloride batteries, which after a good month in the container are back to ambient temperature. in order for them to even start to accept any charge, they need to be […]
Hello visa! (& other musings)
process excellence! just a few days after i applied for the visa, i’ve got it back! here we go. ready for all the fun india has to offer! i’m really impressed by the indian visa process after being treated to much worse service the world over! something else came together on friday, too: my international driving license was issued! whilst musing about what else i need, how about some cool bumper stickers for the TWIKE… or… even better, for my fellow electric car drivers: the trusted “hybrids are for pussies” sticker which has been adorning my TWIKE for the last […]