Into the Looking Glass

One of the things which we totally love about the trip, is visiting different factories and learning how the different products are made. After missing a chance to go on the Mercedes factory tour we decided we had  to make it to at least one German car factory tour, and thus we made our way to the Gläserne Manufaktur.

The Glass Factory is where Volkswagen does the final assembly of its luxury sedan, the Phaeton. Its  located in Dresden, and though we didn't explore the city at all, it did look rather charming. True to its name, the factory's is almost completely made out of glass, and looks amazing at night as can be seen from the picture below.

Within the factory, there is a Kugelhaus, which allows visitors to view all the Volkswagen commercials over the past 50 years. Of course there is the hugely popular Darth Vader one, but even before that they had some hilarious advertisements though for some reason I can't seem to find them on youtube. Suffice to say, we were fairly entertained for quite a while watching the various advertisements. There is also a meeting/ conference room which is available for rental if you are so inclined, though there was no one there the day we were visiting. 

Our group was fairly large but our tour guide did the best she could. No photos are allowed inside the factory at all, so any photos in this entry will be just what's available online. The Phaetons are made to order, and since the factory is only for final assembly, everything has to be brought in from outside Dresden. Being German, they have of course made sure that everything is as efficient as possible and at the same time, minimizes their carbon footprint. You can read all about it on their website thus I won't repeat it here. 

We were suitably impressed by the thought process they had, from the design of the factory, to how the assembly line should be to ensuring birds won't fly into the building. Seem like most of the factories in Europe are built with this kind of thinking, whereas in Asia it just seems to be more of what can you squeeze out from the space. It was fascinating how quiet everything was and though we could only observe the assembly of the cars from a platform, it was still pretty amazing. I had expected it to be a lot nosier, something like what we experienced in the Ducati factory but this was nicely quiet enough to hear what the guide was saying. 

photo credit : volkswagen

After the tour ended, we had dinner at the cafe within the factory and ended up chatting with the waiter. Surprise surprise, he actually knows where Singapore is! He has a friend working or worked in Singapore (can't remember) and he actually wants to come over as well. It's usually a surprise when people actually know where Singapore is since half the time they think we are part of China. A nice ending to the day before we made our way to Munich. 

2 years, 9 months and 1 week

According to our ticker right at the bottom of this blog, it's been that amount of time since our major big adventure. We are still alive and kicking, just that well we procrastinated and neglected this blog for the longest time ever. 

We actually got back to Singapore in September 2011 and bummed around for a period of approximately 4 months, doing things like sitting in on the parliamentary sessions in Singapore, volunteering at Cat Welfare Society and basically trying to figure out what we wanted to do in our lives since everything was kind of an anti-climax after the trip. 

After bumming around for the longest time ever, CS got a job and before you knew it, we were packing our lives up in Singapore and made the move to....... Bangkok! When he got news of the job offer and told me about the possible move, it was really a no-brainer to say yes. We have been wanting to get out of Singapore wayyyy before our major big adventure but work-wise it never happened. So this opportunity was really great, and since I wasn't working, I had no job to think about and we said yes within a week (?) I think. Since he had to start work almost immediately, it was left to me to pack up the house and take care of all the necessary arrangements like finding tenants, figuring out how to bring Kit Cat over and various other items. Thanks to the kindness of friends, I also had a place to stay in after our apartment was rented out and before I made the move with Kit Cat.  

Moving Kit Cat over itself was an adventure and I did an article for Cat Welfare Society which is re-published here.

When people heard we were relocating to Bangkok, one of the first few questions we were asked is "So what will you do with kit cat?" Our immediate answer was always "We'll take him with us of course."

Kit Cat has been a part of our family ever since we adopted him 5 years ago from the cat shelter. He is a part of our family, and there was never any doubt that we would bring him with us wherever we might go. When we found out that my husband would be posted to Bangkok, we began researching on how to bring Kit Cat with us.

The natural starting point was the AVA website. It takes a while to navigate but with enough patience you will find the information needed. They also recommend that you go down to their office to speak with the staff directly and we found this to be a better option than calling the hotline. Don't swing by during their lunch hours (1-2pm).

The first documentation you will need is the export permit. You can complete this online and just print them out. The export permit is only valid for 30 days and you must bring your cat out of Singapore within those 30 days.

Next, depending on which country you are bringing your cat into, you either need a government health certificate or endorsement of a health certificate by an official veterinarian. You will need to bring your cat to your regular vet to get a health certificate. Check on the specific requirements that the country you are going to because each country differs - Thailand for example, requires the cat to be free of rabies. Vaccinations should generally be up to date and the cat in good health. You need to bring the certificate from your vet to AVA within 7 days for AVA to endorse or for processing the government health certificate. The AVA government health certificate as well as their endorsement of the health certificate is only valid for 7 days so do plan your departure date properly! You can print the government health certificate yourself or self-collect.

With Singapore sorted, it was on to the Thai requirements – an import permit specifically. The information was readily available online and though my husband's company handled the documents, we learnt that there are companies that can assist with such things in Singapore as well.

After all the paperwork, we needed to decide on an airline. Most airlines require pets to be in the cargo hold. This was not an option for us because Kit Cat is easily stressed and we wanted him to be with us while travelling. Luckily, Thai Airways allows pets in the cabin provided the weight of the pet and carrier does not exceed 10kg and the carrier fits the dimensions. We booked the tickets and informed Thai Airways that the pet needed to be with us. We only needed to inform them of Kit Cat's microchip and provide his health certificate number.

We arrived early at the airport and had to produce the health certificate and export license but had no other trouble clearing immigration. We covered his carrier with a towel to help calm him, but for a cat that hates car rides, he was remarkably calm and happy on the flight. We brought him through Bangkok customs and the Animal Quarantine sections, produced our documentation, paid the last fees and then it was off to our new home! We have retained all our receipts and documentation for future reference and to prove Kit Cat was brought in legitimately.

Here he is with the Bangkok Post to prove that he's really in Thailand and not in Singapore!

So yeah, our family is reunited once again and we'll try to update this more often, which will include backdated trip entries as well as our adventures in Thailand!