Switzerland - Interlaken

Interlaken is truly heaven on Earth. If you are a nature and peace loving person, you will simply love it. Inter-laken literally means 'in between two lakes'. Imagine a green piece of land in between two lakes and surrounded by mountains from all sides! That's Interlaken for you.

We went from Geneva to Interlaken using our Swiss Eurail pass for day 1. It took us approx. 4 hours to get there. Here are some of the pictures of Interlaken:































You can sense from the pictures, that it is an absolutely amazing serene place.

What to do in Interlaken?
Really for me Interlaken is more about relaxing and taking in the beauty of nature. Sit at a cafe with friends and just enjoy. It's about photography and long walks. But thats not all you can do here. If you are more adventurous type, you can go sailing, windsurfing and mountain hiking. Then there is the most famous trip to Jungfrau (Top of Europe) which we took, but it will come later in a different post.

Where to stay?
There are many hotels in Interlaken set in beautiful settings but we preferred staying in youth hostel, as we did through our entire Europe trip. The youth hostel in Interlaken is half an hour walk from the city center, set at the shore of Lake Brienze. There is internet access, table tennis and you can create your own bonfire at the hostel. Breakfast was as good as we had in any of the youth hostels all for CHF 31.00 per person per night. Here are some pictures of the hostel :






In the next post I will write more about Jungfrau and the adventures... :)

Europe - Switzerland - Geneva

Hi, With this post I am starting a long series of posts on my Europe travel. I undertook this travel towards the end of 2006 (October to December). Three months of travel and stay in Europe, I covered almost 10-11 countries in Western Europe. I hope this series on Europe gives you insight into what to see in which countries, how to do low cost travel (Europe is damn expensive) and which places you can give a skip and others which you should not.

I have tried to include as many tips on cost saving which I experienced and practiced myself during this trip. In addition, I have tried to put in the latest prices, facts and figures wherever is possible as on day of publishing this post. Please bear with me and cross-check the prices before planning your trip.

We began with Switzerland - Geneva as this was the first place I visited. But before we delve into Geneva, here's a little how we planned our Switzerland travel:

• Ours was a 4 day trip and hence we purchased a Swiss Eurail Pass (approx. $180 each) for 4 days which included all local travel. There were a couple of boat rides free on it as well.
  
• We entered Switzerland from France through Geneva (the western most point) and reached Interlaken the same day. We based ourselves in Interlaken for the remaining days and utilized our train pass to the fullest.
• The Eurail pass also entitles you to heavy discount (50-75%) on other special tickets, like that of travel to Jungfrau etc. I will tell you as we proceed with the series.
  

Geneva is truly a business center with a business type buzz associated with it. It is the second most populous city of Switzerland and is on the border of Switzerland and France. It's charm is lake Geneva but it also has HQs for two world agencies - UN and Red Cross. The main places to visit in Geneva:

• Geneva Lake and a cruise in the same
• Jet d'eau (fountain in the midst of the lake)
• Reformation Wall
• UN Building (If you are a common traveler like we were, you will not be allowed entry)

The pics of these places are given below:

Cruise














Lake Geneva:














Jet d'eau:



















UN:



















Accommodation
We did not stay put in Geneva during our visit, but on our way back from Switzerland to Lyon, we did put up in one of the youth hostels, the Hostel Geneva close to Lake Leman. You can book the hostel here (www.hihostels.com). I would recommend the hostel, nice facility, good breakfast which is included in the price. The current price is 29.00 CHF per person. There is an extra charge of 6 CHF for non youth hostel members. You can even get the youth hostel membership over here. I would strongly recommend that you bring along youth hostel membership from your native country if you are traveling across Europe on your own.

Travel within Geneva
You can travel within Geneva using tram, trolleybus or bus servcie which is very frequent and very good though you might want to walk, as Europe is all about walking in the cities and soaking in the culture. You can reach center of the city by bus or tram and then walk around.

Cruise on Lake Geneva
A cruise on lake Geneva is a must though it's slightly expensive (approx. 20 CHF per person). Your Swiss Eurail pass though will entitle you to a free ticket on the cruise.

Museums
Geneva has more than 40 museums (like most of the European cities). But you can give them a skip as there are many other museums across Europe which should not be missed.

Food
There are three Indian restaurants in the city which I know of :

• JAIPUR: Tandoori food
• SHAHI: Again tandoori food
• ROYAL INDIA: This is more like a mixed version of Indian and European Cuisine.
  

I hope this is useful for your Geneva travel. If you want to know more, send me an email.

Lots to come on Europe... I will try and write about more European cities as frequently as possible.

KL - Shopping Paradise

Kuala Lumpur (KL), the capital of Malaysia is a man-made wonder. As you are driven from the airport towards the city, on both sides of the road, as far as the eye goes, you can see trees planted neatly in lines on acres and acres of land. You will be dumbstruck with the amount of greenery in the city amongst the high rise buildings. There is lots to see in KL for a tourist. The best part though is Shopping. KL has a lot of malls with virtually every brand in the world available, sometimes at jaw dropping prices.


We went to the following places in KL:

Petronas Towers also known as KLCC(Kuala Lumpur City Center) were the world's tallest twin buildings.
It has a skybridge between 41st and 42nd floor, the view from where is breathtaking.
The skybridge can be visited free of charge on a first-cum-first basis (limited tickets for a day).
But to visit the sky bridge you need to get the booking done at the Petronas itself.
If you go early you can book anytime of the day for your visit. i.e. if you can be there at 7:00 in the morning.:)











KL Towers is another of world's tallest buildings with an elevator which goes really fast.
People do go to the tower to enjoy the elevator ride. You can see the KL tower in the pictures on left





















Masjid Negara is the only Mosque in the world which does not have a round dome.
In fact the dome is an interesting umbrella shape. You can see the blue color dome in the picture on the left.












Another place you will probably go is the old municipality building in KL which is designed in the Indian Moghul Architecture. The whole area is very nice though there is nothing much to do.




Shopping - The Bukit Bintang road is a paradise for shoppers for it has as many as 6 malls if not more. There is the massive Bukit Bintang (BB) Plaza, the K L Plaza and the new Pavilion.

You can get all sorts of stuff in BB Plaza and the KL Plaza (mostly local non branded).
If you want to shop for the branded and the designer labels, I would recommend Pavilion or the Suria KLCC (in the KLCC).

Advice: Your Tour guide/ driver might take you to a "factory" tour of leather factory and chocolate factory.
DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM EITHER OF THESE PLACES.
The prices in Leather Factory are 4-5 times that in the city mall (and they will pretend to give you a 50% discount).
The Chocolate factory tour is equally abysmal. The chocolates are not worth buying, though you can taste as many as you like, free of cost :)

Enjoy shopping in the KL malls!