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!

Batu Caves and Sunway Lagoon

We came back from Genting Highlands to Kuala Lumpur (KL) and on the way stopped at Batu Caves.

Batu Caves

Batu Caves is a major tourist attraction in Malaysia and most of the tour operators ensure that you stop at Batu caves enroute to Genting or while coming back. There is a huge Shiv (a hindu god) idol in front of the caves. The insides of the caves is Ok. It could have been better if they had not built so many temples inside. I am sure without the temples, the place would have looked awesome.

Climbing the 170 odd stairs is no big deal but beware of hundreds of monkeys who will pounce on anything edible in your hand. If you have small kids with you, be extra careful. On the left you can see a picture of the shiv idol and behind the idol, stairs taking you up to the entrance of Batu caves.


The best part about Batu caves are the few shops/restaurants near the parking area which serve South Indian food at very reasonable prices. If you want to have reasonably good (not so spicy) and pretty cheap Indian food, do dig in.

From Batu caves we went directly to the exotic Sunway Lagoon.

Sunway Lagoon
Sunway Lagoon is a nice place to spend time with your family or even if you are on a honeymoon. The water park in Sunway Lagoon is simply wonderful. Its more of a theme park, with a huge wooden bridge crossing the various water parks and leading to some thrilling rides.
The major attractions of Sunway Lagoon are:

• There are two hotels - Sunway Hotel Resort and Spa where we stayed and the more expensive Sunway Pyramid. Both the hotels are very good in terms of rooms and services
• Theme Parks - Water parks with surf beach, water rides, extreme park etc.
• Shopping Mall - There is a shopping Mall right next to Sunway Hotel Resort, in fact it's internally connected and there are many good restaurants in the mall

The photo on the right is that of theme park (water park) from my hotel room. You must enjoy the water park if you are there. Some tips for the same:

• If you are staying at the hotel, make sure you carry towels from your hotel room (yes you can take those)
• But make sure you take some cash with you, as you would need to rent a locker to keep your clothes etc. Each locker is 5 Rn each.

We took dinner at a restaurant in the Sunway Shopping mall called as 'Mantra'. The food is very good and the ambiance is excellent, but the prices are slightly on a higher side. But I would strongly recommend the restaurant if you want to have good Indian food in Malaysia.

The next morning we got a very good breakfast buffet spread at the hotel. Then we moved on to KL from there.

Genting Highlands

On the same trip (to Malaysia) we went to Genting Highland near KualaLumpur(KL). Genting is basically a hill top entertainment weekend getaway for the Malays and there is not much for tourists really. Genting has three primary attractions:

1. Casinos: Casino de Genting is a nice place to burn some money :). It offers all international games be it Roulette, Blackjack, Poker etc. But the only problem is that there is nothing special to offer for the tourists. If you have been to casinos elsewhere, you can easily give it a skip.
   
2. Theme parks: There are two theme parks in Genting: Indoor and Outdoor. The theme parks are opened from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm (outdoor). The indoor one is opened until 12:00 midnight. The theme parks are really good and there is a lot to do for the kids. Even the adults can have their share of fun with a few thrill rides. But if you have been to any of the Disney parks' or to a good amusement/ theme park around the world, you can easily give this a skip.
3. Ropeway: We took the ropeway to the top (even then you have to travel half of the distance by car) but took the car all the way down the next day. The ropeway journey is very scenic indeed and a delight for a photographer. But we were unlucky as it was a very cloudy day and the clouds were really low, so we couldn't enjoy the ropeway as much as we could have enjoyed otherwise.
   

Picture of the beautiful rope-way ride.

Otherwise, there is nothing much to do in Genting. Even if you plan to make a trip, make sure it is a single day trip. There are 5 good hotels (we stayed in the The First World Hotel), but if you can , do avoid staying over night, unless of course you wanna play at the casino all night long.
People on Honeymoon can give Genting a skip.

Tips for Genting:

• It rains there most of the time - take umbrellas, raincoats etc.
• Most of the places our interconnected in Genting... even the hotels you can move from one hotel to another easily but some places are not covered hence the umbrella is necessary
• You need not stay overnight - best plan to go early morning and come back to KL in evening
• Vegetarians - Do carry something, you might find it difficult to get something to eat
• Ropeway is highly recommended but you need to take a call looking at the weather - the weather in Genting can be very different to that of KL, so be prepared!

Happy Traveling.

For more info on Genting, visit: http://www.genting.com.my/