Switzerland Days 1 - 3

It’s not easy condensing 11 great days into a few short paragraphs, not to mention sieving out fantastic photographs out of 2GB worth of them, but I’ll try, by chronological order. Hopefully, I’ll manage to finish the entire diary, not like jkaiser, who has yet to finish his Taiwan entry from last year!

10 October 2007

Zurich

Took an overnight plane from SIN-ZRH and arrived early in the morning. Since I wasn’t due to meet TJ until late in the evening I decided to have a short tour around Zurich first before proceeding to Basel where we were staying the night.

Like all the cities in Switzerland that we visited, Zurich is a nice mix of old buildings and new development. I walked down the shopping street of Bahnhofstrasse, with luxury brands like LV,
chain stores like Manora and Co-op, occupying old historical buildings. Not having many Swiss Francs with me and since Europe is an expensive place, I managed only to window shop, a pity really.

After a leisurely walk down Bahnhofstrasse, I made it to the sightseeing area, fully of cobbled walkways, cute little shophouses and many churches. Thing about Swiss is they are so mad about watches, that EVERY church has a clock tower. Zurich has St Peters Kirche (with the largest clock face in the world). Also went to Fraumuenster, and Grossmuenster. Churches in Zurich are very spartan compared to the rest of the churches I’m about to see.

Clocktower of St Peter's Kirche

Fraumuenster

Grossmuenster

Since I was alone and jetlagged, I decided to make it to our first pit stop, Basel, to dump my bags and catch some rest. After some confusion (the train station in Basel is very big cos it’s near the borders of France and Germany), I finally made it to the YMCA. It’s really fun to stay there! Though we didn’t manage to talk to anybody, our room (5 bed) was v nice, and the toilets were great. Took a shower, made my way to Basel airport to pick TJ up.

11 October 2007

Basel

Since we were in Basel, we walked around for a while before going to other cities. Being a highly industrialized city, there wasn’t very much to see, and the weather in the morning was very misty, which made the photos not very nice. But we did make it to the Rathaus (Town Hall), and we wanted to see their church Muenster, but part of the façade was closed for renovation. In fact, when we were there, quite a lot of renovation was going on, because spring/summer was the tourist period, and it’ll be way too cold during winter to renovate. We did make it into Muenster, no photo-taking inside, but the outside premise was quite nice.

Rathaus (Town Hall)

Marktplatz (marketplace)

Muenster

Berne

The capital city of Switzerland. A medieval city which is also a UNESCO heritage site, it is to me, sheer delight. Though it was undergoing major renovation works around the train station and city centre, once you get past the drilling towards the old town area. One of my favourite areas in Switzerland.

The Zytglogge is one of the city’s most enduring symbols, a clock tower. Check out the bears!

Cobbled streets of Old Town

View from the Nydeggbrücke, on the way to the Bear Pits.

The Bear Pits (Baerengraben), it has real bears in it! Berne is crazy over bears, their city mascot.

Lucerne

Another 1 hour by train away from Berne, our base city for the next two days. More about it in the next day’s entry.

12 October 2007

Mount Titlis

You haven’t been to Switzerland if you haven’t visited the Swiss Alps. Since it was only the beginning of Autumn, most of the Alps are covered in lush greenery, and trees in different shades of autumn gold, red and browns. That means that there wasn’t going to be snow unless you headed way up. Mount Titlis is 3,238 m high, so there’s definitely going to be snow there. So up we went, plus it boasted the world’s first rotating cable car, and comes highly rated by Yun (a lot of Swiss tour packages in Singapore go either to Titlis or Pilatus).

We made our way to Engelberg, (1 hour from Lucerne) and then made it up to Titlis in three stages: Engelberg – Truebsee, Truebsee – Stand and finally Stand – Titlis. The whole cable car journey up to Titlis took 45 min, and we took a short stop at Truebsee first before heading up.

At the entrance of the cable car

Lake at Truesbee

Glaciers seen from the rotating cable car

Things to do up on Mount Titlis.

1. Attempt to eat Movenpick Swiss Chocolate ice cream on the mountain top, then run indoors to finish it cos it’s way too cold outside. The ice cream was yummy! And the freshly made cone was delicious!

2. Take photos

3. Take photos with fake snowman

4. Take more photos of Swiss Alps

5. Take the sky flyer, which is a kinda chair lift which allows you to see more glaciers.

6. Get your feet frozen when taking the sky flyer (really very cold can, and I was only wearing one pair of cotton socks with my adidas trainers)

7. Lick the snow

8. Sitting pretty

9. Food! Veal sausage and veggie soup (both quite salty though)

10. Visit glacier cave

11. Go 147 feet under stone and ice

12. Worship the snow Buddha.

Engelberg

Enough with the mountains, we headed down, wanting to catch the 2.15 train back to Lucerne to complete our sightseeing of Lucerne, we ran down, but unfortunately missed the train, and had to wait an additional one hour. Thankfully we did, so we had some time to explore the lovely Engelberg, a charming little village! Since we had time to spare, we had more ice cream!

Lucerne

We can’t stay 2 nights here without exploring the city, and since it’s our last night here, we had to do something about it. We walked around the Old Town area, explored the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrueke), it has triangular panels in it telling the history of Lucerne, though unfortunately many of which were destroyed in the fire.

The Jesuit church and it’s ultra glamourous rocco interior (pink marble and white cornices!)

Hof church

Finally, we went to the supermart, bought ourselves some salad, dressing, ravioli and sauce, and cooked ourselves this yummy dinner in the hostel to reward ourselves. =)

STRIKE!

in amsterdam now, on the final leg of our crazy but absolutely fun europe trip.

in Geneva Switzerland, on 15 Oct, we walked head-on into a strike, which we were very amused by, and later found out that it was a constuction workers strike.

read all about it here.

so basically in Geneva, the worst hit state, they marched onto a bridge and blocked it, causing a massive jam downtown

but it was ok, we mostly walked anyway, and the strike meant we could even walk happily across the road (since there was no traffic anywayz)

ok then we made it to France, did all the touristy things, and when we were about to leave France, our hostel put up a notice on the wall that said "no public transportation on 18 Oct". So the french transport system went on strike. which affected all of the metro (subway) and the bus system as well. read about it here.

we were due to leave Paris for Amsterdam by TRAIN on the 18 Oct 07. to get to the train station we had to take the metro, but it was closed (or rather not really running, we later learnt that it did run, like one every 30 min). thankfully our train was run by an amsterdam-based company and hence unaffected unlike the TGV (French). but then we still needed to get to the train station. we were told "it's not that far, you can walk, takes about 30 min". which on the map it's abt 2km, but walking tt far with a 13kg backpack is no joke. but we were very prepared to do that already, luckily, we managed to hail a cab along the streets and got there without any event. later we were to hear that some ppl walked for 3 whole hours to get to the train station... madness!

last i read, the strike is due to continue. let's hope nothing happens in amsterdam...

think i so "heng" can go buy toto! huat ah!

ps: now my blogger homepage is in nederlandish. go figure.

Finally!

the consultants came and went, pretty interesting and learnt quite abit running around with them. hope they manage to do a good job so it reflects well on us. but yah, was kinda hoping that one of them will be cute. he's not too bad, but not super cute. oh wellz. and the other (older one) looks like italian mafia! but without the black super greased hair, his is more like greying and curly.

my boss was such a liar, my project mate's boss told my boss that he's taking her out of the team since she got rotated and cross-dept projects aren't supposed to last tt long. so both agreed that my boss will inform her that she's no longer required to do this project. so since i didn't know tt she's not supposed to be in the project, i informed her to join in a teleconference with the consultants. my boss was "surprised tt she turned up, and tot tt she was being reassigned to the project" and continued with the arrangement, until her boss found out, and was hopping mad and screaming to my boss. win liao lor. at least her boss apologised to her saying tt it was partly his fault tt he didn't inform her, but my boss never said nothing! instead, he started coming up with excuses. what an ass...

but yah, will leave tt all behind now, cos i'll be flying off to zurich for my lovely holiday! yippeee! and it seems like good news on tj's job too... yippeeee! =)

screwed up

have been running arnd here and there attending meetings. record 6 meetings a day is no joke. heng i'm only there mostly to coordinate and observe, so i kinda pity my consultants. but they signed up for the job! i'm just here to help make things ezier for them.

this project is getting abit irritating. with politics, manpower issues... and apparently my boss likes to assume things, turns out my project mate was no longer on the project, but nobody informed her cos both bosses (mine and hers) all thought the other person would. so she was continuing with it... poor girl...

SIGH!

something to look forward to

haven't really had time to sit down and blog properly.

work sucks as usual, past two weeks have been tiring rushing for deadlines, preparing for meetings, doing project, fundraising etc. for me, being tired is ok, being frustrated isn't, and i'm frustrated w my boss (who isn't?) and now got a new source of frustration: a colleague who's been newly assigned to the same project, doesn't wanna pull his own weight, asks way too many questions, says things like "the project is still in it's very initial stages..." totally wrong as i've been doing alot of shit for it...

but all the busyness is bearable, because coming up is my Switzerland-Paris-Amsterdam trip! have been dreaming abt europe since last year, but nothing really happened until recently... so now's a mad rush to confirm everything b4 tj leaves for aberdeen on course this friday. so many things to do! get swiss pass, book hostel in every single place we're staying at, book internal flights, confirm my europe ticket (this is one of those ocassion i'm glad i work in my company, free ticket!), figure out where to go and what to do...

Bangkok 2007

A post about our Bangkok Trip.

23 August 2007

Woke up early in the morning to take cab to Budget Terminal, to catch Tiger Airways flight to BKK. Spent quite a bit of time duty-free shopping before we caught the flight, it was not too bad, no food no nothing but plane is new, seats are comfy, price is cheap, so no complaints there.

Landed at the new Thai airport, shan't attempt to spell the name, didn't really like the place cos I find the workmanship quite shoddy and everything. Hopped on a cab to Asia Hotel, our home for the next few days. The hotel's decor is really quite dated, but it's pretty comfy, price-wise ok (approx SGD80 per night for 2 ppl), and location is good (one BTS station away from SIAM).

Decided to go shopping around MBK area. Went around MBK, Siam Centre, Siam Paragon. Didn't buy anything cos quite atas, but had fun just look-seeing, check out the pictures:

yummy lunch at MBK food court. Beef noodles (salty but good) and pad thai!

we saw this advertisement for a bra shop there. super hillarious!

Siam Paragon has this area filled with fancy car showrooms, so we were happily taking photos of luxury cars.
a canary yellow hummer
Ferraris

Lambo

Enough of window shopping in posh places, we headed off to suan lum night bazaar by public transport. It was tiring walking there, not to mention slightly confusing.


The infamous Patpong area, didn't check it out at night though, but the signboards are already super sleazy.

Dinner at Suan Lum Night Bazaar. Pad Thai, kangkong, green curry and tom yum.


Suan Lum is really quite a good place to shop. Good mix of shops which are pretty spacious, but must be careful what you buy cos alot of stuff can be bought at Chatuchak for alot cheaper. Pleased with our buys and since we were very tired, we headed back to rest.

24 August 2007
Sightseeing morning, headed down to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho by the scenic route (Chao Phraya Express). The river is really very dirty.



On the boat, there are safety floats just in case of an emergency. If you look closely, they're really floats. Not even life vests!

Wat Arun, across the river from Wat Pho. We didn't visit there though, but it looked lovely from our angle.


Wat Pho, with the famous sleeping Buddha.

Walked on foot from Wat Pho to Grand Palace. The weather was super hot, and I was so dehydrated and tired from all the walking. At Grand Palace, it was tons and tons of shrines with elaborate designs, very pretty! But it was really very tiring.


After walking for very long, the weather was getting to us. We hopped on a cab to Khao San Road, a backpackers area, with lotsa ang mohs there and some shopping too. Atmosphere was quite laidback too. Before we came, I already had a plan of buying a backpack for travelling purposes. So we looked around here for an ideal one. Ended up buying 2 (a 60 litre for me and a 40 litre for TJ) for only SGD 50. Cheap!

Khao San Road
SawadeeJun

Headed back to keep the giant backpacks, then went shopping around Pratunam area. Platinum mall was interesting, but they closed early, so we headed off for dinner. Ended up in some shopping mall, where we had two separate dinners, both in very typically thai fast food chains.

In particular, this place Yum Saap, with a deceptively cute smiley face logo, had this killer Tom Yum soup that got both of us surrenderring! (the Coconut freeze is very good though)

Following that, we went supermarket shopping, paid a visit to the Erawan shrine, and went back to zzz.

25 August 2007

Chatuchak day! Didn't think I'd like shopping in a squashed environment whereby you're bound to get lost, but I enjoyed myself totally. TJ did too! Good food, great shopping, great prices. In fact, my best authentic thai food experience was there.

Preparing the food.
Grilled pork salad, with beef vermicelli soup. Yum yum!

Had takeaway friend tanghoon too. They put in lots of raw beansprouts (Shuyun will definitely hate it) but it was very nice!

Bushed and starting to run out of money, we headed back to dump our stuff, and went in search for tidbits to bring home, a good thai restaurant and thai massage to soothe our aching muscles.


to take stock of our trip, check out our purchases!

26 August 2007

Packed up to go home. Pls do not take AirAsia, had friends telling us not to, but we decided it can't be that bad. Well it was, the plane was very old, complete with old vinyl seats. Quite scary actually. So yes. Should have listened to their advice.

Reached SG safely, tired but absolutely satisfied. Very fun trip with my TJ! =)

Random

did you miss me?

ppl who ask this question on their blog sometimes are asking for it, so don't answer that.

many things happened recently which explain the lack of blogging activity:

1) lots of work since the busy period is coming up, and it can only get worse in Sept. 2 more mths b4 my colleague comes back from maternity leave! arghz

2) tj's ah-ma passed away =( don't worry ah-ma, i'll take care of him

3) BKK with my man. lots of crazy walking, shopping, eating and mostly fun. though we did end up pissing each other off once in a while, it was all good. will blog more abt it later.

4) lord voldemort makes one comment that "our discipline is crumbling", now everyone has to watch over their shoulders to see who's monitoring how long they take lunch, what time they go home, and which websites they surf. youtube, gmail, friendster photos bad... blogging also bad =(

national day

Put on my red blouse and off-white berms on national day, and promptly went across the Causeway to J.B. Mum had to buy medicine for grandma so asked us along for safety (in numbers).

Note to self: never go JB on a public holiday! We spent like 1.5 hrs queuing at JB customs to get our passports stamped. That resulted in us reaching the place late, not enough time to go the places we wanted to go etc. Well I did get my haircut (think he layered too much so now it sticks out) but he spent so much time cutting it I can’t fault him, and at least my split ends are gone. And for the first time, we had difficulty finding a cab in JB! (almost half hour spent trying to flag one down, and cabbies reject us saying got jam near customs! Where got such thing one?)

Yes, so after a whole day of waiting, queuing etc. I made my way down to Padang for more jostling with people. Reached around 7, was amazed to find the sheer number of people in red, picnicking at Padang, walking around the area to find a good spot. Thankfully tj’s family went early to chope seats (what a S’porean thing to do), so I joined them, watching parts of the parade on the large screen, chit-chatting, eating and indulging in another s’porean activity: cam-whoring. It was fun playing with my camera, trying out different settings (though I haven’t gone to figure out the ISO ones yet) but I must say I’m v pleased with it so far

The fireworks were pretty. Love the gold ones with the stars at the end. Think I’ll go through idiotic things just to catch fireworks. But I love them.

Thing that struck me is the patriotism that people have, I see a lot of people wearing red, and everyone young and old seems v happy sitting there, chilling, queuing up to buy food, to “chope” a good spot, clapping and cheering during the fireworks or when the helicopters go by with the giant national flag. Feels good, even if nobody really gives a damn about patriotism or being Singaporean after August 9 is over.

OBS

Went OBS on a 5 day course sponsored by my company last week. This was my third time at OBS (incidentally, my first time at OBS was 10 years ago. How time flies.)

We did quite a lot of stuff, not as physically taxing as my previous school trips, but a lot more mental and emotional stimulation like reflections, discussions, sharing sessions etc. which made it more meaningful. I think OBS should be attended by young adults to make the outcome more fruitful.

It was great. Throw a bunch of young people from various departments and divisions together and you’ll get an instant mix of people who will work together in the best way they can to get the task done in the most efficient way possible. Winning is a plus, but not a must. Mistakes if any, are forgiven. Having never really experiencing teamwork in my line of work, I found this very refreshing, bringing me back to my school days of being heavily involved in sports CCA. Of course in the real life work place things are never peachy, and there are lots of politics involved. It’s also “comforting” to realize that people everywhere are complaining about the same things: the cover backside and taichi syndrome, the I don’t wanna do work but wanna claim credit syndrome. For a while it became almost depressing.

Most of all, it was a journey of self discovery for me. I set out trying to improve my self confidence level, and stumbled at a particular obstacle. Cried, didn’t wanna do it, stood there for the longest time, but chickened out in the end. Just couldn’t get rid of the fear of falling, losing control. But even though I berate myself for not having the courage and the guts, I was very comforted by the encouragement shown by my teammates, telling me that people still care and that was really touching (though I felt quite bad for letting everyone down). So from a random bunch of colleagues I’ve gained a bunch of friends that I know I can always count on…

On the whole, it was a fantastic experience. I highly recommend it if you get the chance.