Day 3 & 4 : Lauterbrunnen, Swiss Alps, Switzerland

Wednesday 9 & Thursday 10 September 2009

It was a long drive up to the Swiss Alps today, land of the Swiss chocolates. Found a Toblerone bar half my size! Camping Jungfrau, the Swiss camp here, is among one of the luxurious ones and is Amber’s home. It’s amazing the camp sites here in Europe. Nothing like our shitty Malaysian camp sites at all. It’s beautifully maintained nestled among the snowy alps and they have fantastic facilities! The cabins are just picturesque and they even have a proper restaurant and grocery store where you can buy beers, wine & food stuff. There’s wifi & laundry too.

Oversized Toblerone

Lovely town of Lauterbrunnen

Our 5 star campsite - Amber's home

We were given a choice to upgrade to cabins as it was cold up in the alps. They didn’t want us freezing our asses off in our tents. And upgrade we did to a cabin of 4 each. Stayed with the girls – Kylie, Cindy & Sophia.

What I love about these camps are the parties they hold at their local bars. Their bar happened to be an ex bomb shelter that was used during the war. How cool is that? It was a P-party tonight and we had to dress up and come with something that started with P. Well, there are the obvious pimps, playboy bunnies, prostitutes and pirates but some got really creative and came as pregnant women, plane, penis, puppy, princess, Phelphs, etc. No idea where they got their costumes but they were really creative in using whatever materials they had. Everyone got into the spirit. I went as Pocahontas.

Partied till late that night until the bomb shelter closed and we moved the party to cabin 107. Didn’t know whose cabin it was until the next day. Turned out to be Shane & Jamie (Perth) and Jarrod & Brandon’s (South Africa) cabin. Security came twice to shush us.

P-Party at the Bomb Shelter

Most of the group went up to the Jungfrau Mountain the next day to play in the snow and soak in the sights. I decided to sit this one out as I was looking forward to a nice quiet day at camp. The South African boys were around too (they missed the train) so we decided to find Trümmelbach Falls, huge ravine of water that was made out of 10 glaciers or something like that. Walked till we got lost, took a bus, then finally found the damn thing. The spectacular thing about it was that it came gushing out from the centre of the Earth. You could see the earth’s layers and crust. Fascinating.

The waterfalls from the glaciers of the Earth

It was good to go back to camp after that tiring walk. Had siesta under the tree before dinner. Most had an early night and since I was bored, I decided to pay a visit to the bomb shelter and lo and behold, fellow Contikians were already there playing drinking games. Amber was so happy to see me coz they were picking on her (the only girl) until I came. Cards were on me this time and I think I downed quite a lot. Remind me never to play any drinking games when you’re the only girl there.

Day 1 & 2 : London - Paris

Monday 7 & Tuesday 8 September 2009

Today’s the day I begin my Contiki journey with 49 other strangers who would become my temporary family for the next 21 days. Yes, I’m doing the 21 days Camping trip around Europe. Most of the group were Aussies, followed by Kiwis, 5 South Africans, 3 Americans, 2 Canadians, 1 Barcelonian, 1 Columbian, 1 Korean and me, the only Malaysian. I’m always the only Asian in these kind of trips so was interesting to have a Korean too although she doesn’t speak very good English. Contiki crew were Scotty as our Tour Manager, Jerry as our driver and Amber as our cook.

Boarded the ferry to France and that’s where it all started – the bar. Met Paulie, Kylie & Cindy from Katherine, Australia, Matthew (Kiwi) from NZ and Rob (Chuck Norris) from Australia. Even when I’m halfway across the world, I gravitate towards alcos. Hmmm.

Ferry from London to Paris

Set up camp for the first time with much difficulty in Paris with tent mate Sophia from Korea. Amber prepared escargots for us and to my surprise, many of them have never tried snails before. I thought French food was common in all parts of the world? Scotty brought us into town to see Paris at night.

Camping in Paris

Paris at night

Woke up early the next day to check out the sights. Was 6 of us : me, Cindy, Kylie, Paulie, Kiwi & Chuck. Started off at the Eiffel Tower and walked to the Arc de Triomphe. We took a train to Notre Dame but got lost in the process. It was a blessing in disguise as we found an absolutely lovely cathedral where it was amazingly peaceful and quiet. I was just mesmerised by its beauty. We all thought it was the Notre Dame until a local told us otherwise. Quite hilarious come to think of it now.

Paris during the day

The beautiful cathedral we thought was Notre Dame

Finally made it to Notre Dame. It was impressively massive but I enjoyed the sereneness of the previous cathedral better. Completed my Parisian experience with a French meal accompanied by an accordion player. Skipped the cabarets though and went back to camp for an early night in my cold tent.

The real Notre Dame

I'm back!!

I'm back in KL again after 24 days, of which 21 days was spent traversing around Europe with the Shitest Mates of Contiki. Had an absolutely fabulous time but it's good to be home again and I SO miss the food.

There's too much to update and too many photos to go through so I'm torn in doing a day by day update or a collective one. What are your thoughts?

Gotta straighten up my pad today and if I have time, I just might do a brief daily update. Till then.

Getting 'Cultured' at the Museum

Sunday 6 Sept 2009

Dan woke up early at 5am today for work so I kinda got up myself but went back to bed again. Was woken up by Big Ben bonging away and I thought it was noon coz there were so many dongs. Panicked awhile but found out it was only 9am.

Couldn’t connect to the wi-fi at Dan’s place but luckily his housie’s laptop was around so I used hers instead. Had some cornflakes for breakfast. Dan came back early so we went to find my hotel, the Royal National Hotel, within the Camden district, which was bout 15 mins walk from Dan’s place. Dan pulled my bag all the way, all 18kg of it. Such a sweetie.

It was too early to check in so we decided to chill at the Russell’s Square Park for some afternoon tea. Nice to see dogs running around freely there. If only we could have it like that in Malaysia.

Having tea with Dan at the Park

Hotel’s pretty alright. Small but ok. Had to share it with another girl though. Oooh the Hotel had a pink limo outside! Was for rent at 20P per pax for an hour. Chauffeur will take you around London’s sights. Comes with 2 bottles of champagne.

My tiny hotel room & my ride haha

Since Dan went back to sleep, I had the day to myself. Walked to the British Museum for some culture and damn was it huge! They have pretty good stuff on display too like mummies, Egyptian stuff, Greek and Roman mythology & statues and medieval Europe. Those were the good ones. Spent a good 2 hours there and that was rushing through the displays. The museum was THAT huge.

The British Museum

Had a Contiki briefing at 7pm and made some new friends who asked me out for dinner & drinks. Thought it was a good way to start the trip so I said yes. Theresa & Rob from Australia & Campbell from New Zealand. Ended up walking quite a distance to find a decent bar that was serving food. Settled at Box cause we didn’t want to walk so far already.

Gonna have an early night tonight. Waking up at 5am. Tired dy.

AirAsiaX XL Seats rock!

Saturday 5 September 2009

Didn’t sleep until bout 4am so you can imagine how stoned I was when I woke up at 6am. Check in for London at LCCT was damn fast. New ruling. No need to scan your check-in luggage. How if people smuggle weapons or stuff? Lousy security.

Flight was on time. XL seats are AWESOME! My first time flying AirAsiaX and business class at that!! They have 30 XL seats and it’s so damn spacious. I’m so small so the seats are like huge for me. I couldn’t reach the seat in front of me to get the mag out of the pocket. That’s how much leg space they had. There’s an extendable leg rest and the seat can recline to an almost sleeping position. Got buttons for lumbar support too.

Awesome AirAsiaX XL seats

Got a comfort kit too for RM35 that includes a blanket in a drawstring bag, suede eye shades & inflatable neck pillow. All AirAsia branded of course. I am able to walk up & down without disturbing the person next to me cause there’s so much space. I hate asking the person next to me to wake up, unbuckle & get up from his seat all bcoz I need to pee. That always happens in economy. Not many people walking about too cause it’s so spacious already unlike the usually cramped economy seats.

Entertainment is pretty cool too. Not the usual ones at the back of the seats (we were flying in a new Airbus A340-300) so they had this portable thing called ePlayer for rent at RM30. Limited selection of movies but ok la – got Terminator Salvation, Indiana Jones 4, The Proposal, Angels & Demon, there are TV shows Simpson, America’s Next Top Model, CSI, 30 Rock, etc, loads of music (listening to Lady Gaga’s album now as I’m typing) and games. Easy navigation. User friendly too.

I sat next to a pretty nice Chinese dude. Young though, 22-year old Jeffrey, a finance graduate who’s going back to London to work. He has a 3 year contract. Thank god I didn’t get a fat, stinky bo weirdo who snores.

That's Jeffrey & I in the Stansted Express train

We passed by unusual terrains. It was all rocks, no horizon in sight, no grass, no water. No idea where we were. Fascinating, Mother Nature. Nice to see from the plane but not funny if you’re stranded there.

Weird terrains

Jeffrey lent me his UK line to call Dan and accompanied me all the way to Liverpool Street where Dan was supposed to meet me. Well, it was on his way but he was a sweetie nevertheless. Dan arrived at the station 3 mins before I did and intercepted me at the exit. Talk about timing.

Dan stays at Islington so we got a tube to Farringdon and walked to his place. It’s far by Malaysian standards but it’s alright here cause the weather’s so nice and cool. 15 mins only.. Bit chilly but bearable. He moved here after Marisa moved out of their old place roughly a year ago. Better security he said. Small but nice pad. Stays with a housemate in the 2 bedroom aprt but he alone pays 500 pounds each month for rent! That’s like RM3000 a month for a small room! That’s quite cheap already he said. And we were complaining KL is expensive. He had an air mattress which would be my bed tonight.

My bed for the night

London’s 7 hours behind but I looked alright. Didn’t really know what I was feeling really. We went out for a bite at a local bar down the road (they had a whole street of them naturally). I ate a whole burger. Didn’t even know I was hungry. Still in a confused state but I downed a Leffe & a peach cider. Leffe is 5% only but they serve it in half pints cause there are other properties in it which gets you there REAL fast. Was already feeling it halfway through my half pint. Dan said 3 of these half pints usually do it for most English guys. Deep, you gotta try this.

Having a taste of English culture with Dan

Walked back at 11.30pm. That’s like 6.30am for me. Dan’s gotta wake up for work the next day at 6am so I’m sleeping in.

Flight Eve

Friday 4 Sept 2009

Was frantically trying to finish all my work before I leave for Europe and I finally did! Submitted my Telur Rangers and Sri Lanka article to boss. Super productive siul.. but not sure when it’s gonna come out so look for them for me k and keep a copy if you can cause I obviously won’t have access to The Star in Europe.

Didn’t go to work whole of Friday cause had to do my last minute banking & currency exchange & meet my wife & pass keys & instructions to Farsh (she’s looking after my tortoises for me). Didn’t wanna carry so much cash so Deep suggested traveller’s cheque but bloody TCs in KL is so damn difficult to buy! Well, I only checked out TTDI & around but after walking to 6 different banks in the pouring rain and all gave excuses of out of stock & don’t transact & stuff, I said fuck it. Lucky I have credit, debit & ATM cards for emergency.

Half packed in the afternoon, went to see parents & my girl Jewel before I leave and then buka puasa with the girls at Restorant OK. Shailesh called to say they were all at Sid’s so headed there after makan and promised to go back at 11pm to pack. That obviously didn’t happen. People kept on coming & Shai opened another Rum coz he said it was my last day here. Not like I see him every month so didn’t make much of a diff but he’s such a sweetie to do that. Ended up going home at 1am. Anil is supposed to go for his baby girl’s baptism at the temple in the morn. Hope he makes it.

Off to Europe

Saturday 5 September 2009

I''ll be backpacking in Europe by myself for a month so not sure of the internet connectivity or if I'm having too much fun to update so if I don't, don't miss me too much ya!

Muacks!

Jo

Merdeka Tuak & Seafood Bliss

Monday 31 August 2009

Happy Merdeka everyone! Actually, this year's Merdeka is quite the sad. No one flying flags from their cars or houses, no offices, shops & buildings flying it, even the shopping malls didn't put up much Merdeka deco. Mat rempits and decorated cars were missing from KL roads too. They say it's in respect of Ramadhan month but I think it's Malaysians who lost confidence in the country and just don't give a damn anymore.

It's sad really. I used to deligently fly the flag during Mahathir's time a month before Merdeka. One big one on a pole at my house & one small one stuck to my car. This year, I didn't fly any. It wasn't that I didn't want to, I just forgotten about it coz there were not many reminders around. Flags were not easily available as well unlike in previous years where petrol stations gave it out for free or a minimal RM2 each.

Happy Merdeka people!

The plan was to wake up early, make some tuak before I fly off to Europe on Sat (so it can ferment for a month), head to Anil's parent's place in TTDI for lunch to see his new baby girl and to have HH in Library after that.

Woke up late so none of that happened except for the tuak making bit. Took me 6 hours to make it. Decided to go big this time and put 4kg of pulut in the tempayan and 6kg in the plastic pail. Process took too long so it ended with 3kg in the tempayan and 5kg in the pail. Not bad also what..

It took me so goddam long cause I had to cook 1 kg of pulut at a time. My rice cooker overheated so time wasted for it to cool down. Sometimes, the pulut wasn't cooked properly so had to recook and wait again. Did this process 8 times mind you. After cooking 1kg, I had to cool the pulut before mixing the pounded yeast in.

Yeast are living organisms so I can't mix them in the hot rice. Had to wait for the rice to cool, then tabur the yeast all around & mix it properly. Then only can dump the thing in the tempayan or pail and repeat the entire process for the next batch.

My yeast came from Sarawak from the last Rainforest trip so it's supposed to be good yeast. Looks like little round biscuits. You can get yeast at Chinese medicine shops here too. Ask for the ones used to make Chinese wine. The sweet ones.

Since the process took so much time, I managed to clean the house, wash & fold my laundry, finally bottle the fruit tuak I was experimenting on and posted pics of my Merdeka Eve outing too so not all was wasted. Fruit tuak experiment turned out alright. Ginger, rambutan and lemon tuak was good. Got 2 ginger tuak bottles ready for Khang already. We'll have a fruit tuak party experiment with the crew and update you. Kitchen was a mess when I finished though.

Yeast from Sarawak & pulut from Greenview, Centrepoint

Had to pound the yeast, wait for the pulut to cool, then only mix it together.

Brandy was with me the whole day, poor girl, she hasn't gone out to pee yet. Finally finished at about 5pm and sent her back to PJ. Was exhausted from the day's work so decided to treat myself to dinner.

A friend suggested going to this chinese place called Restoran Full Moon in Aman Suria for seafood. I brought my white bubbly Blue Nun that had 22 carat gold flakes in it that I bought from Sri Lanka. Forgot the champagne flutes so drank from the Carlsberg glasses there instead. We not that poyo k..

Food took so long coming that we were quite happy on half a bottle already. Empty stomach somemore. Ordered 2 pieces of salted egg crabs, 2 tean kai (bullfrogs), vege & steam egg. Their small portion was huge! Food was good though and we managed to finish everything (including the bubbly of course), though it took quite a while, but couldn't finish the egg.

Good seafood and the mess after

Went home happy with a full stomach. Slept early. That's my Merdeka for ya.

Celebrated Merdeka Eve in good company

Sunday 30 August 2009

Merdeka eve! Woke up damn early at 8am!!! Coz went to bed early last night hahah Saturday night somemore.. Was supposed to be at Deep's at 10am coz we were going to the waterfall but they had some cider party last night so decided to call first. Didn't get through till 10.30am.

Anyways, Khang was at home and he presented my belated birthday pressie to me. He's been painting it since May, the sweetie. He said he was waiting for the right moment to present and before a road trip is always a good time coz 'hati senang pergi road trip'. Aww.. heart melted..

The Geisha represents me and the sun behind will shine on me always. The motifs at the side represent his housemates and the crew, just like the tattoo on his arm. So love my pressie!

My belated pressie.. Awesome!

Waited for Max who arrived late as usual and finally pushed off at noon (2 hours behind schedule) after buying imported beers from Jaya Grocer near Tropicana behind Deep's house.

Was 6 of us - Me, Brandy, Max, Deep, Anil & Joyce. Stopped by a gerai lemang for some delicious rendang kambing. Destination was Bentong but we had no idea where the waterfall was. Just randomly turned at the first waterfall sign we saw and that was Chamang Waterfall.

Don't drink & drive...

I love going to waterfalls during ramadhan month as Brandy is free to swim as she likes. No need to worry about upsetting anyone. We brought quite a lot of supplies - biscuits, nuts, chocs, tuak, imported beers & even sparkly Jacob's Creek rose (from August Mag launch tq!)

Scenes at the waterfall

We saw a group above with tents. They were bbqing and Deep said that they were definately Sarawakians. He turned out to be right. They were Ibans, Bidayuhs & Kelabits. Deep brought the tuak as an ice breaker and in return, they offered us Seven Seas, vodka & meat! They even had patin fish!! Damn yummy!

Uuuu-haaaa!

Stoped at Bukit Tinggi for dinner but the first place (Chee Hoong Restaurant) said we had to wait 1 hour plus for food! Fuck it. We were hungry. Went to a less popular place instead, Garden View Restaurant, which served equally goof food. Had babi hutan, deer meat & Tiger (the beer of course).

Green View Restaurant

Ovi invited us to Quack Quack, a foam party happening at The Market Place (old metro) at Jln Yap Kwan Seng. Rushed to that in my stinky waterfall outfit and was greeted by this mayhem!

Foam party in KL! Foam went up as high as my head! haha couldn't breathe then

We didn't stay long, left at 1.30am. And no fireworks in respect of Ramadhan month. :( but we had fun anyways playing in the foam. Deep & Khang stayed dry. Party poopers. Anil was he only one who went in. Got a rubber duckie to take home too! Yea!

Bring on the foam!