Family Winter Vacation

Heey, So this is my day-to-day compilation of my family's 11-days winter vacation. I had to write each day's journey everynight, or else I'll forgot. Its a long post. But I guess the pictures would do more talking. Enjoy! :D

Day 1 - Monday, 21/12/09
KL - Dubai - Zurich - Lucerne
Basically, day 1 is all about Getting-There. My body's biological clock has malfunctioned due to jumping over countries.

Our tour began on Monday, 2am - flight KL to Zurich, transit Dubai, via Emirates Boeing 777. KL-Dubai took about 7 hours.

I slept most of the hours (I think) since it was dark. But was awake most of the time during the Dubai-Zurich flight, which took about 8 hours journey. Transit in Dubai International Airport was for about 3 hours. During flight, all I remembered was tido, makan, tido & makan. & oh, watch movie.

chillin' di Dubai Airport

I have to say. Emirate's inhouse entertainment IS among the best of the international flights. Foods are ow-kay too. My brothers & I bought several books & magazines in KLIA, bajet sure boring gila. Instead. We spent most of the time watching movie pulak! I myself, watched 4 movies altogether! & I was so happy because I got to watch those movies I badly wanted to watch in cinema but oh well, ade je aral melintang. Anyways. I watched (1) The Ugly Truth, (2) The Proposal, (3) Up, and (4) The Sister's Keeper. Seronok3~

ni la bende alah yg buat ku x tido dlm flight

Upon arrival in Zurich, we were greeted by our tour guide, Mr Henry. He took the 5 of us in a Volkswagon MPV?, round2 the Zurich city, before hitting the highways to Lucerne, which was about 45mins drive. Along the journey, we were complimented with BEAUTIFUL mountainic scenery, prettily capped with white snow. But weather wasn't a pleasure for my camera. The sky was very clowdy & my Lexie can't overcome the think clouds covering the mountains :( hoping for a bright, sunny shine day tomorrow!

some twin towers church (behind). a landmark of Zurich

The Statue with Two Birds *koffs*

frozen fountain

hittin' the roads..

Kebap!

Day 2 - Tuesday, 22/12/09
Lucerne (Luzern)
We had our breakfast in the hotel we're accomodating - Hotel Flora, Seidenhofstarasse. Had to be careful with the foods offered as meat would not be properly slaugthered. But there were smoked almons! Lots of em! I was OMG so happy! makan banyak gile. Siap buat sandwich tapau because later at noon we know sure susah nak cari halal restaurant. We also brought along tuna mayo in can, & Campbell instant soup. Agak mewah la actually whee~


We had a little morning walk by the river in the town, & soon later headed to Englenburg, Mount Titlis. The view along the way was again, spectacular. Being on the mountain itself, was above words. The pictures should describe it all :)

naik mama naik~

curam gile oke cable car nieh

It was freaking cold by the way! Brrr~~`

Back to the town, we were brought to see one of Luzern's attraction, the Lion Monument. It wasn't very awe-ing actually. My brothers & I were like "err..apalah tu?" ehe. But we did found a souvenir shop yg agak chomel. But gosh, were the souvenirs expensive! & thats like already among the cheapest when we compared to other places. Keychains were all on averange 8.90 Swiss Franc (paling cikai la ni). Which is like.. RM29?! Fridge magnets were all above 10 Swiss Franc. By God.. & they don't have flea markets in Switzerland! So. Sorry friends, I just couldn't afford it :(


Then we had a free shopping period in the whatwasthenameiforgot town. Well, they say Swiss-made watches are the best. So. Mum bought herself a Longiness watch. While I.. got a Tissot! hee thank you Pa, Ma! Then borong shoes in a shoe shop. & Chocolates! Home-baked chocolates! Laderach - something like Godiva's of Belgium I guess. 100 grams = 9.90 Swiss Franc = RM33 +/-. Erm. I think Godiva up lagi. But the chocs weren't bad at all! Love its dark-choc truffles.

We had dinner in a Turkmen kebap shop (again). A different shop from yesterday's, but still kebap. Oh well, thats the only halal meat we can get. But hey, the kebaps were very tasty! & in big portions too. 1 kebap costs about 8 Swiss Franc (about RM26). Kinda worthit. & they're very generous with the amount of beef/chicken in the kebap! Nyum! But as of yesterday & today, I have not managed to finish the whole of the kebap (-_-!) sangat sangat mengenyangkan!

tak larat makan kebap..

Shops in Luzern closes as early as 6.30pm (Swiss time). & starts business around 9am. So after dinner basically, theres nothing & nowhere else we can go. Its only 9pm now. Mum's asleep already. I'm bored, but theres nothing out there to see, & I don't have internet! ugh..

But. As far as I've seen of Switzerland, they are nice, decent people. Very VERY disciplined, especially on the road. Swiss implements strict rules on road safety & cleanliness of its cities. J-walking (so they called), or pedestrians not crossing the road using the yellow zebra crossing, as well as littering, will be fined on the spot - the police patrols even accept credit cards! Just swipe! So theres no escape. But the drivers, mmg bagus la. No rebut2 potong2 jalan, no tunjuk middle finger or rude honking, & they WILL stop in whatever circumstances, when people are crossing on the zebra cross. Malaysia? Lama dah mati.


Day 3 - Wednesday, 23/12/09
Lucerne - Innsbruck - Salzburg
It was a rainy morning *awww...*. This means bad day for outdoor photoshoot. But interestingly, its a totally different scenery from yesterday!

Yesterday, everything was white-topped. Mountains all covered in snow. But because it rained, the snow melted & hey, suddenly you get to see patches of green on the mountains! Cool. But I had hard time trying to get a good shot. We were in the MPV most of the time, the windows were dirt, & clouds were low, so the mountains were pretty covered :(

Our tour guide, Henry, drove us all the way from Lucern to Vaduz for a brief stop of Liechtenstein (makan kebap lagi!). Drove along the Alps. Sangat2 cantik the scenery! There were lotsa tunnels along the way, due to its mountanious geo. One of em was Arlberg Tunnel, the 3rd longest tunnel in the world. 17km was it? I forgot. The longest is in Norway, 25km, and second is in Switzerland, but we didn't pass thru that one.





Oh btw, I bought some (oke quite alot kot) souvenirs. Spent like RM1k jugak kot argh. Crazy Swiss shops. Still. Sori sori souvenirs tak cukup utk sume, duit tak cukup (T_T) Terima lah gambar2 je sebagai souvenirs, boleh ek boleh ek? ngee..

Then singgah lagi the town Innsbruck, Austria. By that time dah about 5pm. Do a lil' shopping je la cuz kinda tired gak dah. Been travelling + shopping since morning. Then we hit the highways again & straight to Salzburg. Staying in Mercure Hotel, Kapuzinerberg (sebut betol2~ hee)

visited the Swarovski shop. cantik2.

Btw lagik. Henry brought us to an Indian restaurant for dinner, katanya dulu dia bawak Muslim tour pun makan sana gak. My dad went to meet the owner to make sure la. Okeh, tauke die bagi salam Assalamualaikum, & bila my dad tny are u a Muslim, die kata yes - tapi peliknya, kedai die penuh patung2 Tuhan India tu, & sangat bau colok yg India bakar utk sembahyang tu. Tauke tu siap tunjuk guest book die, ade org arab tulis bagi testimoni. But.. yerlah. Takkan Muslim tapi sembah patung2 tu kan? So.. kitorg balik check in hotel. masak air. tuang air panas. & makan Maggie in cup yaaaaaaay~! (dasar hantu megi kan)


Day 4 - Thursday, 24/12/09
Salzburg - Vienna
We started our 4th day with a tour around the the Salzburg city. Its the home of Wolfgang Mozart as well as the classic movie, Sound of Music.

This is Mozart's living house.

This is Mozart's birth house, which is now turned into a museum. Quite cool inside - to0 bad can't snap pics dalam tuh.

Had lunch @ Nordsee! OMG excited gile jumpe something other than KEBAP! The logo looked like SushiKing kan? But its more like Fish&Co I would say. Selling all (fast) seafo0d.

Journey overall took about 3-4 hours. Weather was pretty clowdy so there wasn't much to look at, so I slept most of the time.

We were pretty amazed, to know that Vienna has quite a Muslim community. Just in front of our (again) Mercure Hotel, there's a mosque - but its not like our typical mosque, its a block building je.

Dinner was arranged. We had it in Lord of S. Pretty funny name for a restaurant aite? Its an Arabian restaurant. That night, our dinner for 6 (including the driver) costed RM1K++ omg.. Patut lah tour ni cam mahal nak mati.


Speaking about our driver, he's an Austrian. Queinster (at least thats how it sounds) is his name, & he's not just a plain bus driver. He's a construction engineer. Doctor in blasting! He has a PhD, specializes in ground construction. He was in Malaysia for a few years, in the early years of the construction of Petronas Twin Towers. He pilled the grounds! He's now 58 & single. & travelled to many parts of the world for construction work, including the building of Burj Al-Arab in Dubai. & they're planning on a tunnel 75km long, all the way along the Alps. When there's no project, he becomes part time lecturer in universities. Bus driving is just to kill time. Cool kan?



Day 5 - Friday, 25/12/09 - Christmas Day!
Vienna
Its a frustrating day I would say. Or rather, wasted. Weather was cloudy in the morning, & was drizzling in the afternoon. Ugh.

We visited the Belvederegarten, some empress's palace in the morning, with an Austrian guy guiding our tour. The palace was.. well. a palace. magnificent in its way. Has 1,400 rooms. The story behind the palace was interesting - especially when its own by the only female empress in the European history. Being the only daugther of an emperor with no son, Empress apatahlupe inherited the conquered kingdom. & the conquering doesn't stop there. She's one smart empress. She had what, 16? 17? child - most were married to prince/princess of other lands. So her area of kingdom prospered. Then came the era when music & art bloomed. Wolfgang Mozart was even in one of the oil paintings in the room. Too bad can't take pics in the palace. Gambar kat luar je la yeh.


It was drizzling after lunch. With very strong wind. Aww. No outdoor picture taking. Pusing2 dalam bas sampai dah tak tau nak pi mana. So we went back hotel at 3, & went out again at 4 - which is already dark! Winter kaaan. shorter daylight, longer nights. Btw. Tau tak. Buildings in Vienna are mostly aged more than 300++ years. Very very old buildings, but well maintained, & thats what makes Vienna unique! Lotsa beautiful, grand churches in the town. Sadly, many buildings & public parks were graffiti-ed by young rascals.




We had kebab (AGAIN) for dinner.

(paksa mata bukak & ikhlas kn senyum. ngntok2. kebap lg ugh)

Aite2 gotta pack. We're off to London tomorrow!


Day 6 - Saturday, 26/12/09 - Boxing Day!
Vienna - London
How should I put today as? Challenging? Annoying? Exciting? Its a mixed bits of here & there.

We're off to Vienna's International Airport as early as 8am. About 30mins drive. Flight's at 11.05am. We're travelling with EasyJet - a local, low-cost airline carriage. Something like our AirAsia I suppose.

It was annoying, when, as we arrived, the EasyJet counter isn't opened yet. Only about 9.15am then they opened 2 counters. & we we're the second group to check-in, until.. When he checked my brother's passport, he said something was amiss - the security validation tak lepas 1. 4/5 of our passports had the same problem. Funny. We didn't had this problem in the previous international flights pun (KL-Dubai-Zurich). Yang lagi sengal nye, he made such a fuss - mintak our IC, driving license, asked our previous travelling details, & siap call security from custom/immigration. & the people behind us are getting impatient & starts provoking our tour guide of the day, who happens to be a sweet young Austrian lady. She even argued with the impatient Austrian makciks. So. Iyea. You can guess its quite a choas there. Agak malu jugak la~~` Sengal!tuh tuh mamat sengal tuh eee

Anyways, upon arrival in London. Pun sedikit sengal because ada misscomm between the London's tour guide with our travel agent. So we were kinda lost for like 45mins in the Gatwick Airport. Ternganga jugak la.

inih! di airport! omg~~ XD 2.5 Pounds each cup

But. Our tour guide is a very nice Thai woman. Old, very experience, & unmarried. Gave a lot of useful info on London, & even joined us shopping! Forget the Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Eye on London, or whatsoever fancy landmarks - its BOXING DAY baby!

Buckingham Palace

Statue apetah

Big Ben

Eye on (ke of?) London

The sales. OMG. The sales I tell you. CRAZY! Oxford's Street was a sea of people with shopping bags. Most of the time we were in Selfridges & Co. Prada & Gucci was on sale up to 40%! People were queuing all over. Chloe was even worse, I don't know how much discount they gave, but as we arrived, the racks on the shop is all cleared! They're ready to close since everything was out of stock! Can you imagine that?

Chloe dah abes!

the queue to just masuk the kedai was amazing! berlingkar2!

I bought myself just a Clarks shoe for today. For 25 pounds only! thats like.. RM150? (Ben musti jeles haha!) Looking fwd to shop more tomorrow! heee~~`

Oh btw. We had lunch & dinner at Holiday Villa - our very own Malaysian hotel. But we're not staying there tho, we're staying at Novotel, Hammersmith. But ohhh the food~ how we missed normal Malaysian, halal food! melantak gila lah! X)
note: gossip jap. ada mamat hensem gila, pelayan kat restaurant dier. ngaa cair~~`



Day 7 - Sunday, 27/12/09
London
On Sundays, shops in London opens at 12 & closes at 6 - darn it! Less shopping time! But anyways. We were out by 11, & chose Westfield as our shopping spot today. In London, they don't have shopping complexes - at least this is what the tour guide told us. All shops are along streets. Westfield is the 1st shopping mall in London. quite big. Memang 6 hours tak cukup. Whats more its just the 2nd day of sale here. Memang sesak gila lah.

No pictures taken today. Shopping tak hengat dah. Januari aku makan pasir je la lunch time. Weekend boleh makan Meggi.

nikmat gila dpat mkn mee goreng mamak kt London!

Day 8 - Monday, 28/12/09
London - Dubai
I'm in Heathrow Airport, London now. Our flight to Dubai is at 8pm local time, & flight duration is expected 6hrs++. Sampai2 Dubai terus sightseeing ugh.. basi sungguh..

Today. Agak successfull, I trust that I have CONQURED Oxford's Street. & the several more streets around Selfridges. Perfumes are DAMN cheap! Like. Seriously. I bought Britney Spears' Circus kot. I hate Britney but oh well, I kinda like the smell. 15pounds for 100ml! omfg? thats like RM87 je kooot. & I tolong Nyamouq beli his D&G 18. 25pounds = RM208. In Malaysia RM286 bak kata Nymq. So iyea, tahniah, anda telah jimat RM80. Another was Bvlgari Aqva 50ml set (got lotion + travel kit purse) 35pounds! Ugh.. memang naik sawan lah. Mau je borong banyak2 tapi fikirkan excess luggage erm...

I say. London is a great place to shop! The sales assistants & cashiers & customer care are very helpful & professional - even at the busiest time of the year! Still smiling & never forget to greet. & the sales, takyah cakap la. 50% discount is really 50% off la. Bukan main markup harga & claim its discounted. Bo0 Malaysia's Mega Sale!!!

Btw. An Australian guy (hensem jugak!) in the souvenir shop asked if I'm from Australia, cause I said "no worries" - funny! I ade Australian accent wey! G'daay~ lol. He gave a special discount & a keychain hiks.

All in all. I love shopping in London. I wished we spent more time here. There were loads to see & lots to shop. I highly recommend you shoppaholics out there to splurge yourself in London shopping, from Boxing day till the next 28 days. Its real bargain!

Aite2. I'm boarding now. Catch up later as we settled down in Dubai!



Day 9 - Tuesday, 29/12/09
Dubai
Hello0o Dubai!
Felt cranky today. You see. Our flight last night was supposed to be at 8pm, but was delayed for an hour. Ugh. Dah la woke up quite early the day before, to go shopping kan. Then terus g airport pulak. Delay lagi. Flight 6 jam lagi. I pulak gatal tak tido, all the while tengok movie with the Emirates in-flight entertainment - watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (suke suke! klaka gile), & Fame (cool la cite ni. modern musical. teen flick). Sampai2 terus tour Dubai!

We visited erm.. Burj al-Arab - the 7-star hotel. Mall of Emirates. The Palm Jumeirah. The Dubai Mall. & few others yg susah nak sebut apatah lagi ingatl. Btw. The Palm tu kan. Cam cool gila. Its like one of the worlds wonders. Dubai sangat2 lah kaya oke. Erm. Well maybe once upon a time ago. They actually planned several more man-made islands like The Palm - dah timbun dah pasir2 tuh kt Arabian Sea tuh, but they're on crisis kan. Semua terbengkalai. & there were loads more tall towers to0, sangkut. Sakit leher raon2 Dubai city, semua bangunan tinggi2. Click here to view the map of Dubai.

The Burj al-Arab

bangunan2 kt Dubai yg tinggi bagai

Dubai museum

bace apetuww~~

org dulu pakai jubah je berenang cari pearl

otw to The Palm Jumeirah

somewhere in The Palm

Oh oh & here's the tallest building in the world! Tah da ade nama belum ek? But its official opening for public is on this 4th of January. 162 storeys (thats almost TWICE of KLCC!) Gila betul. Mcm mana lah lift deorang.

Snow world in the Emirates Mall. gila lah besar.

Later we had dinner at Al Bandar Restaurant. Arabian styled la. My brothers siap order shisha. I pun mencoba coba lah ihiks. Depan parents, takpe kan kan kan? Heee... tapi tak faham nikmat nya (-_-!)

macam naga pulak

Anyways. Stuffs in Dubai are expensive la I would say. Lebih2 lagi we were from London yg tengah gila sale kan. But certain things memang jauh expensive la. I saw the Clark shoe yg I just bought in London for like RM150 je kn. Kat Mall of Emirates punya Clarks shop tu, 550 dinar! thats like RM533 ko0t! 1 Dinar = RM0.87 camtuh. terus tak terbeli apa2 (plus luggage sume dah excess weight pon) Tapi perfume ada la murah siiikit dari Malaysia. Tapi tak celen kat London punya lah!

Taaapi I tell youuu. Kereta2 kat sini. Maha lah! Kat mall punya VIP parking, yang guna jockey tu, bersusun lah kereta hebat2! BMW? Mercedes? Buang laut. We're talking GMCs. Ferraris. Jaguars. Chevy Camaro - ala kete Bumblebee dlm Transformers tu. a Bugatti Veyron! - the fastest car on earth! (or maybe now 2nd) 1001hp (I wouldn't know pun if its wasn't my brothers kecoh2 ehe) Memang mcm competition lah sana, tayang kereta semua. Jockey2 pun sibuk ambik2 gambar (dah la dapat drive pergh), orang ramai pun apa lagi. Kereta2 sana memang majority 4WD, & CC tinggi2 punya. Sedangkan taxi pun pakai Camry kan. Petrol murah kan. Kesimpulannya kami agak cuci mata tengok kereta la.

THE Bugatti Veyron!

Rolls-royce

bigfoot!

suka la jockey tu drive GMC. siap amek2 gmbar pulak diorg

But. I kinda NOT like Dubai. If compared to London & Swiss etc la kan. Theres too many foreign workers (expats tak kisah lagi). The people are hurm, quite rude I guess. Not friendly. Pekerja & pelayan restaurant pun cam hampeh. Maybe jugak because I don't really like going to to0 urban cities. I remembered the vacation I enjoyed most was when going to Gold Coast, Brisbane. Boleh main kangaroo, koala. G factories, farms, main2 lembu, tengok process buat cheese. Banyak themeparks (read: rollercoasters!). Aaa.. budak kampung memang camni ehe..

So. Tomorrows kinda our last day. Hope its a good one! Zzzz~~`




Day 10 - Wednesday, 30/12/09
Dubai
We toured the Dubai Mall today. It was awesome-ly huge! & again. Mahal (-_-!) Tak shop ape2 pon. But. We entered The Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo! Sangat kagum okee! Well, I never went into Aquaria KLCC, so can't compare. Entrance fee was 50 Riyal per head. Rase baloi! Sangat2 cantik & ikan2 sangat besar!

ini piranha!

giant sea octopus

ini seahorse oke

Later in the eve pulak. We're going for something called Safari Night Venture. At 3pm Dubai time, we were picked up by a Toyota Land Cruiser at the hotel & off to meet up point in Awir. Owh btw, in our car was also an Australian lady travelling alone - a teacher & mother of 1. Very ramah tamah. So there were 7 of us in the car. Journey to Awir took about an hour.

The car stopped at a petrol station, & we noticed many other white Land Cruisers & the drivers all in the (traditional?) Arabs jubah. Our driver inflated the tyres, from 35Psi to 15Psi only! We're cruising thru the dessert!



The about 45 minutes journey was omg.. dahsyat oke. Naik turun gunung pasir tuh dengan ganasnya - the curam-ness was almost 90 degrees! Bole taaak? & cam nampak je banyak car bumpers & other parts yg tertanggal2 kt padang pasir tuh haha. We had fun! terjerit2 dalam kereta. Susan, the Australian lady closed her eyes most of the time katenye haha. I'm a roller-coaster freak oke, so I memang suka gila the ride. I was recording videos, taking pictures etc, & also SMS-ing, then I noticed my camera's memory card is almost full. So I had to review the previous pics to delete. Tiba2 I naik pening. Like wanting to throw up. but I didn't want to spoil the fun. So I held back. Tahan. Tahan. Sampai dah peluh sejuk badan, baru I cakap "Pa, boleh ka mintak berenti kejap? Rasa mau muntah la.. Cannot tahan sudah.." & the car stopped aside, alowing the rear cars in the convoy to overtake. got out. Chose a good spot near a small bush in the dessert.. & puked! Everything! My whole lunch! Lol. Eee padang pasir kat Awir ada my vomit.. hahaha~ pastu happily joined the joy ride lagi~ walaupun lepas tu the driver bawak kurang ganas dah ngaha... (alaa x pat upload the video.. its 172mb fr 1.5mins. camera i record in HD so mmg mkn space)

Then as we arrived at this camp macam, at about 5pm. While waiting for dinner to be served..

camel riding..

henna decorating.. (my 1st time! was saving it fr my wedding tho actly :p)

borak-borak..

photo-shoot sket.. :p

& belly dancing performance..

my family & Susan

The Dessert Safari Night was definitely the highlight of our Dubai tour!

Day 11 - Thursday, 31/12/09
Dubai - Kuala Lumpur
Early flight back to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. About 7 hours flight again. Ugh..

Watched another 2 movies in the flight btw. lupe lak ape ngee.

So. Iyea. Thats pretty everything about my family winter vacation 2009 :)


Its a super long post right. Lol. Hope you enjoyed the pictures tho :)

Happy New Year peeps! :D