Back-ache

It was a tradition for me to blog as soon as I reached home from a trip. So, here we go. The trio on the whole was great but the flight back was a nightmare. We were not talking about turbulence or haze of the likes. It was more on the comfort zone.

As mentioned, I would blog more about the 777-300 as a plane, but clearly KLM was raking in profit for this Amsterdam-KL-Jakarta route as it was full and it was an achievement cramping 425 seats on this plane. That was even more than MAS managed to fit into their 747-400. Talk about efficiency. I shall leave that rant for later.

As for now, I decided to take the ERL into KL Sentral, enjoying the haze along the way. The flight got delayed landing at KLIA and since the plane would be taking off again to Jakarta, the unloading of the bags took a bit longer than usual. It was well after 4 pm when I finally managed to get my stuffs organised and went over to the exit.

The lift to ERL was full, so as usual I tried the escalator to the ground floor. It wasn't working. I decided to carry my bags down myself. From the ground floor, again the escalator was switched off finger to the ubdergraound ERL terminal. So much for a World Class airport eh?

I finally reached KL Sentral at 5, a quick ride on the cab and I was home. It was great to be back.

More write-up on the trip here.

Serravalle Outlet

The outlet we went to on the way to the airport was at Serraville, outside Milan and I was glad that we went there. The outlet there were a lot bigger, more selections and the best part, cheaper!

I got the stuffs for Anita within minutes, and had to stop myself from spending more as I don't want to use my savings. It was that good.

And the place reminded me of Johor Premier Outlet. The architecture was almost alike, although it was much bigger here.

Since we were rushing against the Saturday afternoon traffic into Milan, we could only.spare a couple of hours there. Personally, I could spend an extra couple of hours to really explore the place. Put it this way, there were three separate Burberry shops alone!

The one that took my fancy was the Prada outlet. Very wide selection, but the queue at the cashier was just too long. One of my colleague spent a good half hour just to buy an item.

Would blog more about the place. Would also need to rearrange some of my luggage items to put in my shopping. A quick nap before reaching the airport was in order ..... Ciao!

Collections of photographs from this retail outlet can be seen here.

Halfway to Milan

We have now crossed the Italian border where we stopped for a couple of my colleagues to claim some tax exemption. The journey onwards was smooth and we were currently halfway towards Milan to stop for shopping before heading to the airport. It looked warm and sunny outside. Hopefully my chocolates won't melt .....

Leaving Cademario

Saturday morning. Had to say goodbye to our hotel. We would be driving down to Milan to catch our connection to Amsterdam for home. All had of had a decent rest overnight after the long dinner. I did my packing this morning and had already checked out by breakfast.

We would be going to stop at another retail outlet before heading home. That was the reason for leaving early as not to be caught by the Saturday traffic.

The weather had also dulled down somewhat. The sun had still to pier e the heavy cloud and it was threatening to rain. That way, I didn't feel left out too much. I have been away since Monday and starting to miss home already.

The minibus just left the hotel and everybody was in good spirit. It would be just under a couple of hours before we reach Milan. Let's enjoy the ride ......

Lugano as a Town

Lugano was actually a quaint little town which happened to be at the strategic southern tip of Switzerland, right by the Italian border. The language they spoke there was Italian, and so were the signage. This'd driving into Switzerland proper from Italy would have to go through this town and clearly, during the summer months, with the lake and plenty of hot sunshine meant that the town was more like in Spain rather than Switzerland.

On the day I arrived, I could see people sun bathing in the sun. It was that hot.

Another aspect of the town was the fact that it was hilly. Very hilly. With the town centre - where the congress was held - located in the valley by the lake. My hotel, on the other hand was right on top of a hill - it felt more like a mountain. It took a 40 minutes bus ride to get to and from the hotel, which only ran hourly. And the last bus being at 7 pm!

Although the town centre was in the valley, the hill came right near the edge of the lake, creating a steep incline. Walking around the town then became a challenge. Most of the residential area were zoned at the hill edges, connected by winding series of road snaking up the mountains.

The hills also became the attractions of the town. There were many fonecular train taking us up the hills, and we took one yesterday. As the main train terminal were also up the hill, there was a small train leading up to it right from from within the shopping centre. Quite fun actually.

Walking around would take some stamina. And as the commercial area were on the flatter part of town, space was at a premium. This meant that the streets were narrow and walking around would bring surprise as you'd never guess what would be behind the corner for visitors with a camera like me.

I was there during the beginning if summer and the start of the Lakeside Festival. There were concerts and other activities being planned for the months and the city looked lively when I was there. I got some extra information when I spoke to an English student doing some waitressing job there during the summer. She told me about the festivals and places to go to. Unfortunately, today was the last day I would be in town and I already had the day planned out for me.

To be honest, there was plenty to discover in this interesting and picturesque little town. I wished that I stayed near the city centre as I SaaS sure there was plenty more to explore there given the time. I would blog about the Congress separately as I felt that I learned a lot at the meetings. Something that I should vesit maybe once every four or six years - the meeting was held every couple of years. Puan Anita had told me that she would be tagging along the next time I were to come here. She had been here before - with me back in 1996, but we only just passed through the town then en route to Lucerne.