How To : Malaysian Do Europe : Part 5

Summary of the earlier How-tos:

: Pick the Destination> France, Spain, Italy
: Shortlist the Places> Paris, Rome, Venice, Barcelona
: Select the Dates> Autumn

Next step would be to select how to fly there and travel around. This is important because the selected few places are few hundred kms away from each others. Previously, before knowing the low cost carrier, the options will be bus and train.

4) Select the flight

But first, lets review how to fly to Europe from Malaysia. Of course there are many options, from choosing the Asean, Europe or Middle Eastern airlines. The cost level would roughly be Europe > Asean > Mid East. The lowest I found was Gulf Air. But there was not flexibility of changing the flight schedule. It will be either go-n-enjoy, or no go-n-burned your ticket. Return ticket to Paris cost roughly RM2.9K/pax.

The best deal I found was from Qatar Airways (www.qatarairways.com). There were few factors that pushed me to choose them; good connections in Europe, transit time, open-jaw availability and the most important, price. At least, it was within the budgeted cost. The price I got was RM3.5k/pax. But nowadays, you have much more options. I believe the lowest price you can find could be from Airasia. Bear in mind, do factor in the seat booking, meal booking and baggage check-in. It could be in the range of RM1.5K ~ 1.8K to London via KL.

For me, the priority list should be price > open jaw > connection. Open jaw was important because I need to move around few countries, without having to go back to my original destination. At least, a flight saved can let us have an extra or better meal.

Checking for the connection and seats online can be a tedious thing. You need a calendar, pen and notepad for notes taking. These stuff helps you to plan the connection with the best price at the best possible time.

For Qatar Airways, flight bound for Europe will transit in Doha, its capital. The duration varied, depending which direction you are going to. For our flight from Doha to Paris, our transit time was only 1 hr. This was a crucial point for us to consider, since we try to reach Paris as early as possible. But for our return flight from Doha to KL, the transit time was 7 hrs, leaving only at 3.30am. This was a bad choice, but we accepted it because we wanted to end our Euro league in Rome.

Aston Villa : Peace Cup 2009 Winner

Ole Ole! Another football team I supported, Aston Villa became a winner. Rarely can I see my team becoming a winner, more so when the English soccer is currently dominated by Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal.

Villa won the Cup beating Juventus of Italy 4-3 by penalties, after completing 90 minutes in 0-0.


> Victorious Villan captain Nigel Reo-Coker


> The potential 2009 English League Champion

Food Recommendation : Super White Coffee

Recently, I stumbled upon this White Coffee brand; Super, which was cheaper than the usual 2 big brother brands (Old Town and Chek Hup) by 35%, costing only RM0.55 per cup. After trying it, I elevated their status up to my no. 1 choice, overtaking my previous fav Chek Hup.


> Big pack (15 pkt x 40g)


> Sachet (40g)

As usual, 1 sachet comes in 40g and you can have a well mixed, tasty and flavourful cuppa using a 300ml cup. Some of my close frens claimed drinking it in a smaller cup made their heart beats unusually fast. So beware...


> Perfect cup size to enjoy

Check out its funny advertisement, with an interesting tagline; "我叫你试！“ shouted by the below auntie. Dare you not try??



How it fared? 5/5 for the taste and price.

Selangor : Super League Champion 2009

OLE! OLE! OLE! OLE! KITA MENANG, KITALAH JUARA!!

This was one of our slogan in Stadium Shah Alam whenever Selangor plays. Selangor achieved the Super League title on the 2nd last match, after defeating Police. They were crowned and received the prestigious trophy on their last match at their home ground, scoring the biggest victory of the season by defeating Pahang 6-1.


> Victorious photo session (adopted from The Star, 25 July 2009)

Just before wrapping up, here's the Selangor Soccer Fan song. I will try to find a way to upload the song in this website later.

MERAH KUNING LAMBANG KEBANGGAAN
SELANGOR MERANCANG KEJAYAAN
GEMURUH SORAKAN MENGGEGARKAN
CABARAN DISAMBUT DENGAN KESUNGGUHAN

KECEMERLANGAN, KECEMERLANGAN
KECEMERLANGAN JADI KENYATAA

MERAH KUNING KEBERANIAN
MEREMPUH SEGALA CABARAN
SEKALI MELANGKAH BUKTIKAN KEMAMPUAN

MERAH KUNING KEBERANIAN
MEREMPUH SEGALA CABARAN
SEKALI MELANGKAH BUKTIKAN KEMAMPUAN
SELANGOR DARUL EHSAN

SELANGOR DARUL EHSAN!!

How To : Malaysian Do Europe : Part 4

3) Select the Dates

The dates depend very much on your own preference of the season, or the time you can spare with your annual leave.

(a) Spring : Mar ~ May
(b) Summer : Jun ~ Aug
(c) Autumn : Sep ~ Nov
(d) Winter : Dec ~ Feb

For Malaysians, I would recommend a long trip during spring or autumn. If it is a short one, try winter. I can't describe much on this, but my recommendation is based on my principle of "doing things differently, and what you don't have and can't do in your country".

> In spring, you can experience 23 hours-a-day during daylight savings
> In autumn, you will have 25 hours-a-day
> Whereas in winter, you can experience snow and test your endurance in eating ice-cream during snowing

How To : Malaysian Do Europe : Part 3

2) Shortlist the Places

Italy will always be in everyone's list of favorite. The reason was mainly because of its history and romantic tag. It was 2nd in my own list. My initial picks were obviously Rome, Venice and to some extend Milan.



(2a) Rome is 3rd in Yahoo Travel ranking of most famous cities. The central of Rome's attraction should be Colosseo. Wonder why the olden days people can build so many wonderful buildings that can last for 2 Milleniums but some of our Malaysian buildings can only last for few months, even before it was open for used.

(2b) Venice is ranked 8th, and it was also known to be a romantic city. It is every girl's ambition to enjoy the beauty of the canals with gondolas as props.

(2c) Milan is a big northern city, and it is more posh than Rome. I was told that it is also much safer. But I scrapped it off my list due to limited time allocated for my time in Italy.

With another 4 days to fill in my schedule, I chose Spain. To my knowledge, Spain wasn't that famous to Malaysian travelers, but I liked it very much. It is the most visited country in Europe. It also has the most sites listed in the Unesco World Heritage List. One advantage I noticed in traveling in Spain was that you were able to make a day trip to some small cities/towns that have their own distinct attractions within 1~2 hrs traveling time.



(3a) Barcelona is one of them, whereby you can move out to the beautiful hill of Montserrat or to Figueres to hunt for the egg-roof Museu Dali. Barcelona is my top pick, mainly because I want my partner to enjoy Antoni Gaudi's works as well. Few of his works are listed in the Unesco list.

(3b) Another recommendation is Madrid. But I prefer to press on for the side trips, rather than the city itself. Segovia is a good one, and it is famous for its 1st AD Aqueduct. Another one would be Cuenca, where you can view the Casas Colgadas (Hanging Houses).

How To : Malaysian Do Europe : Part 2

1) Pick the Destination
There are many ways to pick the right destination to start your Europe trip/league. First choice of course will be your own preference, like where you like or heard other people liked. But I don't rely only on this. One of my reference was the Unesco World Heritage Site website (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list).

It lists places that are famous, endangered and/or worth while to visit. It is my aim to set my footstep to as many sites as possible. So far, I have managed to cover 13/890 sites (1.5%), namely in Cambodia, France, Italy, Macau, Malaysia, Spain, and Thailand. For my previous Euro trip, I selected France, Spain and Italy.

2) Shortlist the Places
For France, I started by shortlisting my picks; Paris, Nice, Monaco and Mont St Michel. Then I did literature survey to determine if they should stay or go off my list. Another useful reference is Yahoo Travel.

(1a) Paris is a world famous city, ranked no 1 in the Yahoo Travel, Europe list, which is also very high on the most romantic city list. It also has one of the most famous and glamorous icon, Tour Eiffel. With so many "FAMOUS" titles, this should be a good choice.



(1b) Nice and Monaco are located at the Cote d'Azur, south coast of France. They are cities for the rich and glamour. Nice is a bigger city, but Monaco is much more well known. My 2 reasons; Formula 1 (yearly in July) and it is the 2nd smallest country in the world.

(1c) I first read about Mont St Michel many years back from the Guinness Book of World Records. It stated that it is a castle built on a hill outcrop, and it becomes an island during high tide. The next time I saw it was in Astro 707, Travel and Living. It showed a group of people walking from the mainland to Mont SM during low tide, and I was captivated by this mysterious yet wonderful place. I made it my target to go there and walk on the land bridge during low tide.


> Mont St Michel from Google Earth

Judging by the time I wished to spend in France, around 4 days, I decided to only stick to Paris. I wanted to keep Mont SM, but considering taking a train from Paris to Rennes, then bus to St Malo, then another bus to Mont SM, I would need to use 2 days and approximately RM700+ for a return journey per person. This would left me with 2 days in Paris to cover Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame, Pompidou, Sacre Coeur, Musee Du Louvre and Arc De Triomphe, which was very risky.

How To : Malaysian Do Europe

Travelling to Europe has always been in my life goal. The first time I did it was all by myself; own finance, own plan and self guided. This was back in 2002, and I could say that this has opened up the possibility in me to venture anywhere on my own. My 2nd time happened last year, and this time it was own finance, own plan, self guided but not a solo trip anymore.

In the coming posting, I would like to share the know-how that make it possible for anyone to do Europe. I believe many have done so in their own way, but I know there are many who think that it is something difficult and impossible.

My motto; Money should not be the problem, but attitude is the likely stumbling block.