On the 14th Sep13, we checkout from our hotel at about 10am and headed towards the train station as our train is leaving at 12pm. We are taking a transfer train from Milan to Spiez and from Spiez, we will transfer to another train taking us to Interlaken at Switzerland. As we were boarding the train, a guy who looked like the train conductor came offering his help to my husband to carry one of the luggage up to our seat. At first i thought wow that was so nice of him but then the moment we sat down he stretched out his hand to ask for 2 Euro dollar. My face turned black immediately and i took out some coin and passed $2 Euro coin to my husband. After the man received it, he asked for another $2 Euro and i said no. After he walked away, both of us were feeling slightly sad as the act of kindness is not voluntary which we find it weird. By just carrying the luggage up the train not even more than 5 mins and he asked for money without feeling embarrassed. When we reached Spiez, we saw beautiful scenery and started taking photos near the train station.
The transfer train took about 2 hours to reach Interlaken OST station. Our hotel is located at Interlaken West station, therefore transfer to another train for just one station and we were there. This time the hotel is quite near, it took us less than 10 mins to reach the hotel. Switzerland is a very beautiful place, on the train ride, we could see beautiful scenery of mountains, green sea, farm houses with cows, sheeps, horses and dogs. It would be very nice to have a farm house during retirement where we can have our own land with cows, sheeps, horses and even dogs. Due to the weather, the cows and sheeps there can feed themselves with the green green grass. As we walked towards our hotel, we saw people doing parachuting. I also wanted to try that one day but now with my baby i can only watch. Throughout our trip most of the hotels were 3 stars hotel which we thought it was good enough for us to just enjoyed the bathtub and to sleep well at night. Due to my pregnancy we could not go for any Spa facilities even if we had a nicer hotel to stay. We were told by the tour agency that booked this tour for us that usually if we go by the tour group, then they will be able to get very good discounted rate for better hotels as the bookings will be in a group. Most of the 3 stars hotels throughout our trip provides Free WiFi but there's one particular hotel requires payment and of course we can do without it then why do we want to pay. The 3 Stars hotels also provide basic shampoo and body soap, free usage of deposit box, all with bathtubs and hot water flask have to be requested from the reception unless the hotel do not have enough to provide. All of them also have hair dryer in the toilet. Don't be surprised that some 4 or 5 stars hotel in certain countries do not have a hairdryer in the toilet. The water from the water flask always have some white particles even though it was stated to be safe to drink from the tap. It was really not our style to have western food and bread for every meal and luckily we brought some instant noodles to eat in the hotel room. We got no choice but to eat with the water flask water otherwise we would buy big bottles of drinks from the stalls to keep in the hotel room. After check-in , we went out for a walk as usual to explore the surroundings and nearby were many beautiful shops selling grandfather clocks, expensive watches and souvenirs.
There was one watch shop that we went in, my husband chatted with the salesperson and he told us he used to work in Singapore for 2 years before he moved to Switzerland. He introduced to us the brands that are popular in Swiss. As we looked at the price of the watches, i was thinking wow a watch can cost us a year's salary. How much does those people who can afford to buy earn a month in order for them to willing spend that much to buy a watch. To us , having a nice watch that are affordable to wear is enough as we have so much more things to pay for. If we were to spend alot also means we have to work extra hard to earn back the money that we have spend. Then we walked to the place where all the expensive hotels and restaurants were located. There was also a Casino which we did not explore. The watches, branded handbags and other stuffs nearby there were even more expensive. In the end we just sat at the park nearby and started chatting and enjoying the cold breeze. The next day we will be visiting the Jungfraujou mountain , they called the top of Europe. We bought ice-creams on our way back to the hotel and rested early.
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