Before Munich

Unlike the rest of my holiday, I am actually at Europe for work. The primary objective is to learn as much as possible and to know the restrictions for my 3 weeks machine training. I am psychologically happy to have another colleague from Malaysia, Aw, joining me for the same training. One of my Singapore colleagues, Simon, is also in Munich during the same period for different machine training.


Having three people for a trip is good, though I prefer 4 always. Aw is a funny man… he is capable of lightening the sprit anytime. With three people, we are given the opportunity to travel cheap during the weekend. In Germany, there is a “Happy Weekend” ticket system which allowed up to 5 people to travel to a nearby city at a discount rate. U may get to DIE BAHN web for more info.

While this is not my first trip in Munich, there is still a certain degree of excitement. I am here to do what I did not do, and collect sweet memories I left at Europe seven years ago. Thanks to Chwee Ling and Yew Mun. They are the invisible support for the trip. Chwee Ling loaned two Lonely Planet (Germany and Switzerland), two Frommer's (Munich and Austria) and an eight years old Munich map from library, and handed them to me on Friday the thirteen. My planning is simple, I don’t need to do a lot of research for traveling, surprises are welcome and there would be no rushing from point A to B. I do have some restrictions for this holiday. My colleagues are against expensive traveling and the longest holiday we can have is four days. For other people who are going to Europe, I would still suggest them to purchase EURAIL pass.

If there is only one place I can be again in Europe, it would be Switzerland. It is so far the cleanest and most picturesque place I ever been. Generally, Swiss are friendly people can communicate using English. Thanks to April, JiaYing and YiFeng, there is more than a thousand reasons for me to dream about Switzerland. I first backpack, touch snow, did my first trek (DNF), and meet the first tough lady in the country with a white cross, red background and square flag.



Simon and me took Thai Airway flight to Munich on 15th Apr at around 8am (Singapore time). Four hour is the transition time at Bangkok airport. I was at the same airport a month earlier with Kee Leng, Charles, Teck Wee, Qi Ming and Ying Kai. We were there for an adventure race at Kanchanaburi then. The foot massage at the Bangkok transit lodge isn’t as good as that in the city. Nevertheless, it is the recommended method to relax while waiting for connecting flight. Flying to Munich in the morning keeps me happy, the sun seem to follow me throughout the journey. As I went to Seoul recently, I caught some of latest movies like Pursuit of HappYness, Blood Diamond and Freedom Writers. The rest of the movies are not as interesting… Nevertheless, I am shock to find my all time favourite movie on Thai Airway, Forrest Gump. I reached Munich at close to 7:30pm (Munich time).