My long cherished dream of learning photography seems to be on track. After much thought and deliberation, I have finally managed to get on to the SLR ladder, through an entry level Sony Alpha 200. Last Sunday, I finally walked into an Argos store and picked up the camera, which kits out with a 18mm-70mm lens. As of now, I have no plans to invest in any accessories, lens or filters, other than the minimum necessities of a Compact Flash card and a carry case.

I haven’t really had an opportunity to explore the Camera as I am still expecting delivery of the memory card from Play.com. However, the first impressions of the camera are outstanding. Complete technical specifications of the camera are listed on the Sony website here. In the past, I had been advised by a couple of friends that I should go for a Canon EOS 400D. But I have always had an inclination to Sony cameras as I have previously owned a Sony T5 Compact. Sony is a new entrant in the SLR market and they have had a fair bit of success with their Alpha range (Ever since they launched the Alpha 100, I had always contemplated buying one). Also, since their acquisition of the Camera & Photo division from Minolta in 2006, the SLR market is braced up for a slew of Sony Cameras.

In 2006, Sony announced their entry to the SLR market through the Konica-Minolta based Alpha 100. At that point of time the camera, though affordable for entry level photography, was a bit out of my budget (I vaguely remember it’s price in the £600 bracket). Subsequently, the company introduced Alpha 700 for advanced photography. In February 2008, Sony announced the extension of their Alpha range by introducing the Alpha 200 & Alpha 350. Alpha 200 is a slighlty modified version of an Alpha 100 and has had favourable reviews.

Considering that am off to Paris, Amsterdam and Athens this Saturday for the big Easter Weekend…it is an ideal time to brush up my basics in photography, before I take it to the next level. Expect to see some good pictures from my trip here…

The holiday season brings plenty of cheer. Year after year we await the Christmas season for those fun-filled office parties, family get-togethers, sumptuous food and wine, bargain shopping, new gadgets and even resolutions to change some aspect of self for better. Amidst all these is the curiosity and excitement about what the New Year has in store. Man, Christmas does excite me!

Someone recently told me that I am a marketers dream for my love of new things in life and my enthusiasm to fulfill those needs. Being a marketing professional myself, I have always wondered if I would buy everything that appeals to me. Probably, but everything comes at a price, which at most times is far beyond my reach. For long I have always wanted to travel around Europe and despite living in the UK for nearly four years, I have had very few opportunities to get away. The first opportunity I had to travel somewhere in Europe was back in November 2004, when I traveled to Brussels for three days as a part of our university residential. Good thing Leeds Met MBA has this unique experience as a part of the course where we had an opportunity to learn and digest how the European Union works. Other than that, I had been to Switzerland purely on leisure for three days which I had extensively blogged about here. So the urge to travel has been lingering for a while now.

My fascination to travel by Eurostar, the newly opened Waterloo International Station and my enthusiasm to visit the city of lights fuelled my travel dreams further. I managed to convince myself that December is THE right time to visit Paris as I had also found out that the EuroDisney in Paris would be celebrating 15 years of opening in December. We booked our tickets to travel by Eurostar to Paris and managed to get an extended six months Schengen visa, thanks to French courtesy.

Traveling to Paris is an unique experience as the city is brimming with plenty of excitement. But crossing the channel to Paris by Eurostar has its own aura and certainly deserves a separate post. So our French trip gives plenty of food for the blog in the coming days. Anyway, as with our previous trip we loyally logged on to Last Minute for our holiday package as it is simpler to use and offers convenient options to book tickets for both via Planes and Eurostar. I did try to book the package directly with Eurostar but for some weird reason, a similar holiday package with the Eurostar site is much more expensive. I guess this has more to do with the kind of agreements with hotels different operators have. I have found Last Minute to be definitely cheaper than other travel websites.

Watch this space for more on our French Odyssey!

My travel to Switzerland was some time end of July and Episode I of my post detailing the Trip was on the 30th of September. Memory, for some unfortunate reason, doesn’t present itself well in the same way as aged wine or whisky. So, it is quite obvious that much of the charm of our Swiss trip is already lost. Having just Part I of a post, with a promise to conclude it in the following post doesn’t seem quite appealing. So will try to fill this space.

The train services to Zurich from Zurich International Airport are quite frequent with two trains running on the hour and half the hour. Most of the trains are Geneva bound via Zurich and Bern, and we were quite tempted to head straight to Geneva before checking into the hotel. Since we had reached Zurich at around half ten and we were done with the formalities of buying currency and rail passes, we managed to take the 11.00 AM train to Zurich, which is only 10 minutes from the Airport by Train. And with the luggage we had, especially Anul and Mansa’s, who had large backpacks and a massive hold all big enough to tour the whole continent for a month, we decided against it.

Once we got off the Zurich Train Station, Hotel Walhalla wasn’t difficult to find, although we were kind of skeptical about it due to language issues we had. With a combination of broken German and French, we enquired with the information desk, and a very pleasant lady gave us directions in English…hehe. We were quite stupid to assume that the Swiss don’t speak English, until the end of our trip. This continued to be a hallmark of all our attempts to find information/directions during our trip. However, the hotel is just a couple of minutes away from the station, and once we reached the hotel, a friendly receptionist advised us that the check in times at the hotel was at 2.00 PM, however, she was willing to let us take the keys if we waited for about half an hour as they were still cleaning the rooms from the previous night. We decided against it and left the luggage in the luggage room as we had to make the most of our three day trip.

The previous night, Mansa had come up with a brilliant plan to buy some ready food from Sainsbury for our trip, which explains the extremely large hold all. We stuffed some food into the backpacks and rushed back to the train station as we were planning to take the 12.00 PM train to Geneva. We were late by a couple of seconds and by the time we got to the station, we saw the last car of the Geneva-bound train leave the platform as we ran towards it. However, it did give us some time to buy some beer for the journey. We loafed and lazed on the platform for 15 minutes before the next train to Geneva slowly ground to a halt on the platform.

Never in my life had I seen double decker trains and was quite kicked about traveling in one. With childlike excitement I briskly trudged along the stairs on to the empty upper deck and every one followed. We settled down to begin our two and a half hour scenic journey to Geneva and the journey itself was quite enjoyable. We downed a few beers and played some nonsense games to kill time.

We reached Geneva at half two and according to plan we had exactly five and half hours in Geneva as we had planned to get back to Zurich by half ten. Geneva is one of the important cities in the world due to the presence of many international organisations. And these international organisations form a part of a majority of the tourist attractions, apart from the picturesque Lake Geneva, the breathtaking surrounding of Alps and Jura mountain range, a few museums, art galleries, and churches. As soon as we got off the station, hurriedly found our way to the UN to discover that it is a massive complex which would take no less than a day to comprehend its beauty and importance. We breezed through the lush green parks within the campus, and decided to cut short our visit to the UN and headed towards Red Cross, which is right across the road to the UN.

As I had mentioned in the previous post, entry is free to most of the museums and art galleries in Switzerland with a rail pass which encouraged us to visit the museum for a short time. However, the museum is incredibly enticing and has some captivating pictures of people wounded from the war across different geographic regions. We were totally moved by the pictorial depiction and we ended up spending most of our planned time in the museum. By the time we got out, it was already five and there was no way we could have made it to the Regional Head Office of the International Labour Organsation.

We changed plans and decided to spend more time at the Geneva Lake front and the City Centre. We took a cruise around the lake and had a sumptuous Italian dinner at the city centre and took a train to Bern at 8.00 PM as there were no direct trains to Zurich. The journey back was same as before, we loaded ourselves with some beer for the way and indulged in some mindless but entertaining games. We changed trains at Bern and arrived in Zurich at 11.00 PM. We had a few more rounds of drinks in our rooms, before hitting our beds at 2.00 PM, exhausted with a busy schedule for the next day.

We woke up early next day, got ready and impulsively ran to the station to take the 8.00 AM train to Interlaken - the Gateway to Mount Jungfrau - Top of Europe at 3800 odd metres above sea level. To get to Interlaken from Zurich, you have to change trains at Bern, and the information is clearly announced and marked every where in English, French and German. Bern is about 50 minutes from Zurich and Interlaken is about a hour from Bern. We reached Interlaken by 10 and we bought our mountain rail tickets valid for a day at 50 % discount - remember from the previous post about the discounts for Swiss Rail Pass Holders.

Mountain rail and cable cars are the highlight of Swiss Transport system and it is an extremely enjoyable mode of transport for tourists. I envy the swiss for they use a cable car as a necessity rather than for leisure. Nevertheless, we began our joyous journey to the Top of Europe - Mount Jungfrau on one of the most panoramic journeys of my life. Again, to get to Jungfrau, you have to change train midway at Grindelwald and it’s a slow journey to the top, with three stops along the way to enjoy the beauty of the Jungfrau mountain from various altitudes.

Jungfrau has various activities on offer. From skiing to snowboarding, to husky driven sledge rides to hiking it has a range of adventure activities to enthrall every visitor. But the main attraction is the spectular Ice Palace with exquisitely sculpted ice models. But at -5 during peak summer, I can only imagine how cold it could get during winter. Warm clothing is a must. My ears were ringing and almost everyone felt sick as soon as we got out for a bit of fun in the alluring snow capped mountains. We hurried back to the warm confines of the restaurants on top of Europe. They have quite a few restaurants to suit every palate, including an uniquely themed Bollywood restaurant.

After a quick lunch, we seemed to recover from the nausea and we went back to fathom the elegance of the white mountain ranges. We also did a bit of snow (well, disc) boarding. We left the mountain top at around 4.30 PM and took a train to Grindelwald. Instead of boarding a connecting train from Grindelwald to Interlaken, we decided to make the most of our unlimited rail pass and aimlessly, we took a 10 minute cable car and a connecting train from Grindelwald to up the hills to a place called Mürren. Mürren is a hidden gem in the Interlaken area. With only 200 homes and few local residents, you would expect it to be unheard of among the tourists. Ostensibly, the place has about 2000 beds to cater to tourists. It has only one pub and a couple of obscure restaurants. But, the unspoiled beauty of nature is truly captured in Mürren.

After a tiring, but delightful day, we returned to Interlaken and we retraced our route back to Zurich via Bern. We dined our way back at the famed Swiss Rail restaurants. Although, the food is nothing great, it is soothing to dine while you look out of the window to some majestic sights of Lake Geneva and Lake Zurich.

Once we reached Zurich, we got together again for a few drinks we had picked up on our way back. We retired late in the night, with no plans to wake up early for the following day, as we had decided to spend it locally in Zurich, although we were slightly convinced to travel to Rhine Falls, which apparently is only a hour away from Zurich on the German border, by a Bangladeshi couple, who we had met on our way to Jungfrau.

The following day, we woke up late, checked out of our hotel, left our luggage in the luggage room and made our way to the train station to find most of Zurich shut for holiday. Even the popular Lindt Chocolate Factory was shut on Sundays, so we had nothing much to do in Zurich. We took a tram to the waterfront and we lazed the whole day on a short cruise, and then a long cruise. We were quite excited to find that we could hire a motor boat to sail on our own without a license. But we were told that there would be no boats available for the next couple of hours. We feasted on a scrumptious selection of ice creams for lunch in Switzerland’s iconic Movenpick restaurant and got back in time to rent the boat.

By the end of our one hour boat ride we were completely exhausted and by then, it was time for us to make our way back to the Airport to fly back to our depressing Monday mornings. But overall, we had an exciting time in one most fascinating places on earth. We lived every moment of our trip and would definitely not hesitate going back to visit the place again. There is something about the place which not only appeals to Bollywood movie makers, but for every tourist visiting Switzerland. It is sheer magic…

That’s the end of a long and excruciating post about our trip to a real dreamy place. If you have got to the end of the post, then you got some real spunk and deserve a pat. Try a taste of Swiss advertising to check if it makes you smile!!!

It’s been a while since my last post. Since my trip back from India, lot of things have kept me busy including reading, yoga, clubbing, theatre and the Twenty20 world cup, which the Indian team surprisingly won. But laziness tops it all. It doesn’t mean that my interest to blog has fizzled out. Infact all these activities have given me enough to write about. It’s just that they are ‘unfinished’. Hehe!

Last weekend I decided to come out of my laziness and flood my blog with a series of posts which unfortunately turned out to be a non-starter. When I started the blog, the idea was to at least write two posts a month. But then again ‘rules are always broken’. Now its the last day of the month, so here goes just one for September!

Of all the list of posts that are queued for posting, my short trip to Switzerland tops it all. However, the post comes in installments as it would be unfair to summarise the beauty of Switzerland in one long post. So here’s Part I of the unforgettable experience.

I have been a big movie buff all my life and since a couple of my friends from childhood shared similar interests, there has been no weekend which went without watching a movie during my school and college days. I fondly remember many of those rainy weekends in coffee shops outside a cinema halls where we had healthy, but heated arguments about why Bollywood should stop shooting movies abroad and choose scenic locales within India to boost tourism and economy of the local hotspots. I singled out Yash Chopra and his likes as the main villains who advertise Switzerland and other scenic locations to fill their coffers. Undoubtedly in business sense they are right in what they are doing. People love to watch movies shot abroad, and these dream merchants from Bollywood do exactly that.

We have been planning all along, for the last six months at least about traveling all across Europe. Somehow, it never materialised. Partly because, I need a Schengen visa to travel around Europe and getting one means, booking for a personal interview at a relevant embassy well in advance, some times a few weeks early. When one of our friends told us about her Swiss experience, and about not needing a visa to travel to Switzerland, we were pumped up and planned the trip over a pint of beer, needless to say within two weeks.

Switzerland is an amazing place with scintillating scenic beauty, especially Interlaken and the Mt. Jungfrau region. It’s easily one of the must visited tourist places in the world. We booked our tickets from Lastminute.com, which offers some really good deals on package holidays. Our Flight + Hotel for two nights and three days including single trip insurance cost us £180.00 per head.

Since our passports did not have a pre issued Swiss sticker called visa, staff at the Heathrow Airport were a bit unsure about letting us board the flight. By the way under the new rules, you are not allowed to have a smiling photograph for passports!!! I wonder how a smile can harm national security.

Anyway, going back to our tryst with the swiss visa, while I managed to get away with a convincing act, two of my friends, Anul and Mansa, were not allowed to check in till the lady at the counter had confirmed with the authorities. Wonder why in spite of so many security measures, terrorism still manages to pervade the society?

We flew on Friday morning from Heathrow Terminal 3 to Zurich by British Airways. The flight is about one and a half hours. The Swiss time is one hour ahead of the British summer time. We landed in Zurich at about 10.30 in the morning and cleared the immigration formalities in no time. Zurich Airport Rail station is easily accessible from the Airport. We were advised by friends to ask for the Swiss Rail Pass as it offers cheap and convenient way of transport in Switzerland. We did accordingly and bought a Swiss Flexi Pass for all of us. The pass costs about £95.00 per head and offers unlimited travel anywhere in Switzerland for a period a four days across rail, road, waterways, cable cars etc and 50 % off on the scenic mountain rail. A real bargain!

Anyway, thats end of episode 1 of our ultimate Swiss experience. Watch this space for more…..