Switzerland

Our original plans involved flying out of Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong to Paris, via Dubai. Drawing this journey on a map, it starts to look a bit like that infamous "Knowledge Nation" diagram of Kim Beazley's a few years ago (well, a bit). So we canned the idea, smiled at the helpful Emirates sales assistant, changed our flights, handed over some extra dollars and flew to...Switzerland.


Before we got to Switzerland, we spent just under a day in Dubai, mostly in an air-conditioned mall. The highlights of the mall included prayers broadcast over the loud-speaker, which didn't seem to halt the furious commerce taking place, and the most kebab-laden food court I have even seen. Next time, we'll probably spend some time outdoors.

We got to Zurich and wandered the cobble-stone streets for a few days, marvelling at such novelties as cold air and rice-free food. I bought a watch, Bron bought some Swiss Army picnic cups (the "Swiss Army" tag applies to everything from USB sticks to home heating, but the cups would be genuinely useful in a combat situation...one lobbed like a grenade would take down a platoon of French soldiers no troubles).

In Lucerne, we scaled Mt Pilatus with some assistance from two cable cars. There's a stop halfway, some of which is depicted in the photo above. Then, as the serious business of reaching the peak is about to begin, you are led into a heavy-duty steel box with thicker cables and a guide who is dressed like a model from a Kathmandu winter catalogue. At the top, it's spectacular: