Asian Culture, Lifestyle and Entertainment
Woke up early on October 5 to catch a flight to Hong Kong, together with my two elder sisters and a young niece for our 6D5N self-packed tour.
Arrived at Chek Lap Kok Airport at 2pm. We bought our Octopus Card – a useful prepaid card that can be used at most (if not all) of the mass transits and also at some convenient stores – before taking a cab to our hotel.
Went to Putrajaya last Wednesday (August 22) with KC to see the Malaysia International Fireworks Competition (MIFC). Australia was the team in action. It’s difficult to get decent photos for fireworks; I recorded a video instead…
I was quite amazed by the number of crowd. Set aside the traffic jams, this should be one of the most successful tourism events in Malaysia… and it’s free :)
Second day in Paris. We had a short tour around the city before arriving at the Eiffel Tower at 9.30am. The queue wasn’t that long; we waited around 15 minutes and managed to squeeze into the elevator to get to the second level platform.
Eiffel Tower is one the most visited landmarks in the world; at the time of writing it has been visited by 229,623,812 visitors since its opening in 1889, and the number is ever growing.
The tower is 324 metres high and was once the tallest building in the world. It was built in conjunction to the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1889 and was named after Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the main designer of the tower.
Rumours are that the Parisians didn’t like the ‘ugly’ Eiffel initially. The tower was supposed to be torn down in 1909, but the tower’s antenna was heavily used for communication (telegraph) purpose, thus putting off the dismantle plan. Besides, the Eiffel was then gradually becoming a prime tourist attraction, bringing in huge economic value for Paris and France, and in the end earned its rights to stay permanently.
We dropped by the Arc de Triomphe for a short photo session on our way back from Seine.
I would love to climb my way to the top to have a panoramic view of the area, especially the famous Avenue des Champs-Élysée. Too bad our time was limited as we only had a short stay in Paris, and Arc de Triomphe was not the tour’s priority.
Officially the Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile, the monument was commissioned in early 19th century to commemorate Napoleon’s victory at the Battle of Austerlitz. Today, the arch honours those who fought for France over the years. Beneath the Arc there’s also the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from the First World War.
The Arc de Triomphe de l’Étoile is the most famous monument of its kind, but the largest Arc of Triumph is surprisingly in Pyongyang, North Korea, which was built in 1982 and was deliberately built to be larger than the Paris one.
Europe travel journal – Previous: Seine river cruise | Next: Eiffel Tower
After our dinner we boarded a cruise to tour the Seine. I was sceptical about the night tour at first… my perception was that a day tour would be more fitting to see Paris, but turned out the night cruise was not a bad decision at all.
Pont-Neuf, lit. New Bridge, is ironically the oldest standing bridge in Paris…
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The Statue of Charlemagne is located just outside of Notre Dame de Paris.
Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, was the emperor of the Frankish Kingdom (768 to 814) which covered large part of the Western Europe. The Frankish Kingdom was later split into three by his descendants; one of the those areas was Western Francia which became the foundation of modern France.
After visiting the Notre Dame we wandered into the Latin Quarter to have our dinner. I got a crêpe jambon-fromage-oeuf (crepe with ham, cheese and egg), which was absolutely delicious. We then went on a night cruise on Seine River and had our first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower.
Europe travel journal – Previous: Notre Dame | Next: Seine River Cruise
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