Tue 23 Jan 2007
To understand this post, you’ll have to go through my 1st boring post “my trip to Paris Pt 1 – At KLIA Airport”
13 hours later…
17/1/2007
Finally touchdown at Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris at 7.25am local time (Paris time, Malaysian time is approximately 1.25pm). Couldn’t really get a good sleep so was pretty tired. I think its call jetlag. Hopefully, I can manage to get to the hotel on time and Sogua won’t be leaving the office too early.
- 8.10am
Checked for luggage and luckily for me customs had no issue. I heard stories of customs sending people back just because they suspect the person for “jumping off the plane” so I won’t want that to happen right? Waited for quite sometime for the luggage. Hopefully, my luggage won’t be lost since luck wasn’t so good. Finally, found my luggage. At the same time, called home so parents no need worry. As soon as I switched on my handphone, maxis sent me a messages about missed calls. Psst, did you know KLIA airport is more high tech?
Some tunnel you have to pass through at the Charles de Gaulle Airport
- 8.30am
Found my taxi and told the cabbie my hotel name “Ibis Paris Montmartre” (pronounced as i-bis pa-ris mont-mat), a 2 star hotel that costs about 95 Euros a night, and he looked at me with a “Huh?” So I showed him the address. Thankfully, he understood it at once and drove right away
Ibis Paris Montmartre
No 5, Rue CaulinCourt (pronounced as lu co-lin court)
75018 Paris, France
- 8.35am
Noticed that the roads are pretty jammed up with cars. Mostly are European cars. Like Ford, Walks wagon, Smart, BMW, Mercedes (Oh, by the way, they use BMW and Mercedes here as taxis as well!) Observed that Parisian drivers are like Malaysians! What a comfort for home. I guess all cities are the same gua. Like all the drivers like to jump queues, go city center jam like hell, taxis are all “tai sai”, busses are very “cow” but one thing, most have dirty cars! There are also a lot of motor bikes. Huge ones like Peugeot!
- 9.30am
Finally reached the hotel. For this trip, it costs 40 Euro. Luckily SoGua was waiting already so once I reached the hotel, he ushered me into his room and gave me the room key and off he went to work. Alone in the hotel, I showered and got ready for my own walk.
- 10.30am
Walked around and seemed to notice that there are a lot of people in the streets! Feeling a little hungry myself, I wanted to eat in one of those brasseries there but decided not to because of the hefty price of approximately around 10-29 Euros. Dollar to dollar, it seems pretty reasonable but since it was only my first day there, I decided to save instead. Actually, the truth is when I converted the Euro to RM, uh, changed my mind. Haha! Anyway, everything’s in French and what happens if I order something that’s not good then how? Regret leh. In the end, I decided to try their burgers instead, Quick. Something of a big thing here like McD’s impact on us. Cost of the food? 6.15 Euros. Dollar to dollar, damn cheap because it’s a set with fries and drinks but I don’t really like the way the burger feels, hard actually. And the way they fry the chicken fillet, too crispy until it hurts my lip. Oh ya, forgot to blog that it was so cold as soon as I stepped out of the airport that my lips quickly crack because of the cold, cold wind. One more thing, their F&N Orange doesn’t taste the same of KLs. By the way, they call all the set lunches as menu!
- 12pm
After the walk and lunch, I felt a little tired already so decided to head back to the hotel room and rest. Before that, I asked for a map from the reception area because I wanted to go to Musee Grevin (pronounced at mu-sue-Ga-von, I think), a popular local wax museum (I’ve never been to one!). The subway seems to be pretty complicated and since I’m alone I thought of taking the bus instead but guess what? The staffs there do not know how to take a bus and asked me to ask the people there instead. Not that I’m afraid of asking people but I’ve already been speaking to 2 people (apart from the hotel staffs) there and NONE of them speaks English. And although it is obvious that I can’t speak French other than Bonjour (pronounced as boh-ju, er, or was it bon-si-or) and Merci (pronounced as meh-si) and Salute (pronounced as sa-lu) and another bad word (learnt that from my boss which I won’t reveal unless you ask), they still speak to me in FRENCH! Never mind, I think I’ll worry about how to get there later. For now, I just want my bed.
to be continued….
