Chapter 1: Jakarta - Abu Dhabi - Sierre (Switzerland)

Studying hotel management has brought me to a completely different world! I got a chance to meet many people, live in many different countries and cities, and also a great opportunity to travel around the world! So this is where the story begun...

I got myself enroll into Les Roches International School of Hotel Management, Bluche - Switzerland in January, 2008! At that time I was only 18 years old, very young and thin - I guess. I still remember that I had my flight on 12th January, leaving all my family and friends back there in Jakarta, I was feelin' excited for the first time though!

To reach Switzerland, I had to travel around 16-hour of flight excluding the transit period that I hate it now. At that time, I flew with Etihad Airlines, costs me quite pricey for one way (around US$800) and I transit myself in Abu Dhabi! The only thing I remembered was the airport was ridiculously small and had not many option for dining, however I was impressed but the uniqueness interior design of the transit hall. Oh, and it was really crowded of all passangers throughout countries, just name it! They were all there. :)

Tada! Myself and Valen at the Abu Dhabi Int'l Airport - UAE

Then after waited for quite some times at the airport, we flew again to Geneva, Switzerland! Finally we have arrived there around 7 in the morning. I still remember, my best friend Audrey, whose studied also in Switzerland, picked me up at the airport even though we just met for like half an hour because she needs to work at that time (also with Robby 'Monyet'). We took a train off Geneva heading to Sierre which took us around 2,5 hours to get there. The weather? Don't mention it, it was truly freezing. However, the view along our way there was stunning, with all the mountains, lakes, and all the Swiss people on the train, it really made my first spending morning there in Switzerland.

The view from the train took us to Sierre from Geneva - Lovely!

Arrived in Sierre, we took the school bus that brought us to the top of the mountain village, called with Bluche! It is indeed like a very tiny village up in the mountain which has very few of local population and mostly conquered by the Les Roches students itself, since the school has over than 600 students on campus at that time.

So that's the little village called Sierre (see the school is very small from this view)

Well, within my next post, probably I will share you my trips during my stay there in lovely Switzerland! I was thinking to start up with the place where I used to live, BLUCHE. So stay up folks.

Smart Tips:  when I transit myself last time in Abu Dhabi, the airport was pretty small and crowded, I found quite hard time to find somewhere to relax and eat a good food at least after a long-haul flight. Therefore, I would recommend the travelers to go to the transit hotel that is integrated with the transit terminal, just follow the sign board to the hotel and there is a restaurant of the hotel. They have a good food, nice ambience, and friendly waiter. Quite worth to spend a few dollars there for a couple hour of stretching out and filling our tummy up before catching up the next flight!