Berlin - Parlo Eastern Europe Tour Review (Day 2)

Our tour starts soon after our arrival at Tegel International Airport around noon. Although Berlin is the capital of Germany, the airport doesn't seem to be as advance as I thought it should be. Soon after we collected our luggage, we proceeded to our tour bus which was about 10 minutes walk away as buses are not allowed to park outside the airport.

The bus headed straight into Berlin city centre to pick up our local guide and soon after we were given an orientation of Berlin city centre. On our way to our first attraction point, our bus by passed several iconic locations like the Holocaust Memorial and Berlin Tower.

Holocaust Memorial

The Holocaust Memorial is probably our first introduction to a dark history of the Nazis who have killed millions of Jews before the World War 2 ended.

Our first stop was at Reichtag which houses the Parliament ever since the unification of Germany. It is popular for its glass dome where one can enjoy an excellent panoramic view of Berlin. Unfortunately our tour group only managed to quickly snap a picture as expected :).

Nearby Reichtag is the Brandenburg Gate where we strolled around for a good 30 minutes. It is a historical site built in the 18th Century.  

We hop on to the bus later and off we went to the next attraction site, Berlin Wall East Side Gallery. There, you will find the remnant of the famous Berlin Wall which separated East and West Berlin for circa 30 years. From the picture above, the Berlin wall is really 2 walls built back to back.

The east side gallery is located nearby a park beside the river Spree where we have some time to enjoy an evening stroll. Frankly, I kind of enjoyed the nice evening stroll along the river bank but the remnant of Berlin wall reminded us the fact that many people have lost their lives attempting to cross the border at this very place.

Checkpoint Charlie

It's almost 5pm local time and we stopped at our last attraction, Checkpoint Charlie. What used to be Berlin Wall's crossing point where a lot of military stand off took place is now centre of a busy commercial business cum shopping district. We later found a gallery nearby which shares more details on the historical events that took place at the site. We had about 90 minutes to explore the area before dinner time.

Notice an interesting truck as we explore the city centre.

We did not take many pictures in Berlin as sun sets after 5pm in Berlin...

Dinner at Maximilians located within walking distance from Checkpoint Charlie.

We had German Currywurst for dinner. I like it very much especially the sauce that tasted like a combination of tomato sauce and curry that goes very well with bread as well.

After our half day tour, we checked ourselves into Andels Hotel Berlin to call it a night. I have no complaints about this hotel. The room was modern and comfortable. It also came with a 24 hours fully equipped gym which is excellent for me to beat the jet lag...:)

More to come....

Eastern Europe Tour Homepage

Day 1

Day 3

Transit From Kuala Lumpur To Berlin Via Doha (Qatar Airways) - Day 1

Wifey and I travelled to Berlin by Qatar Airways which transits at Doha International Airport. From KLIA I took the 2.40am flight QR853 to Doha which turned out to be a Boeing 757 Dreamliner. I was pretty excited to take the flight as it ls a technological advance airplane which was supposed to rival A380 produced by Airbus. Boeing claims that the airplane’s body is made from a special type of plastic or polymer instead of the conventional aluminium to reduce the weight of the body and results in lower fuel consumption which translates into cost savings.

The Qatar flight was equipped with the most high tech in flight entertainment system in economy class I have seen to date. It comes with dual screen comprising of a primary screen and a secondary screen for controls. You can also play video games while watching videos. Content selections are acceptable just like many of the airlines out there. There is also a USB to charge your electronic equipment.

It also comes with better leg room which is kind of a blessing for people like me who is more than 6 feet tall. Once on a fully declined position, the seat allows me to fully stretch my legs and that gave me the comfort to have a nice sleep in the plane. Unlike in the past where I usually spend most of my time on board watching movies, this time around I managed to sleep much more as I felt the seat was more comfortable. Its not all praises though. Some passengers have complained that the width of the seat is too narrow due to the 3-4-3 seat configuration so it may be uncomfortable for some depending on their body size.

Leg room is adequate even with my long legs

In flight meals was only satisfactorily. I had a chicken sandwich shortly for supper shortly after take off from KLIA. A couple of hours later, I had pancakes for breakfast. The flight to Doha took about 8 hours arriving at Doha International Airport at around 5 am.

My breakfast enroute to Berlin

It was a foggy morning when we arrived with a temperature 15 degrees. Several busses was already waiting to bring passengers to the arrival gate. Those who are transiting to other countries are required to go through security screening again before entering the departure hall.

First sight in Doha with buses waiting to ferry passengers to the arrival hall.

QR853 Kuala Lumpur to Doha

Once inside, we had more than 2 hours at the airport but unfortunately the tour guide only gave us about an hour to explore the place so we did not get to do much except to buy some stuff from the convenience stall then a toilet break and off we went to departure gate to board QR81 to Berlin. That was kind of sad as I was looking forward to at least a cup of coffee in this relatively new airport which was just opened about two years ago. Worst still, we had to que up outside the departure gate for about 40 minutes before allowed in :(. Meanwhile the tour guide happily went for shopping. In this case, I felt that the Tour Guide could have done better in this case by providing us proper briefing and time management.  

This is no ordinary bear.....

Notice the giant sized bear?

QR81 to Berlin

The plane we took to Berlin is an Airbus 330 with a 2-4-2 seating configuration. The seat is definitely wider but leg room is not as good as the previous flight. I have earlier arranged with Parlo to get us the window seats so that I can capture a picture of the desert which can be seen shortly after take off.

The closest I can get to a desert. A view no long after take off.

As for the in flight entertainment system I felt the user interface was hard to use, slow  and confusing. In the end, I gave up and just continued sleeping :). Breakfast was served shortly after take off and I had the sausage and egg for breakfast and it turned out to be quit delicious and exceeded my expectations on in flight meals.

More to come...

Please click on the following links for related posts.

Parlo Eastern Europe Tour Overview
Day 2

EASTERN EUROPE WITH PARLO TOURS (MALAYSIA) 2016

After my beautiful trip to Western Europe two years ago, I was looking forward to another adventure to fuel my passion for travel. After being captivated with the sceneries of Eastern Europe during winter, I decided to join a tour by Parlo Tours which was strongly recommended by a friend. It met the three criteria I was looking for namely good food, beautiful sceneries and comfortable hotel.

The tour during Chinese new year covers five countries namely Germany (Berlin and Munich), Czech Republic (Prague), Poland (Krakow), Hungary (Budapest) and Austria (Vienna and Salzburg) over a period of 12 days or 10 nights. Some may argue that Europe is best explored on a free and easy trip which I agree to a certain extent if don’t mind spending time to plan for the trip and the hassle of dragging your luggage bags across five different countries which may be troublesome especially in the winter months. On negative side, if you follow a tour do expect to have little control on where you will be going or even what you are going to eat. Expect visits to very touristy areas which may limit interaction with locals and hence little exposure to the local culture. In the end, it really depends on what your priorities are.

11 Days 9 Nights Eastern Europe Tour By Parlo Tours

As far as I am concerned, I would love a little of both worlds and that means to have a combination of joining a tour and a couple of days travelling on a free and easy. This is where Parlo really exceeded my expectations. Where some travel agencies discourage or do not entertain stay extensions, Parlo has no issues with it. My reservation and subsequent correspondence was done predominantly via phone calls and emails and was pretty satisfied with the service level provided by their sales staff.

The following are the places that we visited.

Day 1 - Travel to Berlin via Doha

Day 2 - Berlin (Germany)

Day 3 - Dresden (Germany) / Prague (Czech Republic)

Day 4 - Prague (Czech Republic)

Day 5 - Krakow (Poland)

Day 6 - Krakow (Poland)

Day 7 - Budapest (Hungary)

Day 8 - Vienna (Austria)

Day 9 - Salzburg (Austria)

Day 10 -  Munich (Germany)

Day 11- Day 13 - Free & Easy in Munich

Day 14 - Return to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 

Lai Po Heen, Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur Review

Wifey and I decided to spent a weekend at Mandarin Oriental. After we checked out at noon on Sunday, we decided to have our lunch at Lai Po Heen Restaurant as I suddenly had cravings for some good Tim Sum. Once you enter the restaurant, you will notice the open kitchen concept where you can basically see the entire kitchen through a glass partition.

Wifey and I were seated near the window where you will have a nice view of KLCC park and overlooking the sight of the city centre.  

The first dish we had was the sea cucumber congee. Honestly, I never thought that sea cucumber goes well as porridge and was sceptical at first. It turns out to be pretty good with a nice flavour and I especially liked the "chewy" sea cucumber cubes in the porridge.   

For tim sum, we ordered lobster flower roll, prawn tim sum and bean curd roll all tasted good and fresh. 

We also ordered a plate of steam rice roll but we happily munched it down and was too late to realize that we have yet to take a picture of it. To finish it off, I ordered durian crepes and mango sago ice cream for dessert.

The durian crepes is the restaurant specialty. It was good with real durian meat inside but honestly I have tasted better ones at other places.

This meal for two was about RM200 including tax and service charge. It is a bit pricy but well compensated with the excellent customer service, nice view and food quality. The fact that this restaurant was full on a Sunday afternoon (with people queuing outside) means many concurs with my opinion :).

A day with Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur

After weeks of hard work at office decided to have a weekend off in Mandarin Oriental. I checked into the hotel sometime around 2.30pm and headed straight to Lounge In The Park for the afternoon tea session.

I ordered the tea set which comes with assortment of sandwiches, scones, durian mochi, cakes and pudding, I liked the scones the best which goes very well with the various types of jam provided.

After tea, we checked into the Twin Towers View room facing the Petronas Twin Tower. It was a comfy and spacious room that comes with the basic necessities normally found in a 5 stars hotel but I especially liked the working table which allow me to do some computing work comfortably.

Check out the view from our room. Wow....

I also found this complimentary drink on the table. It was a apple and vanilla flavoured soda. Not bad... I give this hotel extra points for this.

In the evening, we headed to Mandarin Grill for dinner. It is a fine dining restaurant. Wifey and I ordered half dozen oysters and and a bowl of clam chowder as starters. They also served a complimentary plate of cheese with two types of dip sauce.

What else can I say? The oysters were really fresh and the clam chowder was delicious and goes very well with the complimentary bread. The cheese was not too much of our liking.

For the mains, we ordered a plate of lobster and sirloin steak each to share. The service staff was helpful enough to arrange it to be separated on individual plates. In fact they also did it with the clam chowder which was great so that Wifey and I were able to enjoy our dinner comfortably :).

Right after we asked for the bill, we were given a box of chocolate that went quite well with the white wine that we ordered.  Overall, I find the food quality to be quite good but I think the customer service is the one that they really excel in. The staff were friendly and do try to strike conversations with us at times. On the downside, the restaurant menu was quite limited and I would prefer a wider selection of choices.

Concluding this blog entry with the picture of Petronas Twin Tower at night which was taken right outside from my room. :)

Buffet At Coffee Terrace Restaurant, Genting Highland

Early Morning View At Genting 

Genting is no stranger to local and foreign tourist alike, most popular for its outdoor theme park and casino. Coming soon in 2016 is the opening of Fox Studios as well as a Premium Shopping Outlet. I frequent to Genting quite often but not really for the above mentioned purpose. To me, it is just a quick getaway place away from home where I spent most of my time at Coffee Bean Iocated at Resorts Hotel to work or to do some research. Located 6000 ft above sea level, I would like to think of if as a place that gives me fresh inspiration while I work. Which better place to work than above the clouds right?

If you fancy buffet and don't like idea of paying a high price for it then a good place to go is Coffee Terrace Restaurant located in Genting Grand Hotel. Buffet lunch is priced at only RM42/pax including tax which is really of great value. Buffet dinner is pricier at circa RM80/pax but if you have the Genting Rewards membership you will get to enjoy a 20% discount. Again great value!

Interior design is pretty nice being able to deliver a comfortable and cosy feel to it. The buffet restaurant is quite big and comes with a nice buffet spread but don't put your expectations too high though... With the price that I paid, I felt it is quite all right to exclude some of the pricier items like fresh oysters and some other seafood items. The buffet spread consist of several sections serving local, chinese, international/western, and japanese cuisines (dinner only). There is also a dessert bar and coffeee / tea section. 

To me the tastiest food is definitely the Hainanese Chicken Rice along with the various sauces that goes well with it. The Chicken was cooked quite well which is just nice ie not too dry and remained succulent. The bean sprout is long and fat just like the ones popularly found in Ipoh. I usually have 2 servings of the Hainanese chicken rice and by the time I finished I have limited room left for other types of food.  

  

2nd must try item is the cendol which is made to order by a staff. The taste? Let's just say its almost perfect like the authentic ones you get from hawker stalls. Must try to find out. So what is the difference between buffet lunch and buffet dinner? For buffet dinner, you will find one additional japanese sushi section and at the chinese food section you can place orders for your favorite fresh vegetables and ingredients and the cook will stir fry it for you.

Overall, I consider the food quality to be good as compared to the price I paid. Go for the local food as I find it a notch better than the western and japanese food.