London
“….Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Air Asia for its gracious offer of 500,000 free air tickets to public recently in Malaysia…” Wow! Too formal isn’t it? Let’s back to normal… Hooray! I managed to grab 6 return tickets to fly to Phuket this October, FREE, during the fest which ended 3 days ago! Not absolute actually. I still need to pay for the airport tax, insurance blah blah blah which eventually cost me RM972 or RM162 per person! Isn’t it great? Now everyone can fly, with Air Asia.
In fact I was trying to book free tickets online to Melbourne but only 1 way 2 tickets was still available and I need to pay for return ticket which would still cost me RM1,100 per pax. I know it’s still a steal of bargain but considering the flying time and other factors, I opted for phuket where we could fly with my family in a group of 6! Believe it or not, it is even cheaper than my last travel with Air Asia to Bali!
The point is: In view of the recent global economy crisis hitting most of the countries including here in Malaysia, huge numbers of retrenchment with more and more people became jobless, I really didn’t expect Mr Tony Fernandez could still offer 500,000 free seats to public! Isn’t it amazing? That’s why Air Asia has emerged as one of the largest low cost carrier in South East Asia or even Asia!
The Final line: Despite Air Asia‘s slogan of “Now Everyone Can Fly” and huge saving for tickets to Beijing, Australia and London, in view of the recent natural disasters in those countries, do you still wanna fly to London after its recent snow attack? Do you still wanna fly to Beijing after its recent CCTV complex hotel fire accident? Do you still dare to fly to Australia after its recent forest wildfire incident that claimed nearly 200 lives? Should Air Asia’s slogan be revised as “Now Anyone Dare To Fly?” – Travel Feeder.
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I have intense pressure when writing this post as first 2 parts of the story -Top 5 Cities to travel in Europe, London and Top 5 Cities to go for your Europe tour, Rome, are so popular among our readers. That is why Part 3 has been delayed until now! He..he.. ‘Hmm… or you are just buying time?‘
Let’s continue on the Part 3 of the story and this time I’m also listing out the full top 5 Europe cities list for travel. However, only 1 of them to be fully elaborated for the ease of reading, and she is PARIS. The Top 5 Europe Cities To Travel are:-
- London – read more;
- ROME - read more;
- Prague - read more later;
- Venice – read more, and
- Paris – read more HERE;
When I first stepped out of EuroStar train, what I’ve noticed was a city full of architecture. If Rome is what I considered as the city of world’s heritage, Paris would be the city of world’s lifestyle.
Beautiful Night Cityscape of Paris - Courtesy of Wikipedia.
Perhaps with the influence of my profession in construction industry, Paris has the best town planning of all cities I’ve ever seen. If viewing down from the top floor of Eiffel Tower, you would definitely be impressed with the neat alignment and flat city layout of Paris, which could hardly be found in other cities and countries (Except in your virtual Sim-city). A common characteristic of all major cities in Europe, Paris city attractions are mostly concentrated and within walking distance if you don’t mind to walk. Of course, they could either be reached by the extensive Metro and RER underground train network, or the Light Rail Transit network, TRAMWAY, though it’s quite costly.
Firstly, of course we needed to get our accomodation. There are huge amount of hotels, hostels or budget dorms available in Paris city centre. We stayed in one of the hostel in Montmartre, the home of arts and Moulin Rouge. Price starts from €16, accommodations is not a problem at all in Paris. You can book Paris hotels over here online.
If you are interested in Paris history and french culture, you could grab a tourist guide to study. If not, you could actually explore it by simply walking around without taking any city map with you! Landmarks and signboards are so noticeable that you won’t be able to get lost. Roads are generally straight and wide especially Champs-Élysées, the up-market shopping street and avenue of Paris. We started our city exploration here as part of the historical axis of Paris. Tourist attractions along this axis includes the Triumph Arch, Tuileries Garden, I.M.Pei’s creation of Pyramid at Louvre art museum where you could witness the greatest art of all, the Monalisa and Venus de Milo statue. Louvre is one of the most visited and largest museum in the world. We had our lunch and tea break here at the stylish open air cafes. This historical Axis extends to the west until the new Triumph Arch, Grande Arch at La Defence business centre. Interestingly, if you are standing at the middle of the Champs-Élysées street, both Arches of Triumph and Grande can be seen through in one straight line!
In the evening, we turned back to the centre of Triumph Arch before continuing our walking journey to the Notre Dame Cathedral and finally the greatest monument of all, the Eiffel Tower, located at south of Champs-Élysées. EIFFEL TOWER IS REALLY BIG. It is really hard to believe that it was built in the 19th century!! It was already night hours when we were on top of the tower and overseeing the unbeatable Paris’s city skyline in the night! For families, Disneyland Europe is another attraction of Paris suburb with more than 10 millions visitors per year!
Foods are generally expensive from what I learnt during our short 2 day stay in Paris (Yes, 2 days were too short, we realised that on the afternoon when we were about to leave for Holland to check into our Amsterdam hotels). However, backpackers always have the choice to buy foods and drinks from the local supermarkets which are a lot cheaper. We bought MARS chocolates for our lunch once which were even cheaper than in Malaysia.
Overall, Paris is definitely one of the TOP 5 Cities in Europe. It is a metropolitan city with a combination of all elements, from historic to futuristic, artistic to engineering, fashion to authentic, foods to romance. To fully explore the city, we would need another week, at least. Need we say more? For upcoming stories, you may prefer to subscribe my RSS Feed for free update. – Travel Feeder.
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It is always the vision of Travel Feeder to feed travel tips to travelers around the world so travelers could visit their dream cities with the least budget and highest value, even to the most expensive cities in the world. Only recently, we have our latest target for this year: According to Mercer’s 2008 Cost Of Living Survey highlight released [...]
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