In Between Lakes

Casino Kursaal, Interlaken, Switzerland

Here’s another quick holiday photo post – on the city of Interlaken in Switzerland.

Have always wanted to visit Interlaken, since 1994, when our group of Malaysian Cina-Apek students (+ 1 Cina-Aso) from Manchester UK went a-backpacking across Europe. Interlaken at that time was inaccessible to us. No, it’s not banned. It’s just that we were travelling on Interrail tickets (where we could travel anywhere in Europe by rail for a month), but if you wanna get on some special railway, or a bullet train, or things like that, you had to pay extra. And Interlaken was on such a special railway. (Yeah, once a cheapskate, always a cheapskate!) Nah, actually, we were on a tight budget. What, we’re students, using our parents’ hard earned money, OK?! And Switzerland was the most expensive place on earth, even then. We visited quite a number of Swiss cities then – Zürich, Luzern, Bern, Basel, Geneva, and a mountain (don’t really remember, but I think it was Mt Titlis), but we stayed NO nights in Switzerland! NIL! How did we do it?? That’s the beauty of Interrail haha! We hopped onto a train in the evening, slept in the train, and hopped off when it was morning, to another city! We did our toilet stuff in the train stations, but didn’t take a shower even once in Switzerland, in summer. No wonder people stayed away from us!

Anyway, from then, I’ve always wondered how Interlaken would look like. It sounded like it’s wedged between lakes (What? ‘Inter’ means ‘between’, right? Like ‘inter-national’ – ‘between nations’. And ‘Laken’ is just ‘lake’ with an ‘N’!) And the meaning turned out to be correct. Go ahead, Google ‘Interlaken’!

Anyway, we made a short stopover in Interlaken on our way out from the Jungfrau Region to Luzern. In Interlaken, the Swiss people have somehow morphed into Asians – Chinese, Indians and Arabs. (Just look at our photos, not a single Swiss face in ‘em!) Hell, if it wasn’t for the lush greenery, European architecture and the nice mountain views, I would’ve sworn I was back in Dubai!


Although Interlaken is located in between two lakes, you don’t see much of a lake in the town centre. The lakes are connected by this river (or is it a canal?) called the Aare


The Flower Clock, Kursaal Gardens, Interlaken, Switzerland


Kursaal Gardens – Indians love this place, coz it’s featured in some famous Bollywood movie, (or movies?) (Don’t ask me which one!) Anu mustn’t be Indian, as she absolutely refused to take a walk in the place (she stayed in the car with little sleeping Jayden) – I think it’s because her annoying husband kinda pissed her off that time… oops


Höhematte, the central park in Interlaken – quite like the parks in Dubai, is teeming with foreigners picnicking on the grounds – the only missing thing is the smell of barbecued meat!


Justin & a fountain, Höhematte, Interlaken


Grand Hotel, Interlaken


The Streets of Interlaken – Asians all the way, except for the horse coachman!