Category Archives: Travel

INSEAD Life

April 25, 2016 Katie Leave a comment

Life is pretty weird and wild since Kay started INSEAD. I have spent 12 weekends this year traveling, usually only staying home once a month. On Thursday and Friday nights, I head to a small town in France for the weekend and witness parties like this:Work hard, play hard. The INSEAD motto. And as a weekend partner, I am here to witness it.France is very different from Switzerland and I have to admit, I don’t really care for it. It’s just so not Switzerland. Maybe I am too Swiss at this point, but I miss order and function, something often lacking almost everywhere outside of my little country.

Sometimes it’s also just weird, the way elderly paw at every.single.vegetable in the produce section, for example. Whatever it is, I’m kind of happy I am only visiting. I am so Swiss in fact, that every weekend I bring prepared homemade frozen gluten free meals with me and let them thaw on the drive over, so that Kay doesn’t have to cook for us or worry about finding me gluten free meals.Back at home, my house looks like a mess as I use this opportunity to sort and change furniture around.I am using Kay’s absence to purge lots of unneeded items from our life, but in the meantime, it looks like I am moving and that has been driving me nuts, so for most of March and April, I’ve been trying to work hard during the week to clean up more. This year isn’t quite like I imagined. Being a partner to an INSEADer is not easy, especially when you only visit on the weekend, but I am trying my best.

Travel

Hong Kong and Premium Economy

April 20, 2016 Katie Leave a comment

Part of me feels like I have not stopped traveling since October, which you might have noticed if you wonder why things are a little quiet around here.

When Kay and I arrived back to Zurich from Lima, I repacked my bags and spent one night sleeping at home before I headed to the airport on Monday morning to go to Hong Kong for business. Traveling across three continents overnight put my head in a bit of a spin and I don’t think I’ve fully recovered since then.

Traveling to HK in Premium Economy with Cathay Airlines also sparked a frequent flyer urge. PE almost seems worth the double price tag of economy flights. Almost.In addition to the extra leg room, premium economy enjoys perks of business travelers like newspapers during boarding, hot towels to wash hands, complementary drinks like prosecco during boarding (Yes, please!) and an upgrade in food with real utensils.My gluten free meal was pretty impressive. Having flown Iberian business in January, I can now say that Cathay’s food in premium economy was BETTER. That steak, I mean, there’s no contest!After flying 30+ hours in 48h, I looked and felt surprisingly fit when I arrived to Hong Kong that Tuesday morning. I didn’t really know what day it was at all, but that’s beside the point.Hong Kong is a glittery city and after the cold weather in Peru, I was welcoming some warmth.Like Singapore, I liked this city immediately.The view from my hotel below. 🙂I also ate really well on this trip, with everything from fried mussels to truffle infused french fries.The Sheraton Kowloon really knows how to make food!The view of the construction site behind my room was not quite as pleasing, especially when it started up at 7am every day, but I guess I am used to construction workers ruining my sleep in Switzerland. 😉Although I was a little nervous about finding gluten free food to eat at a convention hall with 60,000 visitors, I was able to stop by a restaurant for lunch that could manage a simple gluten free pasta. Back across the harbor, palm trees swayed in the breeze. Can’t we just move the office here??Every day, we woke early to get to the convention hall and then in the evening we would go back to the hotel and change before heading out for dinner. It was a pretty exhausting week!I was still marveling that right before getting on the plane to Lima, I was roughing it in the Peruvian wilderness to Machu Picchu, and now after the weekend, here I was at a cosmetics and beauty expo in cosmopolitan Hong Kong. Going from eating potatoes and local corn to lobster and oysters was nuts. The difference in culture on the two trips was staggering.I did have again a little food card with me, writing what I could eat in traditional and simplified Chinese. Sometimes eating gluten free makes food pretty bland in Asia without soy sauce or salt. :/Shrimp and broccoli stir fried in plain oil is not quite the same.But in general, eating was not a problem, and I didn’t need almost any of the snacks I had brought along with me.The view from the restaurant was pretty amazing though!I was also proud that every morning, I managed to wake up, shove contacts in my eyes, and even put on fake eyelashes for the fair.By the end of the trip, I was quite spoiled with all the fine dining.HK is a city I could see myself living in. I cannot picture living in all the cities I visit, but this seems like a nice place. 🙂Maybe it also had to do with how much nice food there was…The lobster at the end of the trip was the cherry on top. Look at that happy employee!I loved the craze of the expo, the long days, tearing the stand up and down, talking to clients, all of it. Sometimes work trips are a refreshing break to the monotony of daily life. They inspire and motivate.

What do you think of business trips?

Food, Travel

Gluten Free Cusco and Lima, Peru

April 18, 2016 Katie Leave a comment

After our long bus ride into Cusco with a crack-of-dawn arrival, we slept for a couple hours and then landed at Don Cafeone for lunch, where I had quinoa and mushroom beef.For dinner the first night, after hiking to see Saksaywaman during the day, we celebrated with more pisco sours at Nuna Raymi. For appetizers, we ordered the crispy homemade chips made from white potato, sweet potato, arracacha and yellow potato, tossed with olive oil, garlic, rocoto (red chili), pisco, parsley, jungle’s hot sauce, spices and tomato.Pretty sure I ordered tenderloin pork with piña colada chutney and garlic mashed potatoes for the main, but it’s been a few months and my memory is getting rusty. It tasted good and I didn’t get sick after, so I was happy!The second day when I was feeling so crappy the night before our trek, we ended up somewhere near the plaza de armas after our tour briefing and I had stuffed peppers and potatoes.After the whole trek was over, we needed to get a quick lunch in Aguas Calientes before taking the train back to Cusco, so I grabbed a deconstructed taco dish. And by grabbed, I mean, we waited quite awhile and almost missed our train because the service was so slow. 😉We did not realize we had purchased special train tickets. Most of our group was heading back later on a train together, but Kay had upgraded us to the “scenic route” that ran along the river on the way back to town. It was a very pretty train ride.Peru Rail also served us a little lunch, which surprised me.I was scared to eat the bread, so I gave it to Kay, but I happily munched on the rest. They served us coffee and tea too, which was welcome after five days without the morning cuppa.The train ride also had a very special service with a terrifying clown who made the creepiest noises, and later on a fashion show was put on by the steward and stewardess. It was definitely different than the Swiss train!Back in Cusco, we met another prospective student from INSEAD at Nuna Raymi for dinner again, since it was good before. The colleague just joined us for drinks, pisco sours, which unfortunately gave all three of us terrible food poisoning the next day.We were flying to Lima for our flight back to Zurich and the food poisoning hit just in time for security check-in. Again unfortunately, the water only worked outside security, so after we got through security, some poor soul had to deal with my repeated trips to the bathroom, and I spent some glorious time half-passed out in front of the bathroom, writhing in pain before we started boarding.

All for nothing too, as the power in the airport failed, so did my stomach, and I ended up losing my breakfast in front of all the passengers for our flight. The only thing classier than puking in a bag while running for the bathroom is having that bag break over the airport floor. Travel at its finest! 😉

Both Kay and I just needed to sleep and recover when we got to Lima. We had a day to explore, but rather spent the whole day and most of the night sleeping the food poisoning off. When we woke the next day with our flight back to Zurich, we had a little hotel breakfast, including broth soup to get our nutrients back up.After shopping and spending way too much, I chanced my stomach on some creamy shrimp risotto, but it was actually so rich that my weakened appetite wasn’t able to handle eating much of it. Tasty though!As were the BBQ chicken wings, which Kay helped me polish off.More from our trip to Peru:

Travel

Machu Picchu, Peru

February 29, 2016 Katie 1 Comment

“You’re at Machu Picchu and you’re cryiiing!” announced Valentine when we arrived to a very foggy, desolate looking Machu Picchu. The man had a good sense of humor and he’d said exactly what I was feeling on the inside. It’s foggy… and it’s raining… and I can’t see anything. NOOooooooo. Don’t cry, don’t be disappointed, don’t cry!

We flew 10,000km and hiked 60km over four days up to 4600m to see the crown jewel looking like the scene from an ancient horror film.Maybe it will get better, I thought… and it would for a bit, but it also got worse and it did rain quite a bit. That’s life.Valentine took us on a tour around the grounds and explained more about Inca culture and traditions and how they think people lived in the compound.It’s an incredibly amazing place. You can only wonder how the Incas really lived here.Kay was pretty much unperturbed by the rain and cover. He was just really amazed by how monumental this place is.We took a few more photos with the group before it was time to hike our special package of the trip up to Huayna Picchu.
Below was part of the “condor” in the compound with the beak at the bottom center and the rock “wings” flying up to the side. Trying to figure out how they did what they did with the stone was mind boggling.Even though it was a little dreary, it actually added to the mystic surrounding the mystery of the Incas and what really happened to them and how they really lived. Nobody really knows.The sure knew how to pick a location for their holy site though!Group photo time and then Valentine and Filio bid us goodbye.From there, we actually didn’t have unlimited time to hike to Huayna Picchu, come back and take the classic tourist picture in Machu Picchu and then catch the bus down to Aguas Calientes so we could get the right train home. And we couldn’t miss any of it because we had a plane to catch the next day!The trail up and down from Huayna Picchu is listed as “dangerous” and they actually make you sign in and out of a guide book to let the park know if you made it back alive, no shit.

I thought it was a little over the top because the trail is not worse than a Swiss alpine pass next to steep drops and basically everything was stairs… so it really wasn’t that bad.After hiking up to 4600m, hiking up 2720m at Huayna Picchu was a piece of cake. While people beside us huffed and puffed and talked about going into cardiac arrest, we kept a brisk pace upwards.

From above, you really do get to see an incredible view of Machu Picchu and you can appreciate the shape of the condor much better.After waiting for the clouds to clear a little, it started raining on the way down. They actually do trick you a little, because the nice, big steps are on the way up, and the tiny narrow, your-foot-barely-fits-on-them steps were what we had with the rain on the way down.

To be fair, even without hiking sticks, which are banned, you can go down pretty fast with some sturdy hiking boots… but we were passing people obviously terrified of heights who could barely take a step downward.After trying to wait for the rain to pass for 20-30 minutes, we just gave up and headed to the classic postcard location.The rain and clouds were pretty badass.It wasn’t how I pictured seeing Machu Picchu and these photos have been edited quite a bit, but it was still impossible to deny the wonder and awe of such a sacred site even in the rain and fog.I got the “dark, moody Machu Picchu”, which I guess I deserve. 😛Kay and I didn’t want to go, but we had to get in line for the buses to take us back to town to catch the train, which would be an experience in itself.We snapped a few more photos, including some mandatory selfies, before heading back down.That’s it, Machu Picchu was in the books!With our biggest ticket crossed off our bucket list, it was time to start the journey home, if only so I could get on a plane to Hong Kong for work. 🙂

Alpaca Expeditions was founded by a retired porter and Inca tour guide. Their fantastic, professional tours specialize in sustainable tourism both by supporting local farmers and by paying fair wages to local porters, employee health/life insurance, and respecting local labor laws. The company also has social projects for children’s needs and they even work to help porters and their families to visit Machu Picchu, something that many locals in the area are never able to do on their own. By supporting Alpaca Expeditions, you can help them give back to the community and support the local Andeans.

Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu Day 4

February 24, 2016 Katie 1 Comment

Day four of the trek was our last day that Filio would wake us with our coca tea at our tent. Kay jammed on his clothes and practically ran out of the tent to see if the sun was coming up yet. He was really excited to see this view.

I on the other hand, took my sweet time putting my clothes on and properly waking myself up and rolling up my tent things before I came out with my big camera. No stress, the sun was still rising!Kay still enjoying his coca tea.The view was pretty spectacular and the photos don’t really do it justice. We were waiting for the sun to rise high enough to just hit the peak of Machu Picchu in the valley below.Behind the campsite we could still see bits of mountains we’d left behind.I have to say, not just for the photos at sunset and sunrise, but we were really lucky that it never was raining while we were at the campgrounds on our whole trail. Even though we were often walking in rain, it wasn’t an issue when it came to relaxing or going to bed. Thank you, mother nature!This view was almost as amazing as Salkantay on the first day.Around 7am we got on the road on the way down to the hydro power station on the way to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu.Signs that we were getting closer, the excitement in the group rose! By this point, we were also having a really nice time talking with everyone in the group. It was a great mix of people and Kay and I both really enjoyed our walking partners.Once we got to the tracks we started walking along them, which admittedly was not really as fun as the rest of the trail. This part was a little boring, but it happens as soon as you get close to the tracks to Aguas Calientes.We also had to watch out a bit for cars and trains at the last point. We had enjoyed almost our entire three days of trekking as the only trekking group in the area, so it was kind of weird to be around people again.We arrived in town mid-day and were checked into a hotel for the night before we were given the afternoon off to explore town and visit the local hot springs.Kay and I ended up being the only ones who thought that soaking in natural hot springs sounded like a great way to soothe our poor muscles after four days of hiking. We also both got a full body massage in town before dinner and it was… heaaaven. I think I forgot which country I was in.It doesn’t look it from these pictures, but the weather was actually really sunny and warm and gorgeous in Aguas Calientes. We crossed our fingers that it would stay like this tomorrow for the big trip to Machu Picchu!

For dinner, we had a farewell dinner in a restaurant with Alpaca Expeditions. Our porters and chef would be going home from here and only our two guides, Valentine and Filio, would be taking us on to Machu Picchu the next day.

We made sure to order Pisco Sours for the table!After dinner we all walked back to the hotel for an early night because like many others, we planned on taking the first bus up to Machu Picchu in the morning.Up next, the grand finale!