Interlaken, Between Two Lakes and the Alps

Swiss chalets dot the bank of Aar (or Aare) river in the Swiss town of Interlaken.

It was as if I truly saw for the first time and that I had always been looking through layers of mist when we stepped out of the train that brought us to Interlaken, Switzerland.

Everything was so clear. The Aare river flowing just outside Interlaken West train station was so blue (turquoise actually), the trees were so green and the snow covering the grass here and there was icy white.

We arrived in Interlaken, a popular resort town in the Bernese Oberland region of the Swiss Alps, in April last year. The winter was longer than usual, and although spring had arrived in many parts of Europe, apparently snow decided to make a brief return in Interlaken — which explains why colorful blooms were buried under the snow, except for some that defiantly sprouted out of the icy mass.

A cluster of blue flowers was hidden under the snow before I removed the icy layers.

The air was so fresh and clean, yet was also icy cold, enough to make us wrap ourselves tightly in layers of clothes although just several hours earlier, we had discarded most of our outer clothing in Milan. We boarded the train from Italy’s fashion capital to Interlaken that day, through the Alpine range in the Swiss-Italian border — the most beautiful scenic train ride I have had so far.

We pulled our luggage out of the railway station, through roads dividing rows of small shops — many near the station sell souvenirs — and then through another road, a bit longer, this time bordering a snow-covered field. Across from the field, a long stretch of buildings — including hotels and church — dotted an arm of the Alps half-covered by mist.

Snow in Interlaken.

We rented the ground floor of Janis Apartment, a nice three-story Swiss chalet of a sort, half an hour walk away from Interlaken West train station. The owner, the friendly Janis, lives in the basement and rents the two upper floors of the house to guests. We paid some 100 euro for a night stay. Since there were three of us, each person paid around 33 euro. Our floor has two bedrooms (one large with a queen-size bed and the other was small with a single bed), a large living room with sofa and a TV box, a nice kitchen (equipped with a kitchen set, a refrigerator and a nice dining table), a bathroom and another room with a washing machine. It really felt dreamy to wake up that morning and saw a snow-covered peak of the Alps through the window as I opened my eyes, still lying in bed. I highly recommend this hostel. We booked our quarters via hostelbookers.com.

Us (plus my aunt’s friend’s family) in front of Janis’ Apartment. (Photo courtesy of Bahri Widjanarko)

Upon dropping our luggage at Janis’, my aunt and I came back to the town center in the afternoon, strolling through small shops, hotels and restaurants, and then along the bank of Aare river from the railway station toward the direction of Lake Thun.

Interlaken is situated between two lakes — from which its name was derived. The Aare river from the Aare Glacier of the Bernese Alps feeds Brienz Lake before flowing through Interlaken into Lake Thun.

Lake Thun, seen from a hilltop in Interlaken (left).

We didn’t walk as far as Lake Thun, though, as it was already late in the afternoon and was getting dark. We instead headed back to the town center, where we dropped by at an Indian restaurant displaying a ‘halal’ label on its window pane (we’re Muslim tourists, fyi). Interlaken appears to host an array of Indian restaurants, way more than any other places in Europe I have visited. It looks like the town is a popular destination with Indian tourists. In fact, during the stroll with my aunt that afternoon, we saw an Indian movie crew shooting a Bollywood movie in the middle of the snowy field, featuring a tall, gorgoeus Indian actress — probably the main character — clad in a white, sleeveless wedding gown and holding a flower bouquet.

We had chicken masala and chicken curry for dinner, which were good — much better than Indian food sold in Indian restaurants in Indonesia.

And then on the way home, we stopped by at a small grocery store, buying some stuff for night snacks — including some Swiss chocolate of course — and for meals the next day.

An Interlaken church.

A friend of my aunt picked her up and they left for Zurich in the morning the next day, bringing our luggage with us. Only my brother and I were left. So, after having our breakfast, we checked out of the cozy apartment (it was really nice! I wish we can come back there one day) and then strolled through another side of the town I hadn’t explored with my aunt the day before, the one in the direction of Lake Brienz.

Snow had all melted away that day, leaving green trees and fields, as well as bright colorful flowers, all bare to the eyes. The turquoise stream of Aare river was as charming, the dark brown Swiss chalets doting the riverbank were very pretty. It was still too cold to sit on one of the benches on the riverbank for too long — to simply enjoy the view and breathe in the fresh air. I imagined how peaceful it would be to bring a good book to read on one of those benches on a summer day, while every now and then refreshing your eyes with the stunning nature all around you.

A nice walk with breathtaking view in Interlaken. That’s me, btw. (Photo courtesy of my brother Bahri)

My brother and I took a cable car to get on top of a hill in Interlaken, from which we could see the whole town, as well as the two lakes and arms of the Alps framing it. We then enjoyed hot Swiss cocoa in a restaurant on the hilltop.

It was very unfortunate that we were only able to stay in Interlaken for less than two days (including the one night hostel stay); that very afternoon already we had to grab a train to Zurich, Switzerland’s financial capital.

I would love very much to visit Interlaken at least one more time. Perhaps a late spring or a summer visit is a good option, because then you’ll be able to enjoy longer hours outdoor without being bothered by cold. Strolling alongside Aare to get to Lake Brienz and or Lake Thun is highly recommended.

Additionally, Interlaken is said to be a good base to explore its even more scenic surroundings — the neighboring valleys and mountains. From Interlaken, you can take a train trip to Jungfraujoch, the Top of Europe, which hosts Europe’s highest railway station at 11,333 feet.

A cable car station on a hilltop of Interlaken, with Lake Brienz on the right.

Footnote:
– Everything in Switzerland, Interlaken included, is considerably more expensive than in any other western European countries. These include prices for mineral water, restaurant food, souvenirs and train tickets.

– If you want to send some postcards home, don’t trust some random shop attendants offering to put the postcards into a mail box for you. I did that in Interlaken because I had to catch a train to Zurich, but none of the three postcards I sent to Indonesia was delivered. Those I sent from Venice and Salzburg did.
Find the mailbox and insert the postcards yourself. Hotel frontdesk officers are probably more trustworthy.

*All photos published here are my own, unless stated otherwise.

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Indonesian Maid Wilfrida Escapes Malaysian Death Sentence

Jakarta. Indonesian maid Wilfrida Soik escaped the death penalty after a Malaysian court on Monday acquitted her of murdering her elderly Malaysian employer on the ground of insanity, ending more than three years of legal battle that has drawn the attention of the Indonesian public and politicians alike.

Wilfrida was charged with murder under Malaysia’s tough Penal Code after she allegedly killed 60-year-old Yeap Seok Pen at the latter’s house in Pasir Mas in Malaysia’s Kelantan state in December 2010.

Judges at Malaysia’s Kota Bharu High Court on Monday said Wilfrida was proven to have murdered Yeap by stabbing her 42 times, but that she had done that while in a mentally ill condition, the Indonesian Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, which has hired lawyers to defend Wilfrida, said Monday.

The 20-year-old has been suffering from an “acute and transient psychotic disorder,” and judges said she should be treated at Permai Hospital in the Malaysian state of Johor while waiting for the sultan of Kelantan to pardon her, before she could return to her family in Belu district, in East Nusa Tenggara province.

“[Wilfrida’s] IQ is also very low, rendering her unable to fully understand realities around her, as well as the legal consequence of her actions,” the embassy said in a statement. “Because of her mental condition, the judges said she was not guilty.”

The judges also accepted the lawyers’ defense that Wilfrida had committed the crime while she was underage, the embassy added. Under Malaysia’s law, capital punishment is not applicable to minors, and the child law should be used instead to charge such offenders.

Wilfrida’s actual age at the time of the crime was a focal point of her defense. Her passport carries a birth date of June 8, 1989, but her christening letter from a Catholic church in Indonesia reads Oct. 12, 1993.

Judges agreed that she was 17 when committing the crime and not 21 as suggested by the passport, the information of which was allegedly falsified by a trafficker sending her to Malaysia in 2010.

The case is not over yet, though, the embassy warned. “Prosecutors may still appeal the ruling within 14 days after receiving a written statement of the verdict.”

Monday’s ruling, nevertheless, was cheered by Indonesian activists who have been following closely Wilfrida’s case, including those from a nongovernmental group concerned with Indonesian migrant workers’ issues, Migrant Care, which has sent its Malaysian officer to attend court hearings on the case.

“Since the beginning, Migrant Care believes Wilfrida didn’t deserve the death penalty because she was underage [at the time of the crime] and she was a victim of human trafficking,” the group said in a statement issued soon after the ruling.

“The acquittal and the decision that she has to undergo mental treatment at the Malaysian hospital is fair and just because she murdered the employer to defend herself from the employer’s torture.”

Wilfrida’s three-year legal battle has drawn widespread sympathy in Indonesia, with a petition to support her posted by Migrant Care executive director Anis Hidayah at the website change.org signed by more than 13,000 people.

Political ‘interest’

Aside from drawing public support, Wilfrida’s case has also interested some Indonesian politicians, the most high-profile one being Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) founder and presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto.

Prabowo announced in September he was hiring a top Malaysian lawyer to join the Indonesian defense team in the case.

Prabowo even went so far as to fly to Malaysia on Sunday so that he could attend Monday’s hearing at the Kota Bharu court. He said he was glad his hiring of Malaysian lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee appeared to be fruitful.

“Thank God Wilfrida is free,” Prabowo said in a statement to the media on Monday. “Thank you for the support and prayers from the people of Indonesia. Without those, this wouldn’t have happened.”

Migrant Care’s Anis, though, said Prabowo played only a small role in Wilfrida’s freedom. “He only hired the lawyer last September, around the time he declared his presidential bid,” she said.

Prabowo officially declared his presidential bid in October.

Anis attributed instead the success in Wilfrida’s defense to the Indonesian government.

“The government has been quite comprehensive this time, hiring lawyers, establishing communications with civil society groups and local communities from Wilfrida’s hometown … allowing them to get a statement from the church where she had been baptized concerning her actual age.”

Wilfrida’s acquittal came just days after Satinah binti Jumaidi Ahmad, a 41-year-old migrant worker from Central Java, narrowly escaped being beheaded in Saudi Arabia last Friday after the Indonesian government agreed to pay 7 million riyal ($1.9 million) in diyat , or blood money, to the victim’s family.

Satinah was sentenced to be executed in the kingdom after being convicted of killing her then-employer in 2007 and fleeing with 37,970 riyal.

Homework

Anis, though, said that the work of protecting Indonesians abroad was far from over. She said there were currently a total of 245 other Indonesian migrant workers facing the death penalty overseas — in Malaysia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, China, Iran and Qatar.

In Malaysia alone, the number stands at 176, with most of the alleged offenders charged with drug abuse, according to the Indonesian Embassy.

That figure does not include the 14 workers, including Wilfrida, who have already been saved from facing the death penalty in Malaysia this year, the embassy said.

Anis said one obstacle in saving those condemned was the fact that Indonesia itself still practiced capital punishment.

“The thing is, those countries ask how come you [Indonesia] demand that your citizens be exempted from capital punishment when you also adopt capital punishment,” Anis told the Jakarta Globe. “That’s why Migrant Care is among the opponents of the practice; it’s against human rights.”

At a policy level, the government has shown more commitment to better protecting Indonesian migrant workers, who reportedly sent Rp 88 trillion ($7.7 billion) in remittances home last year, Anis said.

She praised in particular the government’s ratification of the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families two years ago, saying the convention provided comprehensive guidelines on how to deal with and take care of migrant workers — prior to their overseas assignments and even after they return home.

Anis added, though, that there remained a lot of work left to do on technical guidelines and policy implementation.

“For one, the convention needs to be harmonized with existing regulations such as the migrant worker law currently under revision,” she said.

Additional reporting by SP/Yeremia Sukoyo.

The story was originally published at the Jakarta Globe on April 7, 2014.

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