I flew from Amsterdam to Geneva on easyJet. Part of the low-cost flight experience is that you always get a few inbreds who make a run for the door the moment the back wheels on the aircraft touch down.
     I tried hitchhiking out of Geneva airport from a dank parking garage with a “VD” sign, VD meaning canton Vaud, the next canton over from Geneva, but I felt funny doing it. “VD” in America more commonly means “venereal disease”, and I don’t want to know what kind of person would pick me up with such a sign.


     1 Swiss franc = US$1.17. Breakfast not included. These prices are tough. No hostel should have a room that costs $170 a night. I asked the three Hong Kongers in my dorm if $42 was the most expensive hostel they have ever stayed at, and they said no. Zermatt was more expensive and in London the girl paid 30 pounds (about $50) to sleep in a 12-bed dorm! That blows my mind. You can get over $500 a night to rent a dorm room out in London! Someone is making crazy money.
     I don’t know how young travelers can do it. I say in my Couchsurfing section to avoid staying too many nights with hosts, but heck, give your host $10 or $20 and ask to stay longer. The Hong Kongers drew a line at paying more for sheets and thus sleep in their clothes, covering themselves with jackets and sweaters.
     The hostel charges 1 Swiss franc ($1.17) to use the internet for a mere 7 minutes, though wifi is free. I should just sit in the lobby and charge people one franc to use my computer for 10 minutes, but no, I offer it for free. Yes, it’s another business idea blowing in the wind from The Dromomaniac.

     Since Swiss prices are putting me in a daze, maybe India is ultra-cheap after all. (Yes, India is still on my mind.) This tube of toothpaste pictured above is 5 rupees, or 11 U.S. cents.
     You have to appreciate the bit under the “Colgate” part of the box where it says in small letters “Super Shakti Dental Cream”. I don’t know what super shakti is, but it is definitely in heavy rotation in my current vocabulary:
     “How is the weather there?”
     “Super shakti! Come on over!”
     I also like the touch that says it is “100% vegetarian”. It would be funny if it said “”20% vegetarian”. Yuck!