It was Easter weekend in 1998. I was travelling in Swiss
with couple of friends and we were staying in a beautiful
Youth Hostel (YHA). We were planning to go to Klein Matterhorn
by the cable car. (It’s a famous peak near Zermatt).
There is a local office in Zermatt which shows the
latest snow status on top of the peak. There are a few
live cameras which make the latest pictures available
at the base office. Depending on the conditions they
advice you whether to go or not. Unfortunately for us
the weather turned bad with very less visibility so
the cable car was not running. Being the last day in
Zermatt we were quite disappointed and started cursing
the weather in an Indian language – Hindi. We
naively had assumed that no one understood what we were
talking.
Suddenly a Swiss gentleman stopped and asked in fluent
Hindi – ‘Aap kounse shahar se aye hai?’
(Which city have you come from?). Our first reaction
was complete silence. Then as we spoke more we realised
the secret of his fluent Hindi.
His dad was a resident of Hrishikesh (a famous retreat
for meditation etc. in the Himalayas) and this gentlemen
had stayed there with his father for a few years as
a kid.
Lesson Learnt: When you are in Zermatt, don’t
use Hindi for selective words. The gentleman may still
be around.
Coming back to Travel info on Zermatt, it’s a
nice place to visit which had snow even in April, secondly
you can visit Kleine Matternhorn which is the highest
point in the Zermatt – Cervinia ski area and the
end point of the highest cable car in Europe. The peak
is at 3883m with the cable car terminal at 3820m.
Timetable: http://bergbahnen.zermatt.ch/e/fahrplan/winter/kleinmatterhorn.html
Rates: http://bergbahnen.zermatt.ch/e/preise/kleinmatterhorn.html
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