VAT tax refund drama

"I wouldn't have bought the phones if you didn't promise a VAT tax refund!" I heard my niece speaking over the phone, with a shop she just bought the I-Phone from in UK.

My family came visit me early July, after attending my niece's graduation ceremony in UK. It took them some times to walk out of Nantes Airport, as they were looking or VAT tax refund counter/machine, as they didn't manage to get any tax refund when they left UK. An non EU visiter can claim a value added tax refund when he or she purchases over a certain amount of items when he or she leaves the EU country. In France, the VAT is at 20%, and one can get back around 12% after deducting the administration fees.

The drama started when they bought three I-Phone in a shop in UK. Not only the shop proposed to trade in their current phone, they also promised a tax refund. Apparently after taking into account all these incentives, the price was a lot cheaper than buying in Malaysia, so three of the group bought one. The did it the last day in England before heading to France.

When they were taking their flight in UK to France, they were told that since they had not left European Union (EU), they couldn't claim the tax refund. Beside, all tax refunds required a Retail Export Form ("bordereau de détaxe"), which the I-Phone shop didn't provide. As soon as they arrived in my place, my niece called the shop to ask for the form, only to be told that they needed to go to the shop as a passport is needed in order to process the form. Both nieces were in the room dealing with the shop, calling the support numbers, emailing...

They bought other items in UK too, so I assured them I would help them through the process since I was going with some of them to Switzerland. Switzerland is not in EU, and there was a tax refund machine in Nantes Airport, so I figured we could do the tax refund inside Nantes Airport. They believed me, and happily did more shopping in Nantes.

Except that I was wrong. 

The day we were flying to Geneva from Nantes, we went to the information counter and were told to use the tax refund machine in the reserved areas. We passed through the security control to arrive at the reserved areas, we were told the machine was just after the passport control. We headed towards the passport control, the officers told us it was not possible to use the machine without giving any explanation. And then I found out that our gate was before the passport control, I guessed even though Geneva is not in EU but it was still considered a domestic flight. I checked with a very nice airport security control officer, she told me to go back to the information counter then come back again.

"You may be able to do your tax refund in Geneva Aiport, or go to the Embassy of France in Geneva." The information counter officer told me. Ok I didn't know Embassy of France handles tax refund. We went through the security again, I walked to passport control, hoping that they would just let me use the machine. But all I got, was yelling and yelling from them as if I had committed a crime. I felt very sorry for my family as there was nothing I could do but to wait & see when we arrived in Geneva. 

It was almost mid-night when we arrived in Geneva. The information counter was closed. We went back there the second morning to pick up our rental car, and I finally managed to ask someone about the tax refund. She assured me that my family could do the tax refund the day they head back to Malaysia. The trick was they needed to go to the French side, get a stamp from the French custom, then come back in to the Switzerland side to do the tax refund. It sounded complicated for me.

After more shopping in Switzerland (where I discovered their VAT is only 7.7% vs 20% in France), it came finally the day when they needed to head back home. I got confirmation from the Global Blue counter about the process, then brought my family to the French side. They went inside, found the French custom, and via Whatsapp told me the French was not friendly, and was just being there without wanting to help. I probably didn't explain well, they thought they could get the tax refund there and were disappointed when the French custom just said no. However they managed to get a manual stamp on items purchased in UK, and electronic stamp on items purcharsed in France.

After they went through the security control in the Switzerland side, they finally told me they got the tax refund! Since they asked for cash, they got charged again some fees, so they didn't get the 12% as expected for the purchases made in France. Beside, in the note displayed in the French counter (photo above), it stated that if you got a manual stamp you need to mail it, but actually they got the cash refund right away with the counter.

So much drama and it sure had reduced their desire to do shopping during their trips here.

Eat drink in Paris

When people tell me that Nantes is a Metropolitan city with lots of foreigners, I always keep silent. Sure it has lot of foreigners, but most of them are from the same continents, there are less diversity compare to like, Austin. In Austin, we had so many choices : Tex-Mex, BBQ, Cajun, Italian, French, Indian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, African, you name it.

The restaurants in Nantes suck big time. They have less variety, more pricey and rigid business hours. For example, if you want to eat Dim Sum, you need to go to Paris. They don't even have ramen soups. The sushi is not as authentic. 

To enjoy my time in Paris to the fullest, I decided to go one day earlier before Eason's concert. As soon as we got off the train, we headed to a restaurant that sells different type of dumplings and dishes. The dumplings were made on the spot. And surprisingly, it was so cheap! We paid less than 10€ and we ate well. We ended up begging the boss to go open another restaurant in Nantes, that was how desperate we were.

It was a lovely day with sunshine. Paris seemed wonderful if you are not in rush. I decide to walk to enjoy the view.

In the evening, a friend brought us to savor ChongQing steamboat. I had never tried it before, but it warmed up the whole body, and my heart.

Walked to the Louvre to enjoy a cup of tea there.

The last day in Paris, I got some time to kill so I decided to go towards the Eiffel Tower. Then I met my friend in Chinatown to buy some groceries that I can't get in Nantes, and packed our lunch before heading to the train station. 

After this trip, we were so jealous at friends who live in Paris. They have so many restaurant choices and can eat at wee hours. I managed to have Korean lunch with my friend, had a bubble drink, but didn't have enough time to try out a restaurant that serves Chinese breakfast with soya milk, Chinese bun, and different type of tofu dishes. That would be for the next time.

A little Malaysian in Paris : Aelig

She always tells me she is both French and Malaysian.
I didn't correct her, as by blood she is French and Malaysian, but officially she has not obtained her Malaysian citizenship, yet.

Initially I planned to bring only the youngest to Paris for the Malaysian citizenship application, so that it would be a quick in and out process. But when my eldest asked me if she was going along, I didn't have the heart to say no. At her age, it was easy to travel with as she eats with us, walks along, and knows how to entertain herself.

The little girl using her fake phone telling her friend that she is going to Paris. She remembered that she had been to CDG Airport in Paris (on the way to Malaysia), so she told her friend that this would be the third time she is in Paris. I told her no, this would be the first time, as going to the airport doesn't count as visiting the city.

She was telling anyone in school that she was going to see Eiffel Tower. Before the trip, I picked her up at school, she repeated it to her teacher, and her teacher said: Yes Aelig, everyone knows you are going to see Eiffel Tower: lol

Three highlights of the trip:

I want to hug Eiffel Tower

We approached the Tower and decided to climb up using stairs since there was only 20 minutes waiting. There was a long queue if you want to use the elevator. She was elated to see the Tower and told me that she wanted to hug it. Seeing me laughing, she was annoyed and kept asking why I made fun of her. I calmly told her that I was not laughing at her, just that she was too cute to want to hug a Tower that was so tall and huge. She then declared : I would hug its leg! She was just too sweet. I then mentioned about a report I once watched on the TV : an American woman annouced that she was married to Eiffel Tower, and she would fly to Paris once a year to kiss her husband. She puzzled at this story, she couldn't understand how someone can get married to a Tower, especially she was at the moment couldn't decide who to marry among her two boyfriends. lol

After seeing the Tower she wanted to buy some Tower key chains. There were a lot of illegal vendors around the area, 5 for 1€. I insisted that we only buy from legal shops. We were rushing to another place so we ended up didn't buy any until the second day. The whole morning she was nagging me. We finally got her two for 1€, but she lost one when she was playing at the Chatelet area. She was very sad, I comtemplated to buy her more (shops at the metro station selling 3 for 1€), but I think she needed to learn a lesson to take care of her own stuffs.

Saying bonjour to everyone
She tried to say bonjour (hello) to everyone on the street. Imagine the crowd on the streets in Paris! Seeing that I didn't do the same, she complained that I was inpolite! Well, I didn't know how to explain that we just don't say hello to whole bunch of people / strangers on the street. Exactely why? I figured it is because people in big city won't response anyway and if I do so I would have to say many times of Bonjour in a day? But, to my surprise, some people did reponse to her. The cold faces turned into warm smiling faces seeing her saying bonjour. I learnt a lesson.

Respecting the traffic signs
When crossing the road, we taught her to use the zebra zone and cross only when the pedestrian light turns green. Well, we were in Paris, in some area the pedestrians just cross the road so we followed. She was so mad! She was whinning the whole journey from the train station to the restaurant where my friends were waiting. We were already late, hubby was looking for the restaurant so he didn't pay attention to her. She was angry and sad that we didn't wait for the green light, and hubby actually stepped outside of the zebra zone when crossing the road. This was so unacceptable to her. She mentioned that the police might catch us and it was totally not her fault, but her daddy wouldn't listen to her! She was literally yelling to her daddy. At this point, I wonder how much we respect the instructions we gave to the kids ourselves.

Overall she did well traveling with us. I felt that she would be equally happy if we were at somewhere else, she was still too young to appreciate the charm of Paris. Here is her drawing to remember her trip to Paris.

10 days in France - Impression on French cuisine

My friend was in France for about 10 days (Lyon & Paris) and these were her impressions / comments about France. This post focuses on French cuisine.

During her training in Lyon, she was invited to taste variety of French foods and wine in different restaurants. She got to discover the three meal courses culture (appetizer, main meal, dessert) and the long dining time. Some of her comments:
Why do French people eat bread at every meal?
I thought French food was presented in big plate but in small portion. But each time I had too much. Once I got a dessert that came with three balls stuffed with chocolate, I thought it was to be shared but gosh it was only for me, how can everyone finish everything?

And then we had this discussion about chicken breast vs drumsticks & wings. In Malaysia people in general prefer drumsticks & wings but in France, chicken breasts are more expensive than drumsticks & wings. Once she got a piece of chicken breast and both her and her coworker couldn't finish it as they didn't like the way it was cooked.

She also discovered the different operating hours of some restaurants in France. We reserved a table in a restaurant in Paris, and we were told that they only open at 8pm. I kind of gotten used to it, but she was very surprised and commented that most restaurants in Malaysia would have already going through several servings at this time. I told her that this is not the worst, at least in Paris some restaurants are open on Sundays, in my city, during Sundays we usually will eat at home as most of the restaurants are closed. Some even closed on Mondays.

Anyway, after more discussions, with another Malaysian joining in, we concluded that French cuisine are in general much more healthier than Malaysian foods, but in terms of taste they are less strong. My friend and me missed deep fried & spicy foods. So she actually asked for Tabasco each time she ate French food. I'm someone who needs fresh fruit everyday so after a day of French food I badly need something refreshing. We were walking around Champs-Elysees and I saw in Quick a small pack of fruit salad was sold at 5€. Don't you have vendors selling freshly cut fruits at very cheap price here, my friend asked me. No. And worst it was Sunday, so Monoprix was closed. We walked and walked and I asked around where in the Champs-Elysees area I can buy fresh fruits. People we asked didn't know. While walking towards Eiffel Tower I finally spotted a shop deep down into a small street selling fruits. What a relief!

Our Malaysian friend brought us to the Jewish area and let us try the falafel sandwich. It suited us very well as we love fried food, and in falafel it has fried chick pea balls plus lots of vegetables, and with chili sauce!!

Prague: Gastronomy tours

Gastronomy tours is one of the most important activities for us when traveling. My housemate back during my stay in Austin was from Czech Republic and he had cooked me scrumptious Czech foods. We managed to meet up during the trip after 10 long years and he had brought us to several restaurants during our short stay.


We arrived on a Saturday afternoon and only had one hour for lunch before meeting up with our tour guide. Hubby chose a restaurant in his travel guide and up we went to this restaurant situated close to Wenceslas Square. First encounter with Czech food in Prague: they love meat and surely know how to cook them. My serving was juicy and tender, the side dish tasted similar to the Chinese bun at home, it went well with the tasty sauce.


For dinner we wanted to dine in a restaurant recommended in the guide book but it was fully booked. It was quite late by then so we just settled in this one. The kitchen was already closed so we ordered some appetizers. It seemed that stripe soup was quite famous here and the waiter suggested us to give it a try. I did and was happy with that choice. Not only it tasted good but it reminded me of my hometown. It was not unusual to find tripe in Chinese cuisine and we especially loved it in soup. What an odd chance to find similarity between Chinese and Czech cuisine!


There were quite some restaurants offering "pork knee" on their menu. It looked yummy but the portion was too much in my opinion. I ordered one on our last day here and could only finished half of it.


Restaurants here offered variety of soups. This one looked special: soup in bread.


I wanted to take a break from meat so I tried out their soup. The verdict: worth a try.


Fried turkey with potatoes.

My friends took us to two restaurants but I forgot to take photos. Too excited and busy catching with him and his lovely girlfriend. He told us that since Czech food was quite meaty, Italian restaurants were well accepted here as they could usually get a more balance meal that included vegetables.


Absinthe. This strong alcohol is banned in France. We found it in Prague and I got a sip of it and couldn't stand the taste. Too strong and too bitter I can't even smell the herbs in it.


Czech is a very difficult language to me. It is hard to pronounce and I couldn't remember even one word after this trip. Well, not exactly. There was one word that I recalled but just because each time I heard it my ears irked. "Děkuji" means "Thank you" in Czech but it sounds like "de couille" in French which means "testicle". Now you can understand why I did not say thank you to anyone there. Anyway, try to pronounce this word in French and see if you can guess what it means.


Our tour guide told us that beers in Prague cost as much as a bottle of water. Indeed. Pivo prosím (a beer please)!

Prague: A glance from the swimming pool

I don't know yet how to present our trip to Prague, but just to let you have a glance of Prague, from the swimming pool situated on 26th floor in our hotel.

Some feedbacks about Algarve and our trip

This morning, the CE organized a meeting to have our feedback regarding the trip. Overall, everyone was happy and satisfied despite the chaos before our departure. They praised the hotel services, contented with the kids club activities, appreciated the foods and enjoyed the road trips around the areas.

As for us: Aelig seemed to enjoy it, me disappointed about how the CE handled the crisis but thrilled to spend a nice week with the family. As for hubby, not satisfied with the overall arrangements.

Here are some of my observations regarding Algarve:

1. Clean streets: don't have to raise alert about dog poos.

2. Historical and modern links with Malaysia
Malaysia was once occupied by Portugal. I could see some words that are similar to the Malay language: ijreja vs gereja (church), escola vs sekolah (school). Houses outside of the cities looked similar to bungalows, double storey and shop houses in Malaysia.


Bungalow: Those in Malaysia are without the chimney of course.


In Malaysia, I used to see some housing advertising selling Portuguese style / European style houses, they were not lying after all.


Shop houses: Just like in Malaysia, ground floor is used for business purposes and from first floor up to the top floor are for residency. Even the way their displayed the shop names resembled the one in Malaysia. At one point I thought I was seeing Public Bank (red) and RHB Bank (blue).


Double-storey linked houses.


This kind of gate is very common in shop houses in Malaysia.


And this for the window, you could see it anywhere in Malaysia.


Many old style bungalows have this kind of wall.


Never expect to see salted dried fishes here! Did the Portuguese introduced the Malaysians the ikan masin as well?

3. Crystal clear sea waters and stunning flowers


There were a lot of small beaches separated by rocks and cliffs. This gives a sense of privacy compared to large beaches.


The water is so clear it made me want to swim.


The flowers were blossoming everywhere.


Similar species to those in Brittany.


A sea of flowers.


Oranges everywhere too.

4. Friendly inhabitants


I rarely saw Asian here so I was glad that nobody was starring at me. The Portuguese were quite friendly. We passed through small alley and greeting the residents around with "Bom dia" (good morning). One grandma corrected us as it was in the afternoon and we should have said "boa tarde" (good afternoon).

5. Portuguese language

Since Portuguese is a Latin based language, we didn't have much problem wandering around. This is one of the advantages knowing French I guess. At one point hubby saw a sign indicating "barragem". "Barrage" in French means dam, so he thought there should be a dam nearby. And guess what we found the dam!

6. Kid's club activities
A feedback regarding the trip. I had never been to a hotel who proposed activities for kids so I found it interesting and useful.


See how the little angel was so happy.


Every evening from 8.30pm on the club organized a disco party. Beside dancing they also had bird show.


This peacock was having vacation too!


2 hours of painting classes = 2 hours of resting time for parents.

7. Lack of gastronomy experience
The biggest down point for this trip was the lack of gastronomy experience. I was happy to have all inclusive package but after this trip I don't think it was an good idea anymore. Basically, we ate 3 meals a day in the hotel, which prevented us from savoring the local cuisines. We had British breakfast every morning. There were some local dishes involving seafoods for lunch and dinner but most of the time it was European normal hotel style serving. When we went for a day trip, the packed lunch was a pity: 2 tiny sandwiches + an apple + a bottle of water.


British breakfast every morning. There were different kind of breads and fruits available so the French were happy.


An example of my lunch. Next time it would be preferable to book an hotel with breakfast and has a real food tripping in the local restaurants. We had a nice gastronomy experience in Barcelona, I don't know how many tapas I stomached and how many sangria I drunk.

Looking forward to our next trip to Prague. Leaving in 5 days!

Algarve: The citrus county

When we were riding the bus from the Faro Airport to Algarve (the region we were visiting), we were intrigued by its orange orchards. Later we found that some of them were actually lemons and mandarin oranges. When we had our road trips, I was hoping to visit an orchard, but we couldn't find any signs that would allow a visit. My thirst to pluck an orange fresh from the tree increased everyday. It seems that every house with a garden has a lemon/orange/mandarin orange tree. We saw this in downtown Monchique. We didn't dare to pluck them though.


And the flowers smelt so good! I didn't know orange tree is such fragrant plant. We finally found some orange trees in a small villages which we thought belong to nobody. Most of them were eatable and plenty dropped on the floor. Aelig collected 10 of them but she was unable to take all of them, she was so furious. We decided to pluck one from each tree, so we got 4 of them.


Just like in Malaysia, the Portuguese sell their oranges along the roadside. Some have a stall in front of their house. The cheapest I saw was 2€ for 5kg. I saw this sign in the market but I'm not sure if it means 39 cents per kilo.


Don't know what this is but I saw them in the French supermarket sometimes.

Holiday is about...

We survived the 12 hours trip and arrived safely in Algarve, South of Portugal. I need to learn from those French mothers who kept their kids occupied with lots of books, card games. The older kids were with video games though.


The hotel was new, started operating in 2011. We saw this magnificent pool, all to ourself as there was not much tourist yet. Unfortunately, at 19°, nobody dared to swim in it. They have an area for kids, Aelig would have enjoyed it. No choice, if we want to use the interior heated pool, we need to pay 5€ and kids are allowed to use the pool only between 6pm to 7pm.


We had a briefing from the travel agency on Sunday morning. Their excursion trips were expensive. We decided to rent a car and travel around. The first stop was the beach facing the Atlantic Oceans.


Father and daughter jumped inside the water despite the not so hot weather. I lack the courage, I admitted.


With hubby, we walked and walked and walked. We climbed the mountain, we walked along the beach. We visited the End of the World in Portugal. There must be a lot of places they called themselves the End of the World. We know one already in Brittany. It refers to the end of the Europe facing the Atlantic Oceans.


To make up of all the disappointments we had on this trip, the travel agency brought along 5 people to entertain the kids. Programs are held throughout the day and in the evening to please the kids. Aelig was so excited when the music was playing. She was dancing with a bunch of kids without wanting to stop.


And, she went on the stage to show those kids how to dance.

When Aelig is happy, we are happy.
We are enjoying the trip!