Europe Trip - London Day 2

Maybe we had been getting enough of sleep for the past few days, on our 2nd day in London, Qiaoyi's mom woke up very early... (FYI, I'm sharing room with Qiaoyi's mom & brother). When she woke up, I woke up too. Initially I thought it's already maybe about 7am or so, but checked out my watch, it's only 5 something in the morning... and looked, I even can took a picture of this through the window of our room.

Beautiful sunrise between London Eye & Big Ben

The canteen in the hotel is homely type. The worker will ask for your choice, then they will prepare it in the kitchen rightaway.

Breakfast was included also... it's a traditional English breakfast - sausage, baked bean, ham and egg with orange juice and coffee or tea

Wailoong, me and Qiaoyi's mom @ Stanley House Hotel entrance

Queue up to buy tube ticket
If purchase ticket after peak hour, the ticket will be cheaper. Since we will not be spending many days in London, we decided to get the daily ticket - £5.60, unlimited ride

We actually had planned to visit s few places, but we were flexible too. 1st station, we planned to walk to Buckingham palace to watch the Changing the Guard.

Then on the way, we passed by this, a shop selling souvenir related to the royal family

The batch on the gate

One of the statues on the corner of the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace

Posing @ Buckingham Palace
They said when the Union Flag flies from the Palace means the Queen is not in residence

Statue of Queen Victoria

This is either the Angel of Justice/ Truth

This road is called The Mall

A cute little girl posing for her father

The carriage

Waiting for the Changing the Guard

At Buckingham Palace, Changing the Guard takes place at 11.30 am. It is held daily from May to July, and on alternate dates throughout the rest of the year.

Changing the Guard was lead by the band

It took about an hour for the event. And there are a lot of ppl, tourists waiting for the moment. We saw it half way and decided to leave earlier to avoid the jam.

When we went off, we saw these horse guard with silver hat and black horse

We then decided to go to Hard Rock to get the T-shirt. I have collected a few, e.g. Hongkong, Sydney, Bali; so I wanted to collect the London, Paris and Amsterdam too

On the way, we passed by Wellington Arch and a park
(I have no idea what's the name of this park)

Qiaoyi's mom & me @ Wellington Arch

Crosses in the park

Resting & fruit eating @ the park

Pigeons @ the park

It was about 12 something, so, we decided to have our lunch @ Hard Rock

Lunch @ Hard Rock Cafe

Qiaoyi's family & I

The merchant shop is next door...

Coming out from the England telephone booth (aka Superman's changing room) with my Hard Rock paper bag. hehe

Then we walked to the nearest tube station to visit the new stadium, on the way, we saw this

Yeah! our home brand... LIMKOKWING University

It's summer time, the local people enjoying the sun @ Green Park

Waiting for the tube

The new Emirates Stadium

The nearest station to Emirates Stadium - Arsenal

Half way walking, Qiaoyi's mom shoes have spoil, so, we went shopping!
That day was very hot, I mean the weather, shopping was a good idea to stay away from the sun.
But I have forgotten where was the place we went shopping d, if not mistaken, I think is Oxford Street.

After shopping, we were exhausted... but the day was still young, too early for dinner and we didn't want to go back to hotel yet, because once rest, you would not want to come out again. So, we continued our journey...

Next, we went to see the Big Ben & London Eye.

Frankly speaking, Big Ben had chased away my sleepiness and tireness.
When I walked out from the station, omg, I looked up and saw this huge and tall Big Ben standing in front of me... it was very soul-stiring and amazing, I don't know how to describe this feeling, but I felt so touched.

Kenleong shot me taking this picture

Big Ben standing tall near the exit of the subway

Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Westminter Bridge, River Thames and me

Under the Westminter Bridge
Big Ben as the background

Walking across the bridge, there are The London Aquarium and London Eye

A long-leg elephant statue in between The London Aquarium and London Eye

A gondola of London Eye

A Dali sculpture near London Eye
The human body sculpture separated into 2 with an egg in between...
Do you have any idea what's the meaning behind?

A street performer imitating Charlie Chaplin

@ The Golden Jubilee Bridge to take picture with London Eye & Big Ben

My body "battery" left about 20% after visiting to Big Ben & London Eye, but before we go to China Town again for dinner... how could we miss out Tower Bridge? Initially, we were thinking, shall we just skip Tower Bridge, anyhow, we will be back to London again after the tour to Paris and Amsterdam.
End up, we still managed to drag ourselves there... no regret tho, Tower Bridge is another amazing building in London.

The tiny yellow flower on the way to Tower Bridge... beautiful right?
I looked enjoy in the picture but the flower was really smelly...

LONDON BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN
FALLING DOWN, FALLING DOWN
LONDON BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN
MY FAIR LADY...
I know, this is not the London Bridge, but since young, when we sing this song, the image of Tower Bridge will appear in our mind.
Unfortunately, we didn't manage to see the bridge open up from the middle... no big boat passing by.
This is the last picture of the day, because both of my camera and Kenleong's camera batteries had died off...
Visited to so many places and took so many photos... must be la...

This photo was taken a day before, my friend said the roasted duck is famous in town. So, after the long day, we didn't want to explore anymore... we just took the recommendation and walked into this restaurant...
Ya, my friends are right... the food is really delicious

I felt a little excited going to bed, because the next day we will be in Paris d!! Yeah!!

p/s: some of the photos were taken from Kenleong's camera, same to the previous 2 blog entries and coming up blog entries about my Europe trip.

Europe Trip - London Day 1

After a good night rest... we woke up earlier to catch the Megabus to London. Besides, we got to leave some of our luggage with the concierge too, because we will be back to the same hotel in Glasgow after London, Paris and Amsterdam.

The breakfast was included, it was pretty simple but we enjoyed it. There are cheese, butter, croissant, bread, all sort of coffee, hot chocolate, milk, tea and cereal free flow. Had little surprise in the morning. Wailoong joined us for breakfast together with Chihmun, he just dropped by, said hi to everybody before he went to work. I thought I can only see him after traveling to those cities.

FYI, Megabus takes about 9 hours from Glasgow to London (8.30am - 5.30pm). Meaning which, we will be spending almost a day in the bus. So, Chihmun suggested us to take some bread from the hotel to eat in the bus, although the bus will stop few times in different stations, but it won't be stopping for long, probably just enough for you to buy some snacks or a toilet break.

On the way, we saw a lot of farms, which they use to keep sheeps, horses or cows; mountains too of course...
1st hour in bus, we think that's interesting, because if you have by chance took the long distance buses in Malaysia, we can saw only palm plantation, or rubber plantation.

But in 2nd hour, 3rd hour, 4th hour... zzzzzzz

The driver was driving carefully, not too fast, very stable, it's absolutely different compare to our country. Then they changed driver half way, which I think this is very responsible. If you really want me to complain something, I think the seats are a little bit small (it's just ok for me but I wonder, how those big size "ang mo" sit comfortably in the bus?).

Scenery on both sides of the highway

1st stop at Preston
I think this is the town area, buildings are very old but unique

If there's a reality show title "If you think you can sleep", then I think I will be the champaign. No la, I think everybody also can sleep. Because really has nothing to do in the bus unless sleeping, day dreaming, reading and thinking.

Reached London after about 9 hours in the bus

We reached Victoria Station at about 5pm something and our hotel was a road or 2 from the station, Qiaoyi had done a very good job in booking of this Hotel - Stanley House which the location of the hotel is absolutely very strategic, near to the tube station, bus station and etc.

When we were there, Diong already waited for us in the lobby! Yeah! He is a very good friend of us in high school and not only him, me too, looking forward to seeing him. Of course I did notify him before I go and we had already fixed that day to meet for dinner.

I asked Diong to invite Karchin too, Karchin is another high school friend of us working in London. When we were about to depart for dinner, Karchin greeted us at the entrance. Wow, how amazing... we never see each other for about 2 - 3 years and now we were seeing each other in a foreign land. The even amazing part is, these two friends, both were working in London for so many years, never see each other. I couldn't believe that.
So, that night was a little gathering for us - Qiaoyi, Kenleong (Qiaoyi's husband), Diong, Karchin and me.

@ Victoria Train Station
Our first group photo in London (in fact, in the trip too!)
Diong was helping us to take the photo.

Diong brought us to China Town for dinner, how to reach there? By tube la... tube in London is very convenient, it's connecting everywhere.

But the crowd scared me....

1st time taking the tube... looking at the map, it's very complicated... but no worries, we have good tour guides - Wailoong, Diong and Karchin

Street performer @ the tube station

The long elevator
There are few levels of tube rail underground, I have no idea how those genius engineers built that.

2nd group photo of us
@ China Town, London

The menu of the Chinese restaurant where we dined in

Below were the dishes that we ordered

Duck! one of my favourite

They fried the meat and teared into pieces, then wrap in the dumpling skin with special sauce
Yummy

Hongkong Gaile

Forgot the name of this dish, not very nice...

Steamed fish

Toufu

Eggplant with minced pork

This fruit platter was complimentary, the presentation can only impress those guai lou... hahaha, (dry ice in water)
According to my dear friends working in London, they said watermelon and some tropical fruits in London are very expensive, so, no matter how full we were, we got to finish that... hahaa

Diong and Karchin spent us that dinner... I asked them why? They said because we came all the way to London, that's why we have to be their guests. Then I laughed...
When Diong was back to KL, we all wanted him to pay for the bill, reason being he is earning pounds... this is so funny... no matter where, he always kena bullied. hahaha

The mini gathering dinner
Standing on left: Kenleong, Diong and Wailoong
Sitting from left: Karchin, Qiaoyi & Wailoong's mother, me, Kenleong's parents and next to Kenleong's mother is Qiaoyi

After dinner, we walked around...

Les Miserable
One of the famous play in London... unfortunately, out schedule all packed up, I didn't get to watch any

SOHO - red light district

Diong said the show is funny... I hope I can go back to London again to watch the play

The black cab

Street artist

Ripley's Believe It or Not ticket counter

Karchin & I @ Ripley's Believe It or Not
The other 2 "people" are fake one, but the texture of their skin are so close to a real human

begger? or he just felt asleep on the street?

Paddington bear... should have gotten it when I saw it...
I didn't bought any Paddington Bear throughout my trip in London... :(

The famous video display and neon signs mounted on the corner building, a landmark @ Piccadilly Circus
My friend said, McDonald and Coca-Cola advertisements are always up there

High school buddies...
from left: Kenleong, Qiaoyi, Karchin, me and Diong

Statue of an archer known as Eros standing tall in the middle of Shaftesbury memorial fountain

The fountain @ Trafalgar Square
From Piccadilly Circus, we walked aross some streets, and we came to Trafalgar Square, Diong and Karchin told us that, in day, Trafalgar has a lot of pigeon, so, they called it pigeon square too.

Then we took the bus back to our hotel.
Before we separated, I insisted to take this photo... dear friends, I'll always miss you... and thanks for everything you guys had arranged for us.