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Category: United Kingdom

London: River Thames Sightseeing Cruise Is A Must-Do & Affordable

Back in 2014, when I was living in Newcastle, London was a place to visit monthly; I’ve never get enough of this charming Big Smoke. When I return in winter 2017, I have a chance to hop on the Thames River Sightseeing Cruise to see London from a different perspective.

River Thames is the iconic waterway that represent this historical city. I have never did the water tour before, and the only sight of River Thames that I always view is when crossing the beautiful Millennium Bridge or at the Westminster Bridge. If you are a first timer to London, I highly recommend you to take the River Thames Sightseeing Cruise which takes about an hour, with live tour commentary and you may hop off at various point.

But for us, we got up from Westminster and enjoyed the breeze and view all along until Greenwich. The cruise is operated by City Cruise. My brother got the combo of Hop-On Hop-Off Bus & Cruise ticket but I went for the cruise tour only as I am pretty familiar with London’s sight. (Tips: For cheaper way of sightseeing London by bus, just get on the Routemaster No 15 and pay with Oyster Card, it circles all the heritage sight and you can read the tour guide via phone)

Father & son.

Price per adult is £17.90 (Oct – May) & £18.25 (June – Sep) for return ticket. We took the return, unfortunately we spent too many time at this relaxing Greenwich and we missed our boat. It wasn’t hard to get back to the city, we took River Bus – a public transport by TFL to Tower Bridge pier and got back to our foot journey.

Palace of Westminster Clock Tower was in scaffolding, unfortunately.

Heading towards London Bridge with the Shard in the background.

On upper deck, with beautiful Tower Bridge as backdrop.

Clarice & Tower Bridge.

When the chilly wind blows…

Mom and dad could not bare the cold. Still remember it was about 9degree celcius that day.

Good burger at Byron’s, Greenwich. Because of this meal, we missed our return boat.

Nevermind, we still can take the River Bus.

Book River Thames Sightseeing Cruise via Klook for best deal.

March 31, 2020
London: Pickpocketed At Portobello Road Market, Notting Hill

Prelude: Major throwback of my travel story as I have plenty time to write about during this COVID-19 lockdown in Malaysia. Let’s randomly starts with my Short London Trip in Winter 2017. It was a quick 3-days-2-night trip in London before beginning my main Northern Italy tour. After visiting London many times in 2014 (when I was studying in UK), it had become my starting point of any European travel.

Did many travelling in 2014 and heard many stories about pickpocketing around European countries but never really encountered any of these pickpocketing event. In the UK, I felt much safer than other countries but this trip changes my thought totally. Yes, my brother got pickpocketed in this crowded and famous Portobello Road Market at Notting Hill.

Having living in the UK before for a year back in 2014, I’ve never put any vigilant note when I was going around this country actually. Wallet was on the back pocket, phone was in the jacket pocket some times. Thus, we were put-easy while looking at stuff along this congested street.

He was looking at beautiful vintage camera, and was about to reach his hand to grab the phone out to snap a photo; “Holy shit, where is my phone?”. Hand was quickly searching around all his pockets, in and out and into his camera sling bag. Nowhere it could be found. Me & him started to feel frustrated and I too, check my belongings to make sure it’s there.

A new iPhone X was taken away, without any notice and probably during his full attention on browsing the vintage camera. Nothing much could be done except to dash to the nearest police station right away and also to stop all Apple Wallet-connected services. Moment of disappointment expresses on the face, and heck, it was the 2nd day we arrived in London.

At the police station, another French tourist encountered a similar crime and they’ve got a CCTV footage from a store showing the entire process. “Nothing that we could do”, said the policewoman and asked us to make the police report online. It’s a very common crime at this market which we were not aware of.

Well, lesson learned and brother managed to recover the phone amount via insurance claim. Feeling sad? Better not as it’d ruin the rest of the trip. Just be vigilant, really and buy a travel insurance, really, don’t play with luck!

Nevertheless, London is still beautiful and PICKPOCKET is a real thing in Europe! I heard (stereotype thinking) most of the time is the Gypsies. Yeah, I heard.

Good Photos from Portobello Road Market:

March 26, 2020
Chester: Hidden Gem In The Northwest England

Chester: Hidden Gem In The Northwest England – I had no idea that northwest England has such a beautiful place other than the modern skyline and cultural city of Liverpool. 45 minutes of Merseyrail ride out of Liverpool is the city of Chester, filled with black and white Tudor buildings, ancient Roman ruins and surrounded by city walls.

When I visited Chester, it was like the 5th cities I’ve visited in UK (after Newcastle, Edinburgh, London, Manchester & Liverpool) and to my surprise, the architecture of the little town was beautiful. Interestingly, Chester is a town that’s popular with British tourists, but virtually unknown to most foreign tourists. It’s not surprise that Asian is hardly seen on the street.

It’s a small town, you can finish touring the place in half a day, but there’s some interesting activities to do too, like visiting to the Chester Zoo, checking out the Chester Race and rowing down the River Dee. So is it worth visiting Chester? Absolutely, if you’re going to be in Manchester of Liverpool, you can easily get to Chester from there!

July 9, 2014
Liverpool: A Walk In City, Cheshire Oaks & Albert Dock

Liverpool: A Walk In City, Cheshire Oaks & Albert Dock – It was another short trip to Liverpool after spending a short while at Manchester. Since Liverpool is so near to Manchester, about 45 minutes of train ride, it would be a waste not to visit this beautiful city in the North West of England. Didn’t really know anything about Liverpool at first, all I know was the Liverpool Football Club, Anfield Stadium and Cheshire Oaks Shopping Outlets, that’s all. I never know that it’s quite gorgeous, full of history and culture and Beatles, the band was originated from Liverpool.

Fun fact was that the Chinese Arch at Liverpool’s Chinatown is the largest in the UK, and a friend who is living in Liverpool told me the Chinatown is literally a dead town in the morning which only comes alive at night. LOL. Albert Dock and the city was interesting enough to makes me felt very happenings and the view across Mersey River just reminds me viewing Butterworth from George Town. Although it was just a day in Liverpool, it was still a fun one!

June 28, 2014
Manchester: Piccadilly Garden, Town Hall & Chinatown

Manchester: Piccadilly Garden, Town Hall & Chinatown – In February, I went to Manchester for a very short while, a day spent but didn’t really visit much places. It was like a business trip to me as it was to attend some conference event. Though, I still managed to walk passed some cool places in the city like the Piccadilly Garden, the Town Hall & Chinatown.

Whenever one heard of ‘Manchester’, the names of Manchester United, Manchester City & Old Trafford Stadium will come to mind. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to visit any of the famous football clubs! Sad, but still the day in Manchester was still fun meeting up with a Penang friend and also checking out a new place in the UK. If were to compare with Newcastle, I would say Newcastle is more a small town, and Manchester is a small city. There’s no such thing as big city in UK except London, maybe Glasgow too. At least, in Manchester, you would still see people walking on the street, but not in Newcastle.

Few more weeks left for me living in the UK and I don’t think I have any more opportunity to visit Manchester anymore. But if I have the chance in the future, I still want to visit Old Trafford Stadium and check out the Salford Quay, and also have a good Chinese food at the Chinatown as I’ve read that Manchester has the most Chinese population in the UK. Yeah?

The Wheel of Manchester! This photo was taken the next day before I leave Manchester. =D

Chinatown that was really quiet but has more shops compare to Newcastle. No doubt, London has the most happening Chinatown.

The famous Manchester Town Hall.

Oh, my street – Nicholas Street.

Genting Casinos are all over in UK.

A tram station that looks like a subway station.

June 27, 2014
London: Interesting Camdem Town & Market

London: Interesting Camdem Town & Market – The hustle and bustle of metropolitan of London does has a cool funky side of it at Camden Market of Camden Town! This part is London is totally different from the downtown area and it’s fun, cheap, artsy, cool and fun! The Punk-style was also said to be born here!

Camden Market is reputed in London for its punk shops, cheap eats and bargains! For a visitor from Asia like me, it feels like Asia, selling cheap stuff like souvenirs, clothing, collectibles, antiques, and of course food! The food did look quite attractive at first, but after walking around the whole market, it seems like almost every stalls sell the same food, only different is the name – Chinese Food, Thai Food, Indian Food. If you look closely, most of them are take-all-you-can-in-a-box. Of course, there’s still some interesting food!

Nothing to buy, Chinese food I ate was not as good as I thought, but it’s a lovely and fun visit to Camden Market!

$London: Interesting Camdem Town & Market\$

Upside-down Man.

A canal at Camden Town.

Interesting motorbike seats by the canal.

June 23, 2014
18 Hours Ride From Prague To London By Bus and Sunrise At French Border

18 Hours Ride From Prague To London By Bus and Sunrise At French Border – My Eastern Europe Winter Trip blog post series is coming to an end right now with this last post that shows me travelling back to London from Prague in a superlong 18-hours bus ride! It would take just about 2 hours to fly from Prague to London, but we opted for the long way because flying back 3 days before New Year costs like £100 and the bus we took was like about £55 and it’s the cheapest way!

It’s surely a long ride and we didn’t know how we could survive it but yeah, we managed to reach London, happily with a little smile on the face and tiredness. The long-distance bus started from Prague, calling at a few stops – Plzen, Nurnberg, Heidelbern, Dover and finally London! We packed a fried rice for each of us from a nearby Chinese restaurant for dinner and armed our tablet with movies and music to pass the time. Surprisingly, most of my time was spent sleeping!

The only part that was not so happy was waiting at the French border for like 2 hours, it’s like a massive traffic jam at the immigration but the unhappy moment was counter by a good welcome of sunrise! Immigration was quick at the French side but the immigration officer questioned me a lot at the English side and tried to use a magnifying glass to look close at my English Student VISA as if it’s fake. WTF, but never mind, I knew about this early already.

Astonished that the bus went into a train and then the trained travelled in the sea through the English Channel in Channel Tunnel. I thought it was gonna be the ferry that took us across, but luckily it was the train as it’s faster, else have to spend another 2 hours on the bus. Reached London at 11am and yeah, we survived the long bus ride.

At Prague’s bus station – Praha Florenc.

Long long queue at the French side.

Bus into train, through Channel Tunnel, into England! Amazed!

June 18, 2014
London: A Spring Day In Hyde Park

London: A Spring Day In Hyde Park – 18C, flower blossoms and a sunny blue sky day, that’s the kind of day the ang mo (caucasian) wants to spend a day in the park, big park like Hyde Park in London, bathing in the sun and perhaps have a picnic. That’s an interesting culture that we Malaysia normally wouldn’t do as weather in Malaysia is always scotching high! Sweat, hot and sunburn are what always thought of when we were outdoor. There’s not really a day of coolness until night falls.

But in London, sunny spring day with a cool breeze here in Hyde Park was quite chillaxing as I spent a bit of time resting the feet off after walking for 1.5km from Malaysian Hall before continuing to Oxford Street in the park. Though, it was under the shade rather than the sun like the rest of the ang mo do. 😛

May 26, 2014
Jogging To The West By River Tyne During Sunset

Jogging To The West By River Tyne During Sunset – All the while, it was just running on the treadmills at the gym here in Newcastle as the weather was quite cold previously, but as it’s getting warmer and my assignment is over right now, I can head out for a run. It was a late evening on Sunday that I went for a run by the River Tyne from Quayside. Windy, but quite fun, I ran in a direction to the west of the river, trying to chase the sunset. 4.5km down by the river side and I was at no where, very quiet on a sunday evening and only came across one of two individuals fishing by the river.

It’s really peaceful out there like suddenly I was like so far away from the city, just like being in a ‘kampung’ (village)! Newcastle is really a kampung in my opinion. HAHA. The boardwalk by the river is like never-ending and I only stop at a place when I was exhausted. Not decided to run back, it took me an hour walk back to my place! But it was fun one, as the sun was still up at 8pm and I got to see a bit of the sunset skyline by the nature.

Sunset, rocks!

May 19, 2014
Newcastle: Za Za Bazaar – World Buffet With An Asian Street Food Theme

Newcastle: Za Za Bazaar, World Food Banquet – Are you a fan of buffet? No, I am not, but then I still head to buffet some times, especially during any festivity, like friend’s birthday, or just a celebration of some events, like the very most recent one at Za Za Bazaar in Newcastle, sort of a little Chinese New Year meal with a few friends from Malaysia and Hong Kong.

A little bit on why I am not a fan of buffet is I don’t enjoy the bloated feeling every time after a buffet meal. HAHA. Buffet is fun of course, with a plentiful choices of food to choose, but then some times it’s hard to try everything, moreover the heart is always thinking that, ‘I must eat the most out of the money I’ve paid’, which is a typical ‘kiam-siap (stingy)’ Malaysian attitude. That’s why, I rather pay the same amount for a decent few-course meals with people serving me. I am quite lazy.

Talking back about this Za Za Bazaar that I’ve just visited recently, at The Gate, Newcastle, I was quite amazed with the interior setup which have an Asian street food concept that feels very graphical, food stalls and Chinese. In compare with another buffet restaurant in Newcastle – Kingdom Buffet, I find Za Za has a better interior setup which somehow psychologically made my meal better (hey, I study interior design, so it’s the decor is very important to me). =D

Food type ranges from oriental, Asian, Indian to British, American, Mexian, Italian and beyond. It’s not surprised though that most of the food served are oriental > western (local) as most buffet restaurants in the UK are operated/founded by Asians. Well, forgive me for not taking any photos of food as I was busy eating and enjoying the interior space, but I can share with you some food that I like. Japanese sushi, American and British section did not capture my taste buds, whereas Indian curry gave me the best sensation of all; Italian, Chinese on the other hand leaved an OK-good impression in my mouth and some of the fried noodles were rather salty. I encountered a few weird food too, but I think some would like it. For £13.99/person (dinner, weekday), I find it quite reasonable, but if really-really-really would like to compare, Momiji in Singapore and Jogoya in Kuala Lumpur are so much better.

For pricing, contact details and opening hours, please visit Za Za Bazaar’s website for more.

February 13, 2014

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