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Category: London

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
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
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
Citymapper App Helps You To Travel Around London Easily

Citymapper App Helps You To Travel Around London Easily – London is a huge metropolitan city and with around 11 underground lines and hundreds over of bus route, travelling around is not an easy task. I have a friend who has been residing in London for over 2 years still couldn’t not master travelling on complicated transportation system and in the city, he still need to relies on the Legible London wayfinding system and Google Maps.

I have been visiting London very frequently and travelling around without a local Londoner guiding is quite difficult. The Legible London, a wayfinding board that erects at almost every street corner gives you quite a lot of information of where you are and what’s around. So how do I travel around London like a pro? I use an app to guide me around and that’s Citymapper.

Citymapper can shows you the best way, configures the fastest route and lists the costs of different travelling mode when you want to travel to your destination. So it helps you to save costs, and time. It just made travelling in London so much easier. Yeah. At the moment, the app serves New York, Paris & Berlin. I don’t think it will reach Malaysia in any near future as the public transportation system in Malaysia is lacking very far behind.

You can download from Apple AppStore or Google PlayStore for free. Have fun!

February 12, 2014
London: Breakfast At Le Pain Quotidien

London: Breakfast At Le Pain Quotidien – A London friend had brought me to this very nice breakfast place calls the Le Pain Quotidien (French pronounciation as luh pan koh-ti-dyan), or literally means The Daily Bread at Tottenham Court Road. There’s actually quite a number of outlets in London, in fact it’s an international chain cafe, having outlets around the world. A little bit of research found out that Le Pain Quotidien was not originated from French, but Brussels, Belgium in 1990.

It was about an hour to noon and the place was half full. 3 of us, were sat on a long communal table at the far end and later filled up as time went on. The cafe is setup in a warm and cosy atmosphere, with lovely industrial light that bring a twist into the warm design. Food is mainly about breads, sandwiches, omelet and their set of breakfasts. The very friendly staff had made a bit of recommendation to me as a newcomer.

I’ve ordered myself a Organic Scrambled Eggs with bread, side with Sauteed Mushrooms @ £6. The succulent mushroom was very good to me whereas I couldn’t identify the goodness of the scramble egg, pretty standard. There’s a variety of jams and spreads that you can use freely for the bread which is quite a new experience for me. Everything was quite fine, only that I find that it doesn’t really fill up my huge hungry stomach.

Head over to Le Pain Quotidien’s website for the list of location.

February 12, 2014
Meeting Up Friends At M&M & Piccadilly Circus

Meeting Up Friends At M&M & Piccadilly Circus – Last holiday in London was like a little gathering, meeting up with him and her and they and them. The world is really small, London being in the middle of the Earth was like a meeting point for me and friends from Malaysia. Although they did not come directly from Malaysia to meet up, but from all over United Kingdom and Europe, it was a good meet up. Don’t you feel it’s amazing that you can still meet the you know well at a very foreign land, but not your hometown? And right, there’s really many Malaysian in the UK. Hmmmm.

Inside M&M, one of the famous attractions in London at Leicester Square. It’s like a retail + attractions, always that crowded.

At Piccadilly Circus, something like New York’s Times Square, but with so much less LED and sign boards.

Friends of Malaysia & Hong Kong from Newcastle.

Embracing 1Malaysia.

February 11, 2014
London: Burger & Lobster

London: Burger & Lobster – Most people (I would say, Asian mainly) will not miss the opportunity to visit Burger & Lobster, a restaurant that sells only, burger, or lobster in London. It’s like becoming one of the must-eat food in London. ‘Have you been to Burger & Lobster?’ ‘You must really try the Burger & Lobster!’ Most Asian friend will recommend this food outlet in London when you ask them what’s good in London. It’s more like a hipster place, where eating at Burger & Lobster is cool and must-do.

The place must be good, because 5 of their outlets are always full and have a queue all time. It’s not that you can just walk-in to eat anytime, you just have to wait, from as little as 15 minutes to an hour or more. Reservation only available for 6 or more, yet you still have to wait despite having a reservation. We had about 10 of us, and we still waited for like 15 minutes to get our table ready. The one I went to was at SOHO, and there’s 4 more at Mayfair, Farringdon, Knightsbrige and London City.

Eating at Burger & Lobster will let your mind have a break because you do not need to think that much on which and what to eat. There’s only, burger, or lobster! Burger, is a succulent huge beef burger serves with fries and salad; whereas lobster has the choices of lobster roll, or full lobster steamed, or grilled, or mix, or you can pay more for larger lobster. A standard burger, or lobster cost £20/each. Most newcomer will of course, go for lobster because at this hefty price tag, a lobster would be more worthwhile than a beef burger. I did not try the beef burger, but Foursquare has good review on it. My lobster was a grilled one, served with salad, and fries.

The aroma of grilled lobster was so good, and the lobster meat was very juicy and fresh. Not to mention, the fries was good too! However, I find that steamed lobster could be a better choice as the steamed one still have the lobster red roe intact (eggs), I’ve no idea where’s mine had gone. Dipping the lobster with the garlic butter sauce were just superb. You know what, the whole meal took about 1.5 hours to finish everything up, it’s like the longest meal I’ve ever had for one main course. I was just trying to clean everything up inside out of the lobster, no wastage. =D Thumbs up!

Friends from the same high school, Chung Ling High School, Penang! Interesting that we met not back in Penang, but in London. // Photo by Oohjii.

Head over to Burger & Lobster’s website for their list of locations and details.

February 11, 2014
A Night Out To London’s Chinatown & Leicester Square Christmas Fun Fair

A Night Out To London’s Chinatown & Leicester Square Christmas Fun Fair – I don’t know is it that I have the Chinese/Asian traits in me, or is it that the Leicester Square & Chinatown are so fun that I’ve to visit the place almost every time I am in London. There was once 4 days trip to London that I’ve been there for like 2-3 times.

I don’t think I am typical Asian that Chinatown is the only place I belong, I just feel that Chinatown, Leicester Square and surroundings are very happenings throughout the day and night. Of course, not to mention the great choices of Chinese & Asian food, and they are good too! Oxford Street is for shopping and Leicester Square is for food and chill. Where else in London is a good place to hangout? I need to know more about it, or else, the next time I head down to London, I’ll be heading to Leicester Square, again.

Unlike Newcastle where the main street get deserted after 8/9 after shops close, Leicester Square, Chinatown, SOHO and surroundings are very well alive! Food, pubs, cinema and casinos are the main thing there. During last Christmas, the area was hyped out with the Christmas Fun Fair located at the centre of Leicester Square. Beautiful and wonderful, how could I not spend some times at there? Seriously, I need to explore more of London instead of heading to Chinatown when I’ve no place to go in my mind.

The small Christmas Fun Fair at Leicester Square.

It’s like a mini-Las Vegas at Leicester Square as you can find a plenty of mini casinos. Well, not surprised that you will find a numbers of Asian in there.

Street food stall which just feels so Asian.

Are you a fan of Chinese roasted meat? I am super duper am! The roasted pork belly, siu yok is good!

Chatime – the always-good-business Taiwanese bubble tea chain-store that makes everyone goes crazy and queue for it. There’s not a time that there’s no queue in front of the shop.

This is Chinatown, London.

Chinese’ Pastry.

This is a Polo Bun, unfortunately it’s not hot.

Golden Gate Cake Shop. Sad that most of the pastries were cold, but the taste still ease my Asian’s food craving.

February 10, 2014
Chinese New Year’s Celebration At Newcastle’s Chinatown

Chinese New Year’s Celebration At Newcastle’s Chinatown – Following up the Chinese New Year’s celebration in London, the Chinatown in Newcastle also had its own Chinese New Year celebration on last Sunday. The Chinatown in Newcastle covers the stretch of Stowell Street that filled up with Chinese restaurant mostly, and a few Chinese retails and hair salons.

Unlike London’s CNY celebration where you can find a series of performance at a main stage and a small CNY parade, the celebration at Newcastle’s Chinatown was actually just the performances of Lion Dance & Dragon Dance. Local, Geordies and students, all flocked into the street of Chinatown – Stowell Street early on Sunday morning to experience the sound of live firecrackers and ‘dong dong qiang’ of lion & dragon dances. Me and friends went at noon to join the fun and feel the Chinese New Year’s atmosphere as it was the 10th day of Chinese New Year.

Chinatown in Newcastle has been quiet all the while, and finally, the only day of the year that it’s very happenings. Lion dance went to each restaurants and retails on the street to perform a short dance to bring luck to their business. Funny is that most of the crowds followed the lion dance team all the way from beginning to the end. There’s also a very small fun fair at the end of the street which I think that day was the most crowded day of the year. Well, the celebration was quite interesting, with lion dance, fun fair, some Chinese performance that I’ve missed it and a sea of people. This gave me a different perception of the Chinatown in Newcastle instead of being a quiet street with no Chinatown’s feeling. Anyway, the food price at all restaurants remained the same on that day, which was a very good thing!

The crowds in front of the Chinese arch near St. James Park.

People watching the lion dance ‘performance’.

Live fire crackers. This just spiced up everything to make the day more festive.

A very small merry-go-round.

Inflatable slides that made the kids went crazy. This reminds me when I was small that loved to get on these inflatable slides!

Some little fun CNY thingy or souvenirs or toys for the locals, not for the Asian though.

Genting, a very familiar name for Malaysian.

Cute little girl with a small lion head.

February 10, 2014

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