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Tag: 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: 五月天 Mayday Now Here Concert At Wembley Arena

London: 五月天 Mayday Now Here Concert At Wembley Arena – Mayday is one of my favourite Taiwanese band and they are well-known for their extremely engaging and entertaining concert. Some even calls them the Beatles of the East. Their famous No-where and Now-Here concert world tour has been going on for two years since 2012 till now and in February, they came to Wembley Arena in London to perform and I bought ticket to go see their concert! Couldn’t believe that I was watching a Taiwanese concert in an English-land.

I was not really a fan of Mayday previously until they started this concert tour and has been getting very good feedback and comment! They came to Malaysia last year, but I was busying with university stuff and I didn’t get to check them out. London was the first stop of their Europe tour where Paris and Amsterdam came next. It was quite exciting although I’ve got the cheapest ticket @ £40, the view was not so bad after all. It’s not a surprise to see so many Chinese in the stadium, but it’s quite amazing that it was a full-house!

I’ve a friend who is a superfan of Mayday told me that the concert was better back in Malaysia, and perhaps in Taiwan. As a first-comer like me, I find that 3 hours night was fun and entertaining!

June 23, 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
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
301213: London Meet

301213: London Meet – Few years back in high school, we were just friends talking nonsense, kap siao about this and that and we went apart after high school, each headed to different college. Never expected what future lies ahead of us, we embarked on our own journey. Not going to write about any sensation thing here, yet I just find it quite amazing that the recent place that me and some of the high school friends that I usually mixed with was in London. Not Abu Mamak, not Pik Nik, not Penang, not Chung Ling High School Canteen, not somebody’s house, not someone’s car, not Kuala Lumpur, not Gurney Plaza, but London. Weird, eh.

Salam 1Malaysia, by the way.

March 16, 2014
London Stansted To Warsaw Modlin Via RyanAir

Eastern Europe Trip // London Stansted To Warsaw Modlin Via RyanAir – Last Winter, I’ve been on a trip to Eastern Europe, starting at Warsaw, then to Krakow, Bratislava, Budapest, Vienna, ended at Prague then back to London. It’s quite funny that how we actually planned the trip were that the 4 of us went on to Ryan Air website (airline like AirAsia of Europe), then search every destination that is listed on the website, checking that which one returns the cheapest air fare. Warsaw and Oslo were the cheapest place to fly to, at £12 for Warsaw and £6 for Oslo and ended picking Warsaw because travelling to Eastern Europe is a lot more cheaper than the Scandinavian.

After buying the air ticket, only then we started to look at Google Maps and plan our trip on how the journey goes. London > fly to Warsaw > bus to Krakow > bus to (Zakopane) > bus to (Poprad) > train to Bratislava > bus to Budapest > bus to Vienna > bus to London. It’s quite a budget trip we didn’t even think about a return air ticket, or look for train, it’s just bus all the way and guess what, the bus ticket back to London was the most expensive of all at about 50Euro!

Being in the UK, a part of Europe for a year is an opportunity for me to travel around since the transportation are so convenient and cheap. Moreover, there’s no problem for my Malaysian passport to travel around as no Visa is needed in the European Union countries, and you just never know that Europe is actually very small if to compare to other continent.

So the journey started in London, on the cheap airport transfer van (easyBus) that brought us to London Stansted Airport, it was night time already and we had to spend the night at Stansted Airport. Feeling excited and hungry, I had a burger at Burger King then tried to just find a spot, lie down and sleep; however, once I almost fall into my lovely dreamland, the airport security guard came and kick my leg and ask me to wake up, saying the airport is now open and no sleeping is allowed. ‘WTH?!”, nothing I can do but just wait until 6 something in the morning when the screen shows calling for our Ryan Air flight. London Stansted is the airport where most of the budget airlines are, but then it’s so much better than Kuala Lumpur’s AirAsia LCCT!

One thing that RyanAir is similar with AirAsia is that there’s no aerobridge that connects the plane, and you have to walk up to the plane. Yeah. Slept all the way to Warsaw and landed at Warsaw Modlin airport, I guess that’s not the main airport as it’s very small and located remotely from the city. Alien language started to appear everywhere, but luckily, not much of currency conversion was need as the Polish Zloty is almost equivalent to Ringgit Malaysia. Remember, use Poland Zloty instead of Euro is better.

Super foggy night at London Stansted.

Waiting terminal. Time to fly.

Lovely twilight from the plane, but I missed the sunrise as I was sitting on the west side.

Oh my god, foggy at Warsaw too! What a bad first day weather.

The small Warsaw Modlin airport.

February 13, 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

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