Amazing New Year’s Eve Countdown At London – Having the chance to countdown for a new year of 2014 at one of the greatest city of the world was already one awesome excitement. I never know that the experience and awesomeness was more than what I’ve expected. It’s all started at around 5pm; ‘Faster liao, faster liao, we have to go to find a good spot for later’s fireworks!’, we were telling each other when we were having the worst Chicken Curry Katsu ever at Wasabi near Harrods after touring the Natural History Museum. Some friends were already there at Westminster, the Thames’ riverside with a good spot where we were having our own sweet time.
The tube was freaking packed, more than sardine and yes, a friend of ours didn’t get to board the tube and we have to wait for him to arrive at the arrival station – Westminster. Slowly moving our ass out of the tube station, we started to join the sea of people, slowly flowing into Embankment riverside. Phone signal was full, but totally unusable. The whole network was jam, but we kept on trying as to find the location of another group of friends and meet up. Well, we found at last, but couldn’t get to another group as the crowds filled up the space and I couldn’t get any closer to this group, so we just moved to another spot to book a good view for the fireworks. It was on the middle of Westminster Bridge, where we again, met up with another group of people and it felt so good that we were able to spend the eve together with so many people.
Well, the wait started from then on at 7pm. I’ve read that this year’s fireworks is very different as it provides a multiple sensory experience where you don’t only see, but taste and smell as well! Sounds cool to you and me, BUT I didn’t get to experience that I didn’t know how it works. I did get a pack of goodies including a pack of sweets (taste) and a booklet of (smell). The paper reported that there’s a special location where about 50k of people could taste the edible bubble and smell the fireworks. Hmm?
What we did in the 5 hours of wait? It’s like ‘shiok sendiri’, having fun on our own, dancing with the music blasting from the speaker right above us, as if we created our own outdoor party. Others was just standing and waiting. Cold, of course, and wet. Luckily, there’s no rain throughout the wait, only it rained 30 minutes before New Year, but it was a small one! The music was pretty cool, but I just think that there should be DJ to hype up the atmosphere to another level instead of us ‘shiok sendiri’.
I didn’t see previous year’s fireworks before on Youtube, so it’s very much new and exciting to me and I didn’t expect so much too! 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, seriously, I was amazed, mouth dropped with the fireworks, syncing with a series of great music, and colourful lights blasting off the London Eye. The show was spectacular, I just couldn’t stop screaming with excitement. ‘Damn, it’s really very good, and I’d no regret waiting for 5-6 hours.’ I should had go earlier and book a better spot, like the place just across the London Eye. (The video on BBC1 will make you go WOW). My favourite parts of the fireworks is the dubstep part and the final where it blast everything off.
About 11 minutes of screaming, and ‘Happy New Year’ nonstop, it’s the end of the countdown and 2014 is here, finally. That’s also the worst part of the whole countdown thingy, as getting onto the free tube takes about an hour, and we didn’t bother to queue for it. We just walked, walked and walked under the rain, through the crowds, past a stupid fighting scene, then crossed the bridge, an about an hour, we reached Chinatown at Leicester Square. Chinese restaurants were all open at midnight, and all with an extra special crazy 30% price hike in the menu, yet, we still had our supper. Yeah, some times in the future, I want to come back again. One more thing, after seeing this fireworks, I just don’t know where else has a better fireworks!
All from Penang, Malaysia.
Just look at the sea of people. As Chinese always says, People Mountain People Sea. 😛
Again, with the people from Penang, but all from different part of UK. There’s Liverpool, London, Bristol, Birmingham, Newcastle and one outsider, from India.
With the friends from Newcastle.
View of London Eye from Westminster Bridge.
View of Big Ben.
Here comes the fireworks!
The street doesn’t look pretty after all.
All moving out to find a way back home, or back to the city.
Facilitating the crowds.
Kilometre long of queue into the tube station of Waterloo.
Passed by the Royal Courts of Justice while on the way to Chinatown.
