Winter Break 2012 - Day 3 (Liverpool Street, Tower of London & Madame Tussauds)

As I promised before, let me continue the rest of the story

Day 2 - 29th Jan 2012

So, lepas melelapkan diri yang penat malam tu, we headed to Liverpool Street the next morning. 

and masa on the way to Liverpool Street tula berkenalan dengan this one British mak cik 

(more like a nanny to me)

nama die...Dorothy and I even called her Dorothy Perkins and she laughed at it. :)

She was VERY NICE

siap borak - borak lagi about each other's family, her job, health condition & how excited she was knowing that we were actually a trio of future docs

(^________________^)

and siap tanya:

"You're not going to church today?"

cause it's Sunday on that day

Me: "No, we go to mosque"

Dorothy: "Oh, I'm sorry"

hahaha, ktorg gelak awkward gila after that....

=.='

but I don't blame her, cause it made me realized how lucky I am to be born, living and studying in Islamic country and... for being a Muslim :)

Actually, there's not pretty much interesting places in Liverpool Street except the existence of street market macam pasar malam / pasar tani yang jual cheap stuffs ONLY on Sunday

Punyalah awal datang sampai x bukak pon lagi some stores kat situ

but, seriously murah - murah

even the souvenirs sume 1 pound each

You can even get branded bags/shoes/clothes like Nike, Dorothy Perkins. etc at cheaper price

rasa macam nak borong everything and put them all together in one big parcel and ship them straight to Tampin

and we even got to know this one British man - he's a Muslim and this one lady from Australia.

Time tu la masing - masing share each others' interest.

She's studying Visual Art in Australia. Style gile bile boleh borak about Banksy - a British street artist, with someone who value art like my brother and I do...

siap boleh promote my brothers along the conversation

and it's all thanks to Along for the video he showed me about how awesome Banksy's artworks are. 

and that pak cik even guessed I'm gonna be a paediatrician in the future

WRONG GUESS! but nice try...

come on la, I'm really terrible at handling infants and young children kot

siap - siap I'm gonna kick them away kalau annoying sangat

Liverpool Street, London

with the British pak cik and an Aussie lady

See all the sales there? 

My first lesson of Jegging and Legging

Next destination: London city

for the tour, ktorg ambil The Original London Tour package. It was worthy for me la. It costs me about 26 pounds for 2 hari including the free Thames River Cruise between Westminster and Greenwich.

The Original Tour (TOT) ni is like an open-top tour in London, which you have this one double-decker bus yang open kat atas die, and you get to view London from it sebab die akan ronda - ronda sekitar London.

They even provided us with free earphones and you just have to insert them kat port yang ade kat each kerusi dalam bas tu and learn the history for every buildings, monuments/roads passed by. 

actually die ade 3 main sightseeing routes:

1. The Original Tour covers:

Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, National Gallery, Downing Street, Houses of Parliament (& Big Ben), London Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey

2. City Sightseeing pulak covers:

Madame Tussauds, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, National Gallery, Downing Street, Houses of Parliament (& Big Ben), London Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Tower London, Westminster Abbey

while

3. The Museum Tour covers:

Kensington Palace, Baden-Powell House, Natural History Museum, Science Museum,Victoria and Albert Museum, Brompton Oratory, Harrods, Knightsbridge, Harvey Nichols,Hyde Park, Ritz Hotel, Piccadilly Circus, Shaftesbury Avenue, British Museum, Russell Square, Apsley House/Wellington Museum, Royal Albert Hall, Albert Memorial,Kensington High Street, Princess Diana Memorial Fountain

and all the tours punye bas are coloured according to the places they cover. Yellow for Original, red for sightseeing and blue for museum tour

and if you're taking the Original one, you cannot hop on the other branch of this kind of service - The Big Bus Tours; cause they are from other companies - rival tu

ni sume sebab kes kat Tower of London kene halau sebab salah masuk bas

=.='

Posing before bas gerak - Muka excited duk atas before menyesal sebab beku

This is like dream comes true for me - Aren't we destined to be together Optimus? ♥
This one masa dekat Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum, London

at Tower of London

First taste of Fish n Chips at Tower of London

Nelson's column at Trafalgar Square

Chinese New Year celebration at Trafalgar Square
and because of CNY celebration ni, they have to close some routes that day so x banyak boleh tengok

St Paul's Cathedral - a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Second largest church in  UK after Liverpool Cathedral

Dah lupe la ape kaitan this clock tower dengan queen dia...

Ni the Londoners built masa ade the big fire incident time tahun berapa ntah
sorry, I'm suck at memorizing history dates 

Tower Bridge - viewed from London Bridge

coming to London will not be completed without reaching the world famous Madame Tussauds 

punye lah lama duk dalam bas and sampai - sampai depan Madame Tussauds tu, tiba - tiba ada dis one British man bagi salam dekat kitorg

Mula - mula tak nak jawab, tapi sekali die tunjukkan nama dia - Mohamad something2 and siap pesan lagi suruh pergi solat dulu baru pergi jalan time tanya die mana London Central Mosque tu. 

London Central Mosque - yang juga dikenali sebagai Islamic Cultural Centre, ICC atau Regent's Park Mosque. Kat dalam dia ade bookstore kecik and also halal premises. Walaupun nama die central mosque, tapi masjid ni xde la besar mana pon kalau nak banding dengan masjid-masjid kat Malaysia 

Madame Tussauds - a wax museum in London and die ade branches at other cities around the world. The green dome tu actually nye adelah sebuah planetarium tapi dah tutup and digantikan untuk jadi Marvel Superheroes 4D attraction. Konon masing-masing perasan superhero nak selamatkan London la...
BEWARE: nnt ade kumbang sebok nak gigit kaki & free massage on your back

Daniel is not that tall huh? yeah well, it's Rupert's fault for  stealing  all the height for himself

Playing 2PM's I'll Be Back 

Breakfast with Audrey Hepburn at Tiffany's
=.='

the reunion of my past BFs, sorry guys, but my heart belongs to someone else now.
Let's move on, shall we?

Hey Kate, are you jelly2 now? 

Apo? Cubo cakap kuat sket, den x dongar

Pervy hand spotted! 

R.I.P Amy...

ni lah padahnye kalau dah xde idea nak pose ape

You thought we'll be scared of you? Nah, I'm not. Boo...

speechless~

Guess who I bumped into?

ok, that's all for now

TO BE CONTINUED...

Travel Advice 

1. You can buy the Original Tour ticket dekat mana-mana available booths around London. Banyak je kat tepi jalan, dalam kedai. Pandai-pandai la plan nak pergi mana and bile.

Bas-bas ni pon akan stop kat each bus stop according to jenis route mana kita pilih. 

and kalau yang suka night view malam-malam, boleh la ambik river cruise tu waktu paling last skali die operate.

But, kalau rasa-rasa nak pergi tengok Greenwich Meridian Line tu, kene la pergi awal sebab die tutup cepat especially at winter. 

and beli online murah 3 pounds dari beli on the spot, and diorang ade special seasonal promotions kot cause ktorg dapat for 2 days dengan harga yang sama for 1 day sebab ade winter punye offer but sadly it ends on 29th Feb 2012

2. Once dah naik bas tu, boleh la pasang earphones tu untuk lebih menghayati sejarah London. Kalau bayar mahal, duk ronda-ronda je tapi x tau ape keistimewaan each attractions tu pon, rugi kot. 

Winter Break 2012 - Day 1 and Day 2 (Egypt-London)

It has been awhile since I last updated my blog entry, so, here I want to share my experience throughout my journey to Europe last winter break.

and to tell you Sitti, it really gonna be 13 entries all together, but I don't think I may find such diligence 

but I will try my best to deliver my story to fulfil your satisfaction, ok?

so, let's start from the 1st day

Day1 - 27th of Jan 2012

This is our beginning of the journey. Start from Mansoura and ended in Cairo.

We need to stop first dekat rumah Syahira cause our flight will be the next morning, by whatever means, 

kene sampai airport pagi-pagi kot.

Since we decided nak buat backpacking travel, 

jadi we ended up with one backpack or to be precised: a laptop bag and a sling bag for each person

If you want to know the details for the preparation of backpacking travel, I'm gonna explain it later k.

For the time being, I will only post about the journey only.

Then we headed ourselves to Maadi - kire macam Bukit Antarabangsa or Damansara dekat Malaysia la...

sedikit kagum dengan kewujudan tempat ni

sampai2 je, terus pergi Subway where I had my first taste of Subway and macam biasa,

masing2 liat nak balik sebab ade Wifi free

=.='

Staying at Syahirah's house, it felt like being at home.

With her mother yang prepare macam2 Malaysian food (Seri Muka for supper, and Mee Kari for breakfast), 

and her house yang macam ala hotel

and a personal driver yang bawak pergi airport to add the awesomeness...

thanks from the bottom of our hearts

Day 2 - 28th Jan 2012

We were a bit late to Cairo airport actually, tapi Alhamdulillah sempat jugak check-in

and to add the hype,

we met the other Malaysian trio heading to London, but this time, they are from the opposite gender

(can you imagine what crossed our minds that time?)

and because masing-masing macam tak nak duduk sekali, 

so I ended up duduk between this one Egyptian woman and a British man

(I assumed he's from there cause he's like a copycat of Elton John - like seriously!)

and I even thought he was gay...LOL

because of the long distance, I ended up exploring the whole games, movies, dramas and music served...

and to tell you, I was like the only one yang paling gigih main everything even with iPod in my hands

Alhamdulillah, the long awaiting flight akhirnya ended in Heathrow Airport, London.

So, after settling ourselves, we continued our way to Victoria Coach Station.

tak tau la ape motif kan turun dekat situ, but the most reasonable excuse will be:

konon - konon nak explore central London first la

The National Express coach ticket which costs us 5 pounds each

Then, sampai Victoria Coach Station, we were tested with our little patience left:

since we decided to stay at Fizerk's house for the whole 5 days in London, masing - masing macam almost give up cause she didn't answered the call. Even Arine couldn't contribute her best help since she was away in Paris. But, I have to agree, the Londoners were quite helpful. 

Even though we wandered ourselves around Victoria Train Station pon, this one British woman - Ailey (I'm not sure if the name is correctly spelled or not) gigih nak tolong carikkan any available hotels that night.

And the Malaysian girls yang kitorg terserempak pon siap nak tolong provide tempat tidur but not in London la - but Porthsmouth, which will take about 2 hours journey to London.

and masing - masing dah tak tau nak buat apa, sampai ambik keputusan nak duduk hotel around London, but sadly the cheapest one pon costs about 90 pounds PER NIGHT. 

So, after recalculating everything, we ditched the decision and plan tidur dekat McDonald

(selamat duit!) 

Well, rather than wandering around, it looks more like a reunion between me and the guy with the jacket
=.='

but in whatever circumstances pon, we have to make sure our own tummy is happy kan -

so we settled down first in McDonald and had our first meal in London: 

Fillet-O-Fish

yang dulunya hanya dilepas pandang & loya tekak tengok tapi sekarang: 

dah jadi my lifetime favourite

tengah - tengah makan tu la, tiba - tiba dapat call from Fizerk and she was a bit shocked about our current condition. It was actually my fault jugak sebab I typed the wrong date.

Fizerk thought it will be on 29th but we actually sampai on 28th

Alhamdulillah...

everything has been settled, and she even guided us until sampai dekat Langdorn Park. 

and... we had our first lesson of 'Oyster' and London's very own rapid transit system - The London Underground (Tube)

Oyster ni macam 'Touch n Go' in Malaysia and it's the cheapest way to pay for single journeys on bus, Tube, tram, DLR, London Overground and most National Rail services in London - it costs 5 pounds and you can top up the extra amount later

A glance of how Victoria Train Station looked like

The London Underground (The Tube) - kira macam Putra LRT in Malaysia 

sampai - sampai Langdorn Park, we were welcomed by Fizerk's housemates: Skin and Najwa yang 

ambik from bus station since Fizerk was absent sebab ade hal kat tempat lain.

and the place we're staying is called Bartlett Close 

Ni actually gambar masa nak tinggalkan London for Liverpool

The place was nice, siap ade satu rumah ni we called it as 'Harry Potter House' because it really looked like an haunted mansion from the outside but there are actually human beings living inside

In front of Harry Potter house

and thanks to Fizerk and housemates, makan sampai x ingat dunia malam tu

hehe...

So...for the next entry, you need to wait

Don't worry, I'm gonna update it later

Just be patient from my slow progression

Travel Advice & Guide

1. It is advisable to buy Oyster card if you're planning to stay in London for many days and using public transports - sebab jimat cause regular price without oyster gonna cost you more

2. Sampai - sampai airport, rajin - rajinkanlah ambik every maps / any pamphlets available. This gonna help you A LOT.

3. Ambiklah jugak map tube/bas tu, cause you can plan your journey effectively and efficiently 

4. DON'T ever be shy to ask people around you, lantak la English bersepah ke, as long as they understand what you're trying to say and respond back, ok la tu

5. If you're out of idea of any Halal food around, try carik any food store like McD yang serve seafood like what we did: Fillet-o-Fish since fast food is accessible 

6. Beli la any available mobile phone line (3, Vodafone, Orange, O2, etc) kalau ade anyone yang nak contact around UK because roaming seriously gonna cost you a lot

7. Nak solat senang je, mana - mana pon boleh as long as bersih even in fitting room pon boleh. First you have to carik ape angle qiblat dekat London and search waktu solat dekat Islamicfinder.com. Siapa yang ada hp canggih tu boleh la download application yang ade kompas siap. 

8. Duit nak keluar depends... 300 pounds will be enough to stay in UK for 7 days (termasuk personal shopping, souvenier, fee nak masuk tourist attraction places) at least for ktorg la, ni pon kalau ade tempat nak stay kat sane