London Ahoy!
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Wazit
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5:13 AM
As promised, this blog post is gonna talk about my not-so-recent trip to London. So last Saturday me, Alex, Yee Xuen, Jacqueline and Asha went on to invade the streets of London! Yeah, we wanted to do some Christmas shopping there. :P It was just a day trip at that since we didn't want to squander money on accommodation. That is why we took an early morning bus ride to Victoria Coach Station. Even on the weekend, I had to drag myself out of bed at 6 in the morning.... huh... Oh well, if you want to travel, must sacrifice a bit. The bus ride took 2 hours to reach our stop anyway so we are able to catch up on our sleep in the bus :D First impression of London? Way much more busy than Southampton and way more crowded. Personally, I think London looks gloomier than Southampton although there are much more things to do there XD
At the train station above the underground train network
Ish, go toilet also have to pay. Quite expensive and it's the only toilet nearby D:
There's loads of taxis here. And all have them have the unique shape distinguishing them from other cars.... although I actually thought they would be red in color, but I guess that only apply to buses XD
Descending down towards the underground train network. Long, long flights of escalators...
Since I am tired of calling this the underground train network, I'm gonna call it the Tube. That's what every local call them anyway. It's kinda like LRT except underground... and there's loads of them. If you miss one, there's gonna be another one coming in 2-3 minutes time. We used this the whole day to get around London 8D
So first stop, Picadilly Circus! First thing that greeted us when we first came out of the underground station was a rather old but nice looking monument and busy streets packed with people. Ah, the hustle and bustle of London.... After that, we decided to take a visit to Carnaby Street before heading for Oxford street.
Large fountain monument sitting at a corner of Piccadilly Circus. The monument is supposed to be over 100 years old and is called the Shaftesbury Monument Memorial Fountain
See the busy streets of London filled with the signature red buses! For some reason there are lots of construction work going on in London and lots of fences are being put up. Maybe it's because of the upcoming Olympic games.
Man, these pastries are calling out for me to devour them. :3 The girls had a hard time restraining themselves from staring at the pastries for a long time. Haha... I don't blame them. It does look mouthwatering, doesn't it?
Carnaby Street... looking very pretty with all the various floats :D
Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street! And it does not disappoint, with loads of retail stalls, which some not even seen in Malaysia :D
And it has loads of souvenir stores as well. Most of them sell joke T-shirts such as the one in the picture. There are many more shirts though, but can't fit them all or otherwise the store owner might see us :/
Posing outside one of the stalls trying out the various sunglasses. I have to say, Asha looks pretty swanky here :D
After some time, our hunger pangs wouldn't leave us alone... so we took a snack at Papa Beard, the cream pastry shop.
After exploring Oxford St. for a while, we got quite hungry. So, we went on to Bayswater to try the famous Chinese cooking there, especially the roasted duck. I have to say, they have the most succulent and tender roasted duck I have EVER tasted. Damn, I wish I can go there everyday to eat. Even my mouth watering thinking about it now.
Gold Mine, the Chinese restaurant where we ate the best duck rice we ever had :D
Now, feast your eyes! I know it doesn't look thaaat impressive, but trust me, once you put them in your mouth, there's no turning back XD
Sweet sour fish... although it is nice, it is overshadowed by the roasted duck. Haha, too bad.... try again next time.
After that, he headed to the Westfield London shopping center. It is said to be the largest indoor shopping center in Europe. But from what I see, it can't hold a candle to what we have back home 8D Ah, talking about it makes me miss Mid Valley and Sunway Pyramid :/ But even so, there's quite a number of retail outlets in there.
What the shopping center looks like outside
Surprisingly, found a authentic Malaysian restaurant here... lol, as soon as we found it, each and every one of us immediately take picture and took a look at the menu. Super expensive prices though...
Christmas tree shape made out of chocolates! I can imagine you girls thinking about it now! XD
What the shopping center looks like inside. Lots of glass so get plenty of sunlight
Winding down after a few hours of exploring the shopping center. Sitting down and gossiping about IMU and Adam Lambert XD
What the shopping center looks like outside when it's dark... pretty :D
After finishing up at Westfield, we revisited Oxford St. again. According to Alex, it's much more prettier at night. And boy, was it much, much prettier at night. It was bloody packed as well though. It's like three times the number of people in the morning. I collided with so many people I simply lost count >.> But after enjoying the sights, we headed off to Chinatown... after all, what trip would be complete without a trip to the local Chinatown :D Maybe my expectations were too high, but it is much smaller than I thought it would be. But well, we ended up eating duck rice again at night.... couldn't help it, we loved it so much XD. But we felt that the one we had in the afternoon was nicer... doesn't mean that it isn't nice though :D
The lights made Oxford St. so much more prettier at night.... brought out so many more people as well
Christmas Carol movie was being advertised along the whole street. Must have cost a ton... and that's Jacqueline's handphone in the corner XD
One of the trademarks of London... the red telephone booth! Imagine Clark Kent running into one of these :D
The main entrance of Chinatown. You see it... and you definitely know you're at Chinatown. If you can't find it, just follow the Asians. If there's more of them, you're getting closer 8D
Had a nice dinner but after that luck wasn't with us. It started raining and it wasn't just the regular drizzle... so we ended up walking around. Couldn't take much pictures though because of the rain. But, we did stumble upon Leichester Square while wandering around. Apparently, they have a winter fair each year... and it wasn't like those fairs in Malaysia. It was like a mini Genting Highlands basically... they even have the ride with the chairs where they swing you around in a circle at high speed :D If only it was not raining.... D:
See... told you it's a proper fair... with all the bling bling rides and stalls. Saw a stall that offered a Sony PSP as a prize.... was pretty tempted to try XD
This ride looked even scarier than Solero Shot in Genting. Basically they swing you around in the air at high speed with you sitting in a small ride at the end of the arm. You can hear the people riding it screaming their lungs out.
A snapshot in the rain... posing with umbrellas
Finally, we made our way back to Victoria Coach station... with our bus scheduled to leave at 9.30 pm. The shops were about to close anyway, so no more reason for us to stay any longer. We were dead tired but had lots of fun and great food (duck rice... duck rice... duck rice!)
Last picture of the post... Victoria Coach Station at night. Merry Christmas indeed!
Well, that's all from me for now... till next time then!
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