Company only allowed us to take Air Asia to Stansted, UK. But.. We are allowed to buy whatever comfort kit or hot seat and claim everything that we want to eat and drink on the plane. Regretted for not taking the premium seats..Wait a minute if I were to get the premier seat, why didn’t the company just allow us to fly in other better airline? Don’t really know what all the ‘guai lou’ are thinking. 14 hours in a crampy seat!! Can die man!!!
In case you are wondering why I used ‘we’ in the blog. I went with another colleague, the reason is because company knew that I never travelled that far and they decided to get a ‘bodyguard’ for me. Haha.
We stayed in a hotel beside Stansted airport on the night we landed because our London sight-seeing trip starts the next day.
I was told that this hotel is famous for their bar named Angel’s Wine Tower Bar.
Sorry for the crappy picture. The wines are stacked so up high that when a customer orders a bottle of wine, an ‘angel’ or I mean the worker will then strap herself with cables which will then pull her up to look for the wine. No luck of snapping a picture of an ‘angel’ is soaring high that night though.
A clearer picture of the tower in the morning.
We checked out of the hotel early morning and waited for 2 of our collegues from the UK office to meet as at the Stansted Airport as they will be our London tour guide. We took an express train to London.
The train station is right in the Stansted Airport.
The Stansted Express train.
We reached London’s Liverpool Street Station after around 1 hour train ride. ‘People mountain people sea’ literally! Very very huge crowd! One of the reason why London was so crowded is because there were some strike and parades going on that weekend. and oh, it was Saturday morning when we reach London. Pictures of the strikes will be posted later.
We then took the famous London Black Cab to our Hotel. Ruben’s Hotel which is situated on Buckingham Palace Road itself. Yay!! The hotel is situated exactly opposite the Buckingham Palace but it’s a shame that I did not get the Buckingham Palace view from my room. Come to think of it. my room cost some what around £250 per night. If it’s a Buckingham Palace view, I can imagine maybe It will cost more than £500 per night.
Every room in the Ruben’s has its own theme. I got this room which I liked very much because of it’s chandelier and the huge mirror at the back of the bed. This room is actually very small as from the mirror reflection; you can actually see the full view of the room. The door at the back of me (from the mirror) is the bathroom. And the main door of the room is on right.
Once checked in, it’s London tour time! Yay! But.. before we start anything, we were greeted by them.
Not sure why, but most of them wears costume.
And also because of all the strikes and parades. Most of the roads were closed. So we had to walk around the town areas.
And.. the guys on the picture on top is not camping. They are on strike! For what purpose? I have no idea.
Sweet shop.. yummy!
Our first stop is to go to the Covent Garden area to have lunch.
Punch & Judy is one of the famous restaurants in Covent Garden. People would by a drink and sit on the balcony of the restaurant to enjoy some street shows like the one below.
This man is actually playing with ‘che ling’. For your information, ‘che ling’ is also called as the Chinese yo-yo. So obviously it’s a Chinese thing. I’m surprised that this ‘guai lou’ can entertain the crowd with it.
Lunch at the Tuttons. Everyone drinks wine for breakie, lunch and dinner. It would be weird if someone orders juice. Haha..
Next stop, the Apple Market
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Then the Jubilee Market Hall. All the markets are in Covent Garden.
Nice 3D cards.
After a heavy lunch and some walking around, we had to rush back to the hotel to get ready for Billy Elliot. Because most of the streets are closed for vehicles due to the strikes and parades, we had to squeeze into a very very crowded London Underground Tube. And walk from a park near the Buckingham Palace to our hotel.
The park is actually very crowded. Since it’s summer, everyone was trying to get as much sunlight as possible on the park!
It’s Billy Elliot Time at the Victoria Palace.
I was told that The Queen came to this Theatre before.
Watching theatre is a must if you visit London. The price of a ticket Is very much depends on what shows you are watching (each different theatre have their own show of course). For Billy Elliot, we paid somewhat around £65 per person. Of course if you want to sit on those upper decks the price will be a lot more expensive. It was a 2 - 3 hours show with a 15 minutes in between. I did enjoyed the show.. it was a nice and of course FOC experience. haha! We then had a light dinner at the hotel before going to bed.
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