London attractions

carmen in london

John took me visit all the attractions in London at the weekend. We have been through London eye, The Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square,The Tower of London,The British Museum,Tate Gallery of Modern Art, China Town, Buckingham Palace, OXO Tower, Piccadilly Circus, St Paul`s Cathedral, Shakespeare`s Globe Theatre and Brick Lane. I can’t believe that we have done so many tourist places in these two days, but I got a lot of fun and different experience as well.

On the way I also went to play on the Mary-go-around for few minutes. It sounds childish, but actually I haven’t done that since 1990; it just reminded me of my childhood. Many cool artists perform their show near London eyes. You put some money, then they will move or perform for you. Funny things is I wasn’t expect to see a man dressed up with a horror mouth in his stomach and I was screaming and everyone was looking at me. And then the man decided to make me scream one more time; he was chasing me and used his scary month to bite my arm. God…so funny but I couldn’t help screaming.

I have to say there are so many places to visit in London and I love the city atmosphere.

My First Day in London

paris hilton in london

Today I am writing from London. I arrived at Heathrow airport after 12 hours flying with British Airway. BA was great with money and services. I arrived at terminal 5, which is very new and I have heard some negative news – unluckily I experienced it too. I was met at the airport and entered an elevator which then got stuck. We pressed the emergency button and the staff helped us to restart the system.

Leaving the airport we took the London Metro, known as ‘The Tube’. My first impressions are that it is very small, especially compared with Hong Kong and Guangzhou. I’m told that the metro is over 100 years old, so maybe that explains it, and would certainly explain the lack of air conditioning.

We arrived at John’s new two-floor house where he has his own garden and parking place. As a city girl, I have never experienced living in a house with two floors. I walked through the garden and entered the house to find it is stylish, modern, cozy and most importantly, feels like a proper home. I will take some pictures to show later.

We walked around the local area and then went Oxford Street. While there we entered Selfridges, a very big department store, where we amazingly saw Paris Hilton promoting a new perfume. Paris is so tall and slim and was surrounded by a lot of people. Wow, I thought it was so cool and the first time for me to see a celebrity in real life.

Anyway, in the afternoon we also went to Sainsburys supermarket to buy some food. There are lots and lots of different kinds of food from all over the world, food selections and they are far to expensive if you convert to RMB. For example, vegetables in China are generally only a few yuan while here they are many times more expensive. However, you can’t think like that as you are comparing different countries and different standards of living.

It is exciting, exhausting, and very strange to explore London. I have seen I saw a lot of stylish and chic people walking the street. I’ve seen many different types of interesting people and I am still not used to hear so many people speaking British accent around me. Right now I’m still overwhelmed with everything and my body is too excited to feel any jet lag.

The weather was hot and sunny until the day I arrived, then it was chilly and cold. I didn’t expect this after leaving hot and humid Guangzhou. Another difference I’ve noticed is that you can see daylight until about 10 PM. They have long daylight in summer, but short daylight in winter. I guess everyone like more daylight!

John has booked the Delays concert later tonight and we will have a Rock and Roll night. I can’t wait.

伦敦的第一天

今年利用年假计划五月份去英国旅游,因为5-6月份是英国最好的旅游季节。12 小时的飞机在早上6点钟到达了英国。乘着英航到了伦敦希思罗机场,进了5号航道,出了机场,在入了关的时候,没有任何的指示你应该排哪里,我就跟着大队就行!移民官会问题一些基本的问题哦!

拿了行李,英国人都很有礼貌,见我个子小就帮我搬行李,出了机场,约翰已经在机场等我了,听说5航道的设计有很多问题,晨早留留我们居然困在电梯里,真是有问题啊,按了紧急按钮才帮我们打开门,超搞笑!人生一次困在电梯里!伦敦的地铁因是很早就建成,容纳人数超小也很拥挤,听说有很多条线也很慢。幸好广州和香港因后发展所以都是用了采取最新的地铁和设备!对了,他们地铁是有暖气而反而没有空调的,外面舒服过里面呢。爱鞋子的我瞄了一下大家的鞋子都超干净。这时刻对我来说,什么都是超级新鲜!
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Winter Holiday – Christmas in Beijing

Beijing Trip 2007

We always planned to visit Beijing, but never had the opportunity. Finally, this Christmas, we had a Beijing trip (and before the 2008 Olympics too).

We arrived in Beijing at 4 PM with a heavy foggy sunset. Beijing has winter trees that look just like Christmas trees. The temperature was -3. I haven’t been to Northern China before so I had no idea what the cold weather felt. I quickly found out that it was really dry and cold and you could feel your hands becoming numb when not wearing gloves.

Our itinerary was: first day to Great Wall, second day to Summer Palace, third day to Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and maybe Heaven of Temple. We had very little time to visit these symbolic Beijing attractions.

Great Wall

Our original plan was to visit Mu Tian Yu instead of Ba Da Ling, but we decided that Ba Da Ling fitted better with our schedule. I was very surprised at how difficult the transport is in Beijing, even for a Chinese speaker. There are no directions or signs to show you how to get to popular destinations. From research on the internet we took the subway to Ji Shui Tang and then went to find the 919 bus. This simple task took a lot longer than it should as, upon leaving the station, there was no indication of where to find the bus. We headed in one direction chosen at random and came across seven 919 buses, each going in different directions. I wonder how foreigners will handle this!

Luckily for us we had a beautiful clear day with blue sky and sunshine. The Wall itself was full of tourists, as expected, but we chose to walk in the opposite direction to the crowds. The walk is very tough and steep, and it is really breath-taking to see how long the wall is and how magnificent it looks. Every step reminded me of old stories about the wall’s builders.

We walked one hour on the Great Wall before returning to Beijing to see the Yong He Gong Temple.

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Summer Holiday

Carmen in KL

Singapore

We went to Singapore and Malaysia for a summer holiday in July. We decided to stay in Singapore for three days and visited my old friend Bu Duo, who I haven’t seen for 10 years. Singapore has a very convenient metro system. We checked in Hangout Hotel which is located in Little India near Mt. Emily. Singapore is very expensive, just like Hong Kong. I think I needed to pay five times what I need to pay in Guangzhou. Our hotel was a boutique hotel for young back-packers, and had a very strong Ikea style. The price wasn’t bad (especially not compared to other hotels in Singapore), with a quiet location. The room was very small, but the hotel made up for it in other areas.

Bu Duo took us to Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay – in the first night and we ate the delicious and famous Singaporean ‘spicy crab’. It was the tastiest crab I’ve ever eaten. After dinner, we walked around the Esplanade (outside looks like a huge durian) and went to see the Merlion. The next day we spent the whole day in Sentosa, which was a small island. We visited Underwater World, rode on the Luge, and saw the dolphin show. Later we met with Bu Duo again and had a Thai dinner. We got tired for walking around all day and bought a ticket to see the “Transformers” movie.

Singapore is extremely clean and pretty. The city is full of energy and is very lively. It has some similarities with HK, but less people and more cleaner. I guess shopping in Singapore is more expensive than HK, although everyday expenses are like HK. I found so many cooking ingredients and imported foods in Singapore. I would like to live in Singapore!

Malaysia and Langkawi

When we arrived in Langkawi we rented a car from a company in the airport. We got a great deal for five days rental, totalling about 30RM a day! John drove of course; I was helping with directions.

We stayed in Tanjung Sanctuary hotel, which is a beautiful resort with a private beach. The hotel room was huge and we booked one with a sea view, right down by the beach. It’s so easy with the rental car and we enjoyed the freedom to explore different places in Langkawi. I am so familiar with the roads of this island even now. We went to see different waterfalls, the cable car, and went on a mangrove and snorkelling trip. The cable car was exciting and scary at the same time, with break-taking views from the top. The rest of the days we just relaxed and enjoyed the beach.

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Thailand Trip

thailand

We planed to travel in Thailand by ourselves in May Pubic holiday. We booked the Air Asia Airline from Macao to Bangkok. Air Asia is cheap for the backpack traveler.

First destination: Bangkok

Bangkok known to the locals as Krungthep (City of Angels) is the rapidly beating heart of Thailand. Despite being just over 200 years old, it houses 8 million people and has all the facilities that a modern capital requires.

Here you will find the Grand Palace and the floating market, as well as the infamous Khao San road, and many other seedier tourist delights.
Bangkok suffers from major traffic problems, and journeys can (and often will) take much longer than the distance would have you believe. To alleviate this, Bangkok constructed the Expressway, cutting straight through the city. Additionally, there is the Skytrain, an overhead metro system, as well as an underground metro system.

There is another transportation is called Tuk Tuk. They will offer you a very good deal about travel in Bangkok; but it turned out they drive you to visit a tailor, a jeweller, or a restaurant. Just completely ignore TukTuk; take a taxi and save yourself any hassle.
Without sounding intimidating, you do need to apply a lot of common sense in Bangkok or the whole Thailand. As a tourist you will be a prime target for small-time scams, cons, and rip-offs. This is I didn’t enjoy the transportation in Bangkok. You couldn’t trust anyone at all. Who knows anyone came to talk to you and being nice to you, it turned out they all want you to visit the jeweler shop…

The Grand Palace

The Grand Palace, home of the King for nearly two centuries, is probably Bangkok’s number one tourist destination and a required visit for everyone. It is a vast and intoxicating mixture of temples, shrines, palaces, and heavily jewelled and painted architecture.
A visit here is well worth the 250 baht entrance fee. It’s more than just a mere Kodak-moment, and you’ll likely spend the first 10 minutes walking around in astonishment at the sheer variety and quantity of sights.

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