Arrived in London

I packed my luggage and it took me 7 hours to get to HK airport. Luckily I could see the Olympic Opening Ceremony while I was waiting to check in. Even thought I am tired of Olympic topics in China, the opening ceremony was stunning and I almost burst into tears when I saw our national flag and everyone was singing our national song.

Anyway, after another 13 hours on the plane I finally arrived at Heathrow airport and went through the immigration. I thought I would need to take an x-ray on the spot because I’m staying in the UK more than 1 year, but apparently you don’t anymore. Great!

I arrived and felt like I had never left, everything was so familiar. The next day I registered with the police. Hopefully I will open my bank accounts on tomorrow morning. The weather is not fantastic here, chilly and raining, although often with a blue sky.

拿起包袱,做了7个小时的巴士到香港机场,在机场看奥运开幕式。虽然自己有点反叛不想老听到奥运的东西,因好像2008年就离不开奥运话题,但看到精彩及令人惊叹的开幕式,觉得自己真自豪!在升旗和唱国歌,自己也情不自禁的想落泪,香港机场气氛很好,各个都拍掌惊叹多么漂亮的开幕式。

到了伦敦机场,因假如在英国停留过于1年,就要求做胸透体检,啊,居然不用,太好了!到家了,好像我从没有离开过,隔天去警察局登记,明天去银行开户就大功告成了。这几天的天气都不是很好,一会蓝天白云,一会倾盆大雨,而温度象是秋天了,我要我的夏天回来啊!

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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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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