Tag Archives: travelling

Miwa Visiting Me

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Miwa was so kindly to come to Leeds to keep me accompanied because she knew that John will be away to Florida for a week, and she was afraid that I will be lonely. Miwa arrived Saturday afternoon, then we went to town to have a walk with Melanie, and done some shopping. I took her to the restaurant called Thai Edge. It was absolutely delicious, authentic with reasonable price. I got my favourite curry crab. I missed it so much. It was 4.5 out of 5 definitely.

We decided to go to Manchester on Sunday, and just chilled out and ate food. Miwa and I didn’t do much research, and just booked the ticket to Manchester. Two little girls were in the big strange city, but we managed well. We went to Tai Hu Dimsum restaurant we went before with John, and we ordered 10 dishes dimsum and finished them all. The time when we finished lunch, all the shops were almost closed.

It’s nice of Miwa spending time with me because she will be back to Japan permanently and I won’t see her easily like she is in London now. I am so glad that I got Eileen, Miwa and Vicky as good friends in London.

Friends forever, no matter where they are!

Visiting York for a day

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Since we moved to Leeds, we haven’t got time to explore North Yorkshire yet. It was warm and sunny yesterday, so we decided to travel to York for a day, and to enjoy the Spring weather.

York was founded by the Romans in 71 AD, so is famous of its nature beauty and historical heritage. It is a wealthy small city with a lot of historical churches, buildings, and houses in every little corner. The picture I took in the front cover was one of the churches properly had knocked down by Henry VIII in 16th century.

We also went to see the famous Jórvík Viking Centre and experienced how the Vikings’ lives were in 866 AD. It was really authentic experience and they said you supposed to smell of the Vikings’ cooking too. It was indeed a really fun experience. At lunch, I ordered a famous ‘a taste of York’ roast belly pork sandwich and was incredible delicious. After lunch and few cup of tea, we went to see the Railway Museum and to see how Britain was so powerful and rich when it had discovered the steam engines and the world was changed after it.

York is really a nice place to visit and I am sure we will return it next time to discover more castles or scenery nearby York as well. Here are some pictures we took.

从搬来利兹之后，忙于各种各样的东西，都没有时间去旅游。昨天太阳高照，我们决定去出了名历史悠久的约克城市观光下。约克大概有1千9百年历史，果然是历史悠久的城市，所以你到处可以看到很多15－16世纪的教堂啊，18世纪的房子。象伦敦一样，路上的每个砖头都有历史味道，当然，以年龄来说，约克比伦敦老很多。约克曾被称为当时的英国首都。约克是一个蛮富裕的城市，可以感觉到以前或现在都是蛮有钱人住的城市。一个蛮小休闲的城市，居然很多名牌都部落在街头，感觉游客们个个都穿得富贵华丽，街头也有很多名贵的豪华车，不愧是以前的首都。

封面的照片应该是16世纪亨利八世反对天主教然后毁灭掉的教堂。我还走过去摸了摸1千多年的教堂石头，教堂的毁灭真的蛮可惜的。我们还去体验了北欧海盗侵入约克的时期，地学研究家把海盗们在约克的生活点滴都用假人雕磨出来，假人还会动也会和你说话，虽然有点毛骨悚然，不过还是蛮真实的体验。

中午时候我点了约克最老最有名的烤肉店，我点了烤乳猪肉三文治，超正超多肉 － 真的吃肥死我了。喝了星巴克Latte充实精力后，我们去参观了英国铁路博物馆，看了许多旧的火车和汽车展览，体验了英国蒸汽时代英国的繁荣和如何成为不落日帝国。蛮有趣经历的。

我相信下次我们还回去约克玩，开车去约克周边的城堡啊，坐下小船之类的。等大家来，带你们去约克玩。点击这里我们照了有些约克的照片！

Road Trip – Brighton / Beachy Head

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brighton-and-beachy-head

Second Day

The weather was foggy when we arrived Brighton, however, I can imagine it would full of people when it comes to Summer. Brighton is a lively and young city. At first, we went to the Theme park in Brighton Pier and had some fun. Then we visited the famous Royal Pavilion, then we drove to the Beachy Head.

Beachy Head, from the name you can tell is the pointy cliff of Sussex, as famous as the white cliffs. We stopped there for half and hour and it was really relaxing. You could see a open-space land and the ocean, sheep, cows and farms. Then we drove back and ate in a famous Dimsum restaurant called Drunken Monkey in Liverpool Street. I heard there are many celebrities and cool trendy young people hanging out there, so it must be great to eat and hang out. Food was not bad; price was totally acceptable, but service could be improved. Then we drove back home and had a great fun holiday.

Third day – Lee Valley

Last station was Lee Valley – 40 minutes drive outside London, then we had a picnic in the park, and rent 4 bikes and rode for 4 hours, seeing the canal, forest, swans and enjoyed the sun and Spring in England. It was the most amazing place to have a weekend break for cycling. Bike rental is 2 pounds per hour. Super good deal. Here are some more pictures.

第二天 －布朗顿 ／ 海滩头

我们开车1个半小时后，到达布朗顿，可惜天气还是有点雾气，海滩上不是很多人，布朗顿是出了名的漂亮和有海滩度假胜地。但可以想象中夏天应该超级多人到这里来晒太阳。给我的感觉它是一个年轻有活力的城市。我们走到海边的‘游乐场’玩了‘鬼屋’ 上下飞船，吓死我了，象海盗船一样，太久没有玩了，功力下降了许多！然后去出名的有印度色彩的－皇宫宫殿，听说以前一个国王旅游到印度，喜欢印度的宫殿建筑就照样子也建了一个，然后我们吃了个简单的炒面就开车去海滩头了。

海滩头，象它的名字一样，是布朗顿最凸出的陡峭的峭壁，也是以白色峭壁出名，我们走了半个小时，海滩头给人很开阔和休闲的感觉，很自然，看着羊啊牛的，吃着草，广阔的草地，看着海，晒着太阳，感觉朴素中带浪漫，十分享受。大家也累了，开车到伦敦商业街利物浦街吃饭，选了一个听说蛮多名人去蒲的餐厅叫 － 醉猴，吃点心和喝酒的地方。我们点了很多点心和些鸡尾酒。食物还可以，价格也蛮能接受的，但服务要改进下。这样就结束了我们第二天旅游。

第三天 － Lee Valley

我们选了伦敦郊外一个公园湖边野餐和骑自行车，放松和运动，户外运动是我们的最爱。单车是两位退休老人家成立的，2磅一个小时，哪里有这么便宜，晚去还没有单车租呢，十分popular啊！值得推荐。这里还有超级多的照片呢！

Hampton Court

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hampton-court

Hampton Court called The Great Hall, which is England’s greatest medieval hall and one of Britain’s oldest theatres. William Shakespeare’s company performed there in 1603-4. It is famous also because it was one of Henry VIII’s palaces in 16 century. It is unmissable to not visit it if you love the historical of England’s buildings and architectures.

We went to visit Hampton Court after watching one of my favourite TV series The Tudors.It took 1 hour by train to get there and we had a picnic at lunch, and then walked around the court for at least 3-4 hours. It is an enormous palace with many pretty gardens – even have a grape garden to make wine for Henry VIII. It still remains the same looking kitchens, beds, entertaining rooms as well as gardens in the period of Henry VIII. It was a great trip and it makes me feel that was it like in the old days. There are some pictures here.

汉普顿宫廷

汉普顿宫廷誉为贵族宫殿，是英国最大也是最老的宫殿和戏剧院。莎士比亚剧院曾在16世纪在这里演出。汉普顿宫廷的出名是因16世纪亨利八世在这里执政，这是他最爱的宫廷之一。假如你喜欢英国历史文化和建筑，汉普顿宫廷你是绝对不可以错过的。

因亨利八世BBC连续剧，我决定来汉普顿宫殿参观下。大概一个半小时的地铁到车程，我们先在花园野餐，然后再进入宫殿。里面超级大，就花园就有4-5个不同形状和主题的花园，还有葡萄园 – 据说亨利八世自己种的葡萄，然后运酿成葡萄酒。当时英国也有很好的葡萄酒。

宫殿里面有亨利八世的日常生活的细节。最好玩的是你首先进入厨房。你闻到阵阵木材味道，原来为了旅客们亲身体验亨利八世的厨房，厨房一直烧着木材。里面还有很多新鲜蔬菜，肉类，让你知道当时厨房要准备600多人的饮食多么不容易。

接着参观亨利八世睡过的床，执政的地方，宴会的客厅，皇后们的房子，花园，亨利八世和皇后的房间正对着花园和喷泉，真是好风景！然后一个很多的迷宫供给他们娱乐，还后旧时候他们发明的室内皇式网球场。宫殿至少需要3-4小时才能游览完毕，这让我幻想，旧时候的皇室生活表面是多么的奢侈及繁华富贵，但又为了权利和财富而勾心斗角，我想每个社会都是这样发展起来的。汉普顿宫廷是一个不能错过，十分有趣和富有历史意义的旅程。这里有很多里面的照片哦！

My First British Christmas

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Merry Little Christmas!

We are in Sheffield and Leeds and spending Christmas with John’s family. It is my first real Christmas experience in the UK and I heard there will be a lot of food in Christmas day.

Finally it is Christmas day. We drove to Leeds where John’s sister Melanie hosted the dinner this year. We prawn and salad for starters, along with some wine. Then everyone pulls crackers and exchange gifts. This is strange as I always thought it was boxing day when you exchange gifts, but it seems I was wrong. Next is roasted vegetables (potatoes, beans, carrots, and parsnips), along with some bacon wrapped sausages, stuffing (a tasty bread mix) and some carrots and sprouts with butter. The food tastes so delicious, and finally the main Christmas star – is the turkey with gravy and cranberry sauce. To be honest I don’t know why turkey comes with fruit jam, but it is said that this is tradition. I think it is a weird conbination, but actually it tasted pretty good. After the main course everyone is so full, but I still want to try some trifle and the Christmas cake. You can imagine how full I am.

The next day we visit John’s grandmother and some relatives. It is just like our chinese new year – it is all about family gather with delicious food.

I know properly some people hate Christmas just like we don’t fancy Chinese new year gathering any more. It is like a duty rather than a thing we look forward to, but this Christmas for me is special and unique. I received many gifts and enjoyed it a lot.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and good luck in 2009. Here are the latest pictures for Christmas day!

我的第一个英国圣诞节

我们又到谢菲尔德和利兹，约翰父母在谢菲尔德，而妹妹生活在利兹。这是我的第一个英国的圣诞节，很期待它的来临。记得小时候常幻想真正的西方圣诞节是什么样子，这次终于梦想成真了。

圣诞节这天到了，我们开车到利兹，圣诞大餐在约翰的妹妹-梅乐尼家里举行。所有的菜都是梅乐尼和男友准备的，我们先吃开胃菜-大头虾沙律，然后大家喝酒聊天，拉圣诞花礼炮，一拉‘嘭‘一声，然后里面有礼物和笑话题，大家一起开心的交换礼物。在我印象中，总觉得是26号boxing day打开礼物的，但实际上是圣诞节当天。接下来是很多烤蔬菜，有胡萝卜，传统一定要吃的烤土豆，香肠卷着培根，圣诞配料（有洋葱，果仁，饼干，干果）放进土鸡里面一起烤，都超级美味！主角来了-圣诞土鸡！他们说要下点果酱和肉酱一起吃才野味，也是传统的吃法，觉得怪怪的，不过吃起来还可以。我们都吃得太饱了，不过还要吃巧克力蛋糕和圣诞蛋糕哦，巧克力蛋糕吃起来像提拉米苏一样，不太甜，很多忌廉和巧克力。圣诞蛋糕里面有很多酒和果仁酝酿一起的，6个月不断的下白兰地一起酝酿的，然后可以在圣诞蛋糕上点火，超好玩！从下午1点吃到3点，你可以想象我们有多饱。

隔天我们开车去看约翰的90岁的奶奶和他们的亲戚，就像我们过年一样，都是家人亲戚聚餐和围炉！我知道很多人都不太喜欢圣诞节了，就像例行公事，像我们中国过年一样，没有什么新鲜意思。不过这个圣诞节我过得十分充实和有意义，同时也收到了很多礼物和厚爱！

希望好运在2009年，大家过一个肥厚的新年！这是我最新的圣诞的的相片，好看吗？

Travelled in Yorkshire

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We went to visit Sheffield, Derbyshire, and Leeds last week and drove to see the famous Chatsworth house, owned by Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. This house is famous for appearing as Mr Darcy’s house in the 2005 Pride & Prejudice movie, as well as the upcoming calledThe Dutchess (featuring Keira Knightley).

Unfortunately when we were there they were holding a country fair so I didn’t get chance to visit it properly but I’m sure I will do so in the future.

We also drove to Bakewell in Derbyshire and the Peak District. It’s a small, peaceful, and very pretty market town. It reminds me of Europe a lot.

Another day we drove to North Yorkshire from Leeds to visit Harrogate . It is a very large and wealthy city, we enjoyed our time there.

Sheffield a city of many hills with views into the city centre or out to the countryside. There is a National Park next door and it was famous for producing steel. It’s quite a small city (could be like Shantou, not sure), but the hills remind me of Hong Kong.

Leeds is not bad, got a lot of young modern buildings and restaurants near the canal.

Here is some pictures I took.

The picture of the cover is from www.theage.com.au (Chatsworth House at sunset.)

我们上周去了谢菲尔德， 德比郡， 利兹，去看了很多周边的小镇，去参观了电视剧 /电影－达西先生住的房子（傲慢与偏见），还有9月5号即将上映的电影（女爵）也是在这个房子拍摄的，来头不小啊！听说那整片地区包裹房子都是属于一个公爵的，太富有了！但因为我们刚好碰见公园在举行活动，人山人海，没有仔细进入里面，以后再去罗！我们也去了利兹，利兹还好拉，蛮有小伦敦感觉的。谢菲尔德也不错，到处都是树木花园，国家公园也就在隔壁，居民的房子都建在山腰上，感觉象香港的半山腰。这是最新的照片和大家分享拉。

Winter Holiday – Christmas in Beijing

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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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Thailand Trip

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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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Miss Hong Kong

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carmen-in-hk

It is a spring and the weather is so changeable like the song “ Come Rain or Come Shine”. It’s the most appropriate to describe it. However, the weather reminds our Hong Kong trips. Most time while we visiting HK were foggy days, but nothing stop its attractions.

While we were in HK, we sat outside of Delifrance café and having a fresh breakfast or lunch near the Victoria Harbor in Kowloon. The cool wind with slight grass smell after the spring rain made me feel so alive and reborn. We normally go to HK for different food and go shopping like everyone, such as in HMV for hours looking for our favorite CDs, or be ease in hotel enjoying the luxury bubble bath, or go to have a good bite in a nice restaurant. Hong Kong for us is a relaxing place and can experience the variety choices which can not find in Guangzhou.

HK is a multicultural city and we love travelling there at the weekend.

想念香港

春天又来了，天气变化多端，就像爵士歌曲（时而下雨，时而阳光明媚），这样的天气让我想起我们周末时常去香港旅游，虽然香港总是蒙蒙的雾天，但它的魅力仍然不减。

很多人去香港购物，我们去香港总是以休息为主。到九龙维多利亚港的法国小cafe店 – Delifrance 吃早餐，或买三文治，看着海港边，吹着海风，风中带有清新的泥土味，淡淡的春天气息，这个最好的休息方式。我们时而去香港爬山，或去购物，吃吃喝喝，香港太多选择了，这就是它东西方结合的好处，什么都有。香港是个国际化都市，周末去香港是我们最喜欢的短期休息。