Day 2 ~ London, 16th December 2008

Let's Play MONOPOLY!

Second day of London is meant for exploring. Since the weather is all cold here we decided to take the best (cheapest) way to tour around London which is by WALKING! So after breakfast together with Jiamin and friend (Eunice’s housemate and friend) we started the first stop of our journey at Holborn station which is where Jiamin’s studying her Masters in Banking and Finance at the London School of Economics, kewl stuff

After that we headed STRAIGHT STRAIGHT STRAIGHT down some road where we found the first O2 shop where I got my local number. (07593221563 call me here if u're looking for me) A must deal for anyone who’s goin to be in London for awhile. For 10gbp, u can call any international number for 50 mins which is pretty darn worth it considering if an int’l call will cost you 3.50 SGD per min

First stop that we walked by is the Somerset House. Cool ice ring in the middle of the big round podium, guess they can only do all these in Winter hahaha if not they’ll have to build a Jurong Point and dump an ice ring in there

The National Gallery


Ice Ring in the middle of Somerset House

Somerset House

Xmas Tree with a Ice-skating shoes theme


En route to Hyde Park, we happen to pass by the National Gallery which houses pretty darn lotsa paintings for famous artists (Botticelli, Van Gogh, Da Vinci, Claude Monet). But as per all museums, photography aint allowed but oh well the front façade of the the museum with the massive fountain and monument is good enough to see on its own.

We walked past St James Palace and like typical Singaporeans, we followed the crowd and started queuing to see what everyone’s looking at and we saw a kinda pirated change of parade outside St James Palace.

Hyde Park, lucky us got to see the Winter Carnival at the park which was swarming with little kids running around. Not that fantastic a carnival if u asked me but oh well what’s a Xmas without carnivals right. On a sidenote, Hyde Park is HUGE, and its pathetic to compare our puny Speaker’s Corner to Hyde Park. Come on now SG, if u want to compare, close down a town district and say Ang Mo Kio and convert it to a PARK ? hahaha dreaming early in London





New Zealand War Memorial

Its not Red like u normally see cause GREY is for Winter, guards also have fashion sense !

Walking to Oxford Street – Oxford street is kinda like our Orchard Road if u were to ask me. Just that Oxford Street is say 5 times longer? Precious finds along the street, saw lotsa shops that u can find back in SG, Topman, Selfridges, Clarks, Gap, and my dear ZARA!! Haha. Clothes here are dirt cheap as compared to Singapore a typical Zara button down shirt sells only for 29.99gbp which is only 60 dollars sing due to the VAT reduction I guess. Didn’t get any though since I don’t want to incur any more EXCESS baggage for now until I settle down in France.

Bottled Tshirts at UniQLO

For Jianwei

For Young

Tottenham Court Road
Walked past tottenham court Road, nothing impressive just an extended portion of Oxford street with lotsa shops haha

Leicester Square
CHINATOWN!! Haha bought my first 1kg of rice. The supermarket in Chinatown rocks though I doubt they really have everything that a Chinese will want to buy. Oh and I’m beginning to appreciate the fact that Roast duck and Char Siew look way more appetizing back at home. All the shops hanging roast meat here in Chinatown looks as though the meat are starving rather than glistening with honey and charred portions lol



Westminster:
Took a bus down to Westminster and caught sight of the Westminster Abbey and the Parliament House. The grandeur of the place rocks! Too bad it’s way too cold to spend walking down the bridge. Oh btw, the sun sets here at 1630 and though its only 3 degrees, we’re definitely freezing. I wonder what the English is thinking when they see two Asians whizzing in and out of shops just to avoid the cold wind blowing haha





Elephant and Castle:
The last stop before we head back is through Elephant and Castle (aka the district for the Afro-Americans or should I call them Afro-English?) Somehow I do feel safer when I’m at Mustafa though the two places look awfully similar except the not-so-fair people here are way bigger in size and looks as though they wrestle u down any minute lol