Leicester Square-->Chinatown-->Trafalgar Square-->Picadilly-->Buckingham Palace

Heeeeeeellooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo from England! It's my third day here and I am ready to do some WALKING!! Me and Uncle Hoong headed out to Chinatown which is situated somewhere near Leicester Square (pronounced Lester Square... don't ask) to meet our friend from Chinatown, Teng and Man.


The  train from Epsom would take around 45 minutes to Waterloo and then a connecting tube for 15 minutes to Leicester Square. The rushing and the pushing of course is inevitable, but we managed to arrive in one piece. :)


As the name tells, most of the population in Chinatown is Chinese from different parts of Asia such as Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and our big brother, China. Chinatown here is where you can find most food Chinese Cuisine, from Japanese to Chinese to Korean and guess what, Malaysian as well! I stopped for lunch at a nice cozy restaurant called Plum Valley that serves great chinese food, but the taste is distinctively different from those I have in Malaysia, in a restaurant I call My Mom's Cooking. :)


Trafalgar Square is quite far away from Chinatown, but looking and being awed as I walk, I didn't really notice. We went through the Red Light District of London town where most of the sex stuff are sold here. Soho is one of the largest sex toy shop in London town coupled with a few of gay bars and strip bars around the area. Good night life!! :)


There's more than a thousand people at least in Trafalgar Square. It's just so nice to see people chilling around, either walking or just sitting there looking at things. There was also street dancers doing performance there when I reached! Lucky me. 


From there, we moved on to 'Branded Street', where you can find all the branded stuffs. You name it, they have it. There's Louis Vuitton, Channel, Jimmy Choo, Longchamp etc etc. Looking at those brands and stuff itself is enough to put a smile on every womans....errrr...mans face!


Moving on, we WALKED from there to Buckingham Palace where the grand wedding took place weeks ago. Great to finally get my foot near the place for real. I've been dreaming of visiting the palace for a loooooooong time. Now the guards in red uniform is the most disciplined people I have ever seen! They really can stand and just stand for a freaking long time! Once in a while, they might get tired and will march around, but most of the time they'll just stand guard for Her Majesty. Impressive indeed!


We ended the day with a Japanese meal back in Chinatown. And yes, we walked back here to Chinatown. It's weird that you don't get tired walking around here, most probably due to the weather and the fascination of looking at new things. I've got a few pictures coming with this post, but it'll probably clog this up. So here's a link for my Facebook folder where I kept all the pictures.


 http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150176736561035.308661.577111034


Come back soon!! :)

Hampton Court: A Step Down History Lane

So it's the second day of my travel and yes, the adventure has begun! Headed to Hampton Court yesterday and I didn't have the slightest idea of what was coming towards me. Here I am, naive little Malaysian thinking of a white castle with big rooms and grand closets. What I saw was NOTHING like what I imagined! Red bricks, secret rooms, giant potraits, long hallways, HISTORY in life, hundred years old wine barrel and soooooo much more. 

What is this Hampton Court then? Hampton Court used to be the castle of Henry VIII, one of the most known ruler in the English History. From what I've learned, he used to ruled England with such fame and power that he brought His Majesties Kingdom to a whole new level. This dude King of England used to have 7 wives, each with a different set of stories that we can learn throughout the trip in the castle. Three of the wives were beheaded under his command. His first wife, Katherine of Aragon did not manage to get any son for His Majesty, which at that time people believed it was a curse. Even after re-marrying, the King did not manage to get a heir for his throne, which eventually was handed to Princess Mary, His daughter with Katherine. 

Guests will be guided by audio guides which will be given at the entrance, and for so much information, GBP 13.50(student price) is a very fair price to pay. 

Info: GBP=Great British Pound

The best part is yet to come. The King did not only have a grand castle, he wanted more. He kept a garden SO HUGE, I think you can build a zoo in it and still have space for England football team to train in. The garden is so well kept and so huge that the only word coming out from your mouth would be "Wow". There is also a maze in the middle of the garden, those made with tall grass hedges where Alice is trapped in Wonderland. Well, Mike in Wonderland it is now.

Oh ya, by the way, rumors has it that the spirits of the beheaded Queens are still haunting the palace. I saw a postcard which said Queen Katherine would come out in the middle of the night, shriek and go off. Well if I see that, I would do the same. Scream and get the hell away! 

Here are some pictures to share with you guys! :)

One of the many Astrological Clock in the world!! And guess what? It still works!!!

Thats me cutting up for breakfast. JUST CUTTING, not cooking.

The road leading towards the castle. 

That's me and my Uncle James in front of the castle.

Warrior of the 17th Century. Check out his Halbert!

One of the hundreds of sculptures of the castle. It comes in so many different forms, lions, dragons and some things I can't explain.

Doesn't this just make you say "wow"?

The clocktower of the castle. It striked twelve when I walked in. HELLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOO Henry!!!

They have REAL LIFE actors re-enacting the history of Henry VIII story.

Red bricks filled the walls of the castle.

This is the middle garden of the castle. No one is allowed in the garden!

There you go! King Henry VIII himself! ALLLLLL HAILLLLLLLL THE KINGGGGGGG!!

See the shape of this tree in the garden! SUPERB!

Part of the garden. I wonder how much are spent on keeping it this way.

Huge garden aye?

It's just a waste that visitor isn't allowed in this garden.

The vine cellar. Check! Any unusuals in the photo?

There are so much more pictures but I'm sorry I can't post them all. I'll get it into Facebook when I head back. It's gonna be Chinatown tomorrow! So keep checking for more updates. 

Farewell my beautiful citizen! Peace be with you!! I shall rule another land!!!

Epsom Town

So Epsom is a little town some 1 hour by train from England. Two words, beauty, green and quiet.(okay so thats three) Every single house have little gardens where I can see all the people really put great effort into making it beautiful.  First day here I decided to walk around the town, gotta pick things up slow. It's really chilly outside, around 20 degrees outside. Suitable enough for walking.


The buildings here in town is as you can expect are designed by the British and the way I see it, nothing much changed. The bricked buildings and the white wooden panes described so well the western essence in the culture.


Walking around town, OF COURSE, all I see is white and blondes, so it's kinda like a culture shock here compared to back in Malaysia where everyone has either black hair or tudung. :) Anyway it's good to finally see what I always see in television, typical westerner rushing to work holding a cup of coffee and munching on a piece of pastry.

Beautiful western breakfast made by my uncle. Nothing but a pack of energy to start off the day with!

Streets of Epsom town. Notice the beautiful buildings around. 

Thats me with my Uncle James at Epsom Streets.

See what I mean when I say western buildings?

One of the thousands of cafe around Epsom Town. Beer seems to be a favourite around here.

Uncle Hong, who travelled with me in front of a pastry shop. Donuts anyone?

Epsom is such a beauty. Everything is just a stones throw away!!

This is the street leading to Epsom town. Just a short five minute walk. You wouldn't even notice the walk. All you notice is the beautiful surrounding you are in.

So after the short walk, we took a ten minutes car ride to Epsom Downs, a HUGEEEEEEEEEEE horse racing track where on a normal day, would be a park for those dogs lovers and MY GOD, the dogs here are nothing but adorable!!!!!!! I managed to cuddle with one of the Siberia Husky type dogs over there and trust me, they're such a doll!

I'll post the pictures on it soon once I get the time! Promise!!!!



The Grass Is Greener on The Other Side, Really?!

As the old saying goes, the grass is greener on the other side. Well, not really. But the weather is definitely waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay cooler here than Malaysia. I arrived last night 9.30pm at local time, which is around 4.30am in Malaysia

The 14 hours plane ride was not that bad, but I didn't manage to get any in-flight pictures considering the fact that I got the middle seat of the middle row. LUCKY ME! I don't think I'm facing any jetlag problem here, most probably due to the beautiful advice by AirAsia:

COUNTERING JETLAG

• When you are travelling from East to West, try not to sleep so much.
• When you are travelling from West to East, sleep like you don't care, uh... so to speak at least.

Another little piece of advice when travelling on AirAsia, always pre-book your meal if you are travelling long distance. You save a few bucks by being early, and you avoid staring at the person next to you devouring his/her meal like no ones business. I was sitting beside a New Zealand guy and a Malaysian Chinese(who doesn't know how to speak softly) and I kinda felt bad when I was eating cause the poor chinese dude was staring at me all the while. Should've just offered him a tiny bite, but heck, I was starving myself dude. 

Just an extra tip: Bring some food of your own from outside. I brought in two cans of sardine which helped a super lot!

Currently I'm at a little town called Epsom in Surrey, where my uncle stays. The crib is super beautiful! Cozy and quiet indeed. This morning, I did some walking around Epsom town. We stopped by at Richmond Park, a beautiful field cum horserace track. I'll let the pictures speak further on. Gonna head out soon for some lunch with the family. Check around again soon. Cheers!!!

Bubblegum selling machine in the toilet! England shocker number 1.

The view from where I stay. Beautiful crib!

I have some problem uploading pictures but I promise I will get more pictures up soon for the next post!!!! Keep checking out!

Ready TO Fly!

So here I am at the LCCT Airport. Was on a 3 hour plus ride from Ipoh this morning. Travelling... never count out the tiresome riding part. Anyway, its my first time here ( go on, laugh) and god this place is huge! So many people from so many countries, with really distinct facial features! 


My flight which was scheduled at 2.30pm has now been delayed to 3pm, but that's fine with me. Tony Fernandes's never on time anyway. The WIFI in LCCT is good  fairly good considering the amount of people going online at the same time, but certainly, nothing to be bragged about.


Now just a little tip for you soon to be travellers, ALWAYS pre book your luggage compartment. I'm so freaking glad I did cause that white guy beside me got a whopping RM180 charged for being overweight by a couple kilograms.  Well, too bad Mr. America. Hope you love Malaysia. 


We'll I'll be off finding for some food now. Its LUNCH time! Byeee!

First time at LCCT calls for a picture at the departure gate, or somewhere around there.

Now you see why AirAsia is good? They have their OWN flag right beside the Malaysia flag!!!!!

M.I.K.E's Adventure

So I've decided to post a blog on my travel to England this semester break, thus the name 
  May I Know England came out. Random, really random. 


Well I didn't actually figure out a concept or anything, so it's gonna be an anything goes blog, from information sharing to activities telling to pictures posting from me. 


For my first post, maybe I'll just lament a lil' on my travel. I'll be travelling to Stansted Airport from Kuala Lumpur LCCT tomorrow around 2.30pm on AirAsia flight. Now I'm not a big fan of long flights, and lucky me, this flight is gonna be 14 hours or so! Lets just hope that AirAsia offers a seat with decent foot space. Hey... maybe I'll take a picture and show u guys on that as well.... 


I didn't really do much homework on where I will be heading, mainly because I will be staying with my uncle and his family over there, so most of the things will be planned out by them. All I know is it's summer over there now and everything is suppose to be beautiful, so HOOORAYYYYY! Talk about perfect timing. 


It's gonna be an early day tomorrow morning, so I'll keep you guys updated. Will be off for now. Nitez!!