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Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Shanghai March 2011
I had not been to Shanghai since 2005. This time, thanks to a workshop, I had the chance to visit Shanghai again. It was also a good chance to catch up with my friend D, whom I had not met since 2005. Gosh! His son was already so big. As i was there for a workshop, I did not have a chance to walk around, other than the Bund where we had our dinner. The Bund looks different after the renovation for the World Expo. The road seems to be wider. I enjoyed Shanghai's weather in early March, cool in the day and a bit cooler in the night (about 2-9 degrees). The only thing that i did not enjoy was my stomach. I had stomach problem on the 2nd day and it was really painful. Somehow when I went to Shanghai, I would return home sick. Was it me or the water or the air?? Maybe I should not try again for the 3rd time.
Friday, February 4, 2011
UK Dec Part 3
Today was London Eye Day. When I was in London in 2006, it was GBP14 to go up, which was equailvent to S$42. Now that pounds is twice as much as S$, I have to make use of the chance to go up. I reached there at noon, was quite surprise to see that there was no queue. Then i realised that there was a technical fault of the London Eye, and it was still under repair, probably will open at noon. I wonder why everything failed during winter!
From the top of the eye:
Thank God that everything was under control by noon, and I managed to go up! Quite similar to the Singapore Flyer, though there was more things to see from the London Eye. Finally mission accomplished!
I finished the day with Musical - Mama Mia! ABBA songs had a certain kind of magic, everyone seems to know the songs, and can sway with the music. Whole theatre was swaying and clapping to the songs. Though the costumes and the effects were normal compared to the Lion King, I enjoyed it as much. I think I could spend 1 week in London, just watching musicals.
From the top of the eye:
Next destination- Nature History Museum of London.
I finished the day with Musical - Mama Mia! ABBA songs had a certain kind of magic, everyone seems to know the songs, and can sway with the music. Whole theatre was swaying and clapping to the songs. Though the costumes and the effects were normal compared to the Lion King, I enjoyed it as much. I think I could spend 1 week in London, just watching musicals.
UK Dec Part 2
I woke up in anticipation that I would receive good news. However, I was greeted with "Next update: 1pm" I decided that I would make a trip to the city, since I would have nothing to do in the morning. I bought the one day unlimited pass for EURO 5.15, and took the airport shuttle to airport to catch the train into the city.
When I was wondering in the train station, trying to figure out which platform it was, a girl approached me. "Is this the train to this place? I need to go there to catch my train to Berlin"
"I have no idea, I am looking for my train too"
I found a man that looked like local, and bingo, he was from Frankfurt. He told me I was at the right platform and which train to take. The girl overheard that, and quickly jumped in to ask him, and of course, she got her answer too. So 3 of us boarded the train when it was here, and I even helped her with her luggage. I believe in helping fellow travellers :-)
I got to know that she was also one of the victim because of this Heatrow drama. She was on Lufthansa, and was going to Berlin via Frankfurt. However, Frankfurt airport was seriously affected by the closure of Heatrow, many flights were cancelled. She waited for 3 days and have decided to take a train instead. A brave decision as she was carrying 2 luggages, one big one and one hand luggage.
I arrived in city after 15 minutes, and shopped around. It was not snowing so heavily today, so it was easier to walk around. I managed to find G Star Raw in one of the shopping mall, so happy! I made my way back and reached the hotel past noon, in anticipation of good news. There was quite a number of the passengers surrounding the counter, so I thought that there was good news. The update was SIA has arranged land transportation for us, which will take 13 hours from Frankfurt to London. There was a lot of questions, such as "How's the traffic?" "Which route are we taking?""if we do not take this coach, when is the next one?"
I hestiated because the idea of 13 hours bus ride in the dark, snowy and slippery road was scary. It was like another Singapore to London flight. Finally I decided to go ahead after one of the Singaporean girl said that at the our luggages were with us, and need not go through the airport. I felt so relieved after making the decision, and went to the city again, this time with Joel and Robin. We had mull wine and Robin bought us sausages at the Christmas Market. This was in preparation for the long bus ride.
The bus departed from the hotel at 9pm. Many of the passengers were waiting at the lobby before 9pm, all were anxious to go to London. I told Joel that I wanted to sleep throughout the journey, and I really did. The bus made a toilet stop in Belgium, and w through France, then finally reached Heatrow at 10am the next day. 13 hours indeed! I was really tired, but was happy to reach London.
Strand Palace Hotel: Where I stayed in London, near the theatres.
The bad news was that I could not check in as the room was not ready. I went to the theatre, hoping to change my Lion King ticket. I explaine my situation to the lady, and she did not seem too concern. Thank God that the man who was seated at the corner, who seemed to be the manager turned around to ask me more details. He said he will try to help, and told me to wait. After 10 minutes, he came out from the room to ask if I could make it for the matinee that afternoon. Yeah!
When I was wondering in the train station, trying to figure out which platform it was, a girl approached me. "Is this the train to this place? I need to go there to catch my train to Berlin"
"I have no idea, I am looking for my train too"
I found a man that looked like local, and bingo, he was from Frankfurt. He told me I was at the right platform and which train to take. The girl overheard that, and quickly jumped in to ask him, and of course, she got her answer too. So 3 of us boarded the train when it was here, and I even helped her with her luggage. I believe in helping fellow travellers :-)
I got to know that she was also one of the victim because of this Heatrow drama. She was on Lufthansa, and was going to Berlin via Frankfurt. However, Frankfurt airport was seriously affected by the closure of Heatrow, many flights were cancelled. She waited for 3 days and have decided to take a train instead. A brave decision as she was carrying 2 luggages, one big one and one hand luggage.
I arrived in city after 15 minutes, and shopped around. It was not snowing so heavily today, so it was easier to walk around. I managed to find G Star Raw in one of the shopping mall, so happy! I made my way back and reached the hotel past noon, in anticipation of good news. There was quite a number of the passengers surrounding the counter, so I thought that there was good news. The update was SIA has arranged land transportation for us, which will take 13 hours from Frankfurt to London. There was a lot of questions, such as "How's the traffic?" "Which route are we taking?""if we do not take this coach, when is the next one?"
I hestiated because the idea of 13 hours bus ride in the dark, snowy and slippery road was scary. It was like another Singapore to London flight. Finally I decided to go ahead after one of the Singaporean girl said that at the our luggages were with us, and need not go through the airport. I felt so relieved after making the decision, and went to the city again, this time with Joel and Robin. We had mull wine and Robin bought us sausages at the Christmas Market. This was in preparation for the long bus ride.
The bus departed from the hotel at 9pm. Many of the passengers were waiting at the lobby before 9pm, all were anxious to go to London. I told Joel that I wanted to sleep throughout the journey, and I really did. The bus made a toilet stop in Belgium, and w through France, then finally reached Heatrow at 10am the next day. 13 hours indeed! I was really tired, but was happy to reach London.
Strand Palace Hotel: Where I stayed in London, near the theatres.
The bad news was that I could not check in as the room was not ready. I went to the theatre, hoping to change my Lion King ticket. I explaine my situation to the lady, and she did not seem too concern. Thank God that the man who was seated at the corner, who seemed to be the manager turned around to ask me more details. He said he will try to help, and told me to wait. After 10 minutes, he came out from the room to ask if I could make it for the matinee that afternoon. Yeah!
Lion King was a great production! It was held at the Lyceum Theatre, which could sit approx 2000 people. The opening was great, with the production crew marching along the isle. It was interactive, great performance and great songs! Definitely worth the money.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
UK Dec 2010 Part 1
My trip to UK started with a little glitch, and turned out to be a little adventure. About 3 hours away from London Heathrow, there was an annoucement in the plane. The captain of the flight informed that Heathrow airport was shut, and they had to divert to Frankfurt. When they landed in Frankfurt, they would have to negotiate with the airport to see if they can go into Heathrow today, and if it passed the maximum working hours of the air crew, we would have to stay a night in Frankfurt!
The passengers onboard were surprisely calm, and some even clapped. I had the last meal on board, and the plane landed in Frankfurt. Upon landing, priority was given to the first class, business class and those seated from row 32 to row 43 in the Economy class. I used to choose the first cabin of the economy class when i fly, because I wanted to be the first few to get out of the plane. However, after a few incidents of non stop crying babies, I decided to move to the middle cabin. I was banging my head when those in the first cabin of the Economy class were been checked into Le Meridien Frankfurt. Our hotel was not that bad, but it was near the airport, and it was 30 minutes from the city center, while Le Meridien was right smacked in the city center. In addition to that, we had to wait for about 4 hours in the plane to wait for the hotel to prepare the room. SIA ground crew has adviced that it was better for us to wait in the plane then to wait in Frankfurt airport, as it was chaotic there. The air stewardess were trying to make our wait in the plane more comfortable by giving out snacks and drinks, and they also allowed the passengers to go into the Business Class cabins. I was too lazy to move, and I just sat to watch my movie.
Hours later, we finally disembarked the plane and boarded the bus to get to our hotel. Upon arrival at the hotel, it was another round of waiting, this time waiting to check into the hotel. I finally checked slightly before noon, and officially started the waiting game.
There was a counter assigned to the ground crew of SIA in Germany. We saw a lady and a gentleman at the counter. At the side of it, there was a flip chart, with a big SIA written on it, underlined.
On the chart was "Lunch at Universal" 12-2pm
Next update: 7pm
Many people were asking the crew when we could fly, which the crew had no idea. The gentleman was the nicer one among the two, he was friendly, and though many people kept bugging him, he maintained a nice smile on his face.
I joined the people to ask question, though my question was quite lame. I wanted to know how to get to the city centre, and to my delight, the lady told me that many people asked the same thing, so they were arranging transport for us!! Wow!
After my lunch, I saw new things on the chart "Bus to Xmas Far in City - Pick up 230pm; Return 530pm. That's what I called service. Well done, Singapore Airlines.
Christmas market was quite an experience. It was snowing heavily on a Sunday afternoon, yet the Germans did not seem to be bother. They were seen drinking their mull wine and having their sausages outside. I walked around, looking for an ATM to withdraw EURO, and also trying to cope with the snow. Lesson learnt: Never open your mouth wide when it was snowing heavily.
The snow got into my mouth, and it was like ice!
Lesson 2: Hood did not help when it was snowing heavily. You need an umbrella.
After wandering around the market, I finally found an ATM. I withdrew 50 EURO, and happily went back to look for a place for my German snacks. I bought a sausage, and went to a stall that was selling mull wine. I was told by a nice couple that when I returned my mug, I would get 2 EURO back. By the way, all the signs at the stalls were in German.
The mull wine was hot! The first sip almost burnt my tongue. The second & third sips tasted awfully too. However, miracously after the 3rd sip, it tasted good. I could feel the warmth travelling down from my throat to my stomach, and whole body. I was not cold anymore. Ah, so this was the secret of the Germans!
I continued my Christmas market tour after the snack, though not long after, I had to make another coffee stop as it was getting wet and cold, and dark. The sky darkened at 430pm!!
I was so tired that the first thing i did when i went back to the hotel was to take a nap, before my dinner.
The flipchart now said "Next update: Tomorrow 7am" Breakfast at Universal"
Okay, no point worrying, hit the sack and see what tomorrow will bring. Maybe all the snow in Heatrow has melted when I woke up.
I had a good rest, and woke up around 0730Hr the next day. I got changed and went down to the lobby, in anticipation of good news. I was greeted with "Next update: 1pm" So i had no choice but to have my breakfast and decided to go to town to walk around. I bought an all day pass for 5.15EUR and took the shuttle to the airport, followed by the train. I managed to find my favourite brand G star, and i made my way back to the hotel for the 1300Hr update.
The station manager told us that we had a choice. We could either take the land transport, which was the 13 hours bus ride to London, or we could wait for the airport to reopen. After some thoughts and discussion with a few Singaporeans, I have decided to take the bus. At least I could be certain that I could reach London. Once decided, I felt like a burden was off, and i asked Robin, a Hong Konger and Joel, a Malaysian studying in London if they wanted to go the town with me.
We took the same route to the town, and walked around the market. The weather was better today. The snow had stopped, and because it was a Monday, it was not as crowded. We had our sausages and mull wine, so that we could skip the dinner in the hotel, which would pretty much looked like lunch.
After dinner and freshing up, I boarded the bus at 2030Hr. SIA has also prepared some snacks and water for us. There were a total of 5 buses, and we departed together as a convoy for safety. In 2 days, I went through 4 countries - Frankfurt, Belgium, France and London! I finally reached Heatrow at 1000Hr the next day. Heathrow was indeed chaotic. There were long queue and tents set up outside T3, and people were queueing to get into the terminal, amidst the bitterly cold weather. I prayed that the airport would open soon, which it finally did on 26 Dec 2010.
The passengers onboard were surprisely calm, and some even clapped. I had the last meal on board, and the plane landed in Frankfurt. Upon landing, priority was given to the first class, business class and those seated from row 32 to row 43 in the Economy class. I used to choose the first cabin of the economy class when i fly, because I wanted to be the first few to get out of the plane. However, after a few incidents of non stop crying babies, I decided to move to the middle cabin. I was banging my head when those in the first cabin of the Economy class were been checked into Le Meridien Frankfurt. Our hotel was not that bad, but it was near the airport, and it was 30 minutes from the city center, while Le Meridien was right smacked in the city center. In addition to that, we had to wait for about 4 hours in the plane to wait for the hotel to prepare the room. SIA ground crew has adviced that it was better for us to wait in the plane then to wait in Frankfurt airport, as it was chaotic there. The air stewardess were trying to make our wait in the plane more comfortable by giving out snacks and drinks, and they also allowed the passengers to go into the Business Class cabins. I was too lazy to move, and I just sat to watch my movie.
Hours later, we finally disembarked the plane and boarded the bus to get to our hotel. Upon arrival at the hotel, it was another round of waiting, this time waiting to check into the hotel. I finally checked slightly before noon, and officially started the waiting game.
There was a counter assigned to the ground crew of SIA in Germany. We saw a lady and a gentleman at the counter. At the side of it, there was a flip chart, with a big SIA written on it, underlined.
On the chart was "Lunch at Universal" 12-2pm
Next update: 7pm
Many people were asking the crew when we could fly, which the crew had no idea. The gentleman was the nicer one among the two, he was friendly, and though many people kept bugging him, he maintained a nice smile on his face.
I joined the people to ask question, though my question was quite lame. I wanted to know how to get to the city centre, and to my delight, the lady told me that many people asked the same thing, so they were arranging transport for us!! Wow!
After my lunch, I saw new things on the chart "Bus to Xmas Far in City - Pick up 230pm; Return 530pm. That's what I called service. Well done, Singapore Airlines.
The snow got into my mouth, and it was like ice!
Lesson 2: Hood did not help when it was snowing heavily. You need an umbrella.
Struggling to take the photo with umbrella, gloves and snow!
After wandering around the market, I finally found an ATM. I withdrew 50 EURO, and happily went back to look for a place for my German snacks. I bought a sausage, and went to a stall that was selling mull wine. I was told by a nice couple that when I returned my mug, I would get 2 EURO back. By the way, all the signs at the stalls were in German.
The mull wine was hot! The first sip almost burnt my tongue. The second & third sips tasted awfully too. However, miracously after the 3rd sip, it tasted good. I could feel the warmth travelling down from my throat to my stomach, and whole body. I was not cold anymore. Ah, so this was the secret of the Germans!
I continued my Christmas market tour after the snack, though not long after, I had to make another coffee stop as it was getting wet and cold, and dark. The sky darkened at 430pm!!
The flipchart now said "Next update: Tomorrow 7am" Breakfast at Universal"
Okay, no point worrying, hit the sack and see what tomorrow will bring. Maybe all the snow in Heatrow has melted when I woke up.
I had a good rest, and woke up around 0730Hr the next day. I got changed and went down to the lobby, in anticipation of good news. I was greeted with "Next update: 1pm" So i had no choice but to have my breakfast and decided to go to town to walk around. I bought an all day pass for 5.15EUR and took the shuttle to the airport, followed by the train. I managed to find my favourite brand G star, and i made my way back to the hotel for the 1300Hr update.
The station manager told us that we had a choice. We could either take the land transport, which was the 13 hours bus ride to London, or we could wait for the airport to reopen. After some thoughts and discussion with a few Singaporeans, I have decided to take the bus. At least I could be certain that I could reach London. Once decided, I felt like a burden was off, and i asked Robin, a Hong Konger and Joel, a Malaysian studying in London if they wanted to go the town with me.
We took the same route to the town, and walked around the market. The weather was better today. The snow had stopped, and because it was a Monday, it was not as crowded. We had our sausages and mull wine, so that we could skip the dinner in the hotel, which would pretty much looked like lunch.
Snow in the market was gone! In a day!
Nutella crepe! Yummy
After dinner and freshing up, I boarded the bus at 2030Hr. SIA has also prepared some snacks and water for us. There were a total of 5 buses, and we departed together as a convoy for safety. In 2 days, I went through 4 countries - Frankfurt, Belgium, France and London! I finally reached Heatrow at 1000Hr the next day. Heathrow was indeed chaotic. There were long queue and tents set up outside T3, and people were queueing to get into the terminal, amidst the bitterly cold weather. I prayed that the airport would open soon, which it finally did on 26 Dec 2010.
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