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Published: September 29th 2004
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It was june 2003 and Asia was having Sars outbraek and the whole economy took a hit. You might be thinking what has Sars and economy got to do with a travel blog right? well SIA offered tickets to UK at half the normal price and that was S$800 and since i had an uncle living in Croydon, England, i thought why not pay him a visit as well.
So armed with the ticket toghether with my cousin Sultan and fren Jahir we flew to London Heaththrow Airport on 2nd June 2003. The flight took almost 14 hrs and it was most uncomfortable in the economy class and i had running nose due to lack of smoke.
Finally arrived in Heathrow Airport, and it was no way comparable to our modern and efficient Changi International Airport. They didn't even have smoking rooms to satisy my nicotine craving. And another thing i noticed was there was alot of Asian Indians working in the Airport. For a moment i thought i had landed in Chennai Airport.
Finally got cleared from a very pretty immigartion official and took the tube to Croydon. The tube was really immpessive. Tube is actually an
Royal Guard
Change of Guard Ceremony in Buckingham Palace underground train system. The tube covered all areas of London in 6 zones but was very easy to use.
We had to change trains and finally reached Croydon where my uncle met up me and my frens and went straight to his house in Croydon. There were alot of Asians in croydon as well as blacks. Had dinner and went to sleep.
The next day looked around Croydon and my uncle brought me to a shopping mall over there, nothing fantastic if you compare with the shopping centers we have in singapore.
We went to Earlscott to change money with the moneychanger and i was given only 320 british pounds for $1000 Singapore dollars, very depressing. London was very expensive. everything here cost so much more than Sinagpore and i thought singapore was expensive. Evening we went to Euston railway station to take the ScotRail’s Caledonian Sleepers overnight train to Scotland, Edinburgh. I will say more about my trip to Edinburgh in another blog. I came back to London Eustan Station on the 5 june 2003. The best part of the train journey was that no one validated the Brit Railway Pass I bought back in Singapore. Anyway
Speakers Corner
An Iman giving lecture in Spaekers Corner after arriving in Euston we decided to take a train to Liverpool to see the famous football club Liverpool FC. English Football has a huge following in Singapore and we were fans of Liverpool FC. I will be discussing more on the Liverpool trip on another blog.
Came back from Liverpool very exhausted and went back to Croydon to sleep. The next day decided to look arounf London proper, my uncle decided that we go to the famous Madam Tussard
There was a long Q at Madam Tussads and after 2 hrs we went in. It is a place you must go if you visit London, i mean where else can you touch J lo's Bum and not be sued. We spent about 6 hrs inside and the time flew so fast. the figures looked very life like. After Madam Tussard we went Edgeware Road, the Arab Sq of London. Here you find arabs and persians smoking their pipes and saw arabian girls wearing the hijab and was very impessed by them.
The next day we went to the Speakers Corner. Everyone can say anything under the sun ops since its UK, under the rain actually coz on
Tube
Inside the Tube train that day there was a slight drizzal. But the most heated topic was about Islam and Iraq War. i joined into the debate and was very suprised at how misinformed the brit people are about Islam. After Speakers Corner we went to Picadally Circus, the shops here were too expensive for me so i stuck to window shopping. London is truely a World City in sence that you can find all sorts of nationalities there. We managaed to see a moroccan group performing in one the markets in London and called it a day.
The next day we went to the British Museam and was awed at the exhibits they have in there. I am sure the rightfull owners were cursing at them. After which we went to the London Eye and took a trip to see a birds eye view of London. While we were walking my uncle told me to go into one of red telephone booth, i went in and inside there was photographs of nude women advertising for you know what, i took down the number just in case without my uncle looking. Coming from a conservative Asian country it was very amusing to me.
Madam Tussard
That's me with J Lo, wish it was real...
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anonymous
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Some words from Ganga.....
Hey man! Nice blog. Add some more info on your liverpool and Scotland trips. Please add more pics too.... Enjoy