Thursday, June 05, 2008

Home Sweet Home

I am back from London and Paris! Wow, it's an adventure that I have taken this time. Well, experience is good traveling with my sis and bro in law, though they are the ones who contributed to my "experience". Will have next time of traveling together but it must be with hubby. If dear is not going, I won't be going. This trip also makes me realised that after a marriage, everything you do should really be together as 1. I told myself that next time, I will not leave dear behind while i go and enjoy myself traveling. The feeling is so different, something seems amiss when I was traveling alone and I definitely miss home badly. Well, back to london and paris.

London is beautiful. Mom and bro were telling me how they disliked london when they were staying there 4 yrs back and this doesn't leave me with good excitement before leaving for the trip. But when I was in london myself, man oh man, london is so beautiful and people there are alright. Not as unpleasant as I thought they will be. Pretty helpful and easy to move around. Perhaps, london has improve herself over the past 4 yrs. Definitely going back there again with dear. While we were there, we visited greater london and I got to say that I haven't really been in london itself coz i didn't move around in central london (aka the city). Met Fabian and Jieguang, and both of them were so wonderful to bring me around a few places on my last night in london to let me see some of the beautiful sights. This result in my decision in going back again and this time round, to really spend time discovering the beauty of central london.

For the 4 full days in london (minus the 1st day which we arrived at night), here's what and where we have been. 1st up were Windsor Castle (where the queen lives now), Stonehenge & Salisbury, Roman Bath. These 3 places took us 1 full day! Windsor castle is so beautiful and nice, Stonehenge is magnificant with the mystery remains unsolve as to why the stones were there in the 1st place and what is the purpose of them, Roman bath is full of history as well. Day 2, we went on a full day london tour. It was a mistake as the tour was definitely not worth it at all. Though we visited St Paul's Catherald, saw London eye, Big Ben from a distance, Tower of London, Tower Bridge and "walk though" Westminister Abbey without knowing, went on Thames river cruise and experience the traffic, I got to say we still didn't know central london at all. That's becoz the tour guide was horrible and not professional. The whole tour group was so lost. So I will never recommend Evan Evans tour again. So please take note. However, Golden Tours is so good! That's the tour operator we went for the day 1 and 3 tours. Don't ask why I didn't take the city tour with them... what past has past. Day 3 brought us to Oxford University where Harry Porter was filmed in Christ Church college, Alice in Wonderful took place at the gardens, went Stratford-on-Avon to see Shakespear's birthplace, drove past the land of lambs, Cotsworld and finally Warwick Castle to have rich history lesson. After which, late night shopping around Marble Arch our hotel area, which you may know better refer to as the famous Oxford Street.

Shopping in london is so nice, i wouldn't say cheap as the exchange rate is not that favourable at the rate of 2.75 pounds to 1 sin. But the things and shops are worth going for an experience. We were there 1 week earlier before the great london summer sale begins 1 June. A pity though, but there's always a next time. Day 4 was spent shopping with sis at oxford st, harrods and knightsbridge. Poor sis got to work while we were enjoying ourselves for the past few days. So day 4 was to reward herself for the hard work. Yours truly spent a whole lot at Uni Qlo at knightsbridge. The clothes were so cheap as it's like an outlet store, at the end of it, I was a happy woman. Pity I missed Primark which sis had her "victory" there, while I was having dinner and good catching session with Fabian and Jieguang. Oh I also got to mention that with the courteousy of the Int'l CEO conference (retail industry) which sis attended, we got a gift card worth 50pounds each! Together we got $150pounds which amounts to almost S$450. Guess what, we spent on that on chocolates! So we got chocolates for free for everyone in the family and that's our precious cargo. Heehee...

Next up was Paris. Paris was so romantic, the buildings and architectuals just set the prefect romantic atmosphere. But besides that and our Louis Vuitton, nothing was good. France sucks. French are rude, proud, snobbish and think the world of themselves. Things are so expensive. Imagine shopping at outlet mall which items priced more expensive that the boutique selling in Singapore. Do you ever call that outlet shopping? So who says shopping in Paris is better? Except LV in my opinion. Disneyland was a great big disappointment. So those who enjoyed Paris disneyland and have not been to other disneylands, you are in for a great time when you visit Tokyo, LA, HK and Orlando. Food was great, got to say we have our best meals in Paris but was definitely expensive. We spent S$120 on a meal of bread, and S$200 for a proper meal. It's all about money. Eiffel Tower was magnificantly beautiful! Took lots of photos and will upload when I have the chance. (a total of 1180 photos, so bear with my slow speed.) Louis Vuitton was great x 10. We spent till we have to call the bank to temporary extend our credit limit. So let your imagination run. The price is about 15 to 25% cheaper than singapore. So no need to think. Haha.

That's pretty much sum up the whole trip and I am definitely going back to london with hubby and maybe a 2days tour to Paris to enjoy the romance with hubby. Maybe if time and money permits, plan a trip to Spain from there! It's cheap! I shall blog about the 2 mini adventures that I have in another entry later. *evil grin*

For now, I am back home and enjoying the comfort of home and hubby before i start work on Monday.
Finally Home Sweet Home.

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