Beep beep… London!

Since young, WB has dreamt endlessly to one day visit London, the city where Paddington Bear lives, where the red double decker bus ferry passengers, where Harry Potter story originates, where the Queen stays, etc etc…

So, throwback to March 2013, WB had the opportunity to visit London, thanks to a working trip to Belgium. BB wasn’t able to come, so WB had fun all on her own, and with her coworkers of course 🙂

To save money (which WB later regrets), WB and her coworkers took the Eurolines bus to London. The bus provided is normal seating, 2-2 in a row, even though the whole journey took 7 hours 😦
 

The bus started from Brussels at 7.30am (where WB waited outdoor in freezing winter cold), went to France, then boarded a train in Coquelles (one huge train terminal, below picture), went through the famous Chunnel, out on the other side on UK soil, and continued on to London, finally arriving at Victoria Station.
 
Along the way in UK, green pastures can be seen on either side.

There was a Tesco in an Esso petrol station. That’s nice 🙂

Nice used cars selling at a bargain (Mercedes – GBP 15,990), imagine if those prices were in RM… hmm…

So, once WB and her coworkers got off the bus, they had lunch at KFC in the station, nothing special thus no picture taken. Next, they headed towards their budget hotel via the tube, met Yoda selling wifi in the tube. Man times are sure hard after the Star Wars series stopped.

After much bickering and got lost on the way, they finally arrived. It is an old guesthouse, run by Indians. The rooms are small, bathrooms are shared, hmmm… no comment there. Well, at least it is nearby to the Underground Bethnal Green Station.
 

After they settled down and rested 10 minutes, they headed straight outdoors to Oxford Street to shop!

Oxford Street is much more affordable than the Champs-Élysées in Paris. WB bought a lot of stuff here, clothes, kids clothes, bags, gotta love shopping! WB and her coworkers shopped til late in the night, where they gave up and went back to the guest house. As dinner, they had a Chinese take out along the street to the guest house, WB had prawn fried rice (her usual) which cost GBP 7.00.. man that’s expensive..

The next morning, WB and her coworkers have a long list of tourist spots to complete, so they woke up early and had their breakfast at the guest house, which was prepared by an Indian woman, a toast, sausage and scrambled eggs, with orange juice.

After the brekkie, they started their journey. First stop, to the famous St. Paul’s Cathedral.
 
A very majestic church (Baroque style) in the morning lights. The statue of Queen Anne stands tall in front of the church and at the back, willowy trees stand guard.

WB took the opportunity to go inside the church to have a look, and took a forbidden picture.

Breath taking, isn’t it? After this picture was taken, the caretaker said to WB “No pictures!”. Well, sorry too late…

Next stop, they walked over to the other side of Thames through the Millennium Bridge.

Why would someone install a plaque on the floor where people can just step on?

Left and right of the Millennium Bridge, it was a glorious morning! The sun feels so good on the skin. Then it U-turn really fast later. WB and her coworkers happily continued on their walk over the bridge and saw this not far after.

The Anchor Bankside pub, an old tavern with a brewery at the back producing Anchor beer. Such a nice piece of history against the Shard at the background.

After a long walk criss crossing back alleys and really experiencing the old London, WB took the tube to Buckingham Palace.

It was Easter that Sunday, and there were throngs of people gathering around the palace. Though the royals did not make an appearance. WB was treated to a march of the Palace guards, nothing really special.

Since there wasn’t going to be anything special, WB and her coworkers headed to Covent Garden next.

One must take special care when one exits the Covent Garden station, it is 20 floors beneath the surface, and it is recommended that you must take the elevator (very big one), except in an emergency, you can take the stairs. Covent Garden is full of stalls selling handmade crafts, food, souvenirs, and also tea shops. WB had lunch and got fridge magnets with some other souvenirs here.

WB came across this very cute booth selling hand drawn pieces. Quite pricey though 😀

It was getting late in the afternoon, so to chase back some time, they hurried to the National Gallery for a quick walk around.

The entrance is free, but no photos are allowed. There are a number of Impressionist art pieces here (more can be found in Musee d’Orsay in Paris), the most famous of all perhaps is the Sunflower by Van Gogh. There are also some other works by Leonardo da Vinci, but no Mona Lisa, she is in Lourve. But they are amazing nonetheless!

Directly in front is the very famous Trafalgar Square.

It was very different than what WB pictured, perhaps it looks better in spring or in summer, too bad it was still winter back then.

Witnessed this poor guy and his horse, have some respect, random pigeon!

Carrying on, WB next arrived at the north side of the Palace of Westminster, gazing upon the clock tower that WB have pictured countless of times in her lifetime. Big Ben is perfectly exactly what WB expected, i love you Ben!

Across the river Thames, the Eye of London stands magnificent on the banks.

Going down the road towards the Westminster Abbey, looking back and one will capture this familiar scene.

There was also a funny scene along the way, where a part of a church was under restoration, a real size poster was hanged as substitute. Though it looked a bit off 🙂

If you ever got lost with the multitude of buildings around the area of Westminster Palace, look for this plaque, it’s like a mall directory, kidding 🙂

When WB finally arrived at Westminster Abbey, they quickly took some pictures, hanged around for a while and left, and totally forgot to go inside the church T.T

Don’t the abbey look so much like the Notre Dame? The gothic style, the two tower facade, the flying buttresses at the north entrance.. etc.. this is just like deja vu! But who cares, they are both amazingly wonderful architecture masterpieces 🙂

The last stop before WB left London, was the ever misunderstood Tower Bridge, which as kids, always thought of as London Bridge.

To take a truly all inclusive nice picture of the Tower Bridge, never go too near to the bridge itself. Walk along the banks and find a good spot to take a picture.

As you walk nearer to the bridge, one can actually go on the bridge 🙂 There was a stall selling glazed peanuts, it was such good food on such a cold day, must try!

On the other side of the river, stands the Shard, tallest building in the European Union.

After a whole day of tourist spot hopping, WB and her coworkers went back to the guest house to get their luggage and headed back to Victoria Station. They had their dinner there at McDonald’s.

Heard people said fast food at western countries are far better. Oh really… nope, not true. And after that disappointing meal, WB took a 7~8 hours long bus trip, back to Brussels, where they arrived at 7am. Still fresh in mind, it was freezing cold in the morning, and it took WB more than an hour to get back to the apartment in Brussels, as they were stranded outside waiting for the tram…

Bangkok (Food Page)

So back in March this year (more specifically 19-24 March), the bears went for a short trip to Bangkok, Thailand, the land of smiles 🙂

So in this post, only food will be discussed, (for sight seeing part, wait a bit!)
Without further adieu, let’s bring out the first meal the bears had in Bangkok, …..and it’s McDonald’s 😀

Now, you may think that the bears were really idiotic, going all the way to Bangkok for McD?? No no… they are special, why? because they serve pork in Thailand 🙂

McDonald’s

This is the famous McD Pork Burger! It tastes great, no wonder it’s famous among tourists to Bangkok from Malaysia!
 
Besides pork burger, they also serve Bento there, this is Kapraw Chicken rice, tastes sweet, sour and spicy (black pepper type spicy), yes, it tastes really good as well ! Notice that the receipt, McD is now McThai, such a cute name 🙂
  

Terminal 21 Food Court – Pier 21

This food court is located on the floor of San Francisco in Terminal 21 mall, it hosts a variety of food choices, at an amazingly low price, below is a list of food the bears took there.

Spicy seafood rice – quite nice

Black pepper seafood pasta – nice 🙂

Mango Sticky rice – nice 🙂

Wat tan hor (broad rice noodles in thick gravy) – very nice 🙂 🙂

Tom Yum Gong – very spicy, tastes okay. Not recommended for people who are not used to hot food.

Duck noodles – not good 😦

Cranberry juice – cheap, filled with real cranberries, it won’t get any better than this! 🙂 🙂 🙂 This is the thing that WB missed the most of Bangkok, if only this is available at the same price in KL 😦

Platinum Mall Food Court

There is also a food court on the top floor (if I’m not wrong) in the famous Platinum Mall. The bears tried only a handful of food there as lunch, but there is one thing that is incredibly memorable of WB there 🙂

Pork rice (chinese dish – difficult to translate) – not very good 😦

Kuey Teow soup (broad rice noodles – especially popular in Thailand) – this was ok…

Fried Kuey Teow – the best kuey teow WB has ever eaten! til this day, WB is still mumbling about how good this was, definitely one of the memorable dish in Bangkok! 😀

Chinatown Rut and Lek Seafood (R&L)

This was a planned event for the bears, they went there after a lot of research and tried the more popular dishes. A piece of advise, first, come early (eg. around 6pm); second, the charges were a bit overpriced (expected considering it’s so popular among tourists).

It’s only a stall at the side of the road, but the crowd was incredible.

Seafood Tom Yum Gong – very hot, but it was qutie nice, filled with fish, prawns, squids 🙂

Crab Fried Rice – nothing really special except that there was crab meat in the fried rice.

Crab cooked in Egg gravy – a bit spicy, but it was juicy and nice, when taken with the fried rice, was heavenly 🙂

Grilled River Prawns – there were three here, although their heads were ginormous, the real meat on the bodies are quite little, tastes OK, but quite pricey.

Pomelo Juice – much needed refreshments to put out the fire in the bears’ mouths…..

A picture to commemorate the aftermath 😀

Silom Mall – Hachi-Ban Ramen

This is a good ramen shop! and affordable prices too 🙂

  
On the left is kimchi soup, on the right is regular soup, both was amaziiiinggg…!

The bears ordered a plate of gyoza, and they were not disappointed.. a thumb’s up for this small ramen shop!

Burger King

Burger King serves pork too, a BBQ pulled pork burger.

  
This burger had nothing to shout about, the meat was too chewy and dry.. 😦 McD’s was much much better.

Royal Palace street – small shop

This shop is located along the busy street in front of the palace main entrance, even though with the magnitude of tourists, the price for this shop is quite cheap.

Fish Ball Rice Vermicelli Soup- Nice fishball and fish paste, more to BB’s taste, he liked it 🙂

Chatuchak Market

Wantan noodles – Breakfast in Chatuchak, inexpensive and taste really good, especially the dry one!

  
These two dishes, not worth mentioning, because these two dishes cost RM70, eaten at a stall in Chatuchak market. This was the only time the bears ever felt cheated in Bangkok (probably a lot more times but did not realize). A word of caution for readers, beware of these vendors in Chatuchak.

Street Food

Coconut Ice Cream – heavenly, bought this near the royal palace, it’s sweet and tastes salty at the end of a bite, amazing! both bears love this ❤

Thai Pancake Sausage wrap – bought from a stall in Silom, costs only 10 baht, includes a pancake wrap, minced pork meat, and a sausage, this is oh-so-amazing and cheap! Some other version contains egg.

Pork sate (if i may call it sate) – the one on the right tastes sweet and tender, very good, the one on the left that resembles taiwan sausage, was weird and sour, do not buy this one! These two can be found at a lot of places.

Chicken Rice – (sorry for the grainy picture, taken in hotel room) bought from a stall near Silom, the bears asked the seller to mix the chicken (roasted + steamed), they were wonderful, and was one of the most memorable dish of Thailand! A must try! 😀

Don Muang Airport – Silom Village

Before the bears depart from Bangkok, they tried to finished off their Thai Baht, so they headed to a restaurant in the airport and ordered a myriad of dishes… (many people were staring at that time 😀 )

Wantan soup – a lot of wantans, quite nice 🙂

Wantan noodles – BB didn’t like it, but it was ok to WB, yum yum!

Curry Kuey Teow soup – gawd this was spicy!

Pandan leaves chicken – WB ordered this because they didn’t get to try any of this on their trip, but this dish was not good, meat was dried and looked like they were patched and stick together with flour…

The only thing that the bears regretted, was not having the chance to try an amazing pot of Tom Yum in Bangkok, next time, they are determined to find the best Tom Yum in Bangkok!

Escape in KL @ Traders Hotel and Tanzini Upperdeck

It’s WB’s birthday again!
BB made some special plan this year, ‘escaping’ in KL for a night 🙂

Just after noon, BB whisked WB to the Traders Hotel in KL.
On arrival, the bears were upgraded to a room with a King size bed,
but were told there will be no view of the Twin Towers, only the garden.
However, once in the room, WB opened the curtains wide,
and there it was, the Twin Towers in full view!

Muaxxx…!! Happy Birthday dearest ❤

The room is quite nice, filled with all necessities,
one can’t expect much with the value deal that BB paid for 😀
  

The bears enjoyed the comfort, and even window shopped at KLCC for a while.
Then for dinner, BB once again whisked WB to Tanzini Upperdeck for a memorable night 🙂

The area was not crowded at all, quite empty and eerily calm.
Though as night falls, the atmosphere became dark, mysterious, and romantic ❤

The bears ordered a 3 course meal, but realised much later,
it was upgraded again to a 5 course meal 🙂

Bread starter – nothing special

Complimentary from the kitchen, something of a duck meat pie, it was quite nice!

Appetizer Hokkaido Scallop Snow Crab & Wild Funghi – best dish of the whole night!

Main course Red Label Turbot – Fish wrapped in sushi shape, very nice texture

Main course Grilled quail (forgot name) – not recommended, BB does not approve!

Complimentary from the kitchen, Sorbet – refreshing

Dessert Ratte Potato Churros – you have to squeeze out the chocolate and caramel
and mix with the nuts, then dip the fries into the mixture, WB loves this!

Dessert Pine Nut and Green Apple – Doesn’t taste good, or look good at all 😦

After the meal, the Bears waltz around the dance floor~~~~~
Celebrating L ❤ V E

Back to reality, the cost of this meal was RM5++…
Poor BB, i’d rather spend the money for one more night at the hotel.
Anyway, it was a very special night for the Bears,
the most important thing is that we spent it together, i ❤ you BB !

To Paris with Bears…

So WB was sent again to Belgium for 2 weeks in June.
Of course, for work related reasons… 😦

Since it was a such short notice, BB didn’t get to go with WB..
To compensate for this unfortunate situation, the inhuman Bears will be going in the place of BB! 😀

This time, WB is visiting Paris! the city of Love…… and croissants, yum yum!
WB bought tickets for Thalys (high-speed train), and it only took around 1 hour 15 minutes to reach Paris Gare Du Nord from Brussels Midi.

There was not much to see on the way there, only greenery and some small towns.

Once reached, WB made a beeline to the Metro tickets counter, but couldn’t find anyone manning the counter. So WB and her colleague tried their luck to operate the ticket machine. Immediately, there were people asking if we need help. DO NOT accept their help! They are criminals. And this guy immediately got shoved away by the guards in the train station.

So WB and her colleague tried their best and bought the simplest ticket which cost Euro 1.70 per trip.

Metro ticket looks like this. You can actually buy a one day trip around Paris, for Euro 6.40, it is much more worthy as you will tend to take the metro a lot. Especially if you are not a great walker, like WB 😀

First stop, Galeries Lafayette!
This shopping mall totally blew WB away, it looks more like a museum than a mall!

WB couldn’t afford a single thing here, and a piece of advice, branded stuff here is a tad more expensive than other European cities.

One thing that one cannot miss in Lafayette, is to take the incredibly elegant and classical elevator. So so classy ❤

WB took her lunch on Lafayette top floor, at a Chinese Sichuan restaurant,

This plate of prawn fried rice cost aroung Euro 8. It tastes quite bland, seeing that this is actually a Sichuan restaurant, one would expect kick ass hot food? Apparently not, WB ended up adding a lot of soy sauce.

Next station, the Arc de Triomphe, BB was ecstatic!

Normal boys’ stuff, war and soldiers (with all due respect to the fallen). But secretly this is the favourite spot in Paris for the human WB, not sure why 🙂

The Arc was built to honour those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. If one gets to visit the Arc, don’t just take picture from far, you must take the underground tunnel towards the Arc, which will lead you to the center of the round-about that houses the Arc.

There, an eternal flame burns in honour of all those unnamed fallen in WW1 who were interred beneath the Arc.

From the Arc, the bears walked thru the freakishly long Avenue des Champs-Élysées, (which the human WB nearly lost both her legs due to exhaustion) full of high-end boutiques selling overpriced merchandise, and indeed there was a long que at the LV store 😀

There were also a lot of high-powered cars ready for rent, well, not that WB wasn’t tempted, but the price was a quite out of the league 😦

The only store that WB was interested to visit, is the Disney Store! But unfortunately, WB did not find what she was looking for in the store, but oh well, still it’s a nice store 🙂
  

Along the avenue, WB thought that she has arriveed in Egypt, on closer inspection, indeed those are hieroglyphs!

It is the Luxor Obelisk, which was originally located at the entrance to Luxor Temple, in Egypt. It is over 3000 years old, now that’s something special. Seeing a little bit of ancient Egypt in the center of Paris! 🙂

After the bears passed by the tall granite needle, they proceeded to walk along the avenue, and reach another arc, this time, it is the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, in Place du Carrousel which was built to commemorate Napolean’s military victories.

After passing beneath the Arc, WB finally arrived at the Palais du Louvre! (WB’s legs are detaching itself from the body by now), but for Lourve, WB would walk any distance!

Lourve was the royal residence and seat of government before Versailles became the royal seat. It is now a museum which houses the most valuable and well known masterpiece in the world! The Mona Lisa 🙂

  
WB feels like being transported back in time, though this feeling is cut short as WB did not have enough time to visit the museum itself.

Reluctantly, BB posed for a picture with WB in front of the Louvre Museum.

Next time, WB swears she will drag BB to witness the pure awesomeness of Mona Lisa! 🙂

Continuing on with their journey, (human WB was already dragging along her half broken legs at this point), they descended upon the Eiffel Tower, and took the mandatory picture with the red pointy A.

Feel the love… ❤ ❤ ❤

Eiffel Tower was the last straw, by now, WB could not take it anymore. So they headed back to the hotel.
The hotel was a budget hotel which cost Euro 80 per night (as they booked quite late). But surprisingly, it is situated at a great neighborhood at Balard metro station, 100m from the exit of the metro, and have lots of Asian food around.

There were two beds, a queen size on ground level, another single on a raised level near the sunroof. WB slept in the one on top, it was a nice experience, like sleeping under the stars 🙂

The bathroom is equipped with all facilities you could ask for, and clean as well. The only drawback was that the room was on 4th floor, and there was no elevator 😦

That night, for dinner, WB had Chinese again. This time, it was much better. The deco was nice, people friendly, but it was strange that there were not many patrons.


WB had prawn fried noodles, which was honestly very good, especially the texture of the noodles. It even inspired WB to buy the same type of noodles home from Belgium, well hopefully it is the same.

Okay, that’s it for the day, now we fast forward to the next day….

The first thing next morning the bears did, was to visit all the famous cathedrals in Paris… First, WB arrived at the foot hill of Sacré-Cœur Basilica, having weak legs, and forecasting that there was still a lot of walking to be done later in the day, WB decided to take the easy way up, with the uphill tram 😀

In case you are wondering, yes the ticket cost Euro 1.70 per trip, same ticket used for metro.

Sacré-Cœur is a cathedral on top of a hill overlooking Paris, (be warned though the view does not include the Eiffel Tower). Nonetheless, the view is still amazingly nice, especially on that clear blue day.

Below, sits the famous Montmartre, WB bought all her souvenirs there, there was a kind college guy that gave tonnes of discount and gifts! 😀

Montmartre, is the place that Impressionist arts breathe to live 🙂

Next stop, the bears travelled down  (yes, by foot) the hill to the island in the river, which houses two magnificent cathedrals, yes, TWO! Many tourists always missed out another one, which is a shame.

Notre-Dame Cathedral
Hunchback, you here? Nah.. just an over excited bear, wonder why it’s so high? 😀

So, Notre Dame is hugeeeeeee!
The line to get in was even hugerrrrrrrrrr… WB queued for an elongated U shape to get in.

But it was worth it, there was a mass going on when WB was in there, and pipe organ started playing, the atmosphere was amazing.

Sainte-Chapelle
WB was dumbfounded when she stepped into the chapel.

The arches and stained glass are indescribable, with the daylight beaming in.
  
Left (top floor) right (ground floor), one has to climb an extremely narrow spiral staircase to reach the main hall. An entrance ticket is required for this cathedral (Euro 8.50), but WB assures you this is a place that you must see in Paris.

These two chapel/cathedral are over 800 years old, built over hundreds of years, intricately designed and crafted, even if one is not religious, still you can definitely feel its ancient aura and power it held for centuries. Definitely recommended by the Bears! (like it need the bears’ recommendation) 😀

One must visit at least one museum before one leaves Paris!
Thus, WB went to Musée d’Orsay to gaze upon the awesomeness of the Impressionist arts. (recommended by a very nice colleague of WB, thanks Ali!)

You need to pay for entrance ticket though (Euro 11), unlike the National Galleries of London.

So the forever rebellious WB took a forbidden picture in the museum, of the big clock,
 
Why is there a big clock in the middle of the museum you ask?
Because it was a railway station previously, choo choo! 🙂

There are two restaurants in Musee d’Orsay, one on the 5th floor, and 2nd floor.

The restaurant on the 5th floor has modern design, with the giant clock as deco.

The restaurant on the 2nd floor has a more classical theme, feels expensive though 🙂

There is also a balcony on the 5th floor, and there, you can take hell lot of pictures and the curator won’t even care.

It overlooks the Seine River, can you see Sacré-Cœur on top of the hill?
In short, the museum really houses a lot of impressionist arts, and they are really amazing, worth every penny! (or Euro)

As souvenirs, WB couldn’t help but kept the tickets to both Sainte Chapelle and Musee d’Orsay, and also the gold coins sold from vending machine in many cathedrals and museums (each Euro 2).
 

Before leaving romantic Paris, the bears took one last photo, with Love Lock Bridge in the background… muaxxxxx! ❤

And after that, the bears bid farewell to beautiful Paris… taking the Thalys back to Belgique!
Au Revoir… ❤

Universal Studios Singapore

The bears have been really busy for the past 6 months..
There were big changes in lives.. new job.. new experience..
Finally on 18th July, the bears went to Singapore for some hard-earned vacation time..

First stop, Universal Studios Singapore!

   
Note : that guy ruined the whole globe photo

Cute tickets! Wrong map, should take the one once inside USS, blue in color.

WB’s favourite section : Far Far Away!

WB has always wanted to come here!

 
The Swamp
“Woah.. Look at that, who would want to live in a place like that?!” – Donkey
“That… would be my home…” – Shrek
“Oh! And it’s lovely!” – Donkey – one true asshole

Shrek 4D Adventure (hate this, bears’ seats weren’t moving at all)
The bears also took the Enchanted Airways for a flight over Far Far Away,
which was actually a “junior” roller coaster ride

 
A portrait of Shrek’s in laws, and Fairy godmother’s potion store (souvenir shop)

Next up, Ancient Egypt

Revenge of the Mummy indoor Roller Coaster
(hi-speed in total darkness, scared the hell out of WB, yelling all the way)

Big monumental Egyptian statues
(Bird photobomb level : Epic)

Sci-Fi City

 
Battlestar Galactica – Cylon (Blue) and Human (Red) tracks
(After the Mummy ride, WB backed out of these two lines, BB went on both, got scared as well)

Transformers the Ride : The Ultimate 3D Battle

 
Waited 2.5 hours in line for this, it kept on being delayed because of breakdowns.
Rooms after rooms of zig zag que… endless…
Finally went on it, and it lived up to expectations, was really good.

BB’s favourite : The Lost World!

 
The Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure – a river raft ride that will get you wet…
Canopy Flyer – can’t really enjoy the view as you soar through the sky at hi-speed in a short distance.

Water World is a real life stun show – nice one but WB finds it boring after  a while.. *yawn*

Other rides like those in Madagascar, are more for kids.
Another one that worth mentioning is the Lights, Cameras, Actions “hosted” by Steven Spielberg.
It was fun and it looked and felt real.

It took the bears from 10.30am to 7pm to enjoy the park.
A piece of advice, never go on summer break,  a lot of kids and parents…