We had to meet the rest of the Insight tour group at Holiday Inn near Kings Cross this morning at 5:30am. We meet our tour director, Reiner and the rest of the group. Our coach took us to Denver, where we crossed the English Channel on a big ferry (big enough to carry trucks and coaches) to Calais, France. The crossing took about 1.5 hours and the ferry was well equipped. There were coffee shop, lounge, bar, restaurant, poker machines and video games. The weather was nice and we spent a bit of time on the deck outside, seeing England slowly disappeared below the horizon.
We met our coach driver for the mainland Europe, Mimo. He would be driving us around Europe for the next twenty-one days. We'd better be good to him. Our journey continued with the new driver and a new coach (we didn't take the coach we used in England onto the ferry). Hours later, we arrived a restaurant called Autogrill on the side of the motorway in Belgium. That's where we had our first lunch on mainland Europe. It was a self-service restaurant, meaning that you pick what you want: salad, main, dessert and drink and you take everything to the cashier to pay. It is very similar to the cafe in Ikea in Richmond. The other thing I didn't know before this trip was that we had to pay to use toilet. I thought this would only happen in developing countries and didn't expect to see this in Europe.
After lunch, we left Belgium and continue to our next destination: Amsterdam. Reiner is a very knowledgeable man and he knows almost everything alone the way: he would tell us the name and brief history of every town, every castle, every chapel and even every type of tree we drove pass. When there was nothing to see, he would start telling us the history of the country we were in. All these little stories made the long bus trip bearable.
We arrived Amsterdam in the afternoon and the first thing we would do is to visit a diamond-cutting factory. All female creatures on board were very excited while the males kept reminding them that it was only the beginning of the trip and they couldn't spend all the money there. Diamond don't excite me much so I didn't pay too much attention to the demonstrator. I vaguely remember that there is diamond-cutting style called "Brilliant Cut" and it is supposed to take very long to do.
The next stop is something a whole lot more interesting. We would be taking a stroll in the famous red light district in Amsterdam. Before entering the area, Reiner warned us not to take photo of any girls working there if we wanted to get out alive. It was about 5pm and still too early for the local and there was not many people on the street. Half of the shops were still closed. The ones that were open for business had their scantily clad girls sitting inside near the shop windows. The potential customers would browse through the windows and would open the window if they see what they like. As I mentioned before, we were there early and I don't think the best girls in the industry had started their day yet. Some of the girls we saw, well, stretched the definition of girl, by a lot. I wasn't even sure if some of them were female at all. Only a handful of them were actually attractive. However, as Riener reminded us, there is a sad story behind each of the girl there and they probably all started being beautiful. Alcohol and drug age a person very quickly.
Riener organised a canal cruise for us. Netherlands is country where most of its land is below sea level. They reclaimed a lot of land by building big dam and they take the water to where it is needed using canal. There are many canals in Amsterdam and the rich used to build their beautiful merchant houses alone the canals. Today these merchant houses still worth millions of euro each and can only be afforded by big banks and insurance companies.
We had our dinner on a floating Chinese restaurant. At first I was a bit skeptical about Chinese food in Amsterdam but I must admit that I was totally wrong. The interior decoration and the food were equally high quality and a Chinese waiter even gave us free extra dishes just because we are Chinese.
Our hotel of the night is way out of the town. This is bad news for youngsters like us because it meant we can't go back to the red light district and try the grass cookie. Doh!
Today we decided to returned to Westminster Abbey (we went there yesterday but there were too many people so we left without going in) and the Big Ben. Westminster Abbey is a royal church and it answers to no one but the crown of England (that's what our guide said). We joined a guided tour inside Westminster Abbey and I think it definitely worthed the 5 pounds as you get to learn a lot more with an experienced guide. Westminster Abbey didn't always looked like it is today. It used to be a Roman styled architecture until Henry III teared it down and replaced it with the new Gothic style (he actually didn't have enough money to finish the rebuilt but that is another story). Every inch of free space inside the cathedral is filled with ancient statues, memorials, monuments and gravestones and painting. All these artifacts made the cathedral a museum in its own right. Royal family members were not the only ones buried here. Other people who have achieved in their discipline of life also earn their final resting place here (e.g. Charles Darwin & Isaac Newton). Records show that there are 3,300 people buried in Westminster Abbey.
After leaving the magnificent Westminster Abbey, we travel to St. Paul Cathedral by the tube. In addition to the monuments and gravestones inside it, St. Paul is most famous for its great dome that is 108m tall. St. Paul Cathedral was built by architect Sir Christopher Wren. The interior of the dome is decorated with beautiful paintings and mosaics. Believe me, you will get a sore neck if you want to see every details of the dome from the ground. No visit to St. Paul Cathedral is complete without climbing 530 steps of the spiral staircase to the Golden Gallery (85m from the ground) at the top to enjoy the panoramic view of London. We stopped in the Whispering Gallery to take rest and closer look of the dome. I think it took us almost 20 minutes to get to Golden Gallery and it was hard work (we needed to stop in the middle to catch our breath) but the view was well worth it.
The next stop is Kensington Palace. Kensington Palace was the residence of Diana before she was killed in a car accident. It was getting dark when we arrived there and the interior of the palace was very dark without sunlight. Most of the rooms were empty and it felt more like I was in an abandoned mansion than a palace. There was a Diana exhibition in the basement but since I am not a fan of Diana, I didn't spend anytime there. One thing I enjoyed there was its garden. It was beautiful and peaceful in the fading sunlight. Many Londoners and their pets were enjoying their relaxing late afternoon walk.
The next planned stop is to pay the world-famous British Museum a visit. We were, however, in badly need of food (we only had a very light lunch) and since this was the last day we spend in London on our own, we decided to indulge ourself with some traditional English food. We find a nice, small restaurant just outside British Museum. May had fish and chip and I ordered an English hotpot. Both was nice and not too expensive. We entered British Museum after dinner and found that most exhibitions were already closed except the Great Hall and we left after we took few photos.
And that ended our last day of sightseeing in London. We will have to get up really early tomorrow morning to join our Insight tour. I am going to set two alarm clocks tonight to make sure I don't oversleep.
The first thing we have to do this morning was to get our London Pass, which gives us unlimited use of public transport and lets us visit many major tourist attractions in London without queuing. The weather is not superb, but we knew that you can't ask for too much from London's late autumn.
We first bought tickets for a musical showing at Theatre Royal Drury Lane called Lord of the Rings (someone in our group is very culture-savvy). Then we quickly had our brunch in McDonald's (I am sure this was the first of many happy meals in McDonald's in this trip). The first real tourist attraction we are going to see in London is the change of guard at Buckingham Palace. We were a bit late and by the time we got to the palace, there were already hundreds of people standing in front of the gate. It wasn't easy for some of the shorter members in our group to try to see what was going on behind so many people's back. It started raining just before the arrival of the guards and I was really worry about my brand new D80 camera. The thought of losing my camera to the elements again made really nervous and I wasn't really doing what a photographer should do, looking for interesting things to capture.
The new shift of guards finally came with their shiny armors and everyone got excited. The first thing that struck me was their horses. I don't think I have seen more proud and beautiful horses. The queen surely knows how to keep her horses.
After the ceremony we went to Tower of London, a medieval castle that was used as armory, mint and noble resident. All the armors and guns in the armory were very impressive. It was also interesting to see how the British lived hundreds of years ago. We also managed to have our photo taken with the first ever female Beefeater. Just before we left, we finally got to meet the British Crown Jewel. I would try to take it, if the beefeaters weren't watching me.
We have spent longer than we should in Tower of London (who can blame us, it is a big place full of interesting stuff). We moved quickly to the Tower Bridge. It is amazing to learn that people figured out how to raise bridges that weights thousands of tonnes with nothing but stream power in 19th century. Too bad we didn't get to see the bridges being raised, but it was still good fun walking across the upper bridge that overlooks the Thames river. I wish the weather was better.
It was time for us to head back to the theatre for the LOTR musical. We were running so late we only had 5 minutes the grab something to eat outside the theatre before the show. As for the show itself, I only had one word for it: awesome. The tricks they could do on stage in a live show is unbelievable. The show is full of humors, special effects and superb vocal performance (the actress who played Galadrial really could sing!). It also helps a lot when you are already familiar with the story. You can't appreciate what it was like without physically being there. Good show.
I think that was enough fun for one day. Time to go back to our sofa bed.
We started our day with the usual buffet breakfast (we were seriously spoiled in Dubai) and went back to our room to pack up. A short ride to the airport and we were set to leave a country where you can have anything as long as you have money. After a 7-hour long flight we found ourself in the world's busiest airport, London Heathrow Airport. The airport is busy alright. We queued for more than an hour just to get through the passport control. Our pick-up driver was late and we eventually arrived our hotel at about 10pm. It was quite a shock when I opened the door of our room. The room was small, dark and looked old. The bed wasn't even a real bed, it was a sofa bed. It took us a long time to work out how to turn the sofa into a bed. It wasn't easy to switch from a 5-star hotel in Dubai to this tiny, damp, dark room in London. The ironic thing is that we paid more for this room in London than any other hotels in this trip. I guess it is true that everything in London is expensive. Most restaurants were closed and we were too tired to look for things to eat on the street. We had our first instant noodle dinner tonight.
Can't wait to see the full glory of London in daylight tomorrow morning.
Today we got up early and got to the hotel restaurant at around 9:00am for our buffet breakfast. The jet lag was catching up on me and I just felt a bit slow. Luckily, there is nothing fresh bread and a few cups of extremely good coffee can't fix.
The first stop of the day is to visit yet another huge shopping mall called Ibn Battuta Mall. Ibn Battuta was a famous traveller in the Arabic world and he visited many countries even before the air travel era. This shopping mall is divided into six sections and each section has its own theme: China, India, Persia, Egypt, Tunisia and Andalusia, representing the major countries Ibn visited. It's so big we spent hours in it and still couldn't see everything in it. All I can say is that our luggages got a lot heavier after this visit.
You haven't really visited Dubai if you haven't seen the world famous Burj Al Arab hotel. We saw a brochure about a tour of Burj Al Arab in our hotel and we thought "Who needs a tour guide in a hotel? We could just check it out ourself and save money." So we took a cab and head straight to Burj Al Arab. The first thing the cab driver asked us was if we were staying there. We said no but we were going to have afternoon tea in one of its restaurants (we knew that you can't get in there unless you are prepared to spend some money and the cheapest way to do it is to get a cup of coffee). Burj Al Arab is built on an artificial island that is 280 meters out from the beach and is connected to the mainland with a private bridge. We made to the bridge on the mainland side and was stopped by a big, military-grade gate and a big, mean-looking security guard (seriously, he was the biggest man I saw in Dubai). He politely asked if we were guests in the hotel. We said no but we want to have afternoon tea in the hotel. Instead of letting us through, the guard told us that we would be welcomed to the hotel AFTER we make a reservation with the restaurant. He then turned to our driver and told him to make a an u-turn in a rather harsh tone.
Our driver wasn't very happy with that and reminded us that he did ask us if we were guests of the hotel. Well, his english wasn't very good and I didn't really understand what he was asking. BTW, we are just tourists and tourists do stupid things. He then explained to us that it could cost us thousand of dollars just to eat there. Anyway, our good driver took us to a good photo spot so that we could take some pictures with Burj Al Arab in the background.
At night we went to a desert safari tour. A 4WD picked us up from our hotel and drove us to the desert. The first thing we did is to go for an Arabian roller coaster ride known as dune bashing (desert driving) that would bring shriek and laugh with excitement as the car goes up and down the dunes. Well, 5 minutes into the bashing, our 4WD got stuck on top of a sand dune (imagine a 4WD balances on top of a pyramid without wheel touching any surface) and need to wait for another 4WD to rescue us. As we continued with our bashing, the driver turned on the radio and I thought he just wanted some music. It turned out he was waiting for the evening prayer on the radio. He started to eat an apple with one hand and still driving like crazy in the desert with another as soon as he heard the prayer on the radio. We made a brief stop in the middle of the desert to let some members in the tour to make some hilarious attempts on sandboarding (sliding down a sand dune with a snowboard). The sky was already completely dark when we drove back to our desert camp and it is scary to be in the desert at night. You could easily get disoriented and you could hit an unclimbable sand dune without knowing until it is too late. We eventually got out of the desert by following the track left by other 4WDs.
We went to the desert camp and did some camel ride there. Since May and I already tried this in China and we weren't too excited about this (the long-furred camel in China was much more comfortable to ride). We later played dress-up with the traditional Arabian clothes. We even tried apple-flavored Hookah. Was it good? Let's just say that I am not going to be hooked by this thing anytime soon. The tour ended with a BBQ dinner under the stars in the middle of the desert.
We got back to the hotel at about 10pm and it was obviously too early to go to bed, we ventured out of the hotel and looked for a supermarket the hotel staff told us about earlier. We found the supermarket and this place sells things from absolutely every country: Australian steak, Japanese seafood, American frozen food, Indian curry....the list goes on and on. Its instant noodle section has so many types of instant noodles, you will have to go to Japan if you want to see more variety. I think this supermarket is purposely opened for foreigners who miss their own home food.
Time to go to bed and get ready to fly out to London tomorrow.
Our Emirate flight arrived Dubai International Airport this morning at 5:30am. The flight was good even thought I could hardly sleep due to the lack of leg room. This is the first time we flew with Emirate and we must say that we are very impressed by their service. Once you tried their interactive in-flight entertainment system, you will know what I mean.
We got to Al Murooj Rotana Hotel by the airport-transfer car, it wasn't a limo, but at least it was a spacious and comfortable car. Compare to what we will have to do when we arrive London (get to hotel all by bus and underground), this is easy ride. Since we are members of the exclusive Rotana Club (it just means we paid more), we didn't have to queue up and check in at the lobby. We went straight to 14-floor club lounge to enjoy the view there and let the staff handle the paper work for us. While the staff getting our rooms ready, we went to the restaurant to enjoy our 5-star buffet breakfast. It was much better than the average continental breakfast. There were more than 20 choices just on dry fruits and nuts. A chef was there to make waffle and egg in any style we want. The trip is starting well.
Next stop is one of the biggest shopping mall in Dubai, Mall of the Emirates. It isn't only big (6.5 million sq ft), it even has an indoor ski slope inside. The slope was closed when we were there (we were too early), we may go back there later). After spending a couple a hours in MOE, we took a taxi to go to Souk Madinat Jumeirah, an arabian themed shopping mall. It was a bit quiet but still enjoyable.
Everyone got hungry at around the local lunch time (it is amazing how fast we adopt the new time zone). Most restaurants in the shopping mall were closed due to Ramadan. Only restaurants that mainly serve foreigners remains open in the afternoon. We dragged our hungry bodies into a resort called Al Qasr. We had on idea how big and beautiful this hotel was when we got in through on of its back entries. Its impressive palace-like architecture was like straight out of Hollywood movie sets. This resort is so big you need to take a water taxi to go from your room to one of its restaurants for dinner. I think this resort was featured in one of the TVB travel shows. We had buffet lunch (yes, second buffet today, wondering what we should have for dinner) in the Arboretum restaurant in the resort. The food was mainly arabian and was delicious. As we left the resort through the front gate this time, we finally realise how big, impressive and secure this place is, we had to get through two boom gates with security guard just to left the complex. Don't know why we could get in so easily earlier.
We then went to the Gold Souk and Spice Souk. The Gold Souk is really a street full of gold and jewellery shops. The gold price of the day is displayed on a giant LCD screen so no one gets ribbed off. I have never seen so much gold in one place. You have to see those thick golden belt and wearable vest made from gold to believe it. Another interesting thing about the Gold Souk is the presence of police. There are police cars everywhere and they patrol the street all the time. I am not exaggerating when I say we had one police car drove pass us every 5 minutes.
We took a primitive wooden sampan (yeah, we were fearless) with the local to cross the river and got to a Carrefour super-big supermarket. By now, I was so thirsty. Remeber this is Ramadan and we are not allowed to eat or drink in public until after sunset. We got to the supermarket and 5:55pm and when the rest of the group went inside the supermarket to do some shopping, I couldn't fight the thirst anymore and went to a pizza shop to buy a bottle of water. As the owner took the money from me, he told me that I wasn't allowed to drink it yet, not until 6:15pm. I gave the water back to him and just sit outside the shop and wait for what must have been the longest 20 minutes in my life. Right at 6:15pm, we heard the prayer from loudspeakers around the city and that's the signal that we could start eating and drinking. I finished half the bottle of water in less than 15 seconds. Water had never tasted so good.
We went back to the Club Rotana lounge in our hotel and enjoy the free pre-dinner cocktail and finger food. We had so much we didn't need to have dinner anymore. We finally wrapped up the day by having moon cake (today is the Mid-Autumn Festival) in the patio of Andy's room (did I mention that our rooms have patio?). By now, I haven't slept for almost 2 days and can't wait to hit the bed.
The trip started well.
Some of you may know that we made a photo book from Momento and we just learned from the site that we can now show off my photo book on my own blog. Being chronic attention-seekers, we can't possibly miss this chance to show the photo book that took us more than a year to make. For those of you who live in oversea and never had a chance to see the real thing, this is as close as you will get.
Sam & May
Certified Chronic Attention-Seekers
