London - Day 1

Changed flight in Doha International Airport (because we are on a super tight budget, we are not able to take direct flight to London :()




My take on the flight: if you are have budget, take direct flight. Save the trouble and hassle of transiting and you get to your destination faster...As for Doha Int airport, those who are missing A&W can have a nice meal there, otherwise there's nothing much to do there except to wait...and wait...and wait...

After a long and tiring trip, and 2 breakfast meals on the plane, we arrived in London on 21 July at around 3.30pm. Our mother's friend's daughter (Irene aka "Er-Jie") picked us up at Heathrow Airport...

When we first laid our gritty eyes on London...hmm...big billboards and traffic jam on the way out of Heathrow...Definitely not love at first sight.

Very thankful that Er Jie offered us to stay at her cosy place in Fulham. Wonderful neighbourhood and very near Chealsea.



First thing after putting down our bags, we went straight off to the Fulham Tube station. Bought us two Oyster cards for unlimited travel on almost all tranpsort in London and off we GOooo!!Next is to decipher the tube map...for some reasons the train don't all go to the same destination. Some stop halfway on the route, which means we have to change tubes, some turn to other places, but also on the same line...Well, guess we have to make some allowance for the oldest underground in the world so we just take whichever tube that comes our way.

Stepping out of the Westminster Tube station, the first thing we saw was an old and yellow and ugly building that we can't identify with a lot of humans try to take pictures with it... Not forgetting the big clock...which clues us in that it's the Big Ben. Of course, not wanting to lose out to the rest of the world, we joined in taking our own share of pictures.


Big Ben

Also around the same tube stop is the Westminster Abby and at the opposite bank, the London Eye.


London Eye (along the Thames)



Westminster Abby (Closed so we can't enter...sob..)


Icons of London (except buses and tube)

Since we are really disoriented, we decided that the best way to end our day before will be to walk along the Thames...Starting from the Tower Bridge of London.


Tower Bridge of London


Dead man's hole (under the Tower Bridge of London): the spot where dead corpse that were thrown into the Thames was retrieved



London Bridge is falling down... falling down... falling down... (nope, not falling down at all, a sturdy bridge)

London - Day 2

Work up super early in the morning. It's only 7am and the sky looks like it's already 9am...That's summertime for you...Anyways, we have loads planned for today, so hope our early start can let us cramm as much sights as possible.

Step out of the house, a bright and beautiful Sunday (not even a drizzle). Bought our breakfast (sandwiches and salads) from Sainsbury to have breakfast in the park. We started off by going to Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park


Houses near Kensington Gardens


Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens (He looks handsome in gold, but I guess anyone would look gorgeous in gold..=P)


Serpentine River in Hyde Park.

I read a lot of this place in historical romance, it's where couples in the past come to feed birds...was a tad disappointed by the view...not romantic leh...But there sure is a lot of birds =P



Victoria Theater (opposite the parks)


Pretty building next to the theater above


University of Music and Arts (The Imperial College)

After breakfast in the parks, it's off to museums. Before we went to Victoria and Albert Museum (free admission), we went to the Natural History Museum (also free but no pictures taken).

The building of the Natural History Museum is really nice...with statues of animals at each column. But since it's free, there's a queue waiting outside its doors even before it's open. To be honest, I was quite amazed but the architecture of the building, it's really very gorgeous. Even the interior is really cool. However, I was quite disappointed by the exhibits. Well, unless you are really into stuffed dead animals, I would rather go to the zoo for my animals treat.

Right beside the Natural History Musuem, is the Victoria and Albert Museum. This museum is more fun with more interesting artifact to look at.

Exhibits in the Victoria and Albert Museum (feels like I'm in Babylon)

Next we are off to our next stop, the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. According to the map, they are located side by side, but no matter how I look, I can only find the National Gallery (??!???)

Well, the paintings are cool but after your 10th gallery, they sort of look the same...same bilical scenes or angels and naked pple with halos...or landscape or pple just staring straight at you...Ok, ok. I know these pictures are suppose to be art but well, I guess there's just no artistic bone in me...But I did manage to recognize some works of Monet...and Picasso...so that's something (guess my art knowledge is not that bad..Haha).


The Trafalgar Square outside National Potrait Gallery

Next stop on the map, is the British Museum. This museum is our personal favorite, it has all the world ancient and not so ancient civilizations under one roof. Not forgetting the fragrant smelling hot dags sold right outside the museum. (Warning...Not for onion phobic).

As we are really interested about the Egyptian civilization, we went directly to one of the free guided tours in the Egytian gallery. Wow...the displays there are a real eye openers...Mummies and ancient graves, Horus and Ramesses II (I think). Brings me back to the exhibit in Singapore where they had a mini Egytian exhibit on loan from the Birtish museum some days back. It's really great. However, since according to literature, our next stop, Camden Market closes at 5pm, we can't finish the museum, so we can only come back the next day if the time allows.


The British Museum (very pleasant spot to have lunch outdoors)


Camden Town (sorry, no pictures because the place is so crowded that getting our camera from our bags is a difficulty) is quite an interesting spot. You can find all sorts of people here and if you are into street wear, this is the place. However, we do find the place overly packed with people to properly enjoy shopping. BUT!!! I did manage to buy cheap Aldo slippers (only 6 pounds!!!) and some souvenirs for friends back home.

Since The Regeat's Park is nearby, we decided to walk over for a peek. But after a long day, the short walk seems like an epic journey, and when we reach the park, we can't seem to find the well designed garden (someone have designed for some king) that the Park is famous for. As our feets felt like lead, we decided to head home and prepare ourselves for tomorrow.


The Regent Park (didn't really explore it as we were too exhausted)

London - Day 3

As Kiasu Singaporeans, we work up super early again. Today's plan is to visit Greenwich where the line of Meridian is.

Took the tube and the light rail (DLR) to Greenwich, a quaint little town outside of London City centre. Once there we suffered from hunger pangs and hunted for a good breakfast... It's really serendipity that we found a Weatherspoon pub just beside the DLR station. I was researching for cheap food places in London where I can across this pub chain. Apparently they sell really value for money meals that later saved us a lot of our budget.


Full english breakfast at Weatherspoon (Yummy!!!)

With breakfast settling in our tummies and energized enough for the day, we walked to the Greenwich Park. It's a really peaceful park with open green fields. We can see from afar several happy dogs running across the field. The breeze is cool and gentle. BUT, the Greenwich musuem and observatory is on TOP OF A HILL. And it's quite a climb for our tired bodies. But since we came so far, it's up we go...


Maritime Museum


Greenwich park (background)


Greenwich Museum on top of the hill


what goes up, must go down...

After having a leisurely stroll in Greenwich, it's back to the city centre to finish ticking off the rest of the sights from our lists. After some debat, we decided to go to Tate Modern first, the Tate Britain next, since it was mentioned in the guide that there was some shuttle bus connecting the two.

Tate Modern was actually converted from a old warehouse (if I am remembered correctly), and the exterior is really nondescript. Inside, you can see this huge hall as a entrance and it houses some many modern art.

To be honest, modern art appeals even less to me than old paintings. Sometimes, I think pple read too much (or pretend that they do) into some messy doodles and frankly, if one really wants to portray some social injustice or reflect life, they should have done something that really change the world than draw some nonsensical stuff to be hang on the wall of some fancy museum. At least the old paintings depict what actually was and can be some part of pictorial history.


Tate Modern (special exhibit: Dali (one of the few that make some sense), but I really DISLIKE modern art)

Since Tate Modern is such a dismay, we wanted to go to Tate Britain since it was said that there's better exhibits there, only to find that we need to pay quite a sum to get onto a boat to get there. (remember we are on a budget). So we changed plans to go to the Convent Garden instead.

First impression of Convent Garden - Wow, I like. We can almost imagine what it was like in the old times. It's really quaint. There're some really interesting shops selling local stuff like porcelain, old fashion toys, coins etc...The atmosphere is really jovial, and you can see busker performing at several spots. The best thing is that there's no crowd (at least not much), so we can truly enjoy the place.

Convent Garden

After convent garden we returned to catch up with what we missed yesterday at the British Museum and on the way home we stopped at Harrods (which is said to be a must go when in London). It's difficult to describe Harrods. It's like it's trying to be too many things at one time, a shopping place, a grocery place, a memorial (for Diana) and even a sort of museum? Really I find the interior a bit too gaudy and over done. I mean there's the Egyptian area which the face of the current owner on the sphinx. But it's not an exaggeration that it has packed everything and nearly all of London's population within the walls almost close to explosion. It's really hard to imagine that it started out as a small wholescale grocery shop.

But well, we had an enjoyable freshly made Krispy Creem donut at Harrods so that makes up for everything.

After Harrods, we went on home to prepare for a overnight bus trip to Edinburg with the Megabus. Megabus is really an interesting idea. It provide cheap intercity transport all around UK (we bought our tickets at only 1 pound each..if you are the first two persons who booked). Booking can be done online and you need only show the printout or booking no. to the coach driver to board.

We had a hard time looking for the bus station as it was not at the main bus station but a small one beside. And there's no shelter from a cold chilly night while waiting. We were initially quite concerned that we were waiting in the night outside. Fortunately, there're quite a number of pple also at the station.

While waiting, we met one friendly Scot, Louis, who is on the same trip with us to Edinburgh. He said that he was a native Edinburgh and was here in London for an interview to pursue his master in ecology. We chatted about what to see in Edinburg and where we have traveled to. He complained that the coach was the worse trip in his life and if he had the money he would have taken a flight home. Louis, if you ever came across this blog, hope the university has contacted you.

After boarding the coach, I can understand what he meant. Well, being an "Ang Moh" he is quite tall and the seats are truly too small for him to fit in comfortably. But being petite Asians, we find the seats alright, nothing worse than the coach we take to KL from Singapore and the gentle rocking of the coach when on the road had hypnotize us to sleep....ZZZZZzZZZzzz....

Scotland - Edinburgh

Reached Edinburgh in the morning (tired after the overnight bus ride from London), we were a bit disoriented and have no idea how to get to our hostel. After studying the map and Louis kind guidance, we walked towards the right direction, only to find that our hostel is below the bridge of which we are on top of. It took a while before we found the road to below the bridge and to our hostel. But really, the road design is very confusing.

Once at the hostel we found this brochure introducing a FREE city tour in Edinburgh. Since it's free and it seems quite entertaining we decided to go to this 3h tour (tips required) at 11am. Pictures (and story) below are taken during the tour:


Oldest building in Edinburgh

Can you guess that this building is actually 13 storey high???!!! The poorer you are the higher you live, seems to be the opposite nowadays. I wonder how the pple in the past can climb up 13 storeys daily...hmm...must have steel for legs


First Cathedral in Edinburgh.

I forgotten the story but it seems like this was the only cathedral at that time since most Scots are Protestants. Apparently one King tried to impose the Catholic faith upon the Scots only to have them rebelled against it...Some many Scots were killed for protecting their faith.


The first prison in Edinburgh was once here, housing some of the worst criminals in history. It was a custom to spit on these criminals before they were prosecuted. After it was torn down, they used a Heart to indicate what was here before. So there's a local joke on how to identify locals vs tourists.

One way was that locals will go about their usual business when the one o'clock gun sound, while tourists will be shocked, the other is that locals spit on the heart or avoid walking on it while tourists walk all over it without noticing


Writer's close (A free tiny musuem housing the story of several Scottish writers)


Edinburgh Castle

This was supposed to be a must see when in Edinburg but if you can see the queue of pple standing at the entrance...No amount to waiting is justifiable to just take a chance to look at the scottish crown jewel.




Greyfriar Graveyard

Here's an interesting tale about a dog's loyalty to his master. The story goes that there used to be this policeman who will patrol around the city with his dog, Bobby. One day he was killed on the job and was buried at the Greyfrair and his faithful dog kept wait at his grave till his own death. People to commemorate the dog placed his grave near his master outside the grave yard and put up a statue. So now people from all over the world will visit this graveyard to see this wonderful dog.


Monument of Bobby (the very loyal dog) outside of Greyfriar Graveyard, near to the grave of its beloved owner


Sir Walter Scot Monument

Sir Walter Scot one of the most famous Scottish writer during the Victorian times. Apparently, it was through his works whereby Scottish culture saw a revival from its boycott since the revolt. Suddenly it became fashionable to wear plaid and blow bagpipes. AND...horrors of all horrors, there was actually no such thing as a family colored plaid. It was all an invention of fashion. Hmm....but guess nobody cares for such truth. =P


Dolly the Sheep (in Edinburgh Museum)

This is the REAL dolly, the first cloned anything....Haha..not that we will be able to spot any differences in two un-cloned sheep...Please, they all look the same, don't they? Mutton is mutton.


Edinburgh Museum (inside)


Arther's Seat, the highest point in Edinburg (which we didn't attempt to climb... heng ah!!)


Edinburgh Train Station

After one night in Edinburgh, we woke up early next morning to head to Inverness. Edinburgh is truly very pretty if not very ancient. Yet, it's vibrant and yet full of tradition. There are so many things to see and explore, wished we had more time here.

Scotland - Culrain

We reached Inverness around 12pm (from Edinburgh 8am)... on our way on to Culrain. Here's some pictures taken from the bus on the road towards Inverness:





First impression of Inverness, for such a small town, there's really quite a number of places to shop. Right beside the train station is a mall of which we spent our very shot afternoon there while waiting to take the train to Culrain. The train was very delayed and one of the train personnel was really angry...it was actually quite funny to watch a real life Scot in action. Hehe...

Finally reached Culrain station, after uncountable encounters from afar with sheeps and horses and rabbits (yes, rabbits, they are so many of them that I think they have a rabbit problem)...

We weren't quite expecting to alight in such a small unmanned station. Luckily, there was a bunch of Italian backpackers going to the same hostel we were going and that the sun is still shining like it's 4pm in the afternoon instead of 8pm. So we tailed behind the group and chatted with them along the hike uphill to the hostel.

Partway up the hill, one of the guys asked us if we watched some horror movie. It seems like the said horror movie was filmed where we were supposed to spend the night (Ok...glad that I am not into horrors, if not it will be a sleepless night, whew...). He then joked that the movie featured two Chinese girls killing a bunch of Italian guys in their sleep. Eyes roll. Talk about humor in the most unexpected places.

After super long hike, we finally caught sight of our hostel. Hurrayy...my legs are killing me...The hostel we are staying the night in is actually a castle (Haunted or not, that's up to debate. However, we spent an uneventful night there).





The Carbisdale castle was built by the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland during the 1906-17. The castle is dark and decor eerie, filled with statues and very old paintings. If not that the hostel was fully occupied, it does fulfill the mood of a horror movie setting....

Inside:

Level 1 (Main Floyer)


Level 2 (Hallway)

Truth be told, there was nothing much to do in Culrain, the nearest town is two train stations away and surrounding it is just the wilderness and some some community of farmers.... so the next morning, after a cold continental breakfast, we walked around the area.

There's truly nothing to do but the walk did freshen us up and the serenity of the place is really nice. Finally, bored by the lack of activity, we went to their library to read books (which is our favorite pastime), while passing time to wait for the train back to Inverness @ 3.25pm.