[L.E.P.A.K series: London] Chap 23: St Paul's Cathedral

And We're back in London yo! 

After a good night's rest in our super comfy hotel bed, we woke up to another early morning of exploration. We took a breezy morning walk to Waterloo station and rode the tube out to Bank (that's the name of the station and not an actual bank. hehe).

Upon exiting the station, we were greeted by our first sight of spring. 

Since it was towards the end of March, we were caught between winter and spring. It was chilly as ever throughout our entire trip but we eventually warmed ourselves towards this somewhat cold and gloomy city. 

 In fact, after five days, we bravely decided to dress more like a local and loose a few layers of clothes with only a layer of tights to warm our legs. Not bad at all! Either that or the weather did get a little less colder as the days passed by. But a girl can imagine, right?

Our first itinerary for the day was St Paul's Cathedral. 

We actually arrived at the back of the cathedral because that's where the closest tube exit was. It was a great choice actually because we then get to stroll along the side garden before finding ourselves in front of the cathedral.

There were little squirrels running around the garden. A really cute sight to behold and Mr Man here whom in my opinion looked very much like Jason Statham (LOL) was generously feeding the squirrels. Poor pigeon was longing for a crumb too, don't you think? Hehe. Mr Man looked very much like a regular guy on his way to work, who also makes it a point to stop by to feed his little buddies. Why? Because both Mr Man and the squirrels looked very much accustomed to each other and he even had them running up and down his body.

Squirrel!! Squeeee! 

A not-bad-shot from my three-year-old-compact camera don't you think? 

*shameless* 

 But this was no winning shot.

It's this that is the winner! 

Thanks Cik Anai for this much-loved photo. :D

This little garden turned out to be quite a 'high-traffic' place with many people walking through it to get to the tube station, obviously on their way to work. Only us two silly gals were loitering around, all carefree and shameless taking photos of ourselves.

Like I said, carefree and shameless. In a good way. Hehe.

A side view of the cathedral. That's the awesome thing about free and easy travelling. If we were here on tour, we would have probably missed out on all these little morning wonders. Probably all we would have seen was...

THIS! 

 Finally, we found ourselves at the front of the cathedral. 

 However, we were there way ahead of schedule as doors only opened at 8.30am. So we headed out to a Marks & Spencer nearby and bought ourselves breakfast. Upon stepping in the aroma of freshly baked buns greeted us and soon after, we found ourselves staring at the sandwich aisle with our mouths open, undecided on what we want because... well, we wanted everything. Haha. 

 Call me crazy but it was also nice to be a part of the morning crowd there, many of which were there to grab a pack of sandwich before heading off to work. We on the other hand, stood lingering around with some extra time in our hands.

 There was a bank a few doors down and guess what? We stepped right in! You see, a few days ago while we were buying our tickets to Tower of London, Cik Anai's £20 note got rejected. Turns out, the note was... was... an old note! Hahaha. Nope, we did not get cheated on a fake note, just an old one. The lady there told us that we can change it in any banks. So that's how we ended up visiting a bank. Guess I can check that off my list "Visit a bank in a foreign country...Check!" 

Surprisingly the bank turned out to be less electronic-driven than those in Malaysia. No waiting number was taken and we actually lined up for our turn much like the good old days. As if I'm that old to talk about the good old days, but yeah, surprising nonetheless. Tellers were not sitting behind high counters either but normal height table tops.

With our breads in hand and new notes in Cik Anai's pocket, we continued our stroll to find a place to settle down and enjoy our breakfast.

Behold Breakfast! 

Classic Ham (from British farms so says the packaging), Cheese & Pickle on Malted Brown Bread for me and a more humble Classic Free Range Egg & Watercress on Malted Brown Bread for Cik Anai. And because we're hungry travellers, an extra hot cross raisin bun for each of us. Yummmmmy! 

Taste aside, you know what I love about these sandwich?

The Packaging! 

It tears right at the centre and...

Lo and behold, carries a sandwich on each side. Awesome possum if you ask me. This is not something found in Malaysia. Modest bank yet state-of-the-art sandwich pack. London, you amuses me.

Nature called after breakfast and this was what greeted us at the public toilet. Haha. No need for a Makcik to collect entrance fee. Just drop the right amount of coins into the gates and step right in. 50p is the fee, that's RM2.50 for a piss. Sigh.

Finally, we're all set to visit this sanctuary. Our rail card entitled us to a 2 for 1 promotion which saved us a bunch. That's the reason why we chose the regular travel card over the more popular Oyster Card. It entitles travellers to various 2 for 1 promotion at a lot of tourist attractions.

This is the gate of heaven. :)

The only clear shot that Cik Anai managed to sneakily capture inside the cathedral. Yup. The no camera allowed rule applies here. That is why this post which is supposed to be on St Paul's Cathedral had a very long 'introduction' to all that is around and outside of the cathedral because I have nothing to show of the inside. 

Yes. It was majestic and a tad more luxurious-looking than Notre Dame Cathedral. I guess having an entrance fee does amount to better funding, but luxurious does not necessarily outdo classic charm. The climb up to the Whispering Gallery was tiring, dizzy and memorable. The underground crypt was serene and eerie. The souvenir corner was busy and delightfully vibrant. All in all, St Paul's did offer a more all-rounded experience that stirred up a mix of emotions as oppose to Notre Dame. 

 It was two hours of serenity before we head out to catch a glimpse of the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace. I'll leave that for the next post! ;)

[L.E.P.A.K series: Paris] Chap 15: Up, up and away Eiffel

We're finally at our most exciting part of our one day trip in Paris. Oh boy, oh boy! First, we rode the metro from Charles de Gaulle-Etoile, located right under Arc de Triomphe to Bir-Hakeim, which was one of the two nearest stops to Eiffel Tower. That shot up there, right on top of this post is a shot that Cik Anai took from the train we were in. 

 From Bir-Hakeim, we took a scenic walk along the Seine River and passed by many 'illegal' roadside peddlers selling all things Eiffel. From key chains to small, medium, big displays of the tower, this is the best spot to buy your souvenirs. We were pretty happy when we found the stalls here were selling the key chains at a better price than those at the underground pathway of Arc de Triomphe. With that we bought them from a stall without much hesitation only to find the stalls far down offered an even more better deal. Dang. So the moral of the story is to never buy from the first nor second nor third stall. Hahaha. Go waaaaay down down down and you will get waaaay low low low price. :P

And finally we're here! Time for a smile and say 

"Hey! I'm in front of the Eiffel Tower." :D 

 After a lot of look-see look-see around we finally joined the extremely long queue at 

the ticketing counter. :( What a bummer to spend most of the afternoon waiting in line. 

First you line up for your tickets, then you have to line up for the lift that takes you up to 

the first level and, and! If you're heading up to the very top, that's another snake around 

the lift area. Boo. No fun. 

 But wait we have to, and wait we did.

We were then squeezed into a little lift that takes us up, up and away!

"Hello, people down there. It's cold up here and I'm only half way there."

The view at this level was total unobstructed. So you can marvel away at the 360º view of Paris. However it of course did not stretch out as far as what you will get at the very top.

Another 45 minutes of waiting later, we were finally at the very top of Eiffel. Sadly, it's dangerous to be that high and windy without any safety precaution. Thus the ugly wire mesh all around. :( The view here though was amazing!

To the extend that if you zoom in close enough, you will the Arc de Triomphe right there.

Who says all roads lead to Rome? The way I see it, they're all heading towards Paris. :P

 Now the top level is not very big, duh. So we managed to round the place for about twice, taking some photos with Paris behind us when we decided to split up. How bad can it be right? It's just a little space. No way to get lost here right? So here I am at one side of the tower and Cik Anai at the other when I heard a little commotion going on. What? What? Before I had any idea what was going on, I was ushered down to the lift area by a security guard telling us that we need to leave immediately. 

 WHAT? 

 WAIT!!! 

 I'm missing my partner! I quickly explained that I had a friend up there but the guard insisted that I need to go and the others will come down real soon. 

 Umm... okay... 

 *worried* 

 And Cik Anai appeared! Hooray. Except we did not have any time to say our 'hoorays' when we were once again told to line up and leave. Now that we're together again, our thoughts head off to other more 'interesting' stuff. 

 Like why are we leaving? 

 I paid 13 euros to be here and now you're asking me to leave after an hour and a half of waiting and barely 30 minutes of sightseeing? How can? How can? Are they just trying to get rid of us so that other people can have their turn at the top of the tower? 

 Umm... wait... the staff and guards are looking worried and they're staring everywhere. 

 OMG! 

 Is there a bomb?!?!!

Gotta go! Gotta go! Everyone move.

 And finally when we were at the bottom, look at what was awaiting us.

Look at all that police cars!!

And look at us still thinking about taking a photo. :P If we're going to die *choi choi choi*, we might as well remember every second of it. Now leaving the tower wasn't enough, we were told to leave the entire vicinity. What's more, the enforcement people blocked the roads all around, including the way we came from Bir-Hakeim. Noooo... we had no choice but to divert from the plan. Ahhh!!!

AHHHHHHH!!!! 

 Alright. I think I have made my point clear.

With that, we found ourselves at Trocadéro Gardens instead. No plans, no pre-planned guide on what train to sit, no idea where the metro was even. All because of a bomb scare. It can't get more excited than this. Well, I guess we just have to make do with what we can do.

Regardless of the situation, we shouldn't let a good shot go to waste, right? 

 Luckily, my months of research had somehow managed to prepare me for this. Muahahaha. Crazy obsessive planning for the win! You see, although the map in our 32-page itinerary cuts off at the Seine River, I was the one who cropped it. So I sort of knew what was at across the river. Thus, I can agak-agak assure Cik Anai that I agak-agak know where we were at.
"Don't worry. Stay calm. We can do this." 

Except when we finally found the entrance to the Metro,
it was closed for construction!! 

 *sigh* 

 Why lah? WHY? :( 

 Luckily the other entrance down to the Metro is within eye-shot. Before we took off to our next destination, we decided to slow down our pace, stop and appreciate some street art.

Mr Scuffy Man at work. 

 Can you see me in the picture, taking another picture of Mr Scuffy Man. Hehe.

And here’s the picture from my angle. :) 

Can you see Cik Anai in this photo, taking the above picture from her angle.

Hahaha.  

 Next up: More art coming your way... meeting Mona Lisa. :)

The Impromptu Holiday Series: In Which I Finally Met Bobby. Say Woot Woot!

Continuing from here and here, I was finally on my way to meet Bobby Chinn for dinner but alas, with a battery-less camera.

How sad.

Well, not really.

You see, I met a very kind food blogger by the name of Boo, who was invited for the dinner as well. She's the foodie expertie behind Masak-Masak. *click click to read her blog* She offered to take our pictures for us. See there's nice people in this world after all. Hee..

So not only did I get a very very nice picture taken *using a canggih-manggih camera* but OMG! I got featured in her blog as well. Masak-Masak wei! When Boo asked if it's okay to use the photo in her blog, I of course agreed because after all, I wouldn't have such a photo if it wasn't for her. However, all I was expecting was a little mention and a photo somewhere in the middle of the post. I wasn't expecting to find my face at the top of the entire post. O_O

*click on the picture to read her post*

Though, who cares about me, it's Bobby that everyone's looking at. Handsem kan? Ahahaha.. and there I was squeezed in between him and dear godma. *grins* Yes yes, the dinner invitation was for two and I so I asked if she could make it for dinner as well.

The dinner was at Al-Halabi Lounge at JW Marriott. It was my first time at a Middle Eastern restaurant and it was certainly an eye-opener for me. The deco and lighting were dark and intimate with the front part of the lounge filled with comfy sofa and lounge chairs. This is totally the 'hang-out' spot for Middle Eastern tourists where they can simply sit back, relax and enjoy a taste of home, or in this case, a puff of home with their shisha.

We were all sitted around a U-shaped table which in my opinion was not the best seating arrangement for such an event. It made the dinner a little impersonal. We ended up breaking into separate chat groups instead of interacting as a whole. Six of us on the left, which included food blogger, Kyspeaks and his fiance, Haze, were chatting among ourselves, while the other six at the other side of the U, were in their own little world. The other winner and his mom who were seated at the centre of the U were all shy and quiet throughout dinner.

Luckily Bobby's voice were loud enough to be heard by all when it came to 'story-telling' time. He shared with us his experience in the Middle East during his filming for World Cafe Asia, covering from Persian, Egyptian to Turkish and more.

Food was served after that. We got to tick our choice of starter and main course. Not bad for attentiveness I must say. Though I won't rate it in terms of taste since I have no prior knowledge regarding such cuisine. For that, you should head over to Masak-Masak or Kyspeaks. Not to mention all the food pictures they took with their canggih-manggih camera.

This post is sadly without enough pretty photos in it.

:(

After dinner, the PR team announced a mini autograph session. 'Mini' being there were only 10 of us in total excluding Bobby and the PR team themselves. Here's when it got interesting. You see, upon knowing I was heading down to meet Bobby, I tweeted...

In which he actually replied.

Say Woot Woot!!! x 1000000

Of course, it didn't end there.

And he replied again. *flail flail*

*flail somemore*

*ahem*

So... back to the dinner.

He was signing his cook book for me when the PR team mentioned that I came all the way from Penang to see him. He looked up, looked at me and said,

"Ah.. YOU!"

*blinks*

"Ah... Yes Me!"

Okay. I was silly and speechless there and then. Imagine that! A copywriter at a loss for words. How can wei?! Malu betul.

*sigh*

But who cares! I got a personalised message from Bobby!

"...all the way from one of my favourite cities for food."
- Best Wishes Always, Bobby Chinn, KL 20.10.10

*hearts hearts*

That's it! Must promo kau-kau now.

For those who love World Cafe Asia, make sure to catch Bobby's latest Middle East Special, every Monday, 10pm on TLC, Astro Channel 707. For those who have yet to catch the show at all, shame on you and please do! The show is now one hour long as oppose to the previous 30 minutes and the Middle East Special is a 4-episode special with tomorrow being the 3rd of the series. So make sure you switch on your television tomorrow and enjoy a Bobbylicious experience like me! :)

The Impromptu Holiday Series: Dinner with Bobby Chinn (Also Known as the Woot? Woot? Special)

Two Sundays ago, I came across an article on Bobby Chinn's upcoming World Cafe Asia series featuring the Middle East. At the end of the article was a simple contest which requires me to answer 2 questions and complete a slogan. Easy peasy right? And all you have to do is email your entry over. Ergo, no cost!

The Prize?
A free dinner for two with Bobby Chinn at JW Marriott.

The Catch?
Middle Eastern cuisine.

Duh. Not that I mind, I'm for one is up for anything when it comes to food. I mean, my colleagues don't call me "tamchiak girl" for nothing. That, and of course, the fact that I go hungry very fast.

Wait! Where was I?

Oh yes. So I joined the contest. Come on lah, it's dinner with Bobby Chinn! There's only one other person I might give a pass on Bobby to dine with, Anthony Bourdain. Hahaha.. but Bourdain's American charm doesn't strike my mom's fancy. So if there's really such a decision to be made, Bobby gets my mom's support, plus he kinda do hit closer to home.

Now, remember The Catch I mentioned earlier that it being Middle East cuisine? While, that's not half as bad since I appreciate food no matter how essentric they may get. The Problem however, was that the closing date for the competition was on the 15th, that's a Friday. The dinner is on the 20th. Minus the weekend and all that's left is a 3-day lead time for whatever plans you need should you win the prize.

And let's not forget the fact that I'm from Penang.

So I got a call on Monday saying that I won the competition. Freaked out a little, panicked a little and then decided "I want to going!" So I went in and see the boss.

Me: "Umm... boss, do you know who Bobby Chinn is?"

Boss: "No."

-__-

Well, that was expected. If I were to ask "Do you know there's a TLC channel on Astro?" I'll probably get a "No." as well. Totally salah channel lah.
Luckily Mrs Boss was around.

Mrs Boss: "Oh, he's that chef host is it?"

Me: "Yaya. Well, I sorta won a dinner with him this Wednesday... it's pretty last minute."

Mrs Boss: "Oh then you must go!"

Yay! Got support!

So after making sure my work schedule permits me to go MIA, I was let off for the rest of the week. And so it began. My Impromptu Holiday!

A Japanese Summer: Chapter Eight (i)

Better late than never. As much as I procastinates, I am still determined to finish the series because it means so much to me. On the 11th day in Japan, we headed to a little hot spring town called Kinosaki Onsen. The name is a dead giveaway as the word 'Onsen'
(温泉) itself means 'hot spring'. There you go, pick up a little Japanese as you read. =)

Going to the onsen was something both of us was very excited yet nervous about. This is of course for one obvious reason - getting naked in front of someone else! And when you know you're going to umm... be that 'expose', there's another list of concerns that pops up in mind. *cough cough* There was certainly a need to educate ourselves properly on the DOs-and DON'Ts at the hot springs. Thank God for Google!

I confess. We fell in love with McD Japan after our last late night snack two nights before. As if Ebi Burger aka Prawn Burger wasn't impressive enough... LO AND BEHOLD! Bacon Egg & Cheese Burger for breakfast!

Bacon wei! BACON!

And with your choice of Cafe Au Lait.

SAY WOOT?

Not just your usual "Coffee or tea?" but an actual list of beverages to choose from. Choices that include "Cafe Au Lait". Awww.... I crave for Japanese McD right now! I miss. I want.

And so we headed off to the station after breakfast. And there we found Platform Zero. Hahaha... that's a first. I guess Japan just never fail to amuse.

That's the train to Kinosaki Onsen. Even the train matches the destination. Old town. Old train. The queue was already quite long when we arrived. All hurdled up for the free seating section of the train. Naturally we didn't get any seats and had to stand almost all the way of the journey which took over an hour and a half or so.

I finally got a seat just a few stops away from Kinosaki. Sat next to this shabby old man with bad breath. (-_-) If that's not bad enough, said ojisan was very keen in having a conversation even though I pretend to not understand most of the things he said. And hey, I'm in a foreign land and in no place to be inpolite to elders. Ojisan kept introducing a good place to visit which I wished we could if we had the time. A place about 40 minutes bus ride away from Kinosaki that offered the unique noodle eating experience that I previously saw on tv where you catch the flowing noodle with your chopsticks and such. But alas, we were tight on schedule and it's just too dangerous to meddle with our plans.

Finally we arrived. There's a mini bus waiting outside of the station that takes visitors to their respective guesthouse. See, Kinosaki Onsen is known for its seven different onsens throughout town and thus, there's also numerous Japanese guesthouses (ryokan) throughout the little town as well. Every visitor is bound to head to one of them. Ours was called Tsutaya.

Tsutaya Ryokan!

Authentic Japanese guesthouses are much much more expensive than all our previous little hotel stays. One night here costed over RM600 PER PERSON which is more costly than our 3-night stay in Kyoto. But we can't go by a trip to Japan without experiencing sleeping on a futon and being served with the best food and service.

This is officially the pampered part of our entire trip.

And by pampered, I mean the best service in town. Mr Receptionist here carried our bags up for us and served us tea in our rooms. And we even had obachan serving us like she was our butler. Obachan was there to prepare our meal in our rooms and even dressed us up in our yukata which Izumi-san, the hotel owner offered to lend us for free. When she offered we hesistated at first because we read on the website that yukatas are rent for a price but Izumi said it's a complement from her and asked us to choose the ones we like. Did I mention that Izumi-san speak fluent English? Probably the best speaker among all the Japanese we've met in our trip.

Tea and biscuit served.



The room. Pweetty.



The toilet. Hahaha!

The toilet is sorta outside of the room, right at the corridor to our room. Yes, we even had our own corridor to our room. Obviously sliding paper doors are not secure enough and therefore we have a typical wooden door with a modern lock which led to a little space before the actual sliding door to the room.

On the other side of the room is another set of sliding door that led to another section with windows looking out to the street. Yes, the sink is here. How nice is it to brush your teeth as you enjoy the morning view of people walking down the street?

Hahaha... these are not our yukata. These were the easy slip-ons that you wear out to the onsens. Every guesthouse has their own design. Thus, the people working in the onsen can easily identify you as guests of which guesthouse and bring back your 'geta' (Japanese slippers) when you're about to leave the bath house.

It's a simple yet amazing system that works wonders. You step into a bath house and remove your slippers. The people there will collect it and keep it aside. Then you go in and enjoy your dip in the onsen. You come back out and they will be ready with your slippers again. Hahaha! Wonderful.

We went around the guesthouse and took some pictures of the place.


And we find 'prettiness' one after another.


Finally we reached the female bath in the hotel. A small hot bath for hotel guests only. We decided to take our first step slowly in private and therefore came here for our first bath together before heading out the the public bathhouses.

When we entered there was already a girl in the bath which left us in a dilemma on whether to enter or not. We felt silly standing there unsure whether to undress and enter. Then the girl came out and was completely comfortable in her own skin which made us felt even more silly for the awkwardness we had. HAHAHAHA! Finally we got rid of all the silliness and just went 'what the hell' and just well, went for it. And there it was the two of us in one bath, soaking in a bath of extremely HOT WATER, giggling with a little awkwardness.

*blushes*

Is this even something appropriate to share here?
Ahhhhhhh...!

After the bath, we decided to head out to town. Here's a shot of the front desk. There were slippers of different sizes for guests nicely arranged right in front. Oh, I forgot to mention that we had to remove our shoes before entering the guesthouse. That explains the slippers.



Of course there were also different sizes of 'geta' for you
to wonder outside. =)



Kinosaki Onsen is known for its seven bath houses located throughout town, each with their own characteristic, i.e. the oldest bath houses, the smallest, etc. This is Goshono-yu.

This is Ichino-yu.

The one other bath house that I managed to photographed. They were the only two we saw while we went out on a stroll during the day with our cameras. We discovered the rest during the evening when we were out on a "try-all-bath-houses-mission".



Guess who was there to greet us when we came back to our room? Obachaaan! And sumptuous dinner! Now before dinner was served, obachan even helped us wear our yukata. Hahaha... and Cubbie was smart enough to have the entire thing recorded because we knew we were on our own the next day when we checked out and switched to a budget-friendly hotel a train stop away from here. We simply could not afford another night of such luxury.

The recorded video even came in handy this year during Bon Odori as we fussed about wearing our yukata for the event... which reminds me I haven't even blog about that. @_@ *hopeless*



Now let's get back to sumptuous dinner. =)



Scallopie. Crabbie. And Sashimi.

Even the rice came in style.
Gosh how Cubbie love the rice that she ate two bowls of it.

Mission accomplished!
Time for a stroll outside to loose all the pounds we just gained in that one meal.

And we didn't even need to ask anyone to help us take our photo. Someone offered. See how nice Japanese people are?! They saw two silly gals taking photos of each other and came forward to ask if we need any help. Now that's real hospitality.

Remember the bridge? Yup. This is the night view of that same opening shot at the very top of this post. Water clear enough to actually see the reflection of the bridge even during the night.
How pweeetty can it get?

See! Everyone is walking around in their yukata.

Oh, and if you think coming back to a room filled with food was amazing....

This time we were greeted with laid-out futons.

Comfy!

Yeah, we slept on the floor but that turned out to be the best night of sleep throughout our stay in Japan. Cubbie desperately wants to own a futon now. Hahaha...

*******

Oh one last interesting point. We heard sirens through the night, assuming people kinda went overboard in soaking in the hot spring and passed out. ^^;; So like always, moderation is the key!

Next update: Bon Odori in Japan!