London Chapter 3 (Exploring Greenwich - Goodbye Europe!)
Our last episode in London! Read our Chapter 2 here!
Goodday London! our last day here, 12th June 2015. We get ready, i texted Farouk to wait for us at Greenwich station, he noted. We pack our bagpacks first and went for 1pound breakfast. I returned the key to Astor Inn and asked them whether we can leave our bags here first, as we wanna walk freely..hihi. He said 'sure!' .. yeay :) . Bags into the alligator room :P .
Our itinerary actually to visit St.Paul church this morning but we skip it and went to Greenwich directly. So we take the tube at Holborn (pronounce as Auburn btw) Central Line and stop at Bank station to change to DLR.
My oh my oh my this Bank station is huge!. About 4 lines meet here and DLR is the last one. It was quite a walk to DLR transit line! . It was in the morning of 12th June, so people were rushing to work.. TIPS: remember stand on the left on escalator, on the right ppl are rushing 'excuse me excuse me' .
Finally we reached DLR Bank Station, my god.. we take the train direction Lewisham and stop at Greenwich. quite far tho.. Zone 3.. Our oyster card already finish its credit, so on the way back we must top up first. TIPS: U need around 10 pound a day or two if u r only travelling in zone 1 and 2, but if u enter zone 3 the fare is different, bit higher. U can find details on oyster card here : https://oyster.tfl.gov.uk/oyster/entry.do
We reached Greenwich station, and I saw Farouk! finalllyyyy!. It was so nice meeting him. He said there are 2 costas at Stratford and the messages were received late, that's why we couldnt find each other. He spent an hour looking for us and we for him. He was so worried when he couldn't find me, i said to him at first i was pissed off. But anyway, this kind of things happens a lot during travel.
Greenwich is a maritime city. U can see replica of real ship in the Cutty Sark town. TIPS: By train, u can stop at either Cutty Sark or Greenwich. Both are near with each other. But Farouk said Cutty Sark is nearer.
This city was so subtle and not pack, i love it. We hang out for coffee first at a coffee shop here. Oh btw, we saw the Jamie Oliver restaurant here!. We talk about our experience in London. Farouk talked about his life here. i saw school kids and they were from different races which is good. Farouk then said, 'yea over here yes, u go to more white majority area, it is different' . After we spent time, Farouk has to go cos he got some work to do, so we say farewell and continue our walk to the Meridian line.
U know the Meridian time line right, we learned about it in geography. It is the line that determine our time difference. Well we are now walking towards the line literally :D . We saw the National Maritime Museum and The Queen House on the left. This pic is epic tho, a bird on Sarah's head :P. muhahaha!
We walk thru the park here to reach the meridian line. There are signs everywhere, so dont worry u wont get lost here. hehe. Finally we reach the Astronomy Centre. You can walk around this area but to be on the meridian area inside the centre u need to pay, quite expensive around 20 pounds but u can access to all.
The fee covers The Royal Observatory at Greenwich (meridian observatory), astronomy centre, great equatorial telescope. So if u r really interested in astronomy, this will be a good education for u. The pamphlets are free tho, u can take it. This is The Royal Observatory at Greenwich btw... and me of cos :p
But, since we are running out of pounds (London cost soo much!) , we decided to not go in. BUT, the staff there told us, the line goes until out of the fence. So we get our asses there and start taking pictures, hihi. East Longtitude, West Longtitude, Teratitude hiks
While narcissistic us were too focus in taking pics, there was a couple behind me said 'boleh tolong ambil gambar tak?'. I was like 'wait i know that language!'. They were Malaysian couple..awww my fellow countrymen. hihi. I guess they heard me n sarah talking in Malay :).
We walked out of that area and stop at the Greenwich market, we saw this market on the way going to the meridian. Its a market that sells food, clothes, handmade jewelry, books, paintings etc. The food homaigod from all over the world. There were Ethiopian, brazilian, thai, italian etc. A lot of choices! TIPS: Save your budget by having your lunch here!
They have fresh juices, so thats it, we had our lunch here. We bought the Ethiopian vegetarian dish with kus kus. Kus Kus is a substitute of rice in Africa.
I saw this vintage jewelry sold by this girl in tattoo, she was soo nice. She was like 'its all cheap ,its all cheap' . hihi. I bought one green vintage necklace probably made in the 50's or so. This place is a must visit in London if u like a neighbourhood market and good food. Damn i missed the Greenwich market! These are some photos of the food stalls
We then walked to the Cutty Sark station to go back to our hostel and pickup our bags.
At the train station, there were no counter there, darn it.. we asked the security there and he said we have to top up the oyster card using the machine. We managed to top up the card using the machine eventually after 2 trial. lol :P . TIPS: Avoid hassles and topup the oyster card at any big stations before starting your journey.
We took the train back to Holborn. Got into Astor Inn and pick up our bag packs and said goodbye to the friendly staff of the hostel. I really recommend any of you who wanna stay at hostels in London to choose Astor Inn. It's really fun!.
We walked back to the train station, to take the tube to Baker Street. Fyi, we already bought the easy bus ticket in advance for London - Luton airport. TIPS: This one u can do online at their website.
We reached Baker Street station and our first destination is the counter, to get the refund for the oyster card. hihihi. It can be done via machine as well. So, the staff helped us to do it. The refund was in coins from the machine! my god.. our bags then literally filled with pound coins. Ayyayayayyy. with sling bags full of coins we walk towards the Easy bus station, which is Bus Stop S in Gloucester Place. We got confused, we asked a guy and he pointed us 'yea Easy bus over there' . Looks like this place is known for easybus.
The bus came and we hop on the easy bus, showed our tickets and the bus made it way to Luton Airport..
We walk directly to the custom. When they scanned my sling bags it goes in the other direction, so that was weird. I wait for it and the officer came and asked me to open it. So i did and he pickup my powerbank and asked 'what is this?' . I swear to god i never imagined that question will come out at the airport of a developed country like the UK. I said 'hmm its a powerbank, where u use it to charge ur phone' . He looked at it and then let me go. What the hell! u don't know what a powerbank is? where r u from, the 15th century? ..duh
Sarah got hold cos of hairpin. so she have to go thru this big door with automatic censor turning all around her. hihihi such a futuristic robot. The security process took ages, luckily we got here early. 'is there any ipad or electronic device in ur bagpack?' . said the officer, but she was friendly.
We walked to the bag drops counter to check in for Easy Jet. What i found interesting is there were quite a number of ladies in hijab working at this airport. hmm. The one for bag drops also wear a hijab, her name is Anisa. Im guessing british indian. Sound sweet right? nope...she was not happy doing her job at all.
We combined our bags for luggage from Schipol to Luton using the same airway Easy Jet. This was the conversation:
Me; *drop mine and sarah bags on the weighter
Anisa: u cant combine the bags, only one of u booked luggage
Me: Yes, we booked 20kg for both bags
Anisa: You can't (no emotion at all)
Me: But we did the same from Schipol to London using EasyJet as well
Anisa: You can't do it here (with 'watever' face)
Me: That's weird, so how now?
Anisa; You need to pay for another 20kg
Me: So same airlines different rules?
Anisa: Yeah (watever face)
Sarah: Fine we pay (taking out cash)
Anisa: We only accept cards
Sarah: I have card, here (looked at me and said luckily i activated the card for international transaction'
Me: Can we drop our bags now
Anisa: No u can't drop it here, bagpacks will stuck in there
Me: Then??
Anisa: U need to walk over that side and find a counter of oversize baggage and drop it there
Me: "look at her bitchy face"
Anisa: Do u understand what i said
Me: No
Anisa: This bagpacks will got stuck in there, u need to go over that counter of oversize baggage and drop there.
Me: Fine *walk away cursing in my mind*
That thing is a worthless employee Luton Airport have, period. She doesn't smile, she talks like a bitch and she wanna give us trouble. She saw our passport, i guess maybe cos we are asian, from a majority muslim country but we dont look like one. So make our life miserable is fun maybe???. Erghh i hate her and her rotten face.
TIPS: check with the airline whether u can combine bags, make it black and white so ppl cant lie and bully u
We walked around to find the oversize baggage counter and manage to find it after 2 rounds cos it was on the other side. We drop our bags there.
Off to immigration pulak. Long long queue, we passed the immigration and queue for EasyJet. Suddenly the immigration officer the lady who stamp it come and see Sarah. She was like 'im sorry mam, but ur ticket was printed wrong. it stated here Mr. like a man' . Sarah said. 'its right, its okay its right' . And the officer was like 'huh' blur.. and go back in. Hihihi that was epic, lol wrongly printed. Blame our govt cos we aren't allowed to change our document details!. The guy beside us stare at us afterwards, hihihihi. watevaaaah.
We board on EasyJet to CDG (Charles De Gaulle) again. we arrived around 9PM. We arrived at CDG Terminal 2D, we booked IBIS hotel near Terminal 3 since our flight back to KL is tomorrow morning. We walked outside and there was lots of shuttle bus lines. Gold, green, black etc. There are 3 IBIS at CDG airport..damn.
We ride the bus that take us to the green IBIS. We showed the receptionist our booking as he said 'oh this a wrong IBIS, sorry this happens a lot' . Well if u know it happens a lot can u put some info in ur website at least we will know it! It just stated IBIS CDG with no specific address. haiyyoo so stupid. We asked him how to go back to our IBIS, he said take back the bus.
But the bus never came back, the only one that pass is the bus that is not serving the airport. I asked the driver and he said,'U hv to take the shuttle bus". I said to Sarah should we just maybe asked for a ride from cars that pass. Sarah was like 'dont be crazy, we can get robbed'. make sense..
We finally saw a taxi and it stopped. We were so lucky that taxi driver didn't cheat us or anything, in fact he was very nice and charge us exactly based on the meter. It was around 11-12 euros back to the correct IBIS. He had to make one big turn again back to the airport. The IBIS is seriously just next to Terminal 3, we could have just walk instead of taking the shuttle bus homaigerdddd!!! ... oh well things happened. I did the research and i know the its near, but i guess im jus too tired to think.
TIPS: make sure u know the exact location of your airport hotel!
We showed our booking and checked in finally. Remember pick ur own bags to avoid paying for tips. We got inside the room, oh my i can rest. We took hot shower and shampoo and all to release the stress.
But then we got hungry, no food anymore all were closed, it was almost 12PM. We went down to the vending machine, we bought 2 snacks and the 3rd one it gets stuck together with Sarah's money.
We were so tired that we don't know why that it all seems so funny at that time. We were laughing all the way back to our room. Eat our snacks and sleep. Tomorrow we will take our long flight back to KL.
That morning 13th June, we pack our bags, had a great sleep last nite. we checked out and take the CDGVAL to Terminal 1. We checked in for Malaysia Airlines MH21. That lady at the counter said 'well u r one of the last one to check in' . Hehe, she helped us got our seat next to each other although it is the middle seat means we will be sitting in the center. We board the plane for 13hours flight.
Sarah sat beside a very talkative veteran Australian guy. My right side was Malaysian, who keep on asking the stewardess whether he can sleep at the back. Aiyo mister, let the plane take off first la. After 13 hours long flight we arrived at KLIA, yeay! :)
Another sad thing is, my leather jacket which i bought in Amsterdam got stolen by KLIA airport staff. Damn these people, scumbag, u never saw a leather jacket before is it? I tied it on top of my bagpack between the clips, so it was a lil bit exposed. Haishh KL is full of criminals. I lodged complaints to MAS but nothing happened. Waste of time. I hope the person who stole it got infected by some virus and spend all his money on treatment. TIPS: Make sure everything goes inside your bags and the zip works fine! There are thieves working at the airport!
Anyway, we landed safely and we had a great time of our life exploring 4 European cities!. See ya again in my next travel! XOXOX
p/s: for London itineraries reference click here!
Goodday London! our last day here, 12th June 2015. We get ready, i texted Farouk to wait for us at Greenwich station, he noted. We pack our bagpacks first and went for 1pound breakfast. I returned the key to Astor Inn and asked them whether we can leave our bags here first, as we wanna walk freely..hihi. He said 'sure!' .. yeay :) . Bags into the alligator room :P .
 |
| Sarah's definitely gonna miss this place and her Polish guy :P |
Our itinerary actually to visit St.Paul church this morning but we skip it and went to Greenwich directly. So we take the tube at Holborn (pronounce as Auburn btw) Central Line and stop at Bank station to change to DLR.
My oh my oh my this Bank station is huge!. About 4 lines meet here and DLR is the last one. It was quite a walk to DLR transit line! . It was in the morning of 12th June, so people were rushing to work.. TIPS: remember stand on the left on escalator, on the right ppl are rushing 'excuse me excuse me' .
 |
| Bank Station |
Finally we reached DLR Bank Station, my god.. we take the train direction Lewisham and stop at Greenwich. quite far tho.. Zone 3.. Our oyster card already finish its credit, so on the way back we must top up first. TIPS: U need around 10 pound a day or two if u r only travelling in zone 1 and 2, but if u enter zone 3 the fare is different, bit higher. U can find details on oyster card here : https://oyster.tfl.gov.uk/oyster/entry.do
We reached Greenwich station, and I saw Farouk! finalllyyyy!. It was so nice meeting him. He said there are 2 costas at Stratford and the messages were received late, that's why we couldnt find each other. He spent an hour looking for us and we for him. He was so worried when he couldn't find me, i said to him at first i was pissed off. But anyway, this kind of things happens a lot during travel.
Greenwich is a maritime city. U can see replica of real ship in the Cutty Sark town. TIPS: By train, u can stop at either Cutty Sark or Greenwich. Both are near with each other. But Farouk said Cutty Sark is nearer.
 |
| Cutty Sark |
This city was so subtle and not pack, i love it. We hang out for coffee first at a coffee shop here. Oh btw, we saw the Jamie Oliver restaurant here!. We talk about our experience in London. Farouk talked about his life here. i saw school kids and they were from different races which is good. Farouk then said, 'yea over here yes, u go to more white majority area, it is different' . After we spent time, Farouk has to go cos he got some work to do, so we say farewell and continue our walk to the Meridian line.
U know the Meridian time line right, we learned about it in geography. It is the line that determine our time difference. Well we are now walking towards the line literally :D . We saw the National Maritime Museum and The Queen House on the left. This pic is epic tho, a bird on Sarah's head :P. muhahaha!
 |
| sarah and her bird.. kikiki |
 |
| National Maritime Museum and The Queen House |
We walk thru the park here to reach the meridian line. There are signs everywhere, so dont worry u wont get lost here. hehe. Finally we reach the Astronomy Centre. You can walk around this area but to be on the meridian area inside the centre u need to pay, quite expensive around 20 pounds but u can access to all.
 |
| the guide in the center |
The fee covers The Royal Observatory at Greenwich (meridian observatory), astronomy centre, great equatorial telescope. So if u r really interested in astronomy, this will be a good education for u. The pamphlets are free tho, u can take it. This is The Royal Observatory at Greenwich btw... and me of cos :p
 |
| meridian observatory |
But, since we are running out of pounds (London cost soo much!) , we decided to not go in. BUT, the staff there told us, the line goes until out of the fence. So we get our asses there and start taking pictures, hihi. East Longtitude, West Longtitude, Teratitude hiks
 |
| On the west side but looking east. Misi pandang ke timur katanya #eastlongitude |
 |
| Im in the middle of the world! - Sarah |
 |
| The Meridian line :) |
While narcissistic us were too focus in taking pics, there was a couple behind me said 'boleh tolong ambil gambar tak?'. I was like 'wait i know that language!'. They were Malaysian couple..awww my fellow countrymen. hihi. I guess they heard me n sarah talking in Malay :).
We walked out of that area and stop at the Greenwich market, we saw this market on the way going to the meridian. Its a market that sells food, clothes, handmade jewelry, books, paintings etc. The food homaigod from all over the world. There were Ethiopian, brazilian, thai, italian etc. A lot of choices! TIPS: Save your budget by having your lunch here!
 |
| The Greenwich Market area |
They have fresh juices, so thats it, we had our lunch here. We bought the Ethiopian vegetarian dish with kus kus. Kus Kus is a substitute of rice in Africa.
 |
| Our Lunch, Ethiopian food |
 |
| The food stall |
 |
| Fruit juice! |
I saw this vintage jewelry sold by this girl in tattoo, she was soo nice. She was like 'its all cheap ,its all cheap' . hihi. I bought one green vintage necklace probably made in the 50's or so. This place is a must visit in London if u like a neighbourhood market and good food. Damn i missed the Greenwich market! These are some photos of the food stalls
 |
| U want Churros? |
 |
| some cakes or buns maybe? |
 |
| Japanese..no? |
 |
| Italian! |
 |
| Happy juices and us, the guy behund us is cute tho. Ignore my messy hair, the wind was so strong that day! |
 |
| Mexican maybe? |
We then walked to the Cutty Sark station to go back to our hostel and pickup our bags.
 |
| walking back..we're walking away..lalalala |
At the train station, there were no counter there, darn it.. we asked the security there and he said we have to top up the oyster card using the machine. We managed to top up the card using the machine eventually after 2 trial. lol :P . TIPS: Avoid hassles and topup the oyster card at any big stations before starting your journey.
 |
| Oyster machine |
We took the train back to Holborn. Got into Astor Inn and pick up our bag packs and said goodbye to the friendly staff of the hostel. I really recommend any of you who wanna stay at hostels in London to choose Astor Inn. It's really fun!.
We walked back to the train station, to take the tube to Baker Street. Fyi, we already bought the easy bus ticket in advance for London - Luton airport. TIPS: This one u can do online at their website.
We reached Baker Street station and our first destination is the counter, to get the refund for the oyster card. hihihi. It can be done via machine as well. So, the staff helped us to do it. The refund was in coins from the machine! my god.. our bags then literally filled with pound coins. Ayyayayayyy. with sling bags full of coins we walk towards the Easy bus station, which is Bus Stop S in Gloucester Place. We got confused, we asked a guy and he pointed us 'yea Easy bus over there' . Looks like this place is known for easybus.
 |
| Gloucester Road |
The bus came and we hop on the easy bus, showed our tickets and the bus made it way to Luton Airport..
We walk directly to the custom. When they scanned my sling bags it goes in the other direction, so that was weird. I wait for it and the officer came and asked me to open it. So i did and he pickup my powerbank and asked 'what is this?' . I swear to god i never imagined that question will come out at the airport of a developed country like the UK. I said 'hmm its a powerbank, where u use it to charge ur phone' . He looked at it and then let me go. What the hell! u don't know what a powerbank is? where r u from, the 15th century? ..duh
Sarah got hold cos of hairpin. so she have to go thru this big door with automatic censor turning all around her. hihihi such a futuristic robot. The security process took ages, luckily we got here early. 'is there any ipad or electronic device in ur bagpack?' . said the officer, but she was friendly.
We walked to the bag drops counter to check in for Easy Jet. What i found interesting is there were quite a number of ladies in hijab working at this airport. hmm. The one for bag drops also wear a hijab, her name is Anisa. Im guessing british indian. Sound sweet right? nope...she was not happy doing her job at all.
 |
| Easy Jet check in |
We combined our bags for luggage from Schipol to Luton using the same airway Easy Jet. This was the conversation:
Me; *drop mine and sarah bags on the weighter
Anisa: u cant combine the bags, only one of u booked luggage
Me: Yes, we booked 20kg for both bags
Anisa: You can't (no emotion at all)
Me: But we did the same from Schipol to London using EasyJet as well
Anisa: You can't do it here (with 'watever' face)
Me: That's weird, so how now?
Anisa; You need to pay for another 20kg
Me: So same airlines different rules?
Anisa: Yeah (watever face)
Sarah: Fine we pay (taking out cash)
Anisa: We only accept cards
Sarah: I have card, here (looked at me and said luckily i activated the card for international transaction'
Me: Can we drop our bags now
Anisa: No u can't drop it here, bagpacks will stuck in there
Me: Then??
Anisa: U need to walk over that side and find a counter of oversize baggage and drop it there
Me: "look at her bitchy face"
Anisa: Do u understand what i said
Me: No
Anisa: This bagpacks will got stuck in there, u need to go over that counter of oversize baggage and drop there.
Me: Fine *walk away cursing in my mind*
That thing is a worthless employee Luton Airport have, period. She doesn't smile, she talks like a bitch and she wanna give us trouble. She saw our passport, i guess maybe cos we are asian, from a majority muslim country but we dont look like one. So make our life miserable is fun maybe???. Erghh i hate her and her rotten face.
TIPS: check with the airline whether u can combine bags, make it black and white so ppl cant lie and bully u
We walked around to find the oversize baggage counter and manage to find it after 2 rounds cos it was on the other side. We drop our bags there.
Off to immigration pulak. Long long queue, we passed the immigration and queue for EasyJet. Suddenly the immigration officer the lady who stamp it come and see Sarah. She was like 'im sorry mam, but ur ticket was printed wrong. it stated here Mr. like a man' . Sarah said. 'its right, its okay its right' . And the officer was like 'huh' blur.. and go back in. Hihihi that was epic, lol wrongly printed. Blame our govt cos we aren't allowed to change our document details!. The guy beside us stare at us afterwards, hihihihi. watevaaaah.
 |
| Stress but smile for the camera, makeup-less :P |
We board on EasyJet to CDG (Charles De Gaulle) again. we arrived around 9PM. We arrived at CDG Terminal 2D, we booked IBIS hotel near Terminal 3 since our flight back to KL is tomorrow morning. We walked outside and there was lots of shuttle bus lines. Gold, green, black etc. There are 3 IBIS at CDG airport..damn.
We ride the bus that take us to the green IBIS. We showed the receptionist our booking as he said 'oh this a wrong IBIS, sorry this happens a lot' . Well if u know it happens a lot can u put some info in ur website at least we will know it! It just stated IBIS CDG with no specific address. haiyyoo so stupid. We asked him how to go back to our IBIS, he said take back the bus.
But the bus never came back, the only one that pass is the bus that is not serving the airport. I asked the driver and he said,'U hv to take the shuttle bus". I said to Sarah should we just maybe asked for a ride from cars that pass. Sarah was like 'dont be crazy, we can get robbed'. make sense..
We finally saw a taxi and it stopped. We were so lucky that taxi driver didn't cheat us or anything, in fact he was very nice and charge us exactly based on the meter. It was around 11-12 euros back to the correct IBIS. He had to make one big turn again back to the airport. The IBIS is seriously just next to Terminal 3, we could have just walk instead of taking the shuttle bus homaigerdddd!!! ... oh well things happened. I did the research and i know the its near, but i guess im jus too tired to think.
TIPS: make sure u know the exact location of your airport hotel!
We showed our booking and checked in finally. Remember pick ur own bags to avoid paying for tips. We got inside the room, oh my i can rest. We took hot shower and shampoo and all to release the stress.
But then we got hungry, no food anymore all were closed, it was almost 12PM. We went down to the vending machine, we bought 2 snacks and the 3rd one it gets stuck together with Sarah's money.
We were so tired that we don't know why that it all seems so funny at that time. We were laughing all the way back to our room. Eat our snacks and sleep. Tomorrow we will take our long flight back to KL.
 |
| view from our room at IBIS CDG, Terminal 3 |
That morning 13th June, we pack our bags, had a great sleep last nite. we checked out and take the CDGVAL to Terminal 1. We checked in for Malaysia Airlines MH21. That lady at the counter said 'well u r one of the last one to check in' . Hehe, she helped us got our seat next to each other although it is the middle seat means we will be sitting in the center. We board the plane for 13hours flight.
Sarah sat beside a very talkative veteran Australian guy. My right side was Malaysian, who keep on asking the stewardess whether he can sleep at the back. Aiyo mister, let the plane take off first la. After 13 hours long flight we arrived at KLIA, yeay! :)
Another sad thing is, my leather jacket which i bought in Amsterdam got stolen by KLIA airport staff. Damn these people, scumbag, u never saw a leather jacket before is it? I tied it on top of my bagpack between the clips, so it was a lil bit exposed. Haishh KL is full of criminals. I lodged complaints to MAS but nothing happened. Waste of time. I hope the person who stole it got infected by some virus and spend all his money on treatment. TIPS: Make sure everything goes inside your bags and the zip works fine! There are thieves working at the airport!
Anyway, we landed safely and we had a great time of our life exploring 4 European cities!. See ya again in my next travel! XOXOX
p/s: for London itineraries reference click here!
Comments
Post a Comment