On Day 2 of London, Shorty and I did the tourist thing in London. The truth about London is that there’s always so much to do. So much history to catch up on, so many musicals to watch, so much food to explore and let’s not get started on the SHOPPING. There is no city in the world that can rob you of your shopping money faster than London can. It’s true.
Before we went to London, Shorty was saying how she wanted to make sure she didn’t plan to shop. She said everything in London is expensive and not really her style and all that. But fast forward a week in London and Shorty and I had to go buy another luggage bag to carry home just to fit all our shopping in it. Maybe I’ll dedicate another post to our shopping in future.
In the mean time, here is some of the things we did on Day 2.
We went to the most iconic London building. Well actually London has so many iconic buildings its hard to say which one really is THE ONE, but Big Ben has definitely got to be in the list.
There was construction work going on all around Big Ben and all around London that week for that matter. I had to try take photos at certain angles to avoid all the ugly fences around the construction work. I kept reminding Shorty that London normally doesn’t look like this. Just that they’re getting ready for the Olympics in 2012.
Right next to Big Ben is the Houses of Parliament.
As a student I remember watching all televised debates that they had here and admired how well all the British politicians spoke and how intelligent they all were.
After Big Ben, Shorty and I went to see Westminster Abbey…. where everyone today knows as the place Kate Middleton and Prince William got married.
After that we took a walk across a bridge to walk along the river Thames. Bumped into a big Subway Sandwich.
I love Subway!
I never used to actually… but in recent years when I’ve gotten more and more health conscious I’ve been having more Subway and less of other fast food. I think many Malaysians are also going through the same phase. Before there were only a few Subway branches in KL. Today there are countless and they’re always full of people buying sandwiches from them.
If you really think about it, you’ll be surprised to notice how difficult it is to eat healthy in Malaysia. Just about everything we have is deep fried or fatty or…. well you get the drift. I think sandwiches will generally get more and more popular in Malaysia… until at least we come up with some really healthy yet truly Malaysian food that is cheap (relatively at least).
Anyway we continued on to walk along the River Thames.
The river Thames is this river that cuts more or less in the middle of London. People generally tend to think the water there is dirty and I remember years ago when I was a student, I used to drink a lot of Dasani bottled water which was produced by the Coca-Cola Company. There was a huge controversy then with lots of people saying that we were just buying and drinking bottled water from the Thames. That was pretty bad considering most mineral water we drink in the UK come from some alpine glacier or natural spring.
To think that was 7 years ago…. shit I’m getting old!
Moving on, we passed this little skateboarder corner that was decorated with street graffiti.
Some place I never knew existed in my 3 years studying in London but somehow Ming knew all about it.
It was another 10 minute walk down the side of the river until we reached our destination. A restaurant right by the side of the river,
that served Scorpion Vodka. That’s Vodka with actually scorpion in it.
I don’t know if the scorpion is supposed to make you drunk quicker or to scare you but whichever it is, I’m sure it does the job really well.
We took some pictures at the balcony of the restaurant.
Had lunch, then continued our walk to the Millenium Bridge.
Ming calls it “The Harry Potter” bridge because it was the bridge that was destroyed in one of the movies.
We walked all the way to St Paul Cathedral only to realize that it was closed for the day.
So Shorty and I went instead to Trafalgar Square.
And then off to Ed’s, this American style diner in London that serves the BEST PEANUT BUTTER BANANA MILKSHAKE! OOooh how I love thee!
Our last stop for the day before dinner was M&M World. Yes… there is such a thing. It’s a huge 4-storey shop that sells everything M&Ms. From the chocolates to t-shirts to pillows and fun little photo props like this.
That I’m guessing is supposed to be M&Ms’ spoof of Abbey Lane. You know the famous Beetles cover?
Alright time for me to go to bed now! Hopefully my jetlag shall allow me to sleep this time round.
Timothy Tiah – Co-Founder of Colony, Kuala Lumpur Co-Working Space