London Bridge is falling down

I think, London had the most convenient and user friendly public transport system. Signage for metro is very clear, you can easily found a metro station in London than Paris. Beside that, you just need to purchase an oyster card (like our touch n go), each trip cost about GBP1.60, you can returned the card and took back all balance + deposit. So good! Although i only spend 1 whole day in london city, but i am feeling like i had been living here for 10 years already.London was very must exciting and happening city compare with Amsterdam. I am so awake to everything although i never sleep on the night before. We took the metro to Tower Bridge. Not far from the tower bridge, it stand Tower of London. If had time and budget, i think is a good place to visit. There was crown jewel kept in this tower.
We can saw this building from far, it really look like a driller. From Tower of London, we walk toward the tower bridge.
Dang dang! Tower Bridge! I never know this bridge before i came to London, so paisey. The bridge was paint with the blue color which Queen E like the most. And it is more beautiful from london bridge.
We walked cross the Tower Bridge and walked toward London bridge. However, London bridge is only famous in the song, not in reality. Everyone told me that i will get disappointed when saw the london bridge and its true! Only under the bridge its engrave london bridge. What the...
From London Bridge, we took a metro to Big Ben. When came out from the metro, wow, its London Eye!
I had a bad experience here because i had been forced by a lady to make donation to some sort of "world children day"?? What make me angry was she do not accept coin! She only want note. And do you know the smaller note in pound was GBP 5?! Which is about RM25! i would rather donate it to Malaysia's child in this case. Regardless on her reaction, i just gave her 1 pound and walked away. Hey is RM5.50 , really gave face liao.

On this part of river Thames laid Webminster bridge. On the left had side was London Eye and Aquarium, on the right hand side was the big ben and parliament house.This was the place where every tourist will came when they were in london, this is the place where the wonder of London unfurl.

Cherry Court Hotel London

When the bus turned into London city, i just "waaaaaaaaa....." Very Harry Potter feel. Especially the houses.I was like watching a real life movie show.

We reached Victoria Coach Station at about 6am. However our hotel only open at 7am. So what we can do was sat at the small "mamak" to have our first breakfast in London. I bought a London Map GBP1.99 (proven is worth buying as this map is really useful), a coffee GBP1.07 and muffin GBP1.10.
Sky became brighter and brighter. We decided to walk and look for our hotel. Wow, it was just 2 min away from coach station, yeah! This cherry court hotel charge GBP55 per room per night for 2 pax. It will provide a fruits basket every morning. We stay for 2 nights so is GBP 55 per person for 2 nights.
See, typical england houses ya. We were given 2 keys upon check in. 1 for the main door (as is not 24hour reception) another one is the room key.
The location of this hotel was superb! 2 min walked to Victoria metro and coach station. In another word, you can go wherever place from this station. It also a walking distance to Buckingham Palace.

The only thing not really satisfied us was the room too small. For triple sharing room was very comfy but not for the double share.(twin share -2 bed is more expensive than 1 double bed in some hotel). After put in our luggage, it only left a small space which allow 4 people standing. Just imagine! They were other hotels which charges a little bit cheaper than Cherry Court. But i think the condition was horror. I need to mention again here - Do not believe the photo from hotel website itself, go to tripadvisor and had a look on the photo from tourist. It always tell you the truth.
In fact, this hotel received a good feedback from its guest. So if you can bared with the narrow space, is really a good choice. http://www.cherrycourthotel.co.uk/index.html.

Backpacker tips no 6 : I prefer do more reference on other tourist blog or comment rather than search the hotel directly from booking.com kind of website. Some hotel they do not appear in the list when you do searching.Then verify it again in tripadvisor.com.

After taking a bath, we were prepared for our London 自由行！

From Amsterdam to London

This was the biggest nightmare in my whole trip. The bus ride was terrible. From Amsterdam Amstel Station, we took Euroline bus to London. because it was cheap (E30 per pax) and was an overnight bus so we could save one night of hotel fees as well as time. However, the 11pm bus ticket price was increased when i wanted to book, so out of no choice, i booked the 8pm bus and estimate reach london at 6am.

Backpacker tips no 4 : Book the ticket once you confirm, don't wait.Some times, cheap thing no good thing.

From central station, we took metro to Amstel station (Metro and Tram ticket was the same). The euroline station is just beside Amstel. We had our dinner here (bread E1.18 + burger king hot chocolate E1.70) Oh ya, i realized that burger king was cheaper than McD. i paid another E0.50 for the toilet and this is the fist high tech toilet i never seen. You put the coin into the machine and the toilet entrance door will open for you.
Before we board the bus, we were so exciting. 8am, bus departure, the driver make announcement using microphone, he said : There are some rules you must follow, first smoking is not permitted in the bus, if i caught you smoke, you will find you are flying because i will kick you until you fly so high, second, those male who use the toilet, please sit on the toilet bowl instead of standing, it is because with my driving speed, you wont be able to aim the hole even you use 1 hand to hold your dxxk...

At first we though it sound funny, but after our bus stopped at several stations to pickup passengers, we found it was getting annoying. Some passengers quarrel with driver because they were not allow to board the bus due to their name not in the list. According to them, they had already make the reservation through phone. At the last stop, a women cry and begged the driver let her and her children board the bus, she said : is already midnight and where you want me to go??? I really don't how she passed this night because the driver just closed the bus door and drove off.

Despite from all these disturbs, the driver driving skills make people sweat. He drove so fast and always follow by an emergency break. What the.... each time when i nearly fall asleep, i will be awaken by something. In fact, i doubt did i slept on that night or not.

Backpacker tips no 5 : Is better to buy ticket directly with the transportation company online rather than going through agents. If you change anything by phone, be prepared that you may face the risk of this changes may not getting notice.

Bus stop at Calais port at about 3am, from here we need to go through France and England custom. France custom don't even need us to show the passport. However at England custom, i had been question a lot thank to those illegal malaysian workers who worked in England. The officer asked me, do you get paid by your company during your holiday?(yes, you want to see my business card?) Did you paid full amount of the air ticket?(of course, else how can i get the ticket) Please show me the booking of your hotel in london(show her the booking, show her eurostar ticket)can you take off your glasses? What are you came to London (of couse tourism la.)

Hmm... Am i looked like those people who want to work illegally there? So sorry la, you give me free also i don't want to work in England.I love France more. Allysa didn't got questioned. Maybe she looked more rich than me? maybe she got a lot of visa? (US, Japan, Egypt...) Finally, the officer let me went through.

Total journey on ferry was 1.5 hours. Wow, the ferry was very huge! It had multiple stories, lower level was for vehicles. 1st floor is for passengers to rest as we were not allow to stay inside the vehicle.There were ample of sofa, duty free shop, game room, bar...Most passengers were asleep. However i cannot sleep as well, because some one keep on playing the rock song from the machine. Geerrrrrrrrrr...........What the fuck! 3rd floor is the food court.
Finally, we reached London port. Now we heading toward the Victoria coach station at london city. Another 2 hour bus ride. sweat....

Although i had a very bad experience, but yet if you want to save the cost on transportation (compare with train ticket), you need to bear with all this. Maybe if i get the 11pm bus, it wont be so worse. http://www.eurolines.com/

Total spending in Belgium

1 Day excursion = E 52

Toilet fees = E0.40

McDonald lunch = E7

Australian ais cream = E2

Fridge magnet = E10

Donation = E0.20

Total Spending = Euro 71.60 (RM 365.16) for 1 day

(neccessary spending = Euro 59.40, unnecessary spending = Euro 12.20)

A quick glance of Brussels city

All photo below were taken from the bus. So you can imagine how bad the quality are. And always i want to emphasis again - the consequences of following tour bus.Some enlarge atom monument. Opposite was the high tech place.

Church

The double story bus that took us from Amsterdam to Belgium.
UN building. Occupy a huge area.
Arc the triumph of Belgium, mimic the one in Paris.
Belgium People house
NATO building. sound so high tech. I think , Brussels is as boring as Amsterdam for me.

Brussels

On the way from Antwerp to Brussels, i saw...a proton wira! I also saw some pharma company office such as Abbott, Sanofi, but no Merck.I always like to look into the window of people house. The houses here all without grill. I can saw a women cooking, another women look out from the window...Brussels had a square same as Antwerp but in bigger scale. The architecture also almost the same with all the guild house. As Belgium had been greatly influence by French in many aspect, some the people spoke french here. Compare with Amsterdam, Brussels got more 气势。
The square was full of people. Tour guide drop us in front of the square and let us browse the city ourself. I asked her, where is the famous mannekan-pis? She say: follow this road, turn at the third junction and it is on your left.
We had walked according to what tour guide said. After turn at third junction, we found nothing. On our left is another road. Where the hell is the peeing boy? I told allysa, look where got most people then there he is.Suddently allysa say "neeh" WTF...he is just beside us.
It seem the "legend" is true. Allysa told me before this statue is too small and people hardly recognize it. And it is more true when he been covered by some Equator custom. What the...cant even saw his face.
Belgium is also famous for its laize and chocolate. This codiva is one of the high class chocolate in malaysia as well as in Brussels. I only try it once, which is a gift from one of the doctor. He gave us a small pack of Codiva chocolate during our event in Penang and guess what, that small pack cost RM20!!
However the chocolate store here is so good until you can test eat. They will give you quite a big pcs for testing upon you enter the store. So this is another way for backpacker like me enjoy free thing along the journey!

Waffle is another famous food here. People eat it by adding in ais cream, fruits, chocolate...
Manneken - pis - the famous landmark attraction here so there are many souvenir custom made only for him.
It seem like carrefour is quite famous in europe, they call it express carrefour. Just like our 7- eleven here.As usual, they sold a lot of type of beer inside.And as usual also, Allysa bought some junk food from here.
I didn't try the mussel, the waffles but i ate Australian ais scream! What the... this one should eat when i go Australia ma.... It cost me E2 but very delicious i think is due to the hot weather!
I asked tour guide: what is the event that people celebrating today? She say : some sort of cultural event. The she added: In fact, they will find something to do or celebrate every weekend. (3 black line appear on my head)
There are music and dance performance by people from different region. This mushroom head ( i call them) gave the most impact because 1) they had big mushroom head 2)they wear very high and thick clog,3) they throw orange to audience.
Here come the Equato dancer. Another manneken-pis...hehehe, but the music they play is really nice.
It is very tricky to shoot the photo inside the square. It is because the buildings was build in a close rectangle. No matter where the sun is, one row of the building will in front of the sun and its shadow will project on another row of building.some time, the building is half dark half bright.
Another statue on top of the building.