Fashionista's Travels: Newlyweds in London

We went to London last April. I think you know that already from my previous post. The trip lasted for 10 days (including two long 8-hour flights, KL-Heathrow-KL) covering London, Paris, Manchester, Glasgow and Scotland. Sounds hectic, right? Well, indeed it was. And here are the photos depicting our short trip in London (we only had somewhat about 3 days and a half in London):

Arrived at Terminal 4 in London. The airport is currently undergoing renovation, so there was nothing much to see.

Newlyweds in London. Can't really say that we're newlyweds though, it's been about 5-months since the wedding. But then again, it's the love that counts, right?

First stop, Barkston Gardens. We arrived in London at 4 pm and stayed at Barkston Gardens that night. Bear in mind that the time difference is about 8-hours, so 4 pm in London is similar to midnight in Malaysia. It's normal to feel jet-lagged, lucky for us we managed to steal some snooze time before dinner. FYI, this place is about a minute's walk to Earl's Court Station, so it's a very, very convenient place to stay. Not only that, there's plenty of halal outlets right along the street by the entrance of the Station.

First outing, Malaysia Hall, London. For Malaysian food lovers, there's a canteen downstairs selling Malaysian food. Take note that the food doesn't come cheap and please don't convert the pounds (GBP) to ringgit (MYR), just enjoy the food. Oh, just in case you were wondering, my Nasi Ayam costs about GBP5 which is equal to MYR25. I must say it's the priciest Nasi Ayam I've ever tasted.

Next stop, Hard Rock Cafe, London. My must visit store. I think I have more than 10 (or maybe even 20) Hard Rock shirts now, so I guess it's kinda a hobby to me, collecting Hard Rock shirts as a memento of my trips =).

The Big Ben. We didn't get a closer look at Big Ben or Westminster Abbey (we only had 3 and a half days, remember) so we skipped both so that we'd have time for a cruise along the River Thames and a ride on the London Eye .

Oh, hello Mr. Becks =). Met him while we were queuing to get tickets for the London Eye. He's there to entice people to drop by Madame Tussaud's but unfortunately we didn't have time for that either.

Queuing for our turn to cruise the River Thames. My dad has this thing for river cruises. We went for a cruise along Pasig river in Manila, Philippines and we almost went for another river cruise along the Seine River in Paris (luckily we didn't, there wasn't enough time. We opted for the Hop-on, Hop-off bus instead).

Us on the cruise ship. You can opt to sit below deck or above deck for the cruise. To better enjoy the view, it's better to be above deck. There's also a guide above deck with you and he'll be sharing stories on the sights along the River Thames (not all of them are true, though. Luckily I know my history well to discover that some of the things that he says is mainly for the entertainment of tourists and not necessarily actual facts).

Hubs, posing on the ship at the River Thames. Behind him is the famous Big Ben.

London Eye.

Parliament house and Big Ben, among London's famous landmarks.

Millenium bridge. Was featured in the Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince where the bridge collapse after an attack by the Death Eaters.

Tower Bridge of London. If you're wondering where is the London Bridge (from the song London bridge is falling down), it's actually is in Arizona, the bridge was sold to make way for a better bridge. For the full story, click [here].

London Eye capsules.

The view from our capsule.

They say three's a company but I beg to differ. It's me, hubs and Big Ben =).

London Central Mosque. This mosque is about a stone's throw from Regent's Park. Unfortunately there's no nearby tube station for me to recommend to you so I don't know the best way to get to this mosque except via driving.

Emirates Stadium. This is the stadium for the Arsenal team (if I'm not mistaken). Unfortunately we didn't go for a trip inside the stadium (hubs is not a fan so no trip was planned to this stadium to avoid offending his loyalty to Manchester United).

Sunday Market at Walthamstow. Unfortunately not that many stalls were open for business that day.

The East London Mosque (not far from Petticoat Lane).

Petticoat Lane.

Shopping for souvenirs at Petticoat lane. Love those expressive tea towels (am used to the RM1 Good Morning towels in Kuching) so this was a nice change.

Marble Arch. This place is not far from Edgware Road (where there's plenty of Muslim food outlets especially Middle Eastern food) and Oxford Street (hint: shopping). Unfortunately I can't remember our reason for being here *sheepish grin*. Marble Arch is accessible via the tube station, Marble Arch.

Us in the tube. Having the tube map is certainly a handy guide as it helps us to move around easily (not to mention helping us from getting lost).

Oxford Street. As you can see there's plenty of people miling around (meaning there's plenty of shopping going on). Oxford street is definitely the shopping haven in London. But, shopping need not be limited to Oxford, there's plenty of other shopping havens (should you be keen to explore).

The Science Museum.I was recommended a trip to the museum by my good pal, Esthna so we went to the museum on our last day. The place is huge (as all museums are) and I'm sad that we didn't really get to enjoy all that the museum had to offer. Admission is free and in case you feel like dropping by, the museum is accessible via the tube. The train station is South Kensington. And if you really have time, there's two other museums nearby, Victoria and Albert Museum and Natural History Museum.

Here are some of the stuffs that we found at the Science Museum:

An old cariage. Fancy riding in that for an afternoon about town. Heh.

And actual plane. There's actually many other interesting finds at the museum but I'll leave them to your imagination. Or better yet, if you have the opportunity to visit London, do drop by the Science Museum.

Two hours later, we found ourself at one of the landmark stores in the world of shopping: Harrods.

Got me my first Longchamp. Yeay! Me is happy =). Harrods is like the best shopping mall ever! It's the first time I've seen shoppers (including yours truly) been serenaded to in a shopping complex. I would certainly love to drop by to Harrods in my future shopping expeditions.

Just in case you're wondering, this is what I got, the Longchamp Maroquinerie (LM) Metal White. Got this at a 10% discount as there was a weekend member's benefit going on (signed up as a member, the membership is free, I think, and got my discount immediately). Bought it at roughly GBP80, post discount and even got a GBP6 GST refund later at the airport. Shopping has never been this good *grin*. Psstt.. The bag is currently being sold at RM850 at Longchamp Pavilion...

I initially wanted Longchamp by Mary Katrantzou but I was told they were out of stock. Apparently we went to the wrong section (travel section) which was on the 3rd floor and there were stocks of Longchamp by Mary Katrantzou on the lower ground level. As the Malay would say 'bukan rezeki' meaning 'not my luck'. Maybe another time perhaps *wink*wink*. 

Took the tube from Knightsbridge straight to Heathrow. Since Heathrow is pretty far from town, the journey took us almost an hour.

GST refund. If you're planning to shop in London (or anywhere in Europe) make sure you request for GST refund form from the store and you can claim your tax refund from the last point of departure in Europe. In our case, we bought our Louie's in Paris and claimed the refund in London (because last point of departure is from Heathrow airport). If you're doing your refunds from Terminal 4 (like us) there are two refund points, the easiest one to find is inside the departure hall, you won't miss it. Refunds can be made in cash (there'll be a small deduction to your refund for cash refunds) and via credit card (i.e. the amount will be deducted from your credit card account balance one week later).

If you fancy some last minute shopping (or if you have some spare change) I do recommend the duty free shops inside the departure halls, perfumes can be as cheap as GBP20 (roughly around RM100) and I did manage to get this bag for myself at the Harrods outlet:

Marc by Marc Jacobs Eazy Monogrammed Black Bowling Bag for only GBP132 (the price is already deducted by GST so I definitely got it cheaper than Harrods Knightsbridge). Hurrah!! And the best part is, the bag is currently being sold at RM1090 in Marc Jacobs, Pavilion. Life is good =).

xoxo Mrs Fashionista xoxo

tHe Spring's Live Active Run: The Marathon

Remember my previous post on signing up for a 10km marathon? Well, lo and behold, the much-anticipated day have arrived and I am finally confronted by the possibility of me being able (or perhaps not) complete my first ever marathon.

Well, it's not exactly my first ever marathon, I have previously participated in a marathon, but that was ages ago (and I never did complete THAT marathon) so I'm claiming this as my first real effort at joining a marathon.

First up, collection of marathon gear and what-nots on the 8th of June from tHe Spring. 

What we got: vouchers from various outlets, a marathon jersey (which is sponsored from tHe Spring, Conneli and Mitsubishi), a can of 100 Plus drink, a sample from Crabtree & Evelyn, our marathon bib (with a GPS tracker attached to it) and the runner's guide book, all packed in a red woven bag.

17th July 2012, 6.30 am:

Here's hubs getting ready for the marathon. Our marathon starts at 7 am so we have to be there (at the VIP carpark) by 6.30 am for the warm up session. 

Here's me. I did try to go to the gym daily prior to the marathon but I never did manage to lose my weight *dramatic sigh*.

Here's the crowd. Actually there's more but the 21 km marathon crowd had already left by 6.30 am (if I'm not mistaken) so what's left is the 10 km and 5 km crowd. By 7 am the VIP parking lot was actually filled with people.

And here's the route: 

Photo courtesy of tHe Spring's website.

We had to start from tHe Spring, then up Jalan Tun Razak (formerly called Kuching by-pass road) to Jalan Foochow, passing by Jalan Sekama to Jalan Padungan, finally up the hill at Reservoir park then off to Jalan Bampfylde to Jalan Batu Lintang ending at tHe Spring. In my whole life, I'd never expect that I can run/ jog/ walk from tHe Spring to Riverside Majestic and back, but that is what I did. It was only when I was on the road (trying to run/ jog/ walk at the same time) that the reality hit me. 

So, the question is, did I finish?

Well, to qualify for a medal, we had to finish by 9 am (which is a 2-hour window period, meaning roughly an average of 5 km per hour). Hubs completed his run by 1 hour and 30 mins (which is no big deal for him as his average jogging distance is 6 km). For me, I completed by route by 1 hour 48 minutes. Hurrah!! Surprising for someone who's never run a 10 km marathon before. Heh *sheepish grin*.

This is the SEB (Sarawak Energy Berhad, formerly known as SESCO) team. Actually there's more but they're too busy chit-chatting so they didn't make it for the group pose. And for the gray t-shirt, top 50 marathon runners of any category gets to win a gray shirt. What a nice way of showing off, right? Heh heh..

Someone's certainly happy to get a medal =). 

Here's me at the finishing line with my medal and red face (a side effect of running a 10 km marathon in the early morning sun). 

Truth be told, I'd never thought I'd complete the marathon. I've never been a runner. What more to say complete the marathon within the time frame of 2 hours. But I did anyway (am doing jumping jacks of absolute joy and satisfaction as I'm typing this) and I think there's a possibility of another marathon in the future. 

I heard there's another marathon on the 7th July organized by Sarawak Marathon Association. It's a night run actually. So, what do you think, peeps?

To a more healthier lifestyle (I hope). 

xoxo Mrs Fashionista xoxo

Fashionista's Travels: Windows of the World, Shenzhen

Post Hong Kong (I'm referring to our trip in June 2011 here), we travelled to Windows of the World, Shenzhen. All in all our trip only lasted 6 days, in which we spent the first two-and-a-half days in Macau, followed by the remaining three days in Hong Kong (we went to Shenzhen for a day trip, to me it still qualifies as a day in Hong Kong) and on the last day we left Hong Kong for Macau to catch our plane back to Kuala Lumpur. So, this is kinda how our itinerary looked like:

Day 1: Macau
Day 2: Macau (pre-wedding photo shoot)
Day 3: Off to Hong Kong. Went to Victoria's Peak and Madame Tussaud's
Day 4: Hong Kong Disneyland and pre-wedding photo shoot at Avenue of Stars later that night
Day 5: Day trip to Windows of the World, Shenzhen
Day 6: Off to Macau to catch the flight back to Malaysia

Hectic, you think? Definitely it was very, very hectic. But we planned it in such a way simply because we knew that we would know what to do in Macau if we just stayed there for the whole trip and since we were going to Hong Kong anyway, why not make a short trip to Shenzhen?

Now, before I unleash our photos in Shenzhen (which only consisted of our trip to Windows of the World) I have a couple of confessions to make.

Confession #1: I didn't expect Shenzhen to be a metropolitan. That was a careless error on my part. I didn't really read up on Shenzhen (I only read the part that there was an MRT station leading straight to Windows of the World, and that was enough for me), so I didn't really worry so much on the city itself. We only discovered that Shenzhen is a huge metropolitan when we left the MRT station to look for a halal outlet (which we found from the website zabihah.com) and found ourself staring at skyscrapers not knowing where to go. So peeps, don't underestimate any place that you'll be traveling to. Make sure that you have enough information (on the nearest halal outlet) to at least help you not to get lost. So in the end (due to my ignorance), we ended up with very tired feet and hungry stomachs (not a good combination, I must say).

Confession #2: It's difficult to look for halal food in Shenzhen. I don't know about other travelers (and I would love to hear feedbacks on your trip to Shenzhen) but we ended up eating french fries (lots and lots of french fries) at KFC (which coincidentally has an outlet right in front of Windows of the World).

Leaving my confessions aside (I will definitely not rain on your parade), let me share with you the photos of our trip to Windows of the World.

Oh, a word of caution, these are all replicas. I did not go to Paris or London or India. These are replicas.

This is to the left of the entrance gate. If you choose this path, it's closer to the replica of the Eiffel tower. However, the other path (to the right) would have brought you closer to the pyramids (which we missed). According to wikipedia, there are about 130 replicas in all, so there's definitely plenty to choose from =).

I really don't remember where this monument is from but I'm guessing it might be from Egypt... (but I could be wrong and indeed I have been wrong before).

A replica of the Eiffel Tower. Little did I know that 10 months later I'd be seeing the real thing in Paris.

Arc de Triomphe. Amazingly, we did manage to snag a view of the real Arc de Triomphe from Champ Elysees, Paris when we visited Paris last April (will put up the blog soon). Didn't manage to get a closer look though as we were pressed for time (and too excited at the thought of getting an LV) to mind a second look at the arch.

The Parliament building of London. Teeny tiny miniatures they are.

A miniature version of the Tower Bridge of London.

A windmill house..

I'm not sure what's the name of this fountain though...

Nor am I sure of the name of the small town behind me, but I'm taking a guess that it's a European village...

And I'm also not sure of this building either..

This building, I know. It's the Taj Mahal in India. Am hoping to get to see the real thing sometime in the future.

This is just me being cheeky. I'm guessing the gate behind me is some sort of Japanese house. Hopefully a trip to Japan will help me identify whether this is a Japanese landmark of some sorts or not =).

Apparently there's a cultural performance at 8 pm every night. So we decided to sit down and watch the show. A very interesting show of dancing, singing, a little bit of drama and some kungfu fighting. Should you have a chance to visit Windows of the World, remember not to miss the show. After all, the show only lasts for one hour.

Post musical performance, we were showered by fireworks. The fireworks were literally raining down on us. And as you can see, the Eiffel tower is emblazoned with bright red neon Chinese characters (definitely not what you'd see on the Eiffel tower in Paris).

We left Windows of the World at around 9 pm, took an MRT to Hong Kong and was safely back in Hong Kong by 10 pm. Shenzhen is definitely not that far from Hong Kong.

The reason for the trip was that we were eager to see the wonders of the world and we don't have the budget to fly to all those amazing places, so to placate our desires (and not to mention save a big hole from our pockets) we decided to visit Windows of the World. There's actually plenty of other monuments that we didn't get to see (hint: the pyramids of Egypt) because the place is definitely huge and you might need at least a full day (or maybe two) to be able to see everything.


xoxo Mrs Fashionista

p/s: if you're planning of visiting Windows of the World, the name of the MRT station is Shijiezhichuang Station. And if you're visiting Shenzhen from Hong Kong, bear in mind that Shenzhen uses Renminbi (RMB) as its currency so you might want to stock up on some RMB before leaving Hong Kong. And since Shenzhen is governed differently than Hong Kong, if you're from Malaysia (like me) would need a Chinese Visa in order to visit Shenzhen (note: you don't need a visa to visit either Hong Kong or Macau).