London

Chapter 2

Sightseeing in London
on 16th July 2004

Scribe and Photo by Website Kang
Date: 12-08-2004

The Interhash was over and we were scheduled to go over to Dublin the next day. We could not get the Tourist Information Center of Cardiff and it took us quite an effort to find out from the locals that it was actually cheaper to fly over than that to go by road and ferry. We purchased the tickets from Air Wales through internet and the flying time was 7.00am in the morning. That means we had to be ready to leave the hostel before 4.30am. That was not easy in such a cold weather, on top of that we did not bring any alarm clock and the hostel did not provide such luxury of a morning call. Anyway, our biological clock worked and we were 20 minutes earlier in the bus stand awaiting. The bus left at 5.20am and we were at the airport at 6.00am.The security check in the airport was extremely tight in view of the global terrorism threat. Anyway, the plane, a 50 seaters Fokker Friendship, took off at exactly 7.00am sharp, and it would be an hour flight, and meanwhile we just relaxed and enjoyed the flight.

In the plane, I just flashed back from memory our preparation of this expedition, right from Melaka, the four musketeers were actually poorly organised. Never had one time that we could successfully call a meeting to discuss our trip. Everybody was busy for something or another, and no itinerary could be fixed. Drug Buster could not fix the Cardiff accommodation, either University Hall or Camping as suggested by the Interhash organiser and thank goodness, luckily he did not succeed. We realised later that Garfield's son got a bad accident so he disappeared from the scene for a while. My car got banged from the back while I was at the money changer's place. Was it a bad omen? or was it bad luck shed off ?Sing Sung booked the hostel in London for two days , but he said he missed to see that the internet was a secured site and he went ahead to invalidate his credit card and we were back to square one without any booking. All these really made one feel very uneasy. Only two days before departure, at my home, Sing Sung and me searched the internet, and used my credit card that we managed to book two days in Hyde Park Inn, Inverness Terrace, Bayswater nearby a tube station.

Hashers are unique, somehow something would come out right from no rules and no plans, once the musketeers were in action in the expedition, the team work had begun. The journey with military precision on the whole was a complete success. Everybody finally had played his role.

Sing Sung, an experienced backpacker, was the master mind of the whole expedition, helping to make the right decision at the right time.

Websitekang provided internet accessibility, and credit card facility as others had phobia in using credit cards in internet.

Garfield and Drug Buster, ex arm force people, did really well in getting accommodation in Cardiff by physically knocking at the door step. Also helped to resolve the case of Sing Sung's mysterious loss of backpack at Mc'Donald restaurant, Edgeware Road, London. By flicking his charming eyelids, Garfield also helped to get two Interhash tickets at good price from some Asian hashers who dropped out for Sing Sung and me.

We reached Heathrow Airport from KLIA by a B747 at about 6pm local time, and it was quite convenient to take a Tube to Hyde Park Inn as the beds were already booked.

We checked in the hostel ( breakfast was provided ). We had to share the room with a young man and a young lady as it was a 8 bed mixed dormitory. The situation was a kind of going back to school. I slept on top of the young pretty Italian lady, with two feet of air space in between. ( bunk sharing ). Sing Sung told me a story. When he backpacked the first time, he came to a mixed dormitory, he opened the door, there sat two young ladies, and he thought he entered the wrong room and wanted to retreat. The two young ladies responded, " come in, Don't worry, we won't rape you ".

If there was any difference in the sleeping environment from our comfortable home, it was the snoring sound that one had to get used to. Everybody seemed to blame other's snoring, but in actual fact everybody snored. The trick was to get to sleep fast so that you would not get to hear the snore. Perhaps you had to imagine that you were in the midst of listening a simphony orchestra, maybe a Blue Danube, then things would go easy. Anyway, everybody was so tired,that sleeping was not a problem at all.

At the breakfast table in the morning in the hostel, we met a Canadian woman Elizabeth and her daughter. She was amazed when she was told that we were Malaysians. She pointed to Garfield and me and said: " you look like Indian, and you look like Chinese,and both of you speak English and yet both of you say that you are Malaysians!" Garfield had to play a role of an ambassador for sometime to explain the concept of Malaysia.

The sight seeing began after our breakfast. We went by the Tube to the Victoria Station where we started to roam about in London where we visited the Trafalgar Square, Horse Guard Parade ground, Buckingham Palace. We managed to see the change of guards as the timing was appropriate. We had a river cruise on the famous River Thames, seeing the St Thomas hospital, the BIG Ben, and the Parliament where the Westminster Administration was respected and followed by many countries. At night, we went to the Soho area, passing through Tottandan Court road to the China Town area and we had our dinner in one of the Chinese restuarants. It was a school holiday, and there were many tourists, mainly from European countries as they did not speak English at all. It was very safe to roam around in London, no one ever thought of snatch thief though one had to be careful of one's own belonging.

As reported in Malaysian newspapers yesterday, a snatch thief became a millionaire after operating for 4 years in Kuala Lumpur area. If he were to operate in London, he probably would become a multimillionaire. But before he dreams of that, beware, the Big Brothers are watching. I was told that on top of the tall buildings, there were installed the CCTVs. One would not stand a chance to escape if any illegal act one has committed. The system would be able to trace until one's pants drop. However, our Wong Sing Sung's backpack was snatched by a high tact thief, and also detected by a piece of high tech equipment, luckily the loss was mild. do not think the thief will become a millionaire. The story will be told in next website update.

We visited the Hyde Park the next morning, and particularly at the Speakers' Corner, at Cumberland Gate. This was the symbol of democracy, the freedom of speech stretched to the fullest extent. However, the speakers were mostly speaking on religious matters.

At lunch hour, we went to the Edgeware Road which I was particularly interested. I was there in the early 80 for certain reasons, and the area was mostly occupied by the Middle East migrants. The place was extremely filthy with all the rubbish piling up. However, the situation this time was different, Edgeware Road was just another London Road, neat and tidy. We decided to have lunch at the Mc'Donald Restaurant near Woolsworth. That was inside the restuarant that Sing Sung's backpack got snatched. ( The story " High Tactic Snatch Thief, and High Tech Detection " will be detailed out in next web site update ). We took a cruise trip to visit Greenwich Observatory Station much later because of the delay of making a police report.

After our Greenwich's visit, we came back to the hostel quite late, and Garfield's best childhood friend, Eddy Khoo, was awaiting for us to bring us out for a dinner. in a Chinese restaurant in Bayswater area, he really treated us well with the delicious Chinese food, and plenty of beer. The roasted duck in London really had a very high standard, and it was unforgettable. Mr Khoo is an owner of a computer company in London. I asked him that business activity in London seemed very active and everybody seemed to be very busy and made money easily, but, funny enough, we hardly saw any Englishman, majority was foreigners. His answer was that Englishmen did not bother to do this kind of work any more, they were either in the corporate world making bigger foreign money like banking,insurance etc or creative or innovative like Harry Porter, doing something different to make bigger money. Maybe there is some truth in it as like we in Malaysia, leave the construction work, plantation work and factory work to the foreign workers.

We met an Ipoh guy who was a migrant of thirty over years, and drove a van delivering noodles to Chinese restaurants. He told us that he really made money by opening a restaurant himself, but later he got fed up with problems of managing workers and had no time to look after the family as the business made him too busy. He cooked good food for the customers, and his own children had to take fast food. He finally sold his business and was happy working for people then with lots of time with the family.

In the last day of stay in London, We took a bus to Cambridge to visit the University town where we felt a kind of closeness. That was because we realised that our former Cambridge School and Higher School certificates were qualified from here. Drug Buster was particularly excited about it as the logos of Cambridge, and the Cambridge Press were too familiar.

Travelling in a first world country is comfortable, the public utility is well equipped and maintained. The public toilet is clean, the public transport system is excellent and punctual. It is an educated society, people are friendly, observe rules and order, and courteous. We have no compalints.