Category: Going Places

My travelogue.

Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013) – Part 3

Posted on By sweet surrender 3 Comments on Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013) – Part 3

Let the post of Paris trip continues…

21/6/2013

First thing we arrived in Paris, we wanted to take the metro but ended up with taxi because some how the ticketing machine didn’t take card and we didn’t have small change. Took us quite awhile to reach our apartment! Had to walk a bit as the street was closed due to a music festival that day. Finally! So tired! It’s awesome!


It’s located in a very old building but the interior was very modern. We booked this from Airbnb. The stay cost us EUR800+ for 4 nights. It’s located near The Panthéon area. There’s so many eateries and nightspots down there! Highly recommended! The owner is Thibault. Very friendly guy.



Don’t have to worry about the noise down there, you can’t really hear them. The place is very clean and you have everything available. Felt right at home, very cosy. Carrefour is just around the corner too. Highly recommended! The place can fit 6 people.

22/7/2013

The next day, we headed out to discover Paris! First stop, The Panthéon.



Luxembourg Gardens.


Left: The random street in Paris. I just couldn’t believe that I’m actually walking in the street of Paris! All these while I was just looking and admiring the views from photos or on TV. Felt surreal! How I wish I’m there with someone… Too bad I don’t have one hahaha… What a waste!

Right: I don’t remember this sculpture but it can be found in the movie, The Da Vinci Code. However, it’s under maintenance now.


Saint-Sulpice is a Roman Catholic church in Paris.


We had our lunch at Leon de Bruxelles, a popular chain of restaurants in France that primarily serves moules-frites. Were served with complimentary pretzel while we decide on what to order.


Left: Complimentary bread too were served.

Right: Wet wipe for us as we ordered mussels. Need to clean our hands after eating.


Left: Was craving for steak so I ordered Sirloin Steak (EUR18,90), 220gm steak with bearnaise sauce and served with fries and salad. We requested for medium. Oh… It’s been a long time not having a good steak!

Right: Leon’s Burger The Cheese (EUR12) prepared with 2 savoury potato gallettes, a beef steak, mustard, ketchup, tartar sauce, sliced onions, and lettuce. I like the potato gallettes but not the beef.


Left: Fish and Fries (EUR11,40), a fillet of “meuniere”, french fries and tartar sauce. Nothing special about this, it’s just your normal fish and chips.

Right: Mussels!! We ordered Mussels with cream and fresh mushrooms (EUR17,20). Oh yummy!


Left: Fresh Salmon Steak (EUR15,90) with rice and green beans. Salmon was a bit small ;p

I have no idea of the address where we dined, we just simply walked around and saw it. Since it’s a popular restaurant chain in France, you should be able to find it in many places.

Part 4 will come soon.

Food Porn, Going Places, People Everywhere - Paris

Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013) – Part 2

Posted on By sweet surrender No Comments on Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013) – Part 2


Day 2 (21/6/2013), we went to Westfield London Shopping Centre for window shopping and lunch.


High end shopping place *gulp*


Good thing there’s area for people like us. More affordable options.


It was a rather cold day. Not summer at all for me! I felt a bit cheated *LOL* To me, it’s autunm/winter of Australia! Summer means I can wear sleeveless, short skirt but I had to wear like it’s Autumn in Adelaide. Worst, most of the clothes I brought was really summer clothes!


After walking around, we decided to have our lunch at The Bull (Wood Lane, Unit 1033 Westfield Shopping Centre, London W12 7SL, United Kingdom).


The Bull is the first pub in Westfield London. The first and last pub I visited for this trip without alcohol too *LOL* Really love the interior, very classy. Don’t even feel like you’re in a pub. There’s 3 levels if I’m not mistaken. We were at the dining area.

We ordered 4 types of food.

Left: English Asparagus and brie, wrapped ham, pomegranate dressing (£7.50). I quite like this dish.

Right: Special of the day, Grilled Fillet of Sea Bream with warm lyonnaise potato salad, tomato, and coriander salsa (£12.50). The fish was fresh and I quite like the potato. Not a fan of coriander but this was acceptable to me.


Left: Another special of the day, Lamb Two Ways, crispy shoulder of lamb and lamb cutlet, warm salad of tomato and cowgette, aubergine caviar (£13+). As my usual saying, nothing to rave about.

Right: The British Board which consisted of Scotch egg, pork pie, salted beef, honey and mustard sausage, piccalili, and toast (£13.95). Of all on the board, I love the sausage!

Overall, great environment, food was average, portion was rather small though.

After lunch, we went back to check-out and headed to St Pancras International (I kept wanting to read it as PANCREAS! :p) to take the train to Paris.

I figure there won’t be any update with pictures for the time being until I have a new laptop. My laptop just died two days ago sigh… Now hunting hunting…

Driving All the Way - England, Going Places

Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013) – Part 1

Posted on By sweet surrender 3 Comments on Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013) – Part 1

More than 18 hours taking flight and transit, finally we arrived at Heathrow Airport Terminal 4. It’s quite an agony in the plane as it’s a non-stop flight direct from KL to London. The entertainment system wasn’t that up to date and nothing much to do. Trying to sleep but the seat didn’t favour short people like me, there’s no foot rest!


We went to Travelodge at Wembley for check in before going for dinner.


You get what you pay for (if not mistaken, 20 Pound/night). Not so bad. We booked 2 family rooms, each room slept 3. There were 6 of us.


Don’t really need to stay in anywhere posh, we’re just staying for a night and this is good enough. We’re on a budget too.


I wasn’t feeling very well as was just recovered from a bout of fever one week before the trip and what’s more with Aunty Flo came for a visit. Was having headache and was so tired but still had to go out to eat. No time to be sick! I’m not gonna spend so much money and let my sickness ruin my holiday.


We went to Four Seasons, a Chinese restaurant that specialised in Roasted duck. So many people! We had to queue for a table. They have quite a number of branches in London. The one we went was at Queensway (84 Queensway, London, Greater London) if not mistaken, I didn’t even bother about the location, was already half dead! 😛

Seriously, I’m already half dead, I didn’t bother to find out what the the food they had ordered. I even didn’t bother with the taste.

Left: The condiments.
Right: Vegetables with garlic.


Left: A type of tofu dish.
Right: Another vegetable dish this time with egg.


Left: A type of fish dish.
Right: Orange and mints to conclude the meal.

Opsss… Where’s the duck? I forgot to edit this photo -.- Anyway, it was pretty blur to be able to see much. The duck wasn’t bad.

After dinner, we headed back to the lodge and called it a night. EXHAUSTED!

Driving All the Way - England, Food Porn, Going Places

Summary of Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013)

Posted on By sweet surrender 2 Comments on Summary of Paris and England Trip (20/6/2013-2/7/2013)

Got back on Wednesday night. Only managed to update something now. Even so, it’s just a summary (I don’t even quite remember where we’ve been to as there’s too many places!) and it’s just a compilation from my Twitpic while I was on the go the past 2 weeks. So, here you go… Click the pictures for bigger and complete version.

20/6/2013: Arrived Heathrow Airport Terminal 4 then check-in to the travel lodge followed up with dinner at Bayswater 4 Season Restaurant.

Lunch at The Bull, London before heading to Paris. on Twitpic 21/6/2013: Went to Westfield London Shopping Centre to have lunch at The Bull before heading to the train station to take the train, Eurostar, to Paris.

Hello Paris! on Twitpic 21/6/2013: Arrived Paris, check-in our apartment and had a rest preserving energy for the adventure the next day. There was a music festival happening down where we stayed.

Yesterday, last stop of the day, Eiffel Tower. Only reached &... on Twitpic 22/6/2013: Pantheon, Luxembourg Gardens, Notre Dame Cathedral, and Tube Building. The highlight of the day, Eiffel Tower, queued in the cold, long queue, and tonnes of people.

The rain spoilt the day, now back "home", the night... on Twitpic 23/6/2013: Arc de Triomphe, window shopping at Champs-Elysées (cannot afford to buy anything but nice to look and touch them first hand), had the most expensive lunch in my whole life (portion was small and not nice which cost us more than EUR100!), Grand Palais, Pont Alexandre III, and Place de la Concorde. It rained and we had to called it a day.

Goodbye Paris, hello Cambridge. on Twitpic 24/6/2013: Tourists are everywhere in Paris! The crowd was massive at Musée du Louvre where you can find Mona Lisa half-length portrait. Seriously? Is there even anything special? Sorry but I can’t see any hahaha… I’m blind towards this thing. The crowd just couldn’t stop taking pictures of it (including me ;p)! In the afternoon we headed to the Sacred Heart Basilica of Montmartre and had a souvenirs shopping spree. For dinner, we had French food in a restaurant near where we stayed.

Hello Cambridge! on Twitpic 25/6/2013: Check-out of our apartment and went to the train station. Went back to London using Eurostar, finally saw the train went into the Euro Tunnel. Once we reached London, we drove to Cambridge, lucky to be given with a new travel lodge!

Nottingham & York, the end of road trip for now. on Twitpic 26/6/2013: Headed to Nottingham and York for sight seeing. Then, went back to my sister’s place at Thornaby, one hour away from Newcastle.

Shopping day in Thornaby and Newcastle. on Twitpic 27/6/2013: Shopping day near my sister’s place and in the evening we went to Newcastle for another shopping spree! Bought a lot! So cheap! What’s more, found my size.

Whitby, a fishing town, a change of view. on Twitpic 28/6/2013: Went to Whitby for a change of view. Something different from what we’ve seen the previous days. Had fish and chips dinner at Magpie Cafe.

Bowness, where U can find the largest lake in UK. on Twitpic Food? Soap? At Bowness-on-Windermere. on Twitpic Shopping in Birmingham but came back empty handed. Off to Lon... on Twitpic 29/6/2013: Bowness-on-Windermere where you can find the largest lake of UK. Another different view. Found nicely made soap and sweets. From the photo alone, it’s confusing whether it’s food or soap. We then drove almost 3 hours to Birmingham for another shopping spree but came back empty handed.

Brands I likely never own. Spent more than 5 hours shopping a... on Twitpic 30/6/2013: Got to touch and see those branded stuff for the second time in my life. Tried on Jimmy Choo, Bally, Prada, Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Coach and more! Bags and shoes cost thousands of Ringgit, so far fetch for me. Yet I made an unbelievable purchase at Bicester Village. A Micheal Kors tote bag, my biggest buy in my entire life for a bag. I still can’t believe that I ended up buying it! It’s an outlet store so the price is cheaper but still expensive! Let’s put it this way, original price cost almost RM1K and I got it for almost RM700! One thing I don’t understand, it’s such an expensive bag but no storage bag provided. A bit disappointed. Oh well… No more turning back. After shopping, we drove back to London.

Goodbye London in 12 hours... on Twitpic 1/7/2013: Visited some tourist spots in London.

Angus beef steak and mix grill at Heathrow. *slurp* on Twitpic 2/7/2013: Went for a drive to the Warner Bros. Studio featuring Harry Potter, then to B&Q and lastly to IKEA for lunch before heading to the airport. Time to leave London and go back to Kuching.

Will update about it in details once I found the time and mood ;p

Driving All the Way - England, Going Places, People Everywhere - Paris

Hello UK & Paris

Posted on By sweet surrender 3 Comments on Hello UK & Paris

By the time this post is published, I should be on my way to London on MAS A380.

Finally! I get to step foot in UK and Paris. In fact, I was thinking of staying there for at least 3 months but things were all very uncertain that time so I didn’t dare be away for too long. Well… It’s not like things are certain now at all. Still uncertain. Hopefully next year I can be away for longer and it’ll be going around some European countries.

I’m gonna be away from Kuching for 2 weeks. There will be some schedule posts during this two weeks. Will update via Twitter if there is Internet access or have time. See you when I’m back!

Going Places