London - Day 1

All our luggage for 2 years....

Hi there everyone!! Hope you don't miss us too much!! Sorry about the delay in posting but Gaffa and I have been busy flying to the otherside of the world and walking around the streets of ol' London town. hehe =D

Gaffa relaxing in the Premier Plaza Lounge in KL Airport

Yay we made it to London 24 hours later

We landed in Heathrow Airport at 5.30am. We slept on the flight from KL to London, and wanted to stay awake all day so we didn't get any jet lag. We carried all our luggage from Heathrow Terminal 4 to Glouster Road Station, to our hostel in Kensington. Man!! Was it a mammoth task. Our shoulders killed! It was still early so we couldn't check in yet, but we took advantage of the free breakfast and showers. When we finally did check in later in the day, we were given the top floor and guess what - the lift was broken! ARGH!!

Anyway, first stop was Picadilly Circus to pick up our London Passes. For 150GBP total, for 2 days we could enjoy free travel in the London Underground and free entry into a long list of attractions in London, as well as discounts at numerous restaurants. Over the 2 days we saved about 75-80GBP.

The London Eye

It was also our 31st month anniversary, so Gaffa suprised me with a trip on the London Eye. The sun was out but it was still abit chilly. Gaffa was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, while I was wearing 3 layers. The line for the Eye was fairly quick, and we were soon inside a big white pod and travelling around the massive ferris wheel, looking over the spectacular skyline of London. It was great to get a picture of where everything in London was, and how amazing the city is. You can hire out a pod to yourself for 480GBP, but what a waste of money!

View from London Eye pod

Next stop was the London Bridge Experience and the London Tombs. The London Tombs are supposed to be the scariest attraction in London - it was pretty freaky. We had to walk in single file and keep our hands on the person in front's shoulders. There were real actors dressed up as crazy scary zombie type people - including the dude with the chainsaw, jumping out at us as we walked around. I didn't enjoy it very much :( Gaffa had a few laughs though.... The woman behind him at the end of the line, was scared by everything and everyone. LOL.

Tower Bridge

Afterwards we walked all the way along the River Thames, along the Southbank River walk to the Tower Bridge. We did the Tower Bridge Experience and got to see how it was built, and see the engine room and how it opens up. Tower Bridge is pretty amazing, the most beautiful of all the bridges that crosses the Thames River.

Tower of London (white tower)

Next up was the Tower of London. We joined the free tour guided by one of the Royal Beefeaters who all live in the Tower of London, and get locked in every night at 10pm. I highly recommend doing this, the guide was so funny and the history of the Tower of London is quite interesting.

Our guide - the Beefeater (and yes he does....)

Since we'd already walked about 4km around the city, we decided to take a Thames River Cruise back to Westminster. It was a good way to not only see the distance that we'd walked but also discover all the London sites from the riverside.

Big Ben & Houses of Parliament

To end our first day's London city experience, we went to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Houses of Parliament. The architecture in London is pretty cool, and clearly dates back a long way to depict the history of England.

We then went back to our hostel to get ready for Gaffa's anniversary suprise #2 - seeing The Michael Jackson Thriller Live Show at the Lyric Theatre. We were so tired from walking around all day, but we sang along to all the MJ and Jackson 5 songs all night to keep us awake. The show was absolutely great! The singers were just amazing, especially the female singer who did MJ's voice and dance moves fantastically, better than the other male singers. The dancing and costumes were phemomenal. Tickets weren't that expensive either. There are alot of places selling discounted tickets to all the West End shows, so we might even see another show before we leave London!

After the show we enjoyed a curry - chicken tikka biryani, rated 3/10 by Gaffa's standards - in Soho. I personally thought it was alright, but my biryani experiences aren't as diverse or plentiful as Gaffa's.

We finally got to bed for our first night's sleep in our private double room..... Gaffa fell alseep as soon as his head touched the pillow, while I was trying to talk to him...grrr....

Stay tuned for Day 2 in London!!! :)