Hannover Rina: London Sana-Sini

Tea with the Queen?

Our London trip was very much looked forward to as Apit & me planned it many moons before. Although Tok Ma has been there with Cik Nor some years back, it will be Atok’s first trip there and we wanted it to be a memorable family vacation. We got cheap tickets via Air Berlin although the departure time was a torture…6.00 am which means that we have to be at the airport by 4.30 am which means kena bangkit pukul 3.00 pagi. Nak go vacation on a shoe string budget punya pasal susah sikit tak per….

For me, it was “balik kampung” of sorts having studied in UK for 5 years. The difference in treatment by the Immigration at Stansted and those at the German airport was like “langit dan bumi”….the lady at Heathrow was ever so friendly and really made us feel welcomed engaging in small talk whereas the officers in Germany were the exact opposite…tok sahkan nak engage in casual talk..senyum pun tak nak. Most of the time when they saw my resident visa and German work permit they like tak percaya and got more berangin when I couldn’t speak their language well. To them English is a no-no. Tahan depa cakap bahasa depa while we speak in English although most of the time bukannya depa tak tau cakap English. Sombong….. is just what I can sum up….

We rented a car at the airport and with much difficulty what with jalan tutup (masa cuti sekolah ni la pulak asyik nak korek jalan depa ni) and traffic jam, hubby managed to drive safely to the hotel…Eden Park Hotel in Bayswater which is owned by the Berjaya Group. Location was superb as there were many choices of halal food around. There’s the usual doner kebab joint, Indian restaurants and the best in our list is a Chinese restaurant operated by a Penangite and the Subway outlet…all halal ok…so we had Chinese Fried Rice la, hokkien fried rice la, big bowls of hand-pulled noodle with beef soup la….heavenly! Prices a bit steep so most of the time we had the fried rice, only 3.99 with the occasional full menu dine in.

For breakfast, the Subway sandwiches with meat is a must…day in day out …murah…. only 1.99 with coffee thrown in. Sub-of-the-day with meatballs and cheese never tasted better probably sebab dah lama tak dapat halal ones in Germany. It was also kind of nostalgic for me having to pass Queensway Ice Skating Rink on the way to Queensway tube station…that was the place I used to frequent with my A-Level Oxbridge mates way back in the mid 80s while we were on our term break and housed in Malaysia Hall. Sweet memories they are….

Apart from shopping at Oxford Street (mana lagi kalau tak Primark…) , we did the normal touristy things going round the points of attraction on the double-decker bus since this was Atok and the kids first trip there although Jaja has been here twice, once with us and the other just with her Tok Yang and Opah Yang. Since the hotel is a stone-throw away from Hyde Park, Hakeem and Rania had fun zooming here n there on their scooters which we found on sale at 7 pounds each at the Disney shop along Oxford Street.

We allocated 2 days for Factory Outlet visits, one at Bicester Village, Oxford and the other, Ashford Designer Outlet, Kent. If you ask me which is the best, it depends on what you’re looking for. The former is more of a really branded kind of place with Gucci, Dior, Tods, Ferragamo, etc having their outlets. Prices are cheaper than in the normal high street stores and you are looking at around 30% discount on average on off-season stocks which is still expensive to me. However, do look out for weekend specials as some outlets give additional discount on top of the normal discounted prices. The Clarks outlet there is also good with some shoes being offered at 10 pounds only. I bought a good pair of high boots there at half price and it is so comfy…menyesal tak beli 2 pasang coz dekat Germany the good quality ones are so pricey. As for Ashford, although of course there are branded outlets, it’s more of the casual kind. I personally like GAP amongst all there.

Driving is London especially the central area is expensive as it attracts a daily congestion fee. If not for the fact that we wanted to go to the factory outlets which are in Oxford and Kent, we would have just stuck to the tube. Try as much as we can to avoid the congestion area mesti tak buleh punya coz banyak jalan tutup for roadworks and we were forced to take detours. All in all it wasn’t so bad coz on the last day tu somebody told us that you can check over the phone whether your car has been spotted entering the congestion zone and we only pay for when we are spotted only rather than a daily rate and Alhamdulillah, we were only registered once maybe bcoz of all the road closures and detours.

The sad thing is we got saman for wrongful parking on the second last day. Penalty nyer teramatlah berat on the pocket…120 pounds….terduduk sekejap but lepas calming ourselves down noted that if we pay within 14 days, rate reduced by half…Phewwww….legaaaa..walaupun at 60 pounds rasa still mahal…berapa banyak Subway sandwiches and nasi goreng Cina we can get woooo….alas….what to do…fikir punya fikir muhasabah diri lepas bayar saman…..what sins have we committed?…in Amsterdam kena saman sebab pergi Red Light District…kat London didn’t even drag hubby to Soho pun sebab takut kena mcm kat Amsterdam….tapi kena jugak…ada la tu…..

Diam tak diam, the 6 days that we were there passed by oh so quickly….and with heavy hearts we bade adieu to Tok Ma, Atok, Uncle Pete, Aunty Ani and Rania. Parting with Tok Ma & Atok was especially hard since we all dah bergolek2x together for slightly more than a month. We ourselves dengan berat hati bangkit pukul 2 pagi to go to Stansted which is like more than 1 hour away from Central London to catch the 7.30 am Air Berlin to Hannover dan sungguh la tak look forward nak tengok muka Immigration Officers Germang yang muncung tu….Au Revoir London….