Summer Trip Travelog : Day 1 - London, Part II

As a student, money would always be an issue when traveling. Other than that, familiarity is a comfort when in a foreign land. Combining both aspects, we have chosen Malaysian Hall for our accommodation during our stay in London for the first few days. It's relatively affordable with rates as low as £10.80 per night with £10 as a deposit. It's also located at the centre of London, with an abundance of Halal restaurants nearby.

Finding the place was not a difficult task. When we arrived at the Bayswater station, we have already Googled the directions beforehand. A map was also provided outside the station which we have used to double check our location. We got some help from a man working at London Tourist Information Centre to show us our way as it was a relatively common destination for fellow Malaysians.

It was quite a sight to see Malaysians all over the place in a foreign land for me. Ottawa was deemed as the Kampung Melayu in Canada but never have I seen as many Malaysians as London had.

When we arrived at the door of the Malaysian Hall, a Malaysian man greeted us and offered to help us with our luggage. As we entered the building, we told the woman at the counter that we wanted to check in and then we were given some forms to be filled in before we were given the keys to our room. We also took that opportunity to ask whether our friends have arrived but according to her, we were the first ones to check in.

My housemate and I then went up to our rooms and tried to reach our friends once again after we got an internet connection. It turned out that our friends were at the airport still and decided to wait out for another friend before making a move to our accommodation. While waiting for them to arrive, we got ourselves some rest as we were super exhausted after the long-haul flight.

At around 8 p.m., my housemate and I went down to the Malaysian Canteen to have dinner. I myself had a nasi campur with one lauk which costed me £3! Free cordial drinks were provided and of course, I opted for that. Hehehe.

After dinner, we then walked around Bayswater as there were a lot of souvenir shops in that area. By the promotions, one could tell that Malaysians are their regular customers as everywhere, things like 'sepuluh, lima belas', 'murah, murah', 'discount baik punya' were being shouted by the salesman! It was an interesting marketing strategy somehow.

At 9 p.m., we met up with the rest of our friends at the Bayswater station. We were glad that we found each other and brought them to buy dinner at an Arab restaurant across the street.

Before we went to sleep that night, my housemate and I visited our friends in their room across the hall - despite the no visiting rule - to discuss our plans for the next day. We whipped out our gadgets to look up must-visit attractions and planned our directions to ease our journey. We were quite unlucky as the tube workers were on strike for the next two days...

However, we managed to plan the best way to get to our destinations - with much difficulty. We wrote down our choices and took screenshots of Google maps for us to use and there, we were set to take on London!