After my Italy trip, I had a 10 days stopover in Abu Dhabi on my way back to Malaysia, visiting friends and exploring the UAE. Had some great fun over there. Well, you have guessed it, I won't be able to update my UAE trip for now... for quite some time... think maybe after my Europe trip... I hope... So I'll just post my photo links here, as a down payment. Hehe.
UAE 'Oct 08
Overnight Safari Trip 'Oct 08
Tuesday 10 March 2009
Starting my Europe trip...
On 7th March, I board the Etihad plane and flew back to UK, gearing up for my Europe trip. I'm currently back to my cousin's place for a couple of days before starting on the 12th March to Cambridge. I'll try to update whenever possible. I hope my lazy bugs don't visit often :p
Friday 6 March 2009
3rd - 5th Oct Back to London
UK has turned rather cold after our 2 weeks in Italy. We followed Bel's friend, SM back to her place at Greenwich. She is renting a one bedroom apartment and it's quite a lovely area. We set down our stuff and went out for dinner at a Hong Kong style restaurant for Chinese food. It's still quite packed with customers although it's already past dinner time. We ordered 3-4 dishes and soon dinner is served. After all the pasta and pizza in Italy, we very much enjoyed the feast. Back to her house, she is very kind to let us have her bedroom while she slept in the living room, making us a little 'pai seh'.
Next morning, we stroll along the riverside to the O2 Millenium where we then take the train to Canary Wharf for a short while before going to the Greenwich Royal Observatory. SM told us that before the fall of Lehman Brothers, Canary Wharf is always very crowded with people enjoying Saturday brunch or having coffee. Last week when the news break, the area was quite chaotic seeing employees grabbing whatever they can from the stores with their vouchers. Now all the cafe and restaurants do not have a single customers. It's such a huge difference. Later we took a train to the Greenwich Royal Observatory. I had always wanted to come here but somehow I had this wrong impression that it is very far away from London, hence I didn't try to visit until now. From the station, we went past a market square before arriving at the Greenwich Park. It's quite a lovely day, some teenagers were playing football on the field. It is a huge park and we followed a trail up to the Royal Observatory. The Greenwich Royal Observatory was founded by order of King Charles II to study astronomy and to fix longitude. Here, you can see the Prime Meridien line and also you can tune/set your clock to the GMT clock. The view from up the hill is pretty good. The tree leaves has changed colors signifying autumn. Later, SM went off to join her friend's gathering while me and Bel went to London for a walk.
Sunday, it was rainy and cold with strong winds. Bel and I decided to just stay at home instead and relax. We watched some TV and cook lunch. Later in the afternoon, Bel and I bid farewell to SM and took a train back to London, where I changed to another train going back to my cousins, while Bel head on to the airport, putting an end of our Italy trip.
Next morning, we stroll along the riverside to the O2 Millenium where we then take the train to Canary Wharf for a short while before going to the Greenwich Royal Observatory. SM told us that before the fall of Lehman Brothers, Canary Wharf is always very crowded with people enjoying Saturday brunch or having coffee. Last week when the news break, the area was quite chaotic seeing employees grabbing whatever they can from the stores with their vouchers. Now all the cafe and restaurants do not have a single customers. It's such a huge difference. Later we took a train to the Greenwich Royal Observatory. I had always wanted to come here but somehow I had this wrong impression that it is very far away from London, hence I didn't try to visit until now. From the station, we went past a market square before arriving at the Greenwich Park. It's quite a lovely day, some teenagers were playing football on the field. It is a huge park and we followed a trail up to the Royal Observatory. The Greenwich Royal Observatory was founded by order of King Charles II to study astronomy and to fix longitude. Here, you can see the Prime Meridien line and also you can tune/set your clock to the GMT clock. The view from up the hill is pretty good. The tree leaves has changed colors signifying autumn. Later, SM went off to join her friend's gathering while me and Bel went to London for a walk.
Sunday, it was rainy and cold with strong winds. Bel and I decided to just stay at home instead and relax. We watched some TV and cook lunch. Later in the afternoon, Bel and I bid farewell to SM and took a train back to London, where I changed to another train going back to my cousins, while Bel head on to the airport, putting an end of our Italy trip.
Wednesday 4 March 2009
1st - 3rd Oct - Venice, Italy Part 4
On 3rd Oct, we board an airport shuttle from Venice to the Treviso airport for our afternoon flight back to London Stanstead airport. We arrived in Treviso airport and proceeded to check in our luggage. Two check-in counter for our flight is opened and attended by 2 lady officers. When it’s our turn, the officer kept flipping through Bel’s passport and started asking questions. She asked where did Bel first landed in Europe, where is she going next, and the destination afterwards. Bel answered her questions and after some moments of silence, the officer consulted the officer at the next counter and then asked if Bel has a credit card. Bel passed her the credit card and they swipe it to verify something. Back to silence and more flipping of the passport with quite a serious face. We were very puzzled and asked if there is any problem. Only then the officer said with a little smile, nothing, just routine check. This is rather unusual as only they are only focused on Bel’s passport only and not mine, and we could not understand why they need the credit card, or why would a check-in counter be so detailed in checking the travel destinations of the passenger? We thought all this issue if there is any should be at the immigration custom control later on and normally it is not an issue flying out of a country.
Anyway, the officer is finally satisfied and returned us our passport. Still, lots of question marks floating on our head but no way to find out. After a short round tour, we proceed to our departure gate. Already there were quite many passengers waiting there, half of them in queue while the other half just scattered around sitting at the chairs or the floor. It’s quite a long wait, the boarding gate did not open until about 10mins to departure. Then suddenly the originally organized line were now overflowed with those sitting down suddenly pushing forward, trying to get in front. We were quite taken aback by this situation. Another interesting thing we observed is that there are 4 security officers standing guard at the boarding gate, randomly picking out the passengers for full body search and also a thorough check with their luggage. Then there is a shuttle bus taking the passengers to the airplane, which is only about 200m away. After about 30 passengers, the bus will go off to the plane and the officers ceased checking in the passengers. This act has really costs the whole boarding process significant amount of time. Bel and I were among the last batch boarding the plane.
As soon as we were on board, we heard the captain speaking asking us to quickly take our seats as we need to catch the arrival time in London to avoid long delays. The head stewardess paged for the passengers to quickly take any available seats and if there is no more space at the overhead storage, they should immediately pass their bags to the stewardess to be placed with the check in luggage. There was one male passenger got into arguments with the stewardess as he insisted he do not want his luggage to be thrown down the check-in luggage. It’s quite a chaotic mess if you asked me. Anyway, we managed to take off and arrived safely in Stansted at the estimated time. From there, its easybus back to London Victoria where Bel’s colleague is waiting for us.
Here are our last batch of photos:
Florence Sept'08
Venice Oct'08
Anyway, the officer is finally satisfied and returned us our passport. Still, lots of question marks floating on our head but no way to find out. After a short round tour, we proceed to our departure gate. Already there were quite many passengers waiting there, half of them in queue while the other half just scattered around sitting at the chairs or the floor. It’s quite a long wait, the boarding gate did not open until about 10mins to departure. Then suddenly the originally organized line were now overflowed with those sitting down suddenly pushing forward, trying to get in front. We were quite taken aback by this situation. Another interesting thing we observed is that there are 4 security officers standing guard at the boarding gate, randomly picking out the passengers for full body search and also a thorough check with their luggage. Then there is a shuttle bus taking the passengers to the airplane, which is only about 200m away. After about 30 passengers, the bus will go off to the plane and the officers ceased checking in the passengers. This act has really costs the whole boarding process significant amount of time. Bel and I were among the last batch boarding the plane.
As soon as we were on board, we heard the captain speaking asking us to quickly take our seats as we need to catch the arrival time in London to avoid long delays. The head stewardess paged for the passengers to quickly take any available seats and if there is no more space at the overhead storage, they should immediately pass their bags to the stewardess to be placed with the check in luggage. There was one male passenger got into arguments with the stewardess as he insisted he do not want his luggage to be thrown down the check-in luggage. It’s quite a chaotic mess if you asked me. Anyway, we managed to take off and arrived safely in Stansted at the estimated time. From there, its easybus back to London Victoria where Bel’s colleague is waiting for us.
Here are our last batch of photos:
Florence Sept'08
Venice Oct'08
1st - 3rd Oct - Venice, Italy Part 3
Piazza San Marco
St Mark’s Square, the principal square of Venice, Italy. Napolean called it ‘the finest drawing room in Europe’. We took the ferry boat to the San Marco’s stop. The square is filled with tourists, pigeons and vendors. The Piazza is dominated by the Basilica, the Doge's Palace and the Basilica's campanile, which stands apart from it. There’s a line of tourist queuing to enter the Basilica di San Marco. There is some flooding at the main entrance since St Mark’s Square is the lowest point in Venice, hence a temporary wooden plank bridge were put up to bypass the water pool. Bel and I decided to just view this Basilica from the outside. The craftsmanship of the Basilica (exteriorly) is pretty impressive, there are bronze horses’ statues above the entrance (replicas of statues ‘liberated’ from Constantinople in the 4th Crusade) and mosaic murals. While we were there, we saw the bronze mori (Moors) striking the bell of the 15th-century clock tower. 
It’s a little man statue with a hammer striking on the bell.
The centre of the square is crowded with pigeons. Many tourists tried posing with the pigeons or as this man did, had bird feeds in his palms attracting pigeons who came standing all over him. Ooo… I just hope the pigeons didn’t leave anything behind for him. Several high class, expansive looking cafes surrounded the square. Each café has their own live band. However, they had some sort of agreement that only one band is performing at a time. This is very wise as the singing of one band can be heard in all corners of the square.
Gondola
Gondola, a traditional Venetian rowing boat. For centuries the chief means of transportation within Venice and still have a role in public transport, serving as traghetti (ferries) over the Grand Canal. Their primary role nowadays, however, is to carry tourists on rides at established prices. Besides hiring a gondolier, you can also get another guy to sing for you should you have the spare cash. Whilst there, I only came across 2 gondolas hiring singers. Otherwise, you can also follow the footsteps of this group of ladies in their 50s who sang cheerfully and quite loudly, entertaining themselves and attracts the attention of everyone on land. I think that if you are visiting Venice with a few friends, then it may be worth it trying the gondola ride just for the sake of experiencing it. But it would definitely be wise to avoid the main canal and focus on the narrow back alley canals.
Murano Island
We took a boat out to the Murano island, approximately 20mis away. On the way there, you will see there is another island with some white buildings, which is actually the cemetery land. There is a man with his elderly mother on board our boat, with a bouquet of flowers, which apparently wanted to go to the cemetery land. However, the boat just went past it and headed straight to Murano island. The guy panicked and started shouting at the captain, after some conversation (which of course I could not understand), he had no choice but to accept the fact and sat down again. However, he started complaining and grumbles away with the other passengers. One thing we noticed is that once the Italians didn’t get what they wanted, they will start grumbling and complains to the next person beside them, even though they do not know each other.
Arriving at Murano island, we find it so much quieter and peaceful as compared to the Venice island. To be honest, the Murano island better fits my own imagination / perception about Venice, as I find the main island too busy, too crowded and a tad more commercialized. We had a peaceful stroll along the quiet canal, enjoying the tranquility. Here, its all about Murano glass and the products here are different from those found in the main island. They are much more sophisticated and creative in their design.
After Murano, I had to go back to the hotel to rest as I really wasn't feeling well again. Bel went out for souvenir shopping while I was down. So, of our 3 days here, about half of my time here was spent in the hotel. Bummer.
St Mark’s Square, the principal square of Venice, Italy. Napolean called it ‘the finest drawing room in Europe’. We took the ferry boat to the San Marco’s stop. The square is filled with tourists, pigeons and vendors. The Piazza is dominated by the Basilica, the Doge's Palace and the Basilica's campanile, which stands apart from it. There’s a line of tourist queuing to enter the Basilica di San Marco. There is some flooding at the main entrance since St Mark’s Square is the lowest point in Venice, hence a temporary wooden plank bridge were put up to bypass the water pool. Bel and I decided to just view this Basilica from the outside. The craftsmanship of the Basilica (exteriorly) is pretty impressive, there are bronze horses’ statues above the entrance (replicas of statues ‘liberated’ from Constantinople in the 4th Crusade) and mosaic murals. While we were there, we saw the bronze mori (Moors) striking the bell of the 15th-century clock tower. 
It’s a little man statue with a hammer striking on the bell. The centre of the square is crowded with pigeons. Many tourists tried posing with the pigeons or as this man did, had bird feeds in his palms attracting pigeons who came standing all over him. Ooo… I just hope the pigeons didn’t leave anything behind for him. Several high class, expansive looking cafes surrounded the square. Each café has their own live band. However, they had some sort of agreement that only one band is performing at a time. This is very wise as the singing of one band can be heard in all corners of the square.
Gondola
Gondola, a traditional Venetian rowing boat. For centuries the chief means of transportation within Venice and still have a role in public transport, serving as traghetti (ferries) over the Grand Canal. Their primary role nowadays, however, is to carry tourists on rides at established prices. Besides hiring a gondolier, you can also get another guy to sing for you should you have the spare cash. Whilst there, I only came across 2 gondolas hiring singers. Otherwise, you can also follow the footsteps of this group of ladies in their 50s who sang cheerfully and quite loudly, entertaining themselves and attracts the attention of everyone on land. I think that if you are visiting Venice with a few friends, then it may be worth it trying the gondola ride just for the sake of experiencing it. But it would definitely be wise to avoid the main canal and focus on the narrow back alley canals. Murano Island
We took a boat out to the Murano island, approximately 20mis away. On the way there, you will see there is another island with some white buildings, which is actually the cemetery land. There is a man with his elderly mother on board our boat, with a bouquet of flowers, which apparently wanted to go to the cemetery land. However, the boat just went past it and headed straight to Murano island. The guy panicked and started shouting at the captain, after some conversation (which of course I could not understand), he had no choice but to accept the fact and sat down again. However, he started complaining and grumbles away with the other passengers. One thing we noticed is that once the Italians didn’t get what they wanted, they will start grumbling and complains to the next person beside them, even though they do not know each other.
Arriving at Murano island, we find it so much quieter and peaceful as compared to the Venice island. To be honest, the Murano island better fits my own imagination / perception about Venice, as I find the main island too busy, too crowded and a tad more commercialized. We had a peaceful stroll along the quiet canal, enjoying the tranquility. Here, its all about Murano glass and the products here are different from those found in the main island. They are much more sophisticated and creative in their design. After Murano, I had to go back to the hotel to rest as I really wasn't feeling well again. Bel went out for souvenir shopping while I was down. So, of our 3 days here, about half of my time here was spent in the hotel. Bummer.
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