My London Adventure Part IV

After we checked out of the hotel the next morning, we walked towards the Earls Court Station. And as we reached the cross junction, we just realized that the station has a rear entrance which was very, very, VERY close to our hotel! The front entrance that we took when we arrived yesterday was quite a distance! hehe...The hotel should have put in their advertisement that people should take the rear entrance if they want easy access to the hotel! haiyaaaaa!!!

So, we went in via the back entrance. There were only machines selling tickets there, no people manning the ticket counter. There was a staff helping passengers with ticket purchases, so I just went ahead and bought the passes for the 3 of us at the machine. The guy helped me with the purchase, but he chose wrong ticket zones for us. But he said that I could upgrade the tickets before I travel, but it had to be done at the front ticket counter! haih! And then, he told me that the all-day passes were also good to travel on buses and trams. What??? And I have been purchasing all those bus tickets for the last 2 days for charity, was it? huhuhu...Takpe, takpe...Kita tak tau.... *bengang sebenarnya...hehe...*

At the front ticket counter, I waited for some time before a guy came to the ticket window that I was standing at. I explained to him that the guy at the rear entrance wrongly pressed the button at the machine for my tickets and I would like to upgrade the tickets so that they would cover more zones. He asked me, "Why did you purchase these tickets if you want to travel to more zones?" to which I replied that it was a mistake done by the staff at the rear entrance. He walked away with an angry face and I could clearly see from the glass window that he was cursing at me! I could actually read his lips!! Blardy fool!!! Manyirap la darah akak! Rasa nak give him a piece of my mind jer! Kurang ajar betul!! Kalau nak curse pun don't let me see it ok?? It was their staff's mistake, anyway!!!

My mood immediately soured after that. Since it was still quite some time for the next check in at the next hotel, I decided that we should go and see the Changing of the Guard at the Buckingham Palace. By the way, that day was Saturday, and there were quite a lot of upgrading services taking place at the underground stations.

When we reached Buckingham Palace, there were a huge crowd already waiting for the ceremony to start. By 10.00am, the security guards had already gathered people around and nobody was allowed crossing the area and we had to stay inside our group. The sun was glaring, but everybody waited patiently at their places.






























Anyway, snippets of what happened during the ceremony. This happens every single day of the year, and every other day during winter. Letihnyaaaa jadi guards!!! hehe....







































































Just as I thought we had had enough (2 hours standing under the sun in a crowded space), and we were about to walk out of our standing places, the lady security told us that we were about to miss the best part of the show! So, we waited for a while longer, and voilà, the gate nearest to us were opened, and the troops actually marched pass us! Many people had left before us, because we were not informed that the gate would actually open. Must be because they did not want everybody to flock in front of the gate..huhu...

Anyway, prior to that, we were informed and warned by the security people to take extra caution of our belongings because pickpockets and thief were at large during the ceremony everyday. Since we had our luggage with us, the security came to us many times to remind us to take care of our stuffs. And the lady security actually pointed to my Mum's pocket-sized and zipped al-Quran which she put inside one of the outer pockets of her luggage. She asked me, "Maam, is that a wallet?" to which I said no. "What is that? Is that some thing valuable? Because we have many bad people here everyday stealing stuffs from unsuspecting tourists" I said, "No, it's not a wallet. Just our Quran.." To which she replied, "That IS valuable, because my bible IS valuable to me" and then she laughed. Of course it is valuable to us la...But what I meant was it has no value for the pickpockets....Unless lepas dia curi Quran tu dia insaf ke...bagus gak....hehe....

After everything was over, we stayed a while under the trees at the park, eating sandwiches (sandwiches je la pun yang senang nak dibawa ke mana-mana kan?) They had set up lounging chairs in the park for people to have sun bath. Panas lah...tak kuasa...hehe...

Then, we took the subway to our next check-in hotel, the Kewbridge Hotel near Kew Garden.

(to be continued)