My London Adventure Part V

Daniel at Turnpike Lane Station








And why were we at the Turnpike Lane Station instead of Kew Bridge Station for our next hotel check-in? It was because we couldn't find the darn hotel!!! We had stopped at Kew Bridge initially after the parade. I called the hotel for direction and was given the so-called direction to the hotel from the station. She said "Walk straight ahead and then turn right at the end of the road. We are there. You wouldn't miss it because there is a huge sign."

So, we walked, and walked, and walked, AND WALKED... It must have been about 2-3 km of walking. I became suspicious, so I called the hotel again. The same direction was given, so I thought maybe it was correct after all. A few hundred metres ahead, I stopped a passer-by and asked him the direction to the hotel. He said, "I have never heard the name of that hotel. I've been living here for quite some time but no, not that hotel.." huh???

So, I called the hotel again. This time, we had already reached the end of the road, and you've guessed it right, NO HOTEL. I tried using the GPS on the i-Phone but hampeh as usual...When I told the girl that we are at the end of the road and I gave her the road name, she said, "Sorry, I am not a local. I do not know that road, but if you had followed my direction, you would have been here by now." WTF??????

We stopped at a bus stop and I asked my parents to wait there while I walked further up for any signs of the hotel. NIL. ZILCH. Urggghhhh!!! I felt like wanting to squeeze somebody's throat..Why must you put someone who is not familiar with the area as the receptionist? Do you think that everybody who is going to stay at your hotel would be coming by car? Seriously, if you look up the London hotels in the website, they would usually give you the way to reach them by road (meaning that you are driving) and not by trains or any other public transports! Well, except for taxis, I guess, since we can tell the taxi driver that we want to go to that hotel and he would use the 'getting there' guide by the hotels!! ARSE!!!!

Fed up with the whole thing, I decided that we should take a bus or a taxi to reach the hotel. My parents had insisted that we just stay at the long-lost relative's house (which I have blogged about a while back). My dad had actually managed to call his aunty earlier that morning, and she had welcomed us to stay at her house, which I had declined since we had booked the hotel.

Anyway, we took a ride on a bus, which should have stopped at a place and we should have changed into another bus that was supposed to reach the hotel (according to my GPS). But telling the driver where you wanted to stop apparently didn't mean anything because the driver wouldn't stop unless you ring the bell. And since we didn't know where the place that we were supposed to stop was, and the screen on the bus also didn't state the place that we wanted to stop at, we actually rode the bus until we reached the final destination, which is in Hammersmith (and what a winding road too!)

And yes, I got really, really pissed off that I asked my dad to call his aunty again and told her that we were going to stay at her house for the night after all. Yup, lucky that we had an emergency back up plan. If not, we would have need to take the cab to the hotel and I just couldn't imagined how much we would be charged for the fares.

That was why we ended up in Turnpike Lane, and finally, we met with the long-lost English aunties and cousin. They had another visitor, so we had to sleep in the living room, which was not a problem at all. Just thankful that we had somewhere to sleep for the night and furthermore, had the opportunity to meet with the relatives. And had a good dinner that night (my dad's aunty was a chef at a hotel before she retired) so apalagi??? Hentam habis lah...Siap ada sambal belacan lagi tu....hehe....

(to be continued)