Brighton, United Kingdom

The Brighton Pier

The pier doesn't have fine white sand, instead, it's covered with small rocks.

Beautiful Graffiti. 

"This Christmas Break must have been the Best Christmas' Weather I had in the UK - dry, sunny but cold still. Yesterday, me, my mum and my sister decided to go to Brighton just to see the place. We left home at 9:30AM hoping that there is an early train. There is but we just missed it and it comes every hour. Credits to our no planning trip. Worse is, we have to take 2 trains on a 2 hour journey. :P We kill time by stuffing ourselves with food. Everyone that goes on a trip with me knows that I don't get tired, I do as much as walking as possible to see the place and I get very controlling when I don't get to visit places that I planned to. That's the rationale about no planning. Anyway, it was a fruitful 4 hour trip."


-originally written in missailema.blogspot.com blog-

Christ Church, Oxford

Take a peek inside Oxford's Christ Church, the setting for Harry Potter's Dining Hall with moving pictures.  

Entrance Fee during that time was £5.  Please check the opening times for viewing as we weren't allowed in on our first visit as the place was closed for worship.

Thorpe Park

In 2008, Thorpe Park was also part of the 2 for 1 ticket promo and if you take the train to Thorpe Park, they had 4 for 2 tickets then.  Filos are bargain hunters.  We definitely go for the cheapest possible cost.  :)

We rode most of the rides apart from the Samurai, baby rides and Stealth which was underconstruction then. We definitely had fun.  Even my sister who is scared of anything had fun taking photos of us and riding the merry-go-round.  LOL!

To go to Thorpe Park:

Get off at Staines and take the bus that take you to Thorpe Park.  It's pretty straight forward plus you will see lots of people queuing for the bus.  

Bournemouth Beach

 Bournemouth Port

 Braving the cold.

 20lbs lighter me in the middle.

Playing "patintero", a traditional filo game.

This was one of the rare bonding opportunity for the Reading Filo Community.  Usually, we go on separate groups but for some reason, we all came together for this beach bonding.

It was a very cold day when we arrived.  We were all wrapped up with our cardis til after lunch when the sun started to shine.  Me and Melay went to a nearby museum whilst the other play and dug themselves in the sand.  It was a very fine day but I didn't get a tan.  The sun wasn't strong enough.  

Whilst chatting with Melay in Tagalog and taking the piss out of everything we saw, a guy of Asian descent spoke with us in Tagalog.  He told us that he used to live in the Philippines.  The lesson:  I won't assume that foreigners don't speak my language.  

Madame Tussauds, London

 My sister with the Beatles.

 David and I with his Mistress Victoria.  LOL!

If you are resourceful, you can get a lot of 2 for 1 tickets online, coupons in train stations and by collecting certain number of junk food wrappers.  I am not kidding with this.  I took my sister to Madame Tussauds(on advance notice of course!) together with my friend Darlene back in 2008 as we all haven't been.  My plus 1 was supposed to be Darlene but blood is thicker than water so I took my sister instead.  Darlene had to pay the full price ticket.

There is no mistake that if you are a kid, you will have fun at Madame Tussauds.  Same goes to the cam-whores as there were lots of photo opportunities.  There is also a surprise scary section which killed my sister.  She is scared of anything even with living people in costume.  I remember her crying whilst the staffs were trying to scare her.  Definitely one of the most embarrassing moments for me.  LOL!!!

Madame Tussauds is a two minute walk from the Baker Street Tube Station.  Once you see the Sherlock Holmes Statue, assume you are in the right side. :)

Tour Around Singapore

Very tiring trip.  Definitely lost a lot of weight at the end of it.

From Ocean Park to around Sentosa with a tour bus, at Marina Bay from China Town, Indian town.  We covered Singapore in less than 3 days minus Jurong Island.  

Melaka, Malaysia

 Loved this colourful tri-bikes.

 The Ruin.

 Melaka Tower at the background.

 Museum of Enduring Beauty.  Yeahhhhhh!!!

Christ Church, Melaka

When we visited the town of Melaka, the people that I went with didn't know what to expect.  Well I do.  Prior to the trip, I wrote the places that I want to see.  It includes the Portuguese Settlement, Jonker Street, Christ Church and St John's Hill and Fort.  All places can be explored by foot and can be done in a whole day.  I know cause that's exactly what we did.  Love, love the red houses! :)

From KL Sentral, there is a direct bus to Melaka.  I forgot how long it will take though but it's pretty straight forward.  :)

Melaka Tower and Galleon

 Inside the Melaka Tower.  I'm pretty sure my sister was scared of this experience.

 View from the Top.  The houses reminded me of the Marlboro red packets.

Nothing special really.  It's just that we got nothing to do.  Hehe.

 The galleon across the tower.  I got more stupid photos to show but it got my ex brother's gf all over it and posting here won't be appreciated by his present girlfriend I assume.

In 2008, my mum was assigned to Malaysia.  Being an expat, she earned more than usual and she lived in a spacious 3 Bedroom condo all by herself.  Being in the UK for more than 6 months, I was delighted when my mum asked me to visit her there on a holiday together with my sister and my brother.  Definitely a family bonding.  :)

We got nothing planned.  I just wanna relax.  I think my brother was in the process of reviewing for his engineering boad exam then.  I took 2 weeks off from work travelling in between Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines then back to Malaysia again.  Jetsetter's life eh?

Puerto Galera, Philippines

Puerto Galera is one of the cheapest out of town beach destinations from Manila.  The accommodations are very affordable and most of them are for sharing.  When I went with friends, I only spent over 2,000php on fare, food and accommodation bearing in mind that I went with 10 people.  We also saw APL of Black Eyed Peas.  I didn't know who he was during that time and I didn't understand why he had an entourage.  :P

I miss my friends.  I miss out of town like this.  

To Puerto Galera:

Travelling to Puerto Galera from Manila is very straight forward.  Take the bus from Manila to Batangas port and from the port take the White Beach motorboat.