PARIS and DISNEYLAND

Bismillah, Assalamualaikum

Paris has never been on my 'gotta go!' list of places because it was always 'I want to go around the world kinda thing' and so there were no specific places of interest but Paris has always been there, if you know what I mean, in my mind and my readings hence the anticipation and it just boils over when Mai Sis said that I could go to Paris!

We took the EUROSTAR, a high-speed railway passenger train service in Western Europe connecting London (St Pancras Railway Station) with Paris (Gare Du Nord) and Brussels. All Eurostar services cross under the English Channel via the Channel Tunnel, owned by Eurotunnel.

How cool is this! Unfortunately, I slept like a log from London to Paris due to being so fatigue, sigghhh. Nonetheless, I did stay a bit awake from Paris to London but when I saw that it was just dark outside, I dozed off again, huhu

The weather in Paris was cool, calm and breezy and it just fits the atmosphere that we're in because the wind swept us away mesmerized by the beauty of Paris

To get to our apartment, we had to attained the key in another place just like Amazing Race!

Our apartment was on the 7th floor and there were no lift! Just imagine everyday that we're in Paris, we were so worn-out and adding insult to injury was that to get to our beds, we had to trudged slowly panting 7 flight of stairs just to get to the very top!

This is a miniature Eiffel Tower pasted on our apartment wall, cute huh!

The first time we saw the Eiffel Tower, we were like, so this is the Eiffel Tower, w h o a!!

That afternoon was bliss indeed, just lepaking under the view of the Eiffel Tower, ahh...wish we could have stayed forever in that park and have a little picnic.

We went on a cruise from the afternoon until sunset right to night time. It was freezing cold but we had loved every moment of it shivering. On the cruise, there were loving couples (rolls eyes :p ), old tenderly couples (aaawww), and then there were US enthusiastically listening to every commentaries on every place that the cruise passed by and it was sooo fascinating that I looked up on each and every place on the internet! Told ya I'm an experiential learner :p

The Eiffel Tower at night, wah...

and the Eiffel Tower glitters at night too! Pwetty!

I found out about Panini looking at Rachel Ray Show, she's a celebrity chef and very entertaining indeed! I loved to able to modify what she cooks up! Anyway, there were paninis' in London and Leicester and I pestered Mai Sis to let me taste but Mai Sis was not to sure on what is Panini and the fillings so she couldn't relent to my whims and fancies. However, in Paris, we were so hungry that night and there was a Panini stall at the corner from the Eiffel Tower that I couldn't help myself and ask on the filling for vegetarian. It was only mozarella with tomatoes and button mushrooms and the sandwich was pressed by something hot and sizzling that the mozarella melted right into the ciabatta bread. Not only was it hot but eating it while sharing amongst the 3 of us on a cold night was SO DELICIOUS!!

The next day, we went to La Defense, a major business district for the city of Paris.

This is Disneyland! My family grew up watching Disney movies and cartoons so Mai Sis and I were excited at seeing all those characters come alive! Hey, that's Marie from The Aristocats! That's Mulan and so many more! We were like kids and rode ON ALL THE RIDES! Mai Sis was BRILLIANT in the planning. What she did was she planned that because Disney Studio close at 7pm then we should cover the whole of Adventureland, Discoveryland and Frontierland before 4pm and moved to Disney Studio and afterwards come back to Fantasyland since Fantasyland was all kiddie stuffs so even if we wanted to play, it wasn't a priority but we did managed to cover most of every land. We rightfully followed the plan with Mai Sis monitoring all the games that we have played and what next and well, she was just too GOOD!! *wipes tears* :p

We rode on all 4 of every roller coasters in Disneyland and I had such an adrenaline rush! This was by far the coolest because it was slow at one moment and ZZZZOOOOOMMM!!! at the next moment leaving my breath behind!!

This is 'It's a Small World' where they showcase a variety of cultures from around the whole world with cute mini dolls singing 'It's a Small World'. There weren't Malaysia though...

I feel like a kid playing wheee on the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups. The story behind this game was that just before the tea cups started whizzing, a chubby cute Malaysian boy came up to Zahrah and innocently ask, 'Eh awak ni org Malaysia kan?' Hahaha!! Zahrah told us and we laughed our heads off because that boy was just too cute! Subsequently, we caught up with the boy and said,

kami org Malaysia, awak?

Saya org Malaysia jugak.

and I forgot the rest of the conversation because we finally talked to the parents of the boy, hehe :p

The Place I once Lived Years Ago

Bismillah, Assalamualaikum

From London, I am to go meet Mai Sis at Leicester where she is studying Medicine in the University of the Year, University Of Leicester. Before that, Zah & I was supposed to meet my dad at Victoria Coach Station to board the National Express Bus to Leicester.

On that day, Zah & I confessed that we did lingered at Holloway Road because we were so tired as a result of the nonstop sightseeing the day before and that both our feet inflamed with pain, ^sob!^ but of course we suck up the pain as pain is secondary to what we had achieved in completing all of London's main attractions.

We took an advice that we should take the double-decker as it would head straight to Victoria Station but too much time was spent waiting for the bus, and then there was the traffic along the way and finally we decided to take the tube so we thoughtlessly alighted in the middle of who-knows-where but still in the London City Center and then we were gobsmacked right after we stopped as we didn't know where the nearest tube station was, huhu

When we finally found the nearest tube, we saw Victoria Station and was actually temporary relieved but to our horror, that was the terminals for trains and so we had to ask soooo many people and they never gave us DIRECT & SPECIFIC DIRECTIONS!

It was always...

"Just walk straight and turn left".
"After the traffic light, turn left". [There were 2 traffic lights ok!]
"Turn left".


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! Tension!!!

Seriously we were like the contestants from Amazing Race EXCEPT the major difference would be we had HUGE BAGS WITH WHEELS!

and we missed the bus, just 2 SECONDS LATE! I am not kidding! Imagine our frustration when we could actually see the bus directly in front of us driving by, huhu

But that's ok, our only consolation is that it wasn't time that we wasted but money because that bus was 1 pound instead of the normal rate of 16 pound. Imagine Mai Sis got it for a song for a 2 hour and a half journey, way cool!

Apology for Abah, we learned our lesson though,
NEVER TAKE THINGS FOR GRANTED!

Victoria Station is not the same as Victoria Coach Station!


Still we made it to Leicester so this is Leicester. I think someone copied the slogan One Leicester to 1Malaysia, hmm :p

This is the fire brigade, who would have thought it coz it looks like a museum but actually the fire trucks are tuck inside.

In front of Mai Sis Medical Building. Don't we look like sisters? hehe

There is a prison in the middle of the city! No kidding!
and Mai Sis tells me that sometimes she has to pass this building back from the university, wuu, gives me the creeps!



Went to Loughborough, my old hometown. Its similar to Shah Alam except this place is so much calmer and peaceful and I had loved schooling in this school. Went back to trace old memories~



This is our 3rd home living in England years ago and the best house amongst the 3. It was situated near Abah's university, Along's high school and our primary school. I remembered the snow was so deep in front of the house and that Mama would take lil Mawaddah for a walk playing in the snow.



The next day, us 3 girls sent abah to Germany at Birmingham International Airport, byebye Abah~



After that, Adventure Starts!

So what is in Birmingham? According to the BEST guide in the whole wide world, MAI SIS, that would be Cadbury World.

Cadbury World is basically one of Cadbury's factory made into an attraction. We were enlightened on how Mr Cadbury made one of the finest chocolates ever and then how chocolates were made, the history and the process in the factory and get free chocolates admist all the tours.


We got to make our own chocolate, yummy! But I am not that fanatic over too much sweetness.

The last day in Leicester was spent on shopping! and it was the SUMMER SALE! and there were not much time to indulge, uwaaa!!


Oh well, this is a performance from the Pocahontas tribe, haha, nah, it was just guys all dressed up playing soothing music from their musical instruments in the middle of the city. very entertaining indeed! If I didn't want to go to every store, I would have stop and appreciate the tune more ;)



We did relax in Leicester as we stayed in Mai Sis very comfortable Oxford Court and cooked fried rice, pasta, baked quiche, toast crumpets and drank lotsa fresh milk everyday!

Long Live London

Bismillah, Assalamualaikum

I should write, it's about time, I can't just slack off at home so I am writing and I am going to start with London because that was the 1st destination in our 10 days AWESOME trip and I had it with uber cool and sporting Zahrah ^_^

After Heathrow, I remembered I badly needed to go to the toilet and was reallyyy uncomfortable at the prospect of no water in the toilet, hehe, yeah, I got used to it when I was small and growing up in England years ago but after decades of living in Malaysia, who can blame me, huhu :p

Our first stop was at Holloway Road where we stayed with 4 girls above shop lots but the house was so nice and comfy that we remembered wanting to stay longer!

THANK YOU to Sis Laili, Intan, Husna and I really forgot her name (BIG APOLOGY!)

Zahrah & I WALKED believe it or not from King's Cross Station right to Marble Arch [if anyone is familiar they would know that it sure is a loooong stretch of roads!]. and we passed Brunswick, the place of the rich I guess from the looks of it, reminds me of Bukit Bintang but this place is far more peaceful! and check out the houses! So cool!

This is me nearly getting tired. I remembered we wanted to find the Charles Dicken Museum but to no avail. We literally walked in circles, LOL!

Not a museum mind you, just a place to eat, hehe

THANK YOU to MAI SIS for the info as at 11am, we headed to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of Guards.

We met with Mahani and Sha at Buckingham Palace as they were assigned to become our tourist guides and they were so much fun! They even gave us pep talks when we got so tired! There were like ZILLIONS of people and no doubt there were also tourists like us and everyone wanted to see the event. and I forgot to zoom at this picture so can't really see that long-legged BIG doggy.

Asians are small or does that just applies to me, huhu. I managed to squeezed in right to the front of the palace gates but still I was blocked by so many people that I had to stand on my tiptoe and raised my arm for my digicam to capture whatever it gets! So this is the guards playing their musical instruments and all I remembered was that one of the music was the James Bond anthem.

The Buckingham Palace with so many people you could get lost! We were so tired when we reached this place and our feet were screaming with pain already. We had walked from 7am and all we had were croissants with cheese and milk. It was nearly noon and not only were we lethargic but our stomach pleaded to eat!

SNAP! Do you think at some point they smiled? :p

I thought that if you wanted to stand, you had to be on the left like in Malaysia but its the contrary in England! and boy, did people get angry when we were wrong!

Hey, Harrods had a sale ok and I won't tell you the price but it was cheap even when converted! and the quality was not bad, I always wondered what you could find in this big store and now I know!

So this is where Siti sang, not bad at all...

After Royal Albert Hall, we finally had lunch, at 3pm I think? at Malaysian Hall and chatted with someone a bit famous in her own right.

One thing about the Britons is that whether you are street artists or street performers, you are not looked down or deem poor, you are downright creative unlike in Malaysia, hehe

This is Trafalgar Square and SURPRISE! there were no pigeons! I remembered when I was small, the birdies were everywhere that it could actually poo poo at you! and when there are none, you miss em, huhu

What a view, it was so beautiful and sunny with a little wind, the weather was blissful indeed!

At Big Ben and near the Parliament, a protest happened (apparently protests always happens here!) and these people with their bicycles just ride the streets with no care in the world and shouted slogans and a representative came out and said something about the environment and I remembered she said, "I think we should just sit and have our little picnic here!" and they did just that! They blocked the streets laying down their bikes and took out their sandwiches and drinks and crossed their legs and ate and danced! and the police just looked on! Some of em even took pictures! Hmm...different huh, the police didn't even have tear gas with em, huhu

Some of em actually cared! Shame on us that we don't and I was told that there were tents as some protesters camped out and some starve just for that attention for change. I'm not saying that we should (actually I don't even think we can in the first place) but these are people who are willing to go to the extremes just for a cause they believed in. Still admirable in a way aite ;)

It wasn't nearly sunset just yet, I think it was still 7pm but this picture is glorious ^_^

It was nearly sunset so Mahani, Sha, Zahrah and I sat and watched the sunset together, aaawwww...

Walked to Tower Bridge, this place is so fascinating as the bridge can split in half for what I forgot and does it still do?

Got lost a bit but ended up in St Paul Cathedral, huhu

There are many more pictures taken at London but these are the significants ones, or perhaps there were some things I forgot to mention, Travel Mate?!

Tu me manques Paris

Bismillah, Assalamualaikum

Dedicated Especially to Mai Sis & Zahrah :)

I dunno why but the song Waking Up In Vegas by Katy Perry reminds me of our London - Leicester - Paris AWESOME 10 Days trip so I dedicate this song to both of you with my own modifications :)

mostly it's for Paris since the song just fits the place

Waking Up In Paris, hehe


You gotta help me out
It's all a blur last night
We need a METRO 'cause you're tired and our feet sore
Mai lost her 1 day ticket but you nearly lost the souvenirs
Spare our freakin' tired looks
We need to hurry and keep walking
Now Paris scares me
But we don't want to cash out and get the hell out of town
We want to stay forever


Don't be a baby
Remember this is our big break
Be adventurous and put your money where your mouth is
That's what you get for waking up in Paris
Get up but don't shake the glitter off all our experiences, now
That's what you get for waking up in Paris

Why are these wind and rain so cold
Oh, did we walk so long yesterday
And why, why am I still dazed from all those roller coasters
Don't call for help
'Cause now we've covered the whole of Disneyland

Don't be a baby
Remember all those monuments we gotta go
We ran in the rain and get soaked
That's what you get for waking up in Paris
Get up but don't shake the Parisian smell off your clothes, now
That's what you get for waking up in Paris

You got me into this
Information overload, situation lost control
Send out an S.O.S.
And get some cash and new walking shoes out
We're gonna tear up the town

Don't be a baby
Remember we're in this together
And I love you for that
We're travellers running and walking
That's what you get for waking up in Paris
Get up early and come home late
That's what you get for waking up in Paris
We love the glitter of the place
So we meet again
Someday

3 Days in London

Bismillah, Assalamualaikum :D

This is a quickie.

Alhamdulillah Zahrah & I are fine.

I have already reunited with Abah at Victoria Coach Station. But we missed the 1 Pound bus because Zah & I thought that the bus was at Victoria Station as we didn't realized that was the terminals for trains. Oh well :(


31st May 2009:


Reached Heathrow at 3.40pm.
We're here for pleasure, hehe
Afif was there, thank you for the big chunks of chicken kebab!
Bought Oyster (like Touch N Go)
Stayed at Holloway Road.


1st June 2009:


Walked around London from 6am until 11pm! WuuWee!
Sore feet but managed to cover every single London's main attractions!
Alhamdulillah *all smiles* =)
Managed to squeeze right to the front gates of Buckingham Palace to observe the marching and the changing of guards.
Went to Malaysian Hall.
Met someone not-so-famous but the mother of someone who has made headlines in both the British & Malaysian newspapers. Actually talk to her.
Ate Halal Chinese Food Take Away with chopsticks. The mee and Vietnamese Chicken was put in those white paper containers that you always see in movies. Wayyy Cool!


2nd June 2009:


Said Goodbye to Sis Laili, Intan, Husna & (sorry I forgot your name but she looks like N3mah)
Thank You So Much MORE THAN WORDS! May Allah repay your kindness :)
Met Abah.
Hugged Mai Sis!
Went to the new shopping mall [what does this tell ya :p ]
Tour Leicester University, the university of the year 2008/09 in the whole of UK, Congrats to em!

Overall - Tired!
But most definitely worth it!

Subhanallah, Alhamdulillah :)

Until then, toodles!