Travel: UK - London

London, here I am again.

The last stop of this trip was a case of mixed feelings, one of the reasons was the constant Déjà vu of seeing everything and resonant them with my childhood memories; or if not, the “Kodak moment” photo albums back at home.

It was interminably gloomy and foggy every day, we covered the tops including Tower Bridge and London Bridge along River Thames. Surprisingly there isn’t any signs (or we could have walked past it) showing the “Dead Man’s Hole” underneath the Tower Bridge, which in the past the Police used it as a morgue to store dead bodies fished out of the Thames, people could then come and identify them. 

London Bridge

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

Managed to take a few shots of Gherkin & Llyod’s Building at Square Mile, the Financial District of London. Went to Big Ben, both London Eye and The Shard were out of sight due to fogginess.

Did Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, Borough Market, Oxford Street, Tate Modern, St Paul's Cathedral, British Museum and more.

British Museum

Borough Market

30 St Mary Axe aka The Gherkin and St Andrew Undershaft on the right

Lloyd's building (Inside-out Building)

Buckingham Palace

St James's Park

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

St Paul's Cathedral

Inside Tate Modern

Chinatown wasn’t the Chinatown I’ve known before, scattered shops and meagre patrons, the street looked rather miserable as compared with its peak in the 70s - 90s. The ethnic characteristic and the traditional part were somewhat faded. We used to do our groceries there every fortnight and my grandma would whine about how heavy I was and that she still has to use another hand to carry the rice bag. Oh, and the Peking duck was probably one of the few things that I would not fail to remember. Juicy meat roasted to a perfect golden brown and crisp, the distinctive flavourful aroma would tempt you from miles away.

Oxford Street

Roasted Duck

NYE dinner at home

London will always remind you it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there.

Everyone is doing the same thing and hungry for success, a quick and instant success. The chaotic and fast pace environment is no difference than any of the big cities. Whatever you know, there will be somebody out there doing the same or outperforming and outwitting you.

At the end of the day, time (and dream) waits for no one!