… you have been warned…
pelf
(579 comments, 786 posts)
This user hasn't shared any profile information
Home page: http://chenpn.com
Posts by pelf
My first taste of staying in a hostel
8I stayed at Equity Point London Hostel for 5 nights in March 2011. I paid a total of £124, which I thought was quite expensive, considering the fact that I shared a room with 7 others. But then again, says who London is cheap? :D
Though the breakfast menu was not something to shout about (toast, jam, cereal, milk, juice and instant coffee, hot chocolate), at least it was provided for. I could grab some breakfast before hitting the streets, and not worry about looking for something to eat in the morning (an egg mayo sandwich costs £2 at a cafe on Praed Street).
I love that the hostel is located near the Paddington tube station. In fact, it is only about 5-7 minutes walk from the tube station. The bus stop is situated just about 100m from the hostel.
The rooms are clean (I stayed in a 8-bed dorm, then moved a 12-bed dorm because it was cheaper), and so are the bathrooms. Linens are provided, towels are not. There is no room service (make your own beds), but I think they clean out the bathrooms everyday. A locker is assigned to every bed, but you’d have to bring your own lock, or you could buy/rent one from the receptionist, £3. There is a table lamp affixed to the wall, for each bed so you could still read if some others were sleeping.
Computers and wireless internet are available, but cost £1 for 30 minutes, £2 for an hour. There are also plenty of brochures at the check-in counter, feel free to take one of each. Remember to return your key card when you check out, and you’d get your deposit back (lots of people forget this).
I had never stayed in a hostel before so I was a little apprehensive about picking a mixed dorm instead of an all-girls dorm (which was a lot more expensive). But to my surprise, it wasn’t as bad as I had thought it would be. Being a mixed dorm, I had half expected drunk roommates stumbling their way into the dorm in the dark, dropping toiletries in the bathroom, talking loudly while the others were asleep, etc. But none of those happened :D
Though some of my roommates came back late, they never made a lot of noise walking into the dorm. Nobody slammed the bathroom doors (though I suspect nobody else took a shower more frequently that I did), everybody talked only loud enough to the person they were talking to, and if they wanted to read or work on their computers, they used their bed lamps instead of leaving the lights switch on.
It was a very pleasant stay at the hostel, and the location (Paddington) was great. If I ever had the chance to visit London again, I would definitely stay at Equity Point again :D
P/S: No, this is NOT a sponsored post.
Happy Mother’s Day, Mum :D
0May 8, 2011
by pelf
in Life & Rants
I remember when we were younger, my sister and I used to give our Mum handmade cards on Mother’s Day. We would draw/design Mother’s Day cards and we would sneak into her room when she’s fast asleep and strategically place those masterpieces on her dressing table so that they’re the first things she saw when she woke up.
Now that I think about it, we were pretty mean, eh. I mean, why would we make Mum see those (really ugly) handmade cards the FIRST thing in the morning?! LOL.
I know you read this, Mummy, so HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY! I hope you find peace and happiness in all that you do :D
Lots of love xoxo.. (see you in 3 weeks)
Tour (most of) London in 3 hours
7A day after the Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS) ended, I took a train from Cambridge to London. A one-way ticket cost £20 and the journey took about an hour, I think (this is what happens when I napped throughout the journey).
It was my first time in London, and looking at the tube map and visitors’ map that has all the tourist attractions, I was overwhelmed. And when I picked up the New London Tour brochure at the hostel, I knew, almost immediately, that it was a must-do.
So the next morning, I walked from Paddington to the Wellington Arch, the meeting point for the New London Tour. Armed with a map in hand, I walked through the Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens, which was a HUGE park (kinda) separated into two by a body of water called “The Serpentine” :D I also walked past the Albert Memorial, the Royal Albert Hall, and a couple of traffic lights later, I arrived at the Wellington Arch.
The breathtakingly beautiful park in the middle of London.
Royal Albert Hall (and some Chinese tourists).
To my pleasant surprise, there were more than 100 people near the Arch, and a couple of tour guides (they wore t-shirts bright-red in colour) were seen trying to organize the huge crowd into smaller groups of about 20-25 people.
My tour guide, Ben, was amazingly knowledgeable and was ever ready to share his knowledge and personal experiences with us. He not only described the attractions/monuments in a professional way, he was able to inject humour into everything he said too! :D He seemed to be very passionate about his job (though it’s a free tour), and and he spoke with much energy and enthusiasm.
Ben (in the red tee) telling one of the many interesting stories throughout the tour. It was REALLY cold, Ben was acting macho by not wearing his jacket.
THE Buckingham Palace, LOL.
That’s Big Ben (and more tourists) on the background. If you recalled, that was the day some 250,000 demonstrated against Britain’s deepest public spending cuts. More on Londonist and Bloomberg.
St. Margaret’s Church, located between Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament.
Having said that, I wished that Ben (and every other guide) had given us some time to take pictures of the attractions/monuments that we had been to. I’m sure two-to-three minutes per attraction would be much appreciated. So if you’re planning to join a free tour, make sure you take some pictures while listening to your guide, because when s/he is done, you’d be on the move to the next destination :D
With Ben, my tour guide :D
This is a free guide, and at the end of the tour, we were free to give our guide some tips, and if we couldn’t afford it, we could tell him and he said he would be cool about it. So to help you decide on how much tips to give your guide, I suggest you think about how much (time and/or money) it would cost you to visit all the tourist attractions by yourself. Though you could also walk from one attraction to another, it could easily take you 5-7 hours if you were to read the map (and descriptions) and find your way around. So tip appropriately :D
The New London Tour runs daily, starts at 11 am and lasts about 2.5 to 3 hours.
