London 2nd Day

Pagi2 jam 4 udah bangun. Liat V belum sembuh juga kita mutusin manggil dokter. Untung banget sebelum ke London, V ada masuk asuransi kesehatan, so gw telpon ke free call asuransinya. Jeleknya nih B&B, telpon kamarnya sama sekali ga bias dipake. Gw mesti keluar dari kamar n nelpon pake telpon umum. Nah setelah nelpon, gw khan ditelpon balek ama asuransinya. Tapi telponnya juga ga bisa di-transfer ke kamar, Bentar2 pintu kamar diketuk di suruh ke lobby buat denger telpon. 2~3 kali ada kali, sampe orang b&b-nya reseh juga, ngasih ke gw telpon handsfree mereka hahaha Tapi mereka sama sekali ga ramah --;
Jam 7 pagi dokter datang. Ngobrol2 ama dokternya, ternyata istrinya orang jepang. Lebih dari meriksa V, kayanya kita lebih banyak ngobrol hehehe. Gila tuh kalo ga masuk asuransi, bias abis 200 pounds lebih…..
Karena kesehatan V, kita batalin ke Canterbury. Lagian untuk naek train pake Britrail Pass, kita kudu naek train bareng, so ga bakal bisa pergi berdua doang. So kita juga ga bisa pergi jauh2, cuman shopping di sktr London.
Kita udah kapok naek underground. Ga mau lagi!!! Udah trainnya kecil, buat ganti train pun mesti jalan jauh. Makanya buat yg mau jalan2 di London, gw saranin naek bus aja deh. Lebih murah lagi ^_^
Siang bawain makan buat V pulang lagi ke B& B. Dianya juga udah mendingan, dan ga mau di b&b terus. So abis makan, kita bertiga ke Tower Bridge Exhibition & Big Ben. Tower Bridge masih bisa masuk, tapi sampe di Big Ben udah kemalaman, ga bisa masuk. So foto2 di luar doang. Malam gua & M berdua makan di restoran Italian sekitar b&b. Tetep berdua makan satu porsi hehe

London First Day

Terundur sehari, April 28, akhirnya kita tiba juga di Heathrow Airport, London. Pengawasannya lumayan ketat. Begitu keluar dari pesawat udah langsung minta passport utk diperliatkan (belum di imigrasinya loh). Pas di imigrasi juga pasti satu2 ditanya ngapain ke inggris, berapa lama dll. Ngeliat pada per kelompok pas ditanya, so kita juga bertiga bareng menuju ke counter yg sama. Toh ntar nanya juga sama jawabannya juga sama, kalo bertiga khan lebih cepat. hemat waktu gitu loh.
Begitu selesai, nuker traveler cek ke cash di amex. Rate inggris gila2an. Dibandingkan di jepang ya. kalo indo seh gw kurang tau. Rate resmi waktu itu sktr 208, tapi di money exchange london ada yg sampe 230. Paling murah juga 220 kali. Belum biaya komisinya. So kita lebih memilih traveler cek, ratenya lebih bagus (210.72 + 1% fee)dan lebih aman. Anyway, kayanya rate yg paling bagus tuh di Mark n Spencer. Ga kena biaya juga.
Kita naek Heathrow Express ke Paddington station dulu trus sambung underground. Tapi gebleknya salah naek train. ternyata underground di london lumayan rumit. walau linenya sama tapi mesti liat tujuan akhirnya. cara liatnya pun ga ngerti. akhirnya nanya orang, dan kebetulan orang tuh ke arah yg sama, kita naek train yg sama menuju victoria station.
B&B kita di Central House Hotel sekitar victoria station. Dari peta seh dekat. tapi kalo bawa koper jauh juga --; nyari2 kok ga dapat. akhirnya ada sepasang cewe & cowo dari polandia ngasih tau kira2 ada dimana hotelnya dan bener2 nganterin sampe di depan hotel. padahal mereka juga baru sampe hari itu juga buat weekend holiday. sempet curiga nih orang kok baek banget. emang susah orang sekarang, kalo dibaekin malah curiga hehehe. coba di indo, udah mikir ini orang jangan2 minta tips hahahah
Karena udah malam, kita nyari makan di sktr b&b. kita memilih makan fish n chip. Katanya kalo dah di inggris fish n chip adalah salah satu makanan wajib. Padahal yg cuman ikan goreng ama kentang goreng hehehe. Di london kita cuman sekali ini aja makan fish n chip. porsinya gede bo. Untung kita cuman pesan 2 porsi untuk bertiga. itupun ga habis.
Besok paginya sarapan pagi, sangking enaknya sampe sejam kita di breakfast room hahhaha Skedul kita keliling London. Awal menuju St. James Park, terus jalan kaki ke Buckingham Palace. Tujuan seh mau liat Changing The Guard Performance, so ngikutin anjuran, datang sejam sebelum. Emang benar, sejam sebelum udah rame ama pengunjung dari manca negara. Setelah foto2 kita nunggu di tangga. karena ga ngapain2 semakin nunggu semakin merasa dingin. anehnya ada yg pake coat tebal, ada juga yg cuman pake t-shirt. malah ada satu cewe yg pake lengan panjang malah ngelepasin bajunya dan hanya pake tank top. aneh ^^;
15 menit sebelum performance di mulai, muncul mobil police. kirain dah mau mulai, ehhhh malah dikasih pengumuman kalo hari itu ga ada performace. disuruh pulang... Kenapa juga ga dikasih papan pengumuman gitu ya supaya kita tau dari awal. So friends, yg mau nonton performance, confirm dulu gitu via telpon.
Lanjut ke Piccadilly Circus n Chinatown. Piccadilly Circus tempat shopping yg paling rame. Chinatown juga ada di sini. Katanya disini ga aman so kudu hati2. Dan benar, teman gw ampir kecopet, backpacknya udah kebuka gitu. tapi teman gw udah sadar kalo tasnya kepegang trus langsung manggil gua yg lagi jalan di depan. trus pencopetnya sadar, bukannya lari tapi jalan anteng gitu loh. kita juga bingung mau ngapain gitu trus biarin pencopetnya pergi... pencopetnya cewe muda. kayanya sih orang eropa selatan gitu.
Karena udah di chinatown, kita makan chinese food. Kirain kalo chinese food porsinya ga gede, kita mesen 3 porsi. Ternyata kita salah. Porsinya gede bo! Akhirnya so pasti ga abis...
Lanjut ke British Museum n London Bridge. Pengennya seh naek cruise tapi udah ga sempet. So disappointed... akhirnya lanjut ke St. Paul Cathedral.sangking gedenya juga ga bisa foto2. dan juga lagi renovation.... -_- Karena teman gw, V merasa ga enakan badan, akhirnya kita pulang dulu ke hotel. V udah ga kuat makan malam dan memilih istirahat di hotel. So gw n M makan malam di sekitar Victoria station. Kebetulan ketemu menu yg ada yorkshire pudding, my favorite. hehehe Berdua cuman makan 1 porsi. Yorkshire puddingnya di negara asal ternyata kecil. Ga segeda yg dulu gw makan di Lawry's. Dengan malu2 minta tambahan puddingnya lagi, eh dikasih dua gratis. hehehe

Air China

Our flight to Beijing was not arrived at scheduled. We were going to Beijing by flying through upon Qingdao but at that time there was China air military exercise in Qingdao so the plane couldn't fly through. And the worst thing is Air China didn't have enough fuel to take another route to Beijing. At last, the plane landed at Incheon Airport, Seoul for adding fuel. We had to wait for 2 hours till the military exercise finished. We couldn't go out from plane at that time as we couldn't know when the exercise will be finished. All we could do only wait and wait. We asked a stewardess what will happen as we have to take plane to London after arrived at Beijing and we don't have enough time anymore. Guess what she told me, “since this plane is late, another plane will be late also.” Unbelievable!!! How can she say such irresponsible words!!

Well, I think not all Air China stewardess like that. We asked another stewardess, and she asked our flight number to London and checked for us. She told us they couldn't check flight condition in Beijing but we might have to stay a night at Beijing. And it really happened... But still it’s a hard long way to transit hotel in Beijing.

After took 6 hours, finally we arrived at Beijing (normally it only take 3 hours). Only 2 trainees were in charge for transit guest. No Japanese, no English, only Chinese language available. Hahaha it’s not a problem for me though but it really a big problem to another guest which are mostly Japanese and some English. But!! Although I can understand Chinese, the problem was the 2 trainees only told us to wait. They didn’t tell us whether we will be arranged a hotel or we have to change our ticket or not. Since I can speak Chinese, I’d been told that I can arrange by myself by going to Air China sales office. (after that the one of the 2 trainee have to guide some business class guest to somewhere, I don’t know where was it, but finally only 1 trainee in charge for transit guest with a troubled face. Oh God! We were more troubled!!!)

We found kinda Air China information desk (we thought it’s the sales office that they told us) and still, we been told “Please wait” … While waiting, I do some translation job. And also, there was a helpful Singaporean girl tried to translate in Japanese n English as well. She’s really a helpful girl. Still worried for the unknown ppls even though had been told that she could go to her next flight to Hong Kong. I told her there is me, I’ll translate for them but at the end I left them (forgive me cause I still have my friends waiting for me and we’d been told that we can go to the hotel at that time. There was nothing I can do …. -_- )

Of course the information desk we found wasn’t the sales office. After waiting for a while and after yelling to them “till when we have to wait!!!!” (I think I almost lost my voice yelling them), we were guided to immigration section. They asked us to going through the immigration section. When I asked the trainee how I enter China since I don’t have a China Visa. She really didn’t understand about that. Still, took time at there for arguments. Unbelievable!! Finally immigration office told us that they can issue 1 day transit visa for us and we can enter China without any worries.

After out from the immigration section, we went to find the sales office. At first, we found the Air China information desk (again) we been told that they will arrange a hotel and asked us to wait at the lower ground. We only 5 persons at that time (the other guests maybe still wait at the immigration section). But after went to the lower ground, we felt fishy about it. How can the Air China staff know we are the delay passengers since we were mixed with another ppls around airport.

So that, I tried to find the sales office again. I found a sales desk but later found it was domestic sales desk. Been told where is the international sales desk, not by the Air China Staff but by a hotel staff who tried to find some customer. He told me that Air China won’t arrange hotel for us cause it was not Air China fault. It was out of Air China control. He guided me to the international sales desk but at that time I only have my own ticket. I have to back to my friends at lower ground and get them ticket for changing flight date. I told him that don’t waste time with us cause we still not sure if we will be arrange a hotel or not. But he still keep tailing us till he asked the Air China Staff in information desk and been told that we will be arranged a hotel. I was worried with such person. You know that a sales person very persistent to offer a customer. But seems like he just a good person. (^_^)

At that time we met another passengers whom guided by the staff to the international sales desk. I took my friend’s ticket at once and went to front line (hehehe kiasu mah) After flight date been changed (at the next day we found the date didn’t changed!!!) 5 persons of us been guided to the hotel as first group. The rest of passengers still queue in line for changing their ticket. (It was the time that I left them for translation. Again, so sorry…. -_-) We arrived at hotel at 7 pm. Can you imagine all of this took 3 hours?!?! Already tired before depart to London…….

Next day, again met a bed temper Air China staff in check-in counter. She found there were no our records in their system and told us that our flight were yesterday. After explained to her what happened yesterday, she left the counter. I think she went to check for it. She went with a fierce face. She made us felt that we bring trouble to her. Huh! Who care~ It’s not our fault!!

She came back and tell us that they still have vacant seat so she will arrange seat for us. She still in her fierce face…(We did hope that there was no seat so that we could take business seat for free hehehe) I asked her to arrange 3 seat together for us but I saw our seats number were not correct. It was in one line but we will be separated by one seat or maybe by aisle. Hmm.. how to say, kinda the number is 23G, 23H, and 23K. I went to complain to her, and after found its wrong, without say anything, she gave me a new boarding pass. But at that time the seat was 22H, 22J, 22K.. Felt strange why there is no 22I, she yelled to me that THERE IN NO 22I!! …… I couldn’t believe her till she showed me her computer. Indeed… no “I” lane for the flight… hehehe sorry lor :P

The meal on flight was ok but the white wine… awful hahaha be careful. But the meal for London – Beijing route was really awful. My 2 friends didn’t touch the meal after had a taste of it. I finished it though hehehe It was bad but still can be eaten for my standard. I am not so fussy with taste. Indonesian taste standard lower than Japanese mah :P Anyway I just got trauma with their white wine. The red wine was ok.

Lastly, Air China problem was in London-Beijing route. In such hot day, I think the temperature in plane was 30deg C. The cooler was break down and would not go properly until the planes take off. Crazy flight….

Is it our fault to take a cheap flight? T_T

UK Trip

Too many happening in this time trip... I think it was the worst trip i had. (its doesn't mean that my trip was absolutely teribble ^^;) Well, gonna to tell you what happened...

1. Flight to Beijing was delayed so we had to stay a night at Beijing. We lost 1 day for UK (T_T) Beside that, Air China staff really awful.... Well... will tell you next... long story...
2. We already paid B&B in London for 4 night in lowest price so we couldn't got the refund. Plus, this B&B's heater got problem, the service was bad.
3. One of my friend got fever so that we have to take care of her and couldn't going far from London. We were planning go to Southern England at that time. (It can be said that we lost another 1 day..) Thanks God it didn't take long. She was alright on the next day.
4. Me too, got sore throat after she get well. We were not in good condition. Maybe cause the bad weather in London??
5. We were told that there is no Changing-the-Guard Performance in Buckingham Palace after 1,5 hours waiting in coldness.... brrrr....
6. We had bought Britrail Pass & Heritage Pass in advance. For losing 2 days, I think we had lost some value from the pass (didn't calculate it though ^^;)

Ok ok, no the 7th. otherwise it will realy a terrible trip ^^;
We had good times too! Especially at Ni-nachan's house in Scotland. Really made us felt "Home Sweet Home" (not our home though hehe). Thank you Ni-nachan!!!