Scandinavia: Spring - April 2017

 

This is my second trip to this region this year and my third altogether. Nope I didn't embark on a new career as a tour guide just in case you are wondering :P I was instead seduced by the itinerary and the fact that my wacky friends are going (the previous two trips I went with my mom). So living by the principles of "Money Not Spent Is Not Yours" and "Don't Live Like A Miser So That You Will Die Rich", I decided to join them. Furthermore the previous trips did not cover Finland.

Since we went during second half of April, I was expecting more flowers and less snow but much to my delight we were blessed with a lot of snowfalls and even an occasional hail. I'm sure the locals think otherwise. They must be sick of snow by now and are patiently waiting for summer. I had such a great time playing with snow. The weather and temperture throughout the visit was also very good. Great time to visit this region if you like snow but hate to travel during winter. You get to enjoy the snow while the temperature is quite mild. If you like flowers however, go during second half of May :)

Going back to Scandinavia weather. Sometimes it was so weird. It will snow for maybe 15 minutes and then the sun will come out. I experienced the same in Ireland, thought it was unique to Ireland. Obviously not. The Irish said that if you don't like the weather, just wait for 15 minutes. I guess the same will be applicable here :)

Of the four countries, I like Norway the best. I think their landscape can challenge Iceland's in terms of beauty. All these Scandinavian countries are so clean. The mark of a developed nation. They are also very protective of the environment. Renewable energy is also a big thing in these countries.

This time round we went with Redha Travel and Tours. It is a young company, incorporated in 2015. It is a small family business that specialises in Muslim tours with rich retiree friends as their main customers. Frankly this is the first tour I joined that is accompanied by three company representatives. Father as the tour leader, mother and son as assistants.

We were joined by a local tour guide, Ece Boran in Copenhagen. An energetic, friendly, patient and fun Turkish lady. She loves to take pictures and videos of us. Her name however is one of the most difficult names to pronounce. The "c" in Ece is suppose to sound in between "j" and "c", so we ended up calling her AJ or Acer. The right pronunciation (I think) is Ajer. Luckily she is a good sport :)

Our bus driver Melis is an Estonian. Superb driver and kept the bus (and most importantly its windows) very clean during the trip. Bravo! He is friendly and funny but since he is not very fluent in English, sometimes we simply cannot understand his joke. Sorry Melis!

The full board 11days 9nights tour price was RM13300 on a twin sharing basis. Value for money since they offered great accommodation, quality food albeit a bit monotonous, awesome private cruises and interesting activities.

The itinerary was as follows:
18 April 2017   Kuala Lumpur - Doha
19 April 2017   Doha - Copenhagen
20 April 2017   Copenhagen - Malmo - Goteborg - Oslo
21 April 2017   Oslo - Geilo
22 April 2017   Geilo - Flam - Sogndal
23 April 2017   Sogndal - Briksdal - Otta
24 April 2017   Otta - Lillehammer - Mora
25 April 2017   Mora - Stockholm
26 April 2017   Stockholm - Helsinki
27 April 2017   Helsinki
28 April 2017   Helsinki - Doha
29 April 2017   Doha - Kuala Lumpur

Overall I am quite satisfied with Redha. Their itinerary was superb. The only problem is they did not deliver all they promised in the itinerary. For example, the visit to Skansen Open Air Museum was cancelled due to a request from some members of the group for a longer shopping time. It was not made clear to the rest of the group that the visit to Skansen Open Museum is cancelled because of that. Visit to Suomenlinna Museum was also cancelled with no reason provided whatsoever.

If you follow my travel pictures you noticed that I rarely get to visit mosques overseas since I mostly joined non Muslims tours which visited a lot of churches (which is fine since Christianity is the main religion in the world and their churches are mostly architecturally grand). So I was quite excited to get to visit two mosques during this trip. How annoying when our trip to Helsinki Mosque was cancelled due to Friday prayers. If during Friday prayers the mosque is out of bounds for visitors, why is the itinerary not adjusted so that we go to the mosque at different time or day? This lackadaisical attitude of "Over Promised Under Delivered" is so frustrating.

Despite all the dramas and broken promises, I still had a great time. The group members were mostly sporting and fun. The weather was superb. We get to take a lot of fun and awesome pictures. It was a wonderful trip. Taglines "Cap Ayam" and "Faktor Usia" will forever bring smiles to the participants. I look forward to our next Baltic tour with Redha hopefully same time next year :)

This is my fourth visit overseas that I did not exchange even a single cent of local currency. Granted that Finland uses Euro. I don't consider Euro as a local currency though :P Just bring Euro leftovers from your previous overseas trips. They accept credit cards almost everywhere, so having cash is not so critical here :)

I have uploaded 977 pictures and 97 videos for your viewing pleasure. You can access them here:
http://instagram.com/mkhasha.n.travels

Hashtags specific for this trip:
#mks2017Scandinavia #mks2017Denmark #mks2017Sweden #mks2017Norway #mks2017Finland

Njoy!!

Iceland: Winter - March 2017

What can I say? This country is the most beautiful of all the countries that I have been so far. Most likely going to stay at the top of the list for quite sometime. The Icelandic people are very smart. Mother Nature has done all the work for them. They just need to take care and capitalise on what was given to them on a silver platter. There is no need for them to build the tallest, the fastest, the biggest whatever to attract people to visit their country. They even have natural laser shows! What a blessed country :)

They should give something to Shah Rukh Khan though. Due to his film Diwale, suddenly Iceland became a must visit place for Malaysians! We are forking out serious money due to our weakened currency just to visit Iceland but I personally think that it was worth every penny :)

Never before when I went through pictures of my travels, I keep on mumbling "cantiknya" (Malay word for beautiful) like a broken record. Iceland's untarnished beauty simply makes me happy. The country gives a very peaceful aura. Even the tap water tastes great!

It was a long journey to Iceland. We have to board 3 planes with a total travel time (including transits) of close to 30 hours. We flew via Qatar Airways for the first 2 flights and Icelandair for the last leg. Qatar Airways inflight meals were great. Their inflight meals should be made standard airline practice if you ask me. No cold sandwiches should be served on board. Icelandair only provides drinks but you can purchase overpriced snacks on board. They however accept payment via credit card only. No cash.

March is a great month to visit for people from countries without four seasons. The weather is not so cold. It was still snowing lightly at some places and clear blue sky in others. Maybe it is just me but when I visit ICEland, I expect to see ICE. So March is a good month for me. There were ice everywhere :) Awesome!!

I am usually not very adventurous when it comes to food. There are a lot of things that I don't eat. Since this trip is very expensive, I've decided to turn a new leaf and tried every single dish being served. I am not saying I will eat them again under normal circumstances but I tried to be less squemish in Iceland. With the aid of chilli flakes, happy to say that I enjoyed every single dish served to me :) I even ate whale meat :P What surprises me is the use of coconuts in their dish. I don't think coconut trees are native.

The trip is very short but just right for me. After my 40 days "holiday", I find that I prefer short trips. By the time you have to go home, you are still feeling excited with the country that you visit instead of feeling tired or worse bored. A great feeling to close a holiday don't you think?

Our itinerary was as follows:
13 March 2017    Kuala Lumpur - Doha
14 March 2017    Doha - Oslo - Keflavik - Reykjavik
15 March 2017    Reykjavik - Langjokull - Reykholt - Reykjavik
16 March 2017    Reykjavik - Golden Circle - Selfoss
17 March 2017    Selfoss - Seljaland - Vik - Skoga
18 March 2017    Skoga - Vatnajokull - Jokulsarlon - Skoga
19 March 2017    Skoga - Reykjavik - Keflavik
20 March 2017    Keflavik - Oslo - Doha
21 March 2017    Doha - Kuala Lumpur

I have to confess that I am having a tough time trying to hashtag the pictures. When I surf the net or check the address, I'm not sure which is the city (or town) or whether it is a region. Normally I hashtag the cities but in this case I even hashtag the glaciers as the cities :P They are big enough!

This trip is organised by Mien Travel & Tours. It costs RM15.5k per person. My most expensive tour so far. Roughly about RM3k per tour day (minus journey time). Mien Travel & Tours only takes care of logistics. So if you go with them don't expect their tour leader service to be on par with established tour companies like Trafalgar, Apple Vacations, Parlo Tours or even Poto Travels. They are just an agency to gather seasoned travellers, takes care of logistics and leave the travellers to fend for themselves during the visit. They rely totally on the local tour guide to manage the group while their agents behave like tourists themselves. Since their customers are generally friends, I suppose that level of service is acceptable :P

Our Icelandic tour leader Johann was acceptable. I don't quite understand what he was saying most of the time though. I think he pronounces the English words with Iceland sound :P He is so patient with us. Calling us "naughty children" who refuses to come back to the bus. He didn't do a lot of explanations though. Aren't we lucky that we are only a fingertips away from the internet? So the shortcoming (of not giving proper explanations) was no longer unforgiveable. We can always rely on Professor Google :)

Our driver Arie was good. Very helpful and cheerful :) I wish he cleans up the bus window though. We cannot get good pictures or videos from the bus because the windows were so dirty :(

This is my third visit overseas that I did not exchange even a single cent of local currency. All my purchases are charged to my credit card. Didn't shop much in Iceland. Just bought some chocolates and fridge magnets. This is one of the reasons why I like to join full board organised tours. All fully paid for. You only need to bring shopping money :)

I have uploaded 652 pictures and 177 videos for your viewing pleasure. I had a great time in Iceland due to the friendly and sporting people in the tour group. Some of them are really wacky :P The food were great too! All in all a successful short holiday :)

You can access them here:
http://instagram.com/mkhasha.n.travels

Hashtag specific for this trip:
#mks2017Iceland
 

Njoy!!

South Korea: Winter - January 2017

I am in South Korea now. My third visit to this K-Pop country. First time I came here was in 2003. Then, we needed a visa to enter the country if I'm not mistaken. So long ago. Digital cameras were not even known back then and now with smartphone cameras, they are almost extinct! I remember our camera went kaput during that trip and we ended up using a disposable camera :P

 

My second trip was during Chinese New Year break in 2011. Wrong timing for shopping enthusiasts. Dongdaemon and Iteawon were closed. Not much snow left either on the ground.

Now my third trip. This trip includes Jeju Island. We are hoping for a better snow than our previous trip :) No plan to shop. I did not even bother to change my currency to Korean Won. I figure if I need to buy anything, I just use my credit card. If they won't accept then no need to buy :P

 

 

We followed Apple Vacations this time round. The tour costs RM5236 per person. No early bird discount for us since we booked late. The itinerary was as follows:

 

19 January 2017  Kuala Lumpur - Seoul
20 January 2017  Seoul - Jeju Island
21 January 2017  Jeju Island
22 January 2017  Jeju Island - Seoul - Nami - Chuncheon
23 January 2017  Chuncheon - Hwacheon - Pyeongchang
24 January 2017  Pyeongchang - Seoul
25 January 2017  Seoul
26 January 2017  Seoul - Kuala Lumpur

 

I will try to post most of the pictures in my instagram while I am still in Korea. Let's see whether it is possible or not :)

 

 

AN UPDATE:

Safely arrived home 3 days ago. Quite happy with the short holiday. In fact I am becoming a fan of a short overseas trips :) Short and sweet. No time to get tired with the weather or the country that you visited. Just enjoy taking pictures of the country and the shopping expeditions :)

 

I did manage to survive without changing a single KRW. All the shopping were done via credit cards. Ironically due to the Tax Refund, I ended up with close to KRW50,000 in my purse when I left the country :P

 

The temperature was very cold while we were there (-11C to -14C). There were snow everywhere but we did not experience snow fall :( When the wind blows, all your fingers felt numb. Couldn't even press my monopod button to take selfies :P The sun was shinning but you felt numb and cold to the bone. You have to cover your face. If not, your face will turn numb too. How glad I am to live in a tropical country :)

 

The hot food that were served to us were good. Love the soups. I am a fan of their anchovies side dish. Somehow I don't really like their kimchis because they were served cold. I like their KRW100 instant coffee :)  

 

Ice fishing was fun. I managed to catch 1 trout. Should be able to catch much more if we were taught the trick much earlier. You should not expect the fish to bite your bait. You use the bait to snag the fish instead. Just move your bait up and down the water. You will get lucky eventually :)

Our Korean tour guide Jennifer was really good. I give her A+ for her service. She tirelessly explain to us over and over again about Korean history, the tours meeting time and place, timing of hotel breakfasts etc etc. Top notch tour guide. Speaks great English since she was brought up in United States. She can even speak fluent Malay without any Korean or English slang!

Apple Vacations tour leader Add was very good too. Quietly taking care of the group. Making sure that none of her herds were missing :P Her sambal ikan bilis was yummy!

I have uploaded 290 pictures for your viewing pleasure. Happy to report that I managed to upload all prior to reaching home. If I can sustain this momentum for my future holidays, there will no longer be any backlog. Something to look forward to :)

You can access them here:
http://instagram.com/mkhasha.n.travels

Hashtag specific for this trip: 

#mks2017SouthKorea
 

Njoy!!

UAE: Winter - November 2016

I just came back from a short holiday in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Surprisingly this was one of the most fun holidays ever! No long bus trips. A lot of free time to enjoy and take pictures. No long transit at the airport. Too bad their food were not so tasty. If not, it will be a perfect short holiday :)

This is the first time we joined a tour organised by Apple Vacations. Originally we planned to join their South America tour but we changed our minds when we found out that we need to take a yellow fever jab since it is a requirement to enter Brazil. Since we don't fancy to be poked with needles just so we can go for a holiday, we decided to change our holiday destination to United Arab Emirates instead.

The tour was relaxing and very suitable for kids. The itinerary was fun, fun, fun and shopping, shopping, shopping :P Too bad I am scared of riding roller coasters so I cannot maximise my enjoyment at Ferrari World. Ferarri World has the tallest and the fastest roller coasters in the world.

We are so happy with this tour and Apple's Tour Manager (who is very polite, friendly and helpful) that we decided to join their tour to South Korea this coming January 2017 :) Let's see whether Apple's Muslim department is as good or not as their Signature West department!

This 6 days 5 nights tour price was RM6538 per person and the itinerary was as follows:

28 November 2016    Kuala Lumpur - Dubai
29 November 2016    Dubai
30 November 2016    Dubai
1 December 2016      Dubai - Abu Dhabi
2 December 2016      Abu Dhabi
3 December 2016      Abu Dhabi - Dubai - Kuala Lumpur
4 December 2016      Kuala Lumpur

If you have been following my blog, you will know that my pictures are very slow in coming. So starting with Japan 2015 posting onwards instead of storing my pictures in Facebook, I will store my pictures in Instagram. A lot easier and I can process the pictures using my smartphone. Do follow my instagram account. I will endeavour to approve your requests asap.

I have uploaded 193 photos for your viewing pleasure. You can access them here:
http://instagram.com/mkhasha.n.travels

Hashtag specific for this trip:
#mks2016UnitedArabEmirates

Njoy!!

Scandinavia: Spring - May 2016

This is Part 3 of my 40 Days Spring Adventure with my mom. The last of the backlog blog posting. Thank God! When we started this trip I was pretty tired already. Luckily we joined Trafalgar Tours' 12Ds 11Ns Highlights of Scandinavia. A lot less stress than going on your own. I was so thankful that we managed to reach Copenhagen without any mishaps. Since I was a bit tired at this stage of the journey, I did not take a lot of scenery pictures. Thus, most of the photos for this part of the journey were courtesy of my mom :)

There were four Malaysian couples who signed up for this Trafalgar trip. So there were ten of us Malaysians altogether. The biggest in the group. Our Travel Director was Jacqui. Young, energetic and competent lady. She handled almost everything from sightseeing explanations, checking in and out of hotels and making sure our luggage were not lost during transit from the hotel to the bus vice versa.

Since this was my second trip with Trafalgar, I can see that they have an excellent standard operating procedure. The rotation of seats, unscheduled "hidden treasure" stops, giving small gifts and thank you notes from the CEO to repeat customers, providing us with a taste of popular local candies and chocolates. They even gave gifts for birthdays and honeymoon couples!

What I don't like about Trafalgar is the price quoted is not an all in price. Tipping is not included and they have a lot of optional tours. So when you compared itineraries with other tour companies, make sure you factor in the optional tours costs and tipping in the pricing. If you do not wish to join their optional tours, they will give you lots of free time to do as you wish. This is actually a good thing for people who likes to explore the cities on their own.

If you read my Iceland post, I mentioned that I believe Iceland is the most beautiful country in the world. After going through A LOT of Scandinavian photos, I think Norway is a close second. These two countries really know how to capitalise on their God given awesome natural resources. They don't have to build the tallest building in the world or the biggest theme park to attract visitors to their countries. All they have to do is just keep the nature clean and working fine :P

Our itinerary was as follows. We covered 3 countries in 12 days. Denmark 4 days, Norway 5 days and Sweden 3 days.

14 May 2016    Prague - Copenhagen
15 May 2016    Copenhagen
16 May 2016    Copenhagen - Odense - Frederikshaven
17 May 2016    Frederikshaven - Gothenburg - Oslo
18 May 2016    Oslo - Vradal
19 May 2016    Vradal - Bergen
20 May 2016    Bergen
21 May 2016    Bergen - Fagernes
22 May 2016    Fagernes - Lillehammer - Karlstad
23 May 2016    Karlstad - Orebro - Stockholm
24 May 2016    Stockholm
25 May 2016    Stockholm - London
26 May 2016    London - Kuala Lumpur

Travelling in Norway was a bit surreal sometimes. During the journey you will go through a lot of tunnels. At one point you will experience a nice spring valley with lots of wild flowers, light green grass, trees with leaves and clear blue sky, then you went through a tunnel and came out to a black and white scene with thick snow, frozen lakes, trees with no leaves and no sun. Felt like being inside an old black and white movie! Then you went through another tunnel and it was spring again :)

While in Stockholm we went to the second largest IKEA store in the world at Kungens Kurva. Guess where is the largest IKEA in the world at the time of this post? South Korea! Do google for more info :P People don't really go to Scandinavia countries to shop. Our currency is so minuscule compared to theirs. Everything is expensive there. Only chocolates and chips are cheaper than in Malaysia! But since we are a fan of IKEA, I bought a few stuff there even when I suspected the same stuff will cost cheaper in IKEA Mutiara Damansara. What to do? I just want the bragging rights to say that I bought the stuff at IKEA Sweden. Silly right?

Total damage for the 40 Days Spring Adventure was around RM42k. Trafalgar's 12Ds 11Ns Highlights of Scandinavia cost US$3631 (RM15433). Our British Airways flight tickets from KUL-London and Stockholm-KUL were RM5770. So for this part of the journey (inclusive of tips and 1 optional tour), we spent around RM20k.

Our 40 Days Spring Adventure was a once in a lifetime experience for me and my mom. I doubt I will ever go for this kind of superlong holiday in the future. By the time we reached Scandinavia, I was so tired already. Cannot wait to go home :P Future holidays for me, the maximum duration is three weeks. Having said that I am glad that we attempted to do this at least once in our lifetime :)

I have uploaded 936 photos for your viewing pleasure. You can access them here:
http://instagram.com/mkhasha.n.travels

Hashtag specific for this trip:
#mks2016Scandinavia #mks2016Denmark #mks2016Norway #mks2016Sweden

Njoy!!

Eastern Europe: Spring - May 2016

This is Part 2 of my 40 Days Spring Adventure with my mom. We started the journey at the city of Salzburg. If you like flowers, early May is the right timing to go to Eastern Europe. The temperature was superb. As if you are walking in an air-conditioned space :)

This is my mom's first visit and my second to this part of Europe. My first time was back in 2002. It was such a touch and go visit then that I didn't really get to experience anything. This time round we decided to spend two weeks in four cities. We bought their transportation pass and get to experience all their public transportation; inter-city train, subway, funicular, bus, tram and ferry :) We had plenty of time to take pictures too. Most of the pictures in this post were taken by my mom. I was too busy taking selfies that I forgot to take scenery photos :P

Our itinerary was as follows. What I loved most about the itinerary was the relaxing pace. We had plenty of time to explore the city. We had time to stroll along the river, sit at the park and just blend with the locals. We even had time to go hiking :P

1 May 2016     London - Salzburg
2 May 2016     Salzburg
3 May 2016     Salzburg
4 May 2016     Salzburg - Vienna
5 May 2016     Vienna
6 May 2016     Vienna
7 May 2016     Vienna - Budapest
8 May 2016     Budapest
9 May 2016     Budapest
10 May 2016   Budapest
11 May 2016   Budapest - Prague
12 May 2016   Prague
13 May 2016   Prague
14 May 2016   Prague - Copenhagen

For this trip we stayed at AirBnB's accommodation. I like the one in Prague the most. The apartment was like a hotel :) The Vienna apartment was great too. The host was very nice and the place was bright and modern. In Salzburg, the place was cozy but the host was very rude. In Budapest, the place was huge and in great location but the furniture was a bit dated. The costs of the accomodation were as follows:

Salzburg - RM783 (€163) - 3 nights
Vienna - RM850 (€177) - 3 nights
Budapest - RM912 (€190) - 4 nights
Prague - RM701 (€146) - 3 nights

We took trains to move between the cities. Very convenient and relaxing. OBB trains were new and nice with free WiFi on board. It was quite empty during our journey so no need to pay extra to reserve seats. Mav-Start train was a bit dated and no WiFi :( The tickets came with compulsary allocated seats. The train was quite full during our journey. The costs of the inter-city trains for 2 persons were as follows:

Salzburg - Vienna (OBB) - RM182 (€38)
Vienna - Budapest (OBB) - RM182 (€38)
Budapest - Prague (Mav-Start) - RM182 (€38)

Our flights for 2 persons from London to Salzburg (Ryanair) was RM545 (£88) and from Prague to Copenhagen (Norwegian) was RM546 (€114). Ryanair flight tickets include luggage of 20kg each. Norwegian flight tickets include chosen seats and luggage of 20 kg each. I like Norwegian. Hassle free and customer friendly. They have self checked in kiosks at the airport. Ryanair was a bit calculative with their customers. You better make sure you have printed your boarding pass before you go to the airport. There is no self service kiosks. They also allowed a very limited time to board the aircraft. At Stansted Airport, the gate was announced around 30 minutes before departure and closed around 10 minutes before departure. So you only have 20 minutes to walk (very far) to the gate. To be safe, no toilet stop in between :P If you decide to fly Ryanair, do read in the internet their customers' experiences so that you will not be caught by surprise.

Austria accepts Euro but Hungary and Czechia have their own currency. I changed £101 for Ft19000 and Kč1700 in London. Enough to buy some food, fridge magnets and transportation pass. The costs of the transportation for 2 persons were as follows:

24H Salzburg - RM37 (€8)
72H Vienna - RM151 (€32)
5/30 Budapest - RM157 (Ft9100)
72H Prague - RM112 (Kč620)

I have uploaded 790 photos for your viewing pleasure. You can access them here:
http://instagram.com/mkhasha.n.travels

Hashtag specific for this trip:
#mks2016EasternEurope #mks2016Austria #mks2016Hungary #mks2016Czechia

History Lesson:
(for those who are wondering why I use Czechia instead of the Czech Republic)

After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in the so-called "Velvet Divorce" in 1993, the name "the Czech Republic" was created as the official long-form name. The official short-form is Cesko. While almost all languages adopted variants of Cesko for the short-form at this time, the English equivalent "Czechia" though attested as early as 1841 is still quite rarely used in the English-speaking world.

However in 2013, Czech president Milos Zeman recommended the wider official use of Czechia and on 14 April 2016, the country's political leadership agreed to make Czechia the official short name. The new name was approved by the Czech cabinet on 2 May 2016 and was published in the United Nations UNTERM and UNGEGN country name databases on 5 July 2016.

On 23 September 2016, the Permanent Committee of Geographical Names began advising Britons to use the name Czechia. On 26 September 2016, the International Organisation for Standardisation included the short name in the official ISO3166 country codes list.

Six months after the name Czechia was adopted, The Guardian reported that the new name is hardly in use, even on the official Czech government websites. Google replaced the Czech Republic with Czechia on Google Maps on 18 January 2017. The CIA World Factbook and U.S. State Department both now use Czechia instead of the Czech Republic.

On 22 May 2017, a Forbes contributor released an opinion blog saying that "Czechia has won the Czech Republic name debate" and that "If you're feeling petulant, it's the Czech Republic. If you want to be cool, it's Czechia" in reference to the significant progress that has been made for the short name in recent year.

Note: I noticed the change when I screen printed the Google Map for our plan trip to Baltic :P

Njoy!!

Great Britain: Spring - April 2016

This this Part 1 of my 40 Days Spring Adventure with my mom. What can I say? A journey that you should do at least once in your lifetime and never to be repeated :P I think it is simply too long. For me personally 3 weeks holiday is just right. More than that, I am too homesick to enjoy fully the foreign culture and quirks :P

We started our journey flying from Kuala Lumpur to London Heathrow. Our first time flying British Airways. Foodwise British Airways is quite good but everything else I think they fall short of the Middle Eastern airlines like Qatar Airways and Emirates.

We then stayed at AirBnB accommodation in Mortlake (Zone 3) for 5 nights before joining Trafalgar Tours 8 Days Britain & Ireland Delight. After the tour we flew to Salzburg for our Part 2 of 40 Days Spring Adventure :)

This trip is many firsts for my mom and I. First time we flew via British Airways and Ryanair. First time we joined international tour company like Trafalgar. This is also the longest time we've been abroad at one stretch and naturally the first time we bought annual travel insurance. My mom's first time staying in AirBnB accommodations. My mom's first time in close contact with lots of foreigners in a group. My mom's first time taking lots and lots of public transportation in foreign countries. Before this when we go together, we will follow tours from Malaysia so no need to take local public transportation :P This trip is also the first time we encountered a pancake making machine during breakfast :)

Our time in London was so short. Since my mom's first visit to London in 2004 was only for a day and a half, I tried to cover as much as possible this time round. She likes parks and flowers. I on the other hand was trying to cover some sites that I read in historical romance books :P Needless to say we did not manage to cover all the sites. Good excuse to plan for another trip to London huh?

If you like flowers, second half of April is the best time to visit Great Britain. You will find tulips everywhere. There are lots of other blossoms too :) We also encountered a lot of swans during this trip :P

Our itinerary was as follows:
17 April 2016   Kuala Lumpur - London
18 April 2016   London
19 April 2016   London
20 April 2016   London
21 April 2016   London
22 April 2016   London
23 April 2016   London - Stratford-upon-Avon - York - Leeds
24 April 2016   Leeds - Lake District - Gretna Green - Glasgow
25 April 2016   Glasgow - Edinburg - Glasgow
26 April 2016   Glasgow - Belfast - Dublin
27 April 2016   Dublin - Glendalough - Dublin
28 April 2016   Dublin - Kilkenny - Waterford
29 April 2016   Waterford - Cardiff
30 April 2016   Cardiff - Bath - Windsor - London
1 May 2016      London - Salzburg

The Trafalgar's ground tour costs US$1042 (RM4427) each. I like Trafalgar's standard operating procedure in dealing with their customers. I like how they rotate seats in the bus so that everybody get to experience sitting infront, middle and back. However, for this particular trip our tour director, Michelle did not follow the rules. Instead of asking everybody to move two seats clockwise, she fixed the seats for us and we noticed that some people get to seat infront almost throughout the trip! This is the problem when human "playing favourites" interfered with a proven system :(

Trafalgar on the whole is very professional. Their cost savers tours will give you lots of free time on our own if you decide not to join their optional tours. For this trip we joined only one of the optional tours and it costs us an extra GBP17.50 each. Trafalgar's tours costs are excluding tips so make sure you bring enough cash to pay gratuities to the tour director, bus drives and also the city guides.

Trafalgar's option on food is also quite limited. They don't really cater for special diets. You can request upfront for seafood but in reality they still provide you with the standard meals. It would be better if their tours only provide for breakfast with other meals as optionals.

 

I have uploaded 600 pictures and 1 video for your viewing pleasure. I enjoyed my time spent in Great Britain. I was pleasantly surprised with Ireland wacky weather, 10 minutes of snow or rain and then the sun comes out! Love the flowers and the beautiful sceneries of the countryside.

You can access them here:
http://instagram.com/mkhasha.n.travels

Hashtags specific for this trip:
#mks2016GreatBritain #mks2016England #mks2016Scotland #mks2016NorthernIreland #mks2016Ireland #mks2016Wales
 

Njoy!!