Friday, August 19, 2016

Cornwall/London/Iceland Road Trip 8-26 July 2016 Summary/Itinerary


Trip Summary :

London:

Accommodation : It was my first time staying in an airbnb and I would say it was a good deal and experience. We had the entire unit to ourselves and it was a home away from home. The airbnb were clean and well kept and the plus point is we can do our laundry in the comfort of the accomodation without the need to venture out.

Food : All the restaurants recommended by my son were good. I especially loved the lobster. The London duck served in Fortune Cookie restuarant was value for money and was delicious. It was great being able to find Cantonese/Chinese/Singapore food in London. The pastries are very good here, even if they were from the Deli corner in the supermart. My guess would be because they were originated from here. Ate a lot of almond and maple pecan pastries during my stay here. And the price is a steal. One need not pay the price of pastries with the standard of hotel. Vegetables like brocolli ad white button mushrooms are cheaper than Singapore, probably because they are local produces.

Attractions: Visited most of the major attractions including Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge and Westminster is a beautiful place. There are many churches in London of all shapes and sizes and I love and am impressed by the different designs and architectures.

Transportation : Tubes are abundant which made travelling very easy. I am just surprised at some of the older stations that were so hot without good ventaliation and with only 2 huge lifts as people mover. There were no stairs at all.

Others: London is a little dirty, compared to Singapore. Many bags of rubbish were lying along the streets for days. But on the other hand, it was very much like Singapore because of its right hand drive. I felt so at home when travelling in UBER or when hubby drove. A very busy city like Singapore!

Cornwall: A quiet, laidback and countryside town to relax in a beautiful airbnb. Not many attractions and most can be covered in a few days. The airbnb we stayed in Newlyn is so cosy and homely.

Iceland: Land of fire and ice with countless waterfalls, hugemonous glaciers, volcanoes, craters, boiling mud pools and hot springs and spectular geysir. Daylight in Summer was abundant with about 20hrs. The sun never sets! Temperature hovers around 10-12C at the south and below 10C in the North. Sparsely populated, most people you meet are actually tourists! It is certainly not a place to live in Winter! No wonder the population is so thin.

Accommodation : Arranged by the travel agent. Most are tourist class or hostel turned hotel. Certainly not the best choices. The only good one was Liti Geysir.

Food : Super expensive. About 4-5 times the cost of Singapore! Most lunches we took were home made sandwiches. There are many Thai restaurants here, surprisingly. Breakfast provided by most hotels were basic western fare. Food items sold in supermarkets are also expensive.

Facilities: Restrooms should be set up in the stretch of highway 1 from Hofn to Lake Myant via East Fjords. The stretch was so remote and deserted and long without a single restroom! And the pentiful restrooms at Dettifoss were very terrible beyond description. Most restrooms are free except the one at pingveiller National Park. Credit cards are used to pay for that.

Attractions: All the natural attractions (glacier, towering mountains & volcanoes, mud pools, hot springs, waterfalls, craters, lakes created by God are so beautiful!

Itinerary:

Day 1 - Breakfast at Krisflyer Gold Lounge T3 -> Flight to London -> Windsor Castle -> Check in Bath airbnb -> Dinner at Red Lion

Day 2 - Mcdonald's Breakfast -> Bath Town Centre -> Burger King's Lunch -> Stonehenge -> Drove to Newlyn, Cornwall -> Checkin airbnb -> Dinner at Red Lion

Day 3 - Breakfast -> St Ives, Cornwall -> Coffee/Tea at Beach cafe Bar -> Church service at Fore Street Methodist Church St Ives -> Lunch at Hub -> St Pandennis Castle -> Kenyance Cove -> Lizard Point -> Newlyn Town Centre -> cook Dinner

Day 4 - Cook breakfast -> Merry Maidens -> Minack Theatre -> Land's ends -> Lunch at Mackerel Sky Seafood Bar,Newlyn -> St Michael's Mount -> Cook Dinner

Day 5 - Newlyn at dawn -> Cook breakfast -> check out -> Lunch at Lock Inn -> Bradford on Avon -> Check in to West Ashton bnb -> Castle Combe -> Lacock Village -> Cook Dinner

Day 6 - Cook breakfast -> Somerset Lavender Farm -> Drove to London -> Vietnamese Lunch at Banh Mi Bay, Holborn -> Uber to London airbnb at Swallow Court, Kensington -> Check in -> Dinner at Flat Iron , Beak St -> Oxford Street -> UBER to bnb -> Oxford Street

Day 7 - Cook breakfast -> King Cross Station Harry Potter 93/4 platform -> Borough Market -> Tower Bridge -> Tower of London -> Lunch at Burger & Lobster -> Museum of London -> St Paul Cathedral -> Harrods Department Store -> Hyde Park -> Dinner at New Fortune Cookie Chinese Restaurant

Day 8 - Cook breakfast -> Portobello Road Market -> Papa John's Pizza Lunch -> Convocation at London School Economics -> Dinner at Hare & Tortoise -> Watch Wicked at Apollo Victoria Theatre

Day 9 - Cook breakfast -> Covent Garden -> St Paul's church -> Trafalgar Square -> The Athenaeum -> St James Palace -> Buckingham Palace -> St James Park -> House Guards Parade -> Big Ben -> Westminster Abbey -> House of Parliament -> Lunch at Giotto Italian -> Chinatown -> Piccadilly circus -> Little Venice -> Dinner at New Fortune Cookie Chinese Restaurant

Day 10 - Cook breakfast - > Checkout bnb -> Travel to Gatwick Airport -> Fly to Iceland -> Arrive in Reykjavík -> Check in 22 Hill Hotel -> 22 hill Hotel Review -> Dinner at Ban Thai -> Hallgrímskirkja Church -> Laugavegur: The Main Shopping Street

Day 11 - Breakfast -> Pick up rental car -> Seljalandsfoss, a walk behind the falls -> Gljúfrabúi Waterfall -> Lunch fish & chip -> Skógafoss -> Mýrdalsjökull Glacier -> Vik -> Black Beach -> Check in cottage at Hótel Eyjafjallajökul

Day 12 - Breakfast -> Check out -> Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon -> Mt Lómagnúpur -> Destroyed Bridge, Skeidararsandur -> Skeiðará -> hiking trail to Svartifoss -> Lunch fish & chip -> Fjallsárlón Glacier Lagoon -> Jökulsarlón Glacial Lagoon -> Check in Guesthouse Hvammur, Hofn

Day 13 - Breakfast -> Check out -> East Fjords -> Dettifoss -> Selfoss -> Lunch Sandwiches -> Námaskarð Pass, where boiling mud pools -> Lake Mývatn -> Dimmuborgir, the "Dark Castles" -> Hverfjall Crater -> Pizza Dinner at Dalakofinn Laugum -> Check in Hótel Edda Stórutjarnir

Day 14 - Breakfast -> Goðafoss -> Akureyri City -> Ólafsfjörður -> Siglufjörður -> Hofsos -> Skagafjordur -> Víðimýri church -> Glaumbæjarkirkja -> Glaumbær Folk Museum -> Check in Hótel Mikligarður -> Dinner at Hard Wok Cafe

Day 15 - Breakfast -> Icelandic Seal Center at Hvammstangi town -> Hraunfossar and Barnafossar Waterfalls -> Deildartunguhver hot spring -> Check in Hótel Litli Geysir -> Gullfoss -> Great Geysir and Strokkur ->Dinner at cafe at Geysir Centre

Day 16 - Golfoss again -> Breakfast -> Faxi Waterfall -> volcanic crater Kerið -> -> Þingvellir National Park -> Reykjavík -> Check in 22 Hill Hótel -> Lunch at Noodle Station -> Reykjavík-> Dinner at Krua Thai Restaurant

Day 17 - Flybus to Keflavik International Airport -> Fly to Gatwick, London -> Lunch at Clerk & Well -> Check in Leonardo Heathrow -> Dinner at Hotel

Day 18 - Fly to Singapore -> Home Sweet Home









Thursday, August 18, 2016

Day 4 - Lunch at Krua Apsorn -> Birdnest at Nam Sing Chinatown -> Ah Baoling Desert at Hua Seng Hong restaurant -> Massage -> Dinner at Airang Korean -> Deserts at Terminal 21

We arrived early for lunch of long queue though we had a heavy breakfast. Krua Apsorn was highly recommended by many and famous for its crab meat dish. We took BTS to Phraya Thai and then took a cab to the restaurant. Just show the restaurant and the address to the cab driver.
Around Phraya Thai BTS



Restaurant Front

Restaurant Interior


Menu

Ordered stir fried curry - this was very good and tasted good with generous portion of crab meat! But it costed 400baht.


Crab omelette - so so only. there was more egg than crab!

Total bill

Then we were off to our usual haunts at Chinatown - Bridnest and Ah Baoling.


Dinner again was at our usual haunt, Airang Korean Restuarant - a very statisfying dinner. Very yummy!!






This was followed by desert at Terminal 21 - coconut icecream served in coconut shell -hubby's favourite and mango rice!


Day 4 - Lunch at Krua Apsorn -> Birdnest at Nam Sing Chinatown -> Ah Baoling Desert at Hua Seng Hong restaurant -> Massage -> Dinner at Airang Korean -> Deserts at Terminal 21

We arrived early for lunch of long queue though we had a heavy breakfast. Krua Apsorn was highly recommended by many and famous for its crab meat dish. We took BTS to Phraya Thai and then took a cab to the restaurant. Just show the restaurant and the address to the cab driver.
Around Phraya Thai BTS



Restaurant Front

Restaurant Interior


Menu

Ordered stir fried curry - this was very good and tasted good with generous portion of crab meat! But it costed 400baht.


Crab omelette - so so only. there was more egg than crab!

Total bill

Then we were off to our usual haunts at Chinatown - Bridnest and Ah Baoling.


Dinner again was at our usual haunt, Airang Korean Restuarant - a very statisfying dinner. Very yummy!!






This was followed by desert at Terminal 21 - coconut icecream served in coconut shell -hubby's favourite and mango rice!


Day 4 - Breakfast at Hotel

Breakfast was adaquate to start the day but the hot dishes were not hot. Quality lost to SILQ and Sacha.








The spread and presentation looked impressive and appettising







Day 3 - Check in to The Key Hotel (Review) -> Lunch at Saew, ThongLor -> Shopping -> Dinner at Silom

Have been staying in SILQ and Sacha in Soi 19 for the past few trips so decided to try a different hotel this time so we opted for Key hotel. Not a very wise choice though. We paid $172.71 for 2 nights with breakfast
The Hotel front


Our room

Even the key is worn out.

The room was big with a King size spring bed. In terms of comfort, it lost to Sacha and SILQ.



The furnishings were worn out and of inferior quality



Bathroom located after the kitchen. The heater was quite unsightly but it worked well with strong hot water.


Toiletries


Kitchen which we hardly used

Breakfast area

Lobby looked impressive, compared to the rooms.




Hotel at night

After check in, we took lunch at our usual haunt, Saew at Thonglor, did soem shopping at Naraya and then had dinner at Silom. My colleague recommended the pig organ soup. Went to the wrong one. LOL.
Enroute to look for the stall, bought the soya bean milk which included many condiments. 10 baht.



Could not locate the stall my colleague mentioned so settled for this one.



Pig organ soup with kuay teow - Not too bad - costed 50baht

Saw someone ordering this at the same table so requested her to order for me. Not as good as the pig organ soup.

Fish soup

Bought a milk tea next door


And mango rice at Terminal 21 to end the day

Day 3 - Breakfast at Hotel -> Check out -> Bus to Bangkok

After breakfast, we checked out and took the songtaew (10baht per person) to the Dolphin

We got off after the songtaew went straight and past the dolphin, transferred to another songtaew (also 10baht per person) plying left-right. Many people get off at the bus station so it cannot be missed.

The ticket to Bangkok , Ekamai station costed 108baht. Ekamai station is 3 stops from Asoke Station where out hotel was.

At the bus station. It is very convenient to travel from airport to Pattaya and Pattaya back to Bangkok City. Journey is about 2 hours

Day 2 - Skip Lunch -> Body Massage -> Facial -> Dinner at All Seasons Steak Buffet at Central Festival Mall

After checking in, we had massage near Hotel . It was open concept with less privacy. Costed 250 baht. Skippped lunch since we had a heavy breakfast. Continued to have facial at Mike's Shopping Centre. The facial is also open concept. Paid 900 baht. After facial, we proceeded to have dinner at All Seasons Steak Buffet at Central Festival Mall. This was recommended by my colleague. Paid 600baht/person. The buffet has the same concept as Sakura but the standard was lower and did not taste as good. Would not recommend.

Day 2 - Pattaya Bayview Hotel Garden View (Review)

Passage way to Garden Wing

Corridor

Room was tucked in a special seluded and private corner

Though at a lower rate, the spacious garden view room is still as beautiful, soothing and relaxing. The colour theme is garden green.
King size bed


Basin

Amenities

Bath tub

Wardrobe


Day 2 - Breakfast -> Buddha Hill -> Pattaya View Point

After a sumptuous breakfast at the hotel, we hired a songtaew for 150baht to the Buddha Hill. It was not impossible to climb up but we think it would be too strenous and tired especially when Pattaya is so hot, much hotter than Bangkok.


Our next itinerary was Pattaya View point. However, there was not much information on how to get there. We only know it is near Buddha Hill and on the same hill. So we asked around and finally was shown the way to the view point. You have to walk down from Buddha Hill to a place where you walk up again and the gradient is quite steep. Look out for this place after walking down.

The signboard showing directions to the view point in the center of the photo

Almost there - few more steps

The view was rewarding - Pattaya beach can be seen from here.

We walked downhill all the way till walking street, then back to our Hotel.



The famous "Pattaya City" signboard, taken from the Pattaya Beer Garden

Enroute to hotel