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Wednesday, March 18, 2015

London Diary

Being a traveller is fun. You got to know about so many things. A different city, a different culture, different food, different people etc. So I love every thing about travelling, exploring new countries. I have travelled a total of 5 countries last. I learned many new things. Explored the new ways to budget your travel expenses. Found new ways of packing bags in limited time, & limited weight too. The most important thing I learnt was you don't need to worry if you are a vegetarian like me. You can find plenty of vegetarian stuff in every country.


I always wanted to explore London, since my childhood. One fine day I won a contest organized by KLM. They gave me two return tickets for me & for my mom. My mother was so excited because this was her first foreign trip & that too for London. So I planned everything according to her comfort. It took me some 20 days to finalize our itinerary. During all these days I experienced so many things. First thing was English VISA is too expensive. They charge about INR 9,000 just for a 6 month VISA, which is any way too expensive. USA gives a full 10 years tourist VISA for almost similar price. So I found this is most negative thing. Second thing was I asked makemytrip.com for hotel & attraction tickets including itinerary, the customer care guy said ma'am I'll call you after an hour after finalising your stuff. I waited for his call for a total 24 hours but he didnt called me. Then I called goibibo.com & yatra.com they said ma'am hotel & attraction tickets ll cost you a minimum of INR 60,000 per PAX, which is any way too costly. Then I decided to do it on my own. I found out this a very easy task. I finalized a three star hotel for both of us near to a Tube station. Then finalized my itinerary from top attaractions listed on London Pass. I have also added two attaractions apart from those Listed on London Pass, Madame Tussauds museum & London Eye.




The best way to travel in London is to use public transport because cabs are too costly. If you want to explore London then just buy a London Pass & a Hop on Hop Off Bus tour. Now you are all set. Explore each & every attraction as per your flexibility. Bus tour covers almost all attractions Plus gives you a free cruise ride. You can hop on & hop off from any attraction plus London ll provide you all tickets. And, for all other travelling stops you can buy a Oyester Card & top up as per your choice & when you are travelling back to your country just give them your card & they ll refund the remaining amount plus card fee. I hope I have done with all the things which ll help you in planning your travel. Now I'll tell you my experience.

As soon as I entered London fresh breeze welcomed me with a spark of nice hospitality at airport. I heard many times that English people are very rude to Asian's specially with Indians. But to my surprise people there was very nice. My hotel manager was Asian & he greeted me well & gave me my room 2 hours prior to standard check in time, without any extra change. Then We went to shop some cool stuff. During our shopping we found a shop named pound-land. This was a amazing shop every stuff was for 1 pound. I bought so many chocolates from here. The same chocolates are way too costly at the airport. Plus water bottles are also cheap here.



For my shopaholiac buddies, you'll get all your favourite brands at a much lower price as compared to indian stores. I enjoyed alot throughout my trip. shopped so many things, visited hell lot of places. Ping me if you want to know any thing to plan your travel.