Trip to London and Paris 2014-2015

London 23/12/2014-29/12/2014

We arrived at London Heathrow airport around 4pm in the evening but surprisingly it was dark as if it's already midnight.It was my first time there so it was shocking.

Later we took the metro to Lancaster Gate where we stayed at an apartment named Go Native for 6 nights.We were tired and hungry so my mom quickly grabbed our luggage full of Malaysian food and cooked something i could not remember,maybe it was "nasi impit and kuah kacang" . Then we cleanse ourselves and off to bed.

24/12/2014(Christmas' eve) - To Oxford street and Winter Wonderland

We alll woke up but still felt a bit tired,so we planned to walk around in the evening before it starts to get dark. 

We once again took the metro to stop at Oxford Circus, basically it's a street full of shop,u name it they have it all. We entered a few shops but ended up in Clarks, I bought a pair of flat shoes and off we go to winter wonderland.

We walked through the windy icy air,it was cold and I felt a bit numb, around 10 to 15 mins or so we arrived in Winter Wonderland but it was dark already, it was hugeee and beautiful.The lights surely were mesmerizing!Grabbed my camera and snapped some good shots,well actually a lot!

Then we head to this food stall selling hot chocolates,oh just what we needed. Seeing the next stall,we saw churros! I never had one so I bought choc churros while my brother bought spiced and sugar sprinkles if im not mistaken. We bought tokens to play around. But most of the rides needed like 6 tokens, we only had 4 tokens each, so the three of us walked around to snap a lot of photos plus a few selfies, here's a decent one.

While my second brother, Zuhair accompanied my mom to sit and rest. Later my lil bro, Anas using his own pennies wanted to shoot some good prize using corks, haha luck wasn't on our side,we didn't win any. As we head home,we still had our tokens. Not wanting to burn them we had this weird ride by just running around inside the playhouse.There was rollers that we had to run on, I slipped! (we actually had to buy one more token to valid)

25/12/2014(Christmas) - The Italian fountains-Hyde Park

As today is Christmas day, most of the shops and the public transport are closed. But not the arab shop selling groceries close by ,thank god! We had to have some juice and snacks. In the morning, we went to the Italian fountains in Hyde Park, we walked around and snap a few selfies and photos. It was such a beautiful view, most of the people there were foreigners. Then we head home to rest for the whole day.

Here's some beautiful shots

26/12/2014 - Oxford Street

We had breakfast and got ready to shop till we drop for the rest of the day in Oxford Street. Before we split into two, we went to this street where it has most of the high end products there, the meaning of high end products is pricy stuffs like Louis Vuitton, Prada, Michael Kors and so on.  I could not remember what street it was, but it was near to Oxford street, it was just walking distance.Here is Victoria's secret.

But everything was closed so we head back to oxford street.


We split into two teams,the ladies and the guys. We,the ladies went to lots of shop.First we went to Debenhams, a department store. My mom and my sister bought quite a few shirts and dresses,i bought none,wasn't impressed with the design tho.

Next,we went upstairs for home deco. We bought a few stuffs there. Moving on, we went to Forever 21,H&M and other shops that i could not recall. Then we entered once again,clarks. Guess what? I bought myself a total of 4 pairs of shoes just from one store, what a crazy sale!
By the way, during winter, there is boxing day sale (it's quite similar to black friday in the United States) where most of the shops in London will be knocking down their price to a good deal, so you can prepare yourselves to save more!
27/12/2014- Sight seeing in London!

The big ben

London eye

St Paul Cathedral

Buckingham Palace

28/12/2014-Oxford street

Up in the morning we head to oxford street again for our last spree in London. Our goal was to shop in Primark ( a cheap department store). But as we arrived there it was still closed and most shoppers are already in line to shop. But we took it slow and shopped at other retail stores until Primark is opened. Then we all went in our own ways and shopped a lot,i found lipsticks,clothes,shoes,gloves,even onesies!(but i did not buy any).

Tips and tricks to survive the shopping maniac for my beloved readers :-

1. Wear proper and comfortable attire including sports shoes, long pants are the best.
2. Make sure u're full before u went shopping
3. Bring ur own water and snacks in ur bag
4. Make a budget before u start shopping
5. Know ur size! From top to toe, including ur inner wear (So u wouldn't have to wait for the long queue at the fitting room!)
6. Primark provides you shopping bags and trolleys so don't bring yours from home!
7. Start counting the price of each of the items u picked to save time at the cashier
8. For muslims, take ur wudhu' at home, and please go to the other retail stores to pray in their fitting room (don't worry if u're not done with shopping, ask ur family and friends to look after ur unpaid stuffs)

It was a long day so we had to go home except for my elder brother, he's not done yet. The ladies including me had to do some packing (my fav part) for Paris,we're leaving at 2am for the cab to fetch us.

29/12/2014- Heading to Paris

We headed to Paris by Air France airlines, they served us croissant and coffee (tips for muslim readers, please make sure it's halal, this means that it is a plain croissant not with meat inside), it only took about 40 mins to reach Charles de gaulle airport.

After taking our luggage and passed the security, a young man said "taxi" and I was stunned as he spoke fluent english, I asked my mother and sister to respond to this guy to take us to the embassy of Malaysia. He offered us a good price of €70 even though he was not a legal cab driver.

Finally after a long ride we reached the house, the weather was cold,as i touched the ground it was icy. We were welcomed by my mother's friend back in Bukit Antarabangsa, Puan Sri Suriati whom her husband (my father's friend from Bukit Antarabangsa as well) works in Paris. His name is Tan Sri Ismail bin Ismail, he is a former national police chief, he used to report to the Prime Minister. I have so much respect for him as he is very humble, helpful and kind.

Sooner or later, my mom checked her whatsapp where she was informerd that her high school classmate died in an airplane to Paris, knowing this, it is a full responsiblity of the embassy of Malaysia to solve this matter, Tan Sri took a good care of it, he even went to see the body and joined the other muslims to "solat jenazah" and he even gave his luggage to put the late man's clothes to give it back to his wife, Al-fatihah, may Allah ease the pain ur family has been going through. My mother and her friends said that the late man has always been a nice student and a nice man as he grew up.

This is an appreciation post for both Tan Sri and Puan Sri for having such a big warm heart to let us stayed for 2 nights at their house in Paris. We had tea and "cucur udang". My sister and i headed upstairs to put our luggage. I used the lift instead tho my sister insisted on taking the stairs. Finally our own room,it was huge,they had 2 queen sized bed in a room attached to a bathroom. We slept through the day after praying while my mom and her friend still catching up with their stories.

While we were in Paris, guess what the guys were up to?

29/12/2014- Liverpool

YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE

"We stayed at bnb near buckingham road

Went to Anfield to watch the game at 8pm.

Liverpool won 4-1 (Guys,ovbiously we brought luck to Liverpool)

My brothers,from the left: Zuhair,Anas and Yop

From London to Liverpool it took exactly 3 hours by Virgin train."

30/12/2014- Sightseeing in Liverpool

"We went to Liverpool store, liverpool one mall and we watched the Beatles story before going to Albert Dock for fish n chips.

The famous Fish n Chips

We went back to London before new year's eve to join the countdown for 2015."

30/12/2014- Eiffel tower-Champs De Elysees-La fayette

Eiffel tower- We took the train (Warning to readers, if u plan to go to Paris, this is a warning,please be careful, take care of ur belongings, the public transport in Paris is widely know for pick pockets, there has been a lot of cases before)  to Eiffel tower using tickets.

There was a lot of african american guys selling these lovely souvenirs for foreigners in Paris, the funniest part were they knew that we are Malaysians and they even said "Mari,mari,murah murah" which was kinda smart. Btw,we only went from a distance to see the tower,we did not go underneath the tower to see their rusty tower which a lot of people has referred Eiffel tower as.

Here's a picture of me not giving any "care" for the Parisians pride tower.

Then we headed to Champs De Elysees for a shopping spree, mom was looking for LV. Just so you know we had to queue for a while,you bet the price was a good deal. The customer service was the best! He was friendly and fluent in english but with a French accent. We even entered sephora and bought myself a mac eyeliner and lipstick!

It was cheap in euro for sure! We went around town to look for my mom's friend skincare that she wanted called Guinot, but it was nowhere to be found so we had to head back home.

Before home our last stop was La fayette, as long as I could remember we did not buy anything there as mom already got what she wanted and I wasn't thrilled to buy anything, we queued for Prada but it was too long that we left.

31/12/2014-Last day in Paris

Today Tan Sri brought us to buy the finest chocolates in Paris called La Maison Du Chocolat, we requested for free alcohol and liquor chocs. They even give free testing. The lady in charged that day helped us picked the finest chocs.

After that we head back home where Puan Sri (on the right) brought us to walk around her housing area,

From the left me,mother and Puan Sri

We went to lots of street shops, I even bought makeups which was the only thing I spent for in Paris,it is called Kiko Cosmetics, I found their lipsticks had a similar scent to Mac's. Might be the perfect dupe.

Besides they are super affordable! It is only rm10 per lipstick if we convert it to Ringgit Malaysia.Mother bought cherries and chocolates.

Let me tell you something, not only Malaysia has beggars by the street. In Paris, there was a lot, the one that i admired the most was, their dogs sat next to them and begged together, it's true, a man's bestfriend is a dog)

Well in London they have beggars too, but not a lot.

We did some packing and left the house by cab,this time it is legal, for your information, Tan Sri was the one who made the cab booking for us, thank you so much, u have such a warm heart, god bless!We left around 5 and reached at 6.45pm. Our flight was at 9pm.

1/1/2015-New year in Thistle Hotel + Best day ever

We reached the hotel, as we unpack, we heard fireworks, I looked through the windows and there it was, blooming and shooting the skies with colorful sparks in London eye. As gloomy as i felt inside, I was glad that we're back in London.

Today was the best day ever because I got to meet and spent the best quality time with my ciwaa, she is currently studying in Queen Marry University of London, one future petite doctor!

Dear Shahirah, I know you're reading this, I love you, I will always miss your lame jokes, I miss the three of us (Shaza,Sheera,Sarah). I miss talking about our fav movie, The White Chicks. I wish you joy, prosperity and protection from Allah. I am so glad that u made it to London, u deserve it, cause u earn it! Thank you dearly, for being so patient with me cause I had to shop a lot.

We went to Oxford Street to shop for my friends' and mine hehe. Fossil,Forever 21, H&M, New Look and countless steps around the street.

Obviously guys..

Food we're coming!We had late lunch at Tinseltown restaurant and took some good pictures

Ciwa and I

We walked around Albemarle street and i bought some products from Lush,we went to look for Guinot skincare but it was closed,proof..

Wow london people took their New Year seriously, hey of course. As we were heading home there's this street seller lady wanted to sell something to us, it was funny cause she said "mari,mariii,hadiaaaah" and as we went off, the one that hit us the most was " Siti Nurhalizaaaaaa" We laughed our ass off cause why Siti Nurhaliza?!Why not Siti Sarah haha (i can sing too)

We called it a day and went back to my hotel,before that we bought some souvenirs for my friends

Finally we reached the hotel,i packed my stuffs and had the best way to cleanse myself in the tub

Lush bath bomb in Avobath

uhmm Lemongrass!

2/1/2015- End of trip

13 hours of flight,i was never ready,but everything went well till home,until next time guys!Thanks for reading :D

Btw, suggestions for my next entry is widely welcomed! Please comment below for me to improve :)