Travel Blog 22: KUALA LUMPUR

january 2014

our trip to KL was sooo "last minute".   we just wanted to take our mother for a birthday trip but we were not sure if she will go along with our plan.  we told her that our brother already booked our flight to Bangkok as a birthday present just to see if she will agree.  when there was no violent reaction from mother dear, we thought "hey, this plan could actually roll".  so, we immediately went online to do our flight and hotel booking 2-3 days before our intended departure *Orz. but before we could do that, some "major major" glitch... THIS(video below)WAS HAPPENING IN BANGKOK at that time...  *cto of the video

who would want to be in the middle of that chaos, certainly not our mother!  so we made up some excuse that "oh, we were mistaken, we're not going to Bangkok but we're going to Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur!"  hehehe...
so, Mandarin Oriental KL  sent a really sosy car to pick us up at the airport *the airport is quite far from the city center* and a wheelchair was waiting for us near the entrance of the hotel but our mother doesn't want to have anything to do with a wheelchair *a senior citizen in denial Orz*

i must say that Mandarin Oriental KL did a fabulous job in hosting us for 3 days.  we were escorted by a guest relations officer as soon as we got out of the car and i was pleasantly surprised that our check-in was done in the privacy of our hotel room! that's a first for me!

 

 

so, when the guest relations officer found out that the only reason why we are in KL is to celebrate mother's birthday, she invited us to come up to their private club for some snacks *which turned out to be a buffet style*.  we said we dont' think we can make it 'coz we are expecting guests *our cousin and his girfriend*, she said to bring them along.  really sweet of them, i mean, really!

we found this cake and card from Mandarin Oriental staff waiting for us in our room! that's really sweet...

 

our birthday girl looking really fab

note: this entry is not done yet. im still looking some other photos to post but i still decided to publish this anyway💓

Travel Blog 23: back in LONDON2015

October 2015

weeeeeeee, i am back in this lovely lovely country.  despite the ginormous distance that i have to travel, it is still well worth the 8hr flight, the 2hr layover and another 9hrs flight to get here.  not to mention all the bullsh*t that goes with the visa application... ah, there i go again.😣

anyway, this vacation will take us to several cities around europe so let me just upload all these pictures first and add the captions, insights and annotations later.

reminder:  *those written in bold AND italic are from Nnylanna's facebook picture captions and the rest are all Piberg...

Day 1 Garden View Hotel, Earls Court. Stayed at the same hotel during my first trip to Europe way back 2006...

we arrived in london around mid morning, left our luggage at the hotel and looked for the pinoy restaurant that we use to frequent on our last stay here in earl's court *airplane food is bleh so i was really hungry and grouchy😒😡*.  we couldn't find it at first but we asked around and sure enough it was still there. we asked the owner for directions on how to get to Hampton Court Palace and made our way there after our meal.  it's amazing what a cup of rice can do to my body, i was immediately energized despite having practically no sleep for nearly 24 hrs😀

Garden View Hotel, Earl's Court

Day 1 - Hampton Court Palace is a royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, Greater London, in the historic county of Middlesex, and within the postal town East Molesey, Surrey. It has not been inhabited by the British Royal Family since the 18th century.

ok, so let's talk about Henry Vlll, the famous name associated with this place... no no no no no, we cant', it's too long🙅  the guy went through 6 official wives in his lifetime. the 1st one, he tried to divorce/annulled *because he was smitten with one of his queen's lady-in-waiting/maid, Anne Boleyn* but they are catholic so it's a no-no.  so what does a powerful king do, he broke ties with the catholic church, created the protestant church of England and made himself it's head! the whole English Reformation started  when all those catholic churches were either destroyed or turned into protestant churches and all the chaos and bloodshed that went with it.  it is otherwise known as the Dissolution of the Monasteries.  

ok, so im going to stop with the history lessons here, i did say it was too long.  but this particular king played such an important role in this country's history, not just in religion but the monarchy, education, foreign affairs etc, that i was more than overwhelmed with excitement at the thought of going to this man's house... well palace😂  everyone, this is HAMPTON COURT PALACE...

Hampton Court Palace is 500yrs old in 2015!  imagine that!

so my sister went to this building to get our tickets *the facade peeking in the photo below to your left*.  i waited outside and when she got our tickets, we went to the souvenir shop opposite the ticketing office.  we bought a few souvenirs and made our way to the main entrance.  but wait, my sister couldn't find the tickets!😟 she went back to the ticketing office and i went back to the palace shop to look around.  i found the tickets on the cashier counter where she paid for our souvenirs😖 by this time, another pair of tickets was already issued to my sister to replace the one we thought we had lost😅

 

nnylanna signing the guest book, and yes, i signed too

the guest book

bought this book at the souvenir shop right next to where we signed

this is a wine fountain.  in the old days, this was filled with wine whenever there is a celebration. hence, the drunk commoners i'm posing with😀

nnylanna found another drunk commoner possibly vomiting on the side😏

entering the Great Hall

this is the Great Hall, where parties and banquets are held

notice those old tapestries on each side of the wall

those tapestries are called "the abraham tapestries" because they tell the story of the biblical hero.  they are the most valuable piece of artifacts in the entire country only next to the crown jewels!  you ask why when they look quite shabby if you ask me.  if you look at it closely,  every single thread used on those tapestries are made of silver and gold thread. wow!!!😲

taking a sip on one of the benches in the courtyard

my sister nnylanna is in charge of taking photos. so in the picture below i went and entered a room ahead of her and i was awestruck at the first glimpse of that room.  there i was waiting for her reaction...

floor-to-ceiling murals behind that very grand staircase🙇

the man himself, Henry Vlll in his later years

do you know what this is,  this is the king's... 🙀

there are sooo many of these old tapestries in this palace... i can only imagine the sheer amount of work just to clean and maintain all these old antiquities...

taking photos inside the chapel is prohibited so some of the pictures below are from the web with full credit to the owner of the pictures...

look at this "mere" chapel,  what fabulosity...

i couldn't even see me😁

here's a video from youtube of Hampton Court Palace.  all credits to the owner of the video.

Day 2 - change of hotel and meet up with my brother's family from Chicago. K & K Hotel George also located at Earls Court. I was really impressed when we stayed at this hotel during my 2nd trip to UK - Oct 2011
i remember dragging our luggage to the next street to transfer hotel.  hello K & K Hotel George, nice to see you again...

showing my brother's family around the Cities of London & Westminster...

from left to right: my sister in law, my brother, my niece and piberg(moi) at Picadilly Circus

Mimi the cousin who joined us in our London2011 trip joined us again in our England escapades and this time, she brought her husband Rey, who loves to take behind-the-scenes photos.  yipee👌👍

 

a double-decker  bus promoting our islands💓

we went to the same pinoy restaurant for lunch and bought ourselves a London Tube oyster card. hopped on a train looking for...

yes, the Beatle's famous album cover was shot on this very spot, the pedestrian lane of Abbey Road.

THE iconic picture of the Beatles in Abbey Road

there's no way you can miss the place.  there is always a small crowd much to the dismay, but most of the time, amusement of the drivers of passing vehicles.  everybody comes here wanting to recreate this iconic picture. everybody risking being run over by a motor vehicle, pausing for a minute or two in the middle of the road, just for a freaking photo😜 and of course, we didn't come here just to see the place, we did the customary thing to do too😤

husband and wife beatle😁

this guy unwittingly became the 4th Beatle in our group of 3😝

next to see for my brother's family is Big Ben.  i've seen it before but i'm still impressed at the beauty of this clock tower.  Big Ben is connected and part of the Palace of Westminster.

our party of five "tour group"

from one side of Big Ben, we walked to another side of Big Ben, the side which is next to Prince William and Kate's wedding venue.  it is also where the king and queen are crowned...

... that important place is Westminster Abbey ...
i didn't get to see the inside of the abbey when i first visited in 2011 because it was closed on the day of the tour.  back then i never thought i will be able to come back and see the inside of the place which houses the remains of a lot of famous people in history.

i'm sorry to say this but photos are not allowed inside the abbey and there are just too many important details inside that borrowing a few from the internet seems totally insufficient.  so instead, let me share a video from youtube, with full credits to the owner. 

we capped the day by having dinner in a restaurant near our hotel...

unless i forgot to upload and include some stuff, this is about done.  next is Kensington and Windsor.