Duration: August 7th to 16th, 2000
Airline: Virgin Atlantic
Package: (Economic ticket + 7 hotel room nights)
Total basic costs: HK$10,500.00 per head
Actual expenses: $$$$ (you should see Ali's pale complexion)
Tour Members: Joni and Ali-Wani

Please click here to see trip photos!

Day One

After a 12-hour torture struggling in the tiny seat of a Virgin Airbus, we were pleased to put our tired legs on the London ground at 6:00am.  Due to the misunderstanding of our driver who drove all the way to the wrong terminal, another valuable hour were wasted (man, it costs money the minute you landed in a foreign country), but that doesn't mean you can go straight to bed, as more "tortures" to go before you can actually check-in at the deluxe hotel!

At last we were seated in a "luxuriously" designed air-conditioned bus to tour around the most famous spots in the city of London.  The boring city tour started from London Bridge, Tower of London, The Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul Cathedral and ended in China Town, where all the tour members said goodbye (have they?) and carried on the journey on their own - the only good news of the day!

Impression of the city tour: The Brits are as busy as HK people and they should have more facial expression.

Me and Ali must be in real bad luck that day as out of hundreds of nice restaurants, we made a bad choice - we walked in to a "nasty" little Chinese restaurant which served "chunky" noodle in "warm" soup and tasteless wontons at rip-off price (HK$80 per bowl).  We merely had a mouthful and ditched the damn bowl within seconds.  To reciprocate the empty stomach, we went shopping instead!  We walked along Picadilly and Oxford Street for god knows how many hours till we walked like a limp.  With a London map in hand, the smart sisters managed to walked all the way "home" to Russell Square, where our so called deluxe hotel (turned out to be a 3 star) - National Int'l is located.  Peter (our agent), I will kill you when I am back!

Dinner?  Too tired to dine out (nothing to do with being stingy) and we had take-away sandwiches instead.

Thirty minutes later
Joni: Ali my dear, are you still awake?
Ali: zzzzz, zzz, zzzzz

...to be continued

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