Pardon me for the last 2 posts. Well it’s some extra cash that I could always make do. Well, the first one was on travel which I don’t really mind anyway since it’s something that I like talking about. Heck, it’s part of my life now - travelling around! If you don’t understand what I’m blabbing on for the first few sentences, then just ignore it and move on to the next paragraph.

Basically, I’m really guilty for not keeping this blog updated. I’m such a bummer. Yes I know it. I always tell people I am busy here. Well not exactly busy with academic work, but with all the other social aspects of life which makes uni life interesting. So far I would say I am really living out my uni life. It is what it is supposed to be. Maximum fun while keeping a balance with studies. I’m probably really lucky to end up in UCL instead of the States or in Oxbridge. I’m positive that I would be so much more worked out anywhere other than UCL where the workload is so much more and there are so many more tests. I really hate tests. It just stresses me out for no reason. Well at least here all my exams come at the end of the year, so I really just need to concentrate and focus on studies for the last two months or so and I will be alright. Besides the weight for my degree classification for the three years of uni are in the following order 1:3:5. This basically mean my first year only counts for 1/9 of my overall degree, which really mean I can really play and still graduate well at the end of 3 years.

Life is really sociable here. I enjoy being around with people all the time. My room, so conveniently located near the entrance of my hall is practically a common room for the hall. Everyone just jams around here all the time. Elston, my British roommate here brought a PS3 and it’s permanently on Fifa10. We play Fifa all the time with friends from all over UCL. We have movie nights here every fortnight or so. Everyone just pops by our room whenever they passes by the entrance. We practically have no private life here. But I’m cool with it. It’s quite fun considering that you meet lots of new people and some end up being really close to you.

London is interesting in the sense that you meet people from all over the world. I’m really lucky to meet so many people from diverse backgrounds in the first few weeks of uni. London is also filled with Malaysians and Singaporeans. Some say it’s good, some say it’s bad. I won’t deny that it is really possible to spend 3 years of your uni life in London without hanging out with any non-Malaysian/Singaporean. There’s just so many of us here you, especially so when you are doing a subject like Economics.

I have no idea before UCL that Economics is such a popular course among the Malaysians. Almost all the Malaysians here in UCL are Economics students. The same is for LSE. Basically in my course, it’s really all filled with Asians. Half of my coursemates are Chinese - Malaysian, Singaporean, Hong Kong, China, British. Another quarter is Indians - British, India. The rest are white people from Europe.

Economics in UCL is really a course for international students. This is the course where UCL actually milks all the international dollars from students. We provide so much revenue for the university to ensure its day-to-day running. A case in point. Local students pay only about £3000 per year on tuition fees while international students pay 4 times more at about £12000 per year on tuition fees alone.

Well that’s the price we are paying to get an overseas education and by that subsidizing the local students. If you are going to compare academic quality with the price you are paying, I would definitely say it’s not worth the money. But really uni life in Britain is not all about studies. It’s the whole experience. And to many people who are not taking the opportunity to travel around Europe while in UK, you are really missing out a lot on uni life.

Well so far I would not say I have travelled much. But this is my target. I plan to visit all the countries in Europe (or at least most of it) plus Turkey and Egypt before I finish 3 years of my studies here. It’s really manageable if you plan your trip well and manage your financials well. Also a lil bit of creative thinking on travelling plans DO help in saving a lot of money.

Yes, I’m still alive. I’m still very much alive here in London. I just had been lazy updating my blog here. I am simply more active on Facebook as it is easier and less time-consuming. Well, basically the main reason why I do not update my blog here is because I rarely have any time to sit in front of the computer alone in my room.

I lead a hectic lifestyle here. I would really say I’m blessed to have a really active social circle here. That’s what I always thought I would lead my life here in London and I am actually living it out now. I live in a shared room and I have an awesome roommate who brought in a PS3. So basically my room is the common room for my hall cause everyone just hangs out here playing Fifa10 on the PS3. Whenever I’m not in classes, I’m at home in the afternoon doing some work or just resting from a late night. At night, whenever I’m not out chilling with my friends, I will be in my room and there would most likely be a Fifa tournament going around. I like this lifestyle. I never feel lonely, I always have company and it’s great. So that’s really the main reason why I don’t have much time to update this blog cause I really hardly spend any time in front of the computer any more.

Anyway, it’s been really a wonderful journey so far. I just completed a reading week aka holiday after just 4 weeks of study here. I feel so lucky to be in UCL instead of Cambridge, Oxford, LSE, Imperial or any US colleges. I think the lifestyle here is so much laid-back. Perhaps it’s because of Singapore. After the stressful 2-years of A-Levels in Singapore, everything just pales in comparison. But perhaps it has to do with the way classes and exams are structured in UCL. Somehow things just feels more laid-back in UCL as compared to other universities but it might be just me taking the stress and workload easily, looking at things in a positive way.

I haven’t really been travelling much in UK before the reading week. Heck, I haven’t even explored much of London yet. It just takes me forever to settle down. Luckily for the reading week, I had the opportunity to travel quite some bit. Somehow it brought out the need in me to travel again.

I did not really plan my reading week, but it turned out pretty well in the end. Turned out to be pretty adventurous too. Let me share the story. I was fed up that my reading week plans are not turning out well. By Friday lunch I had my last class and I am officially on holiday. I am lucky the Econs department did not give us any assignment or test during the week. I was looking for things to do during reading week. I got fed up trying to plan up a holiday in the last minute, I decided to simply go to Manchester and find Seira, my really good friend from Singapore. So I bought a one-way ticket to Manchester on the morning of Sunday, 8 November. At night, a thought occurred to me that Edinburgh is not exactly that far away from Manchester; it’s halfway through from London. Everyone in London seems gung-ho about going to Edinburgh I had no idea why I thought I should go give it a shot. Called up Xuxin to see if it’s alrite if I bunk in over her place a few nights. It was really spontaneous and random and she said OK. She was kinda surprised to hear my plans of coming over to Edinburgh in a few hours. She was really hospitable and nice. In Edinburgh, I saw 4 other UCL kiddos on 2 separate groups coming for the free tour of the city that day. I know 2 of them, 1 from each group. You see, Londoners have a fascination for Edinburgh I have no idea why! Came back from Edinburgh on the 12th of November to Manchester and slept over another night at Seira’s. Went back to London the following morning and rested for a few hours in my room. Later that evening I met up with Ruben and we went up to Cambridge. Spent the weekend there at Geoffrey’s and basically had one heck of a time in Cambridge with the people I met at Khazanah’s. Super awesome time there. Practically know 6 of the 20 odd Malaysians who made it to Cambridge for the year. Really cool meeting up with so many buddies there.

Here’s some very little photos from my short trip during reading week. Sorry I could not post up more photos here. I really am a bummer in resizing photos and all for the blog. It’s all up on my Facebook, so you could only check it out if you are my friend there.

Anyway, till then, I hope to update this blog again soon with some other happenings around. I can’t believe how fast time is passing by. It’s already mid-November and Christmas is coming soon. My mom is flying over for Christmas and my aunt, who is working near Shanghai is also flying in to London to meet me. We are all going to meet my uncle in Prague before going for a really ambitious road trip in Central Europe. I am excited! :)

Old Trafford at Manchester

Some old structure in Edinburgh

The 1 million pounds clock in Cambridge

Some college in Cambridge

Ruben and I after punting in Cambridge

Here’s just a quick update.

I’M HAVING TOO MUCH FUN HERE IN UCL.

It was fun all the way for UCL here ever since I arrived from Czech Rep. And you know what, my crazy travel plans ain’t really that crazy actually. I met several exchange students from the US who did the exact same thing. Fly in to London 2 weeks early, store their luggage in a self-storage company and take a budget airline into Europe for an early Europe trip.

Pretty interesting to know that there are others doing the same thing as me, travelling early.

Anyway, it’s too much fun over here that up till now I have yet to take a single photo here in the UK. Just soaking in all the experience without the need for a camera.

There are so many interesting people here. It’s really exciting meeting people from all over the world. UCL is really quite diverse. I’m currently chilling mostly with a group of Germans and an Austrian. All of them speak German and this only increases my reason in wanting to take German language classes in university. German would be so useful for next Euro trip to Germany, Switzerland, Austria, part-Belgium.

Anyway, here’s a quick link-up. If you are looking to purchase gold, purchase bullion, or purchase gold coins just simple click on the link for more information.

With that I shall end here  and will update again at length when the excitement tapers down and I have more time to blog.

Dobry Den! Ahoy!
(Greetings in Czech - the first being formal while the second being informal)

Just some update of my travel so far. It’s been a great journey so far. On weekends my uncle will bring me around Czech Republic while on weekdays I travel alone, taking buses to towns and cities and going for a day trip.

The weather at this point in time is perfect! It’s not too hot nor is it too cold.

Here’s what I’ve been doing for the past week.

Thursday, 9 Sept - Arrival at Brno
Friday, 10 Sept - Mini tour around Brno town with uncle
Saturday, 11 Sept -  Fresh wine (Burcak) festival at Znojmo (j is pronounced as y so it’s snoy-mo)
Sunday, 12 Sept - Cave tour - Moravian Karst
Monday, 13 Sept -  Self tour around Brno
Tueday, 14 Sept - Bratislava, Slovakia
Wednesday, 15 Sept - Vienna, Austria
Thursday, 16 Sept - Olomouc, Czech Rep

Commuting between places is really simple. I simply buy inter-city bus tickets from the Student Agency bus company and I’m travelling already!

Public transportation is simply amazing. Singapore is years behind if I were to compare. And there are a lot of trust involved in the system. There is no one to check the ticket upon entering buses and trams here (and trains in Vienna too). Most people simply buy their ticket and use the system. And the buses and trams are accurate to the minute. This is so unlike Singapore’s buses, not to mention Malaysia’s.

The difficult part here is probably only the language barrier. Most people do not speak English here. Maybe it’s different for Prague. There are quite some English speakers in Bratislava and Vienna so I guess it’s just a non-capital city problem. Well, but I suppose the Czech language ain’t that hard to learn. Just have to memorise words after words. It’s like Malay I would say. After you build up a vocab you more or less can communicate with the people here. I’m slowly recognising words so I can know what I’m ordering at the restaurants.

Besides, Czech Rep doesn’t use the Euro currency yet but uses the Koruna. So things are still pretty much affordable here. I would say it’s like paying high-end food price for low-end food. A plain hamburger would cost me 30 Crown which is about RM6 so I guess I can still stomach it. High-end food like steak would be about 20% higher than prices in Malaysian restaurants. So can still enjoy life here. However things are much more expensive if it’s in Euro like in Vienna. A kebab there costs me 3 Euro which is about RM15. Gulp! It’s just the friggin Ringgit which is wayyyy undervalued by the government to keep the economy competitive. Check out The Economist Big Mac index to have an idea of what I’m saying.

But wth bout all these currencies. I need to eat. So SPEND! hahaha

Anyway, I am loving the ISIC (Internation Student Identity Card) that I applied for in Malaysia. I paid RM20 for it at MSL Travel (just google them) and I would say I’ve gotten savings wayyy in excess of the RM20 I paid for it. For example, I get 15% off for bus fares on Student Agency buses. I also get almost half price for entry into museums, galleries, palaces etc. The ISIC card is just plain recognisable everywhere in Europe. Get it in Malaysia before you leave for UK. You gonna pay in Pounds (and it’s probably 5 times more expensive!) to get the card if you don’t get it in Malaysia.

Well, the weekend is coming soon. Uncle is bringing me out again. Not sure where this time but I suppose it’s to Prague. All I can say is the tour so far is great! Vienna is simply amazing. I need to go back there again. And apparently my uncle said Budapest is even better. I’m going back London on Monday. Another few more days of touring around before uni starts.

Oh and for pictures? Haha. It’s on my Facebook!

I’m safe in my uncle’s place now. Lucky for my crazy sleeping habits in Malaysia where I sleep at 3am and wake up at 11am, I’m not really jet-lagged here. Slept mostly in the aeroplane and bus journeys. But there were all hour long naps, so it was great that I finally got a 9 hours sleep the previous night.

Anyway, here’s a descriptive journey of my trip so far. I’m too lazy to put photos here. If you want to see some photos get to my Facebook photo album =P

Well let’s start from the beginning. My KL-London flight was supposed to depart at 11.40pm. But we were delayed by slightly over an hour. Reason: the flight was full and the cabin crew had difficulties trying to sort passengers with infants. There was a row very near me with 3 infants and that is not allowed under rules because of the shortage of oxygen masks in case of emergency. So the cabin crew had to run around the airplane, contacting ground staff trying to sort out this problem. Alas if I’m not wrong, they simply upgraded a single mom and her baby to business class cause all other seats are taken. It was a really tense environment. Nobody wants to be delayed cause there are lots of complications - missing the airspace time slot allocation, congestion at Heathrow etc.

We did miss the flying time slot over Afghanistan. We had to fly later and at a lower altitude. The Captain also reported some problem with Bangkok but I’m not sure what exactly. Well I believe the pilot must have flown the plane at a faster pace because we were scheduled to land at London 15 minutes late only. Alas congestion at Heathrow forced us to holding and we had to circle around East London for about 10 minutes before landing. Lucky me. I will be pretty screwed with my schedule if the plane is delayed more.

It took about 12 hours for the flight instead of  13 hours. Filled my time sleeping and fiddling with the in-flight enterntainment. Watched some comedies and played some video games there. But I spent most of my time sleeping, conserving energy for my crazy transit the following morning.

Checked out of airplane, went through immigration. Luckily things went smoothly with not much questions asked. Got myself an Oyster card and headed to the Tube on the Picaddily Line for an hour long ride to Caledonian Road station. Had to drag my big luggage and hand-carry for a good 15 minutes or so to my self-storage location. ABC Self-Storage is the company I went with. About £30 for 2 weeks of storage. Plus I get to use my own padlock!

My shoulders are really aching cause of all the lugging. It’s not over yet. I had to travel to King’s Cross St Pancras and transfer to Liverpool Street station to get a bus or a train to Stansted. Finally got myself into a Terravision bus to Stansted. It’s supposed to be £9 but they don’t provide change for £10! I’m not sure if it’s company policy or simply the bus attendant way of collecting tips for himself but I couldn’t be bothered. I just wanted to get to Stansted airport on time and catch my flight to Brno.

By then I was too tired to look at London, I slept throught the bulk of the hour long journey. Reached Stansted and checked in for my Ryanair flight. Security check over at Stansted is really tight. I finally had some time to relax and have my lunch. I also had some time to check out some shops there. Looked at football merchandise there and am just waiting for my time to get hold of that Arsenal jersey. The shop also sell football and offered to inflate the ball! lol. Anyway I also went to the perfume shop and thought it was quite cheap. I did some conversions and figured that perfumes are way cheaper there as compared to KL or Singapore. Well, shall see how. Might do some shopping and get myself a ck perfume there on my way home.

Got into my flight at Ryanair and off I went to doze off again. It was nearly a 2 hours plane ride but half the time the Ryanair staff are peddling things to sell. They were noisy like those pasar malam junkies selling stuff. Got a good hour rest on the flight.

Reached Brno and immigration was really simple. No forms to fill up. Just a simple stamp on my passport and I’m cleared to enter Czech Republic. Met my uncle at the airport and headed home for a quick shower. Luckily I had all the rest here and there on my journey cause immediately after my shower and a short Skype session with mom, I went out my uncle’s sister company Summer Party.

Drank beer and ate meat (turkey and pork ) and bread the whole night. Luckily we went back early cause by then I was already a little tired. 9pm Czech local time is about 3am Malaysia time and it’s right in my sleeping time zone already.

StaroBrno is the local beer. It’s really smooth. Had a sip of their local Cola too. I have no idea how to describe that. Anyway, this is the crazy journey so far. It was more than 24 hours of travelling since I left home to KLIA on Wednesday night. This is the start of the trip. I shall update more soon again. Cheers!

As I’m typing this, I have slightly more than 24 hours to go before this crazy travel plan starts:

Wednesday, 9 Sept 2009, 11.40pm
KL - London (Heathrow)
Malaysia Airlines
Expected arrival time in London 5.50am
Total travel time: 13 hours 10 minutes

Once in London Heathrow airport, I’ve got to checkout and make my way to Caledonian Road tube to get myself into ABC Self Storage to store my big 30kg luggage at a self-storage company for 2 weeks.

Immediately after that, it’s a mad rush to London Stansted airport for the following flight.

Thursday, 10 Sept 2009, 1.35pm
London (Stansted) - Brno, Czech Republic
RyanAir
Expected arrival time in Brno 4.35pm
Total travel time: 2 hours

Thankfully my uncle will pick me up at the airport in Brno. It’s a mad day of travelling with all the rushing and minimal margin of error. Luckily I will have the Friday to rest before backpacking with my uncle on Saturday and Sunday.

I will have the next 5 weekdays to travel alone around Brno and its surrounding area before the weekend comes by again for my uncle to bring me backpacking again.

Places I intend to cover: Brno, Vienna (Austria), Brastilavia (Slovakia), Budapest (Hungary). Places I might also go: Prague, Krakow (Poland). Apparently I just found out I got a friend who’s already in Krakow! Might be worth it to go there this time around. But shall see how again when I reach. It’s a free and easy plan. Just go and wander around! Which reminds me, I haven’t actually done much research on things to see or do in the places that I plan to go!!!!!

Anyway, I’ll be flying back to London on the 21st of September. Will reach London at 6.15pm. Luckily Yi Rhu offered me her place to put in a night there cause I doubt I will be able to check-in to my uni residence at night. I will check-in to Campbell House East the following morning and go back to collect my luggage at the storage location before International Orientation the following day. Hectic travel plan! You BET!!!!

On the 25th of August, a bunch of my friends and I went out to bring a group of children from an orphanage - Agathians Shelter for an outing to MidValley Megamall to cheer up their spirits during the school holidays. We have some funds from a fundraising project done earlier in the year. So we thought a good way to spend the funds would be to bring a group of orphans out, treat them for lunch at McDonald’s and movies and then get them new books and stationaries at the local bookstore.

It started out at about 12 where I went over to Seira’s place and picked her up before heading to the orphanage home near Seksyen 8, PJ. We met up with the kids, caretakers and volunteers there and then headed to MidValley in my car and in another van. A total of 22 kids followed us with a few more volunteer adults.

We reached MidValley and went straight for lunch at McDonald’s. We were duly joined by Cassie, a friend from my Leo Club days and later on Clement and another friend of his. We organised the kids into tables at McD. A waiter at McD helped us take orders from the kids at McD and they are clearly delighted at being able to choose their meals then. Luckily it was the fasting season and we could get seats for nearly 30 of us. I used to work at MidValley and I know that McD is packed to the brim during normal lunch hours.

Well talking about luck, actually I did not pay for the McD lunch. After organising the kids at the tables in McD, a group of women in their 40s who were siting behind me started talking to me. There were curious why there were so many kids out in McD being organised together thus started asking me some questions. I explained our outing and she offered to pay for the meal at McD. What a nice gesture.

Also at McD, Seira was nice to help us get some vegetarian pizzas for the vegetarians. At the same time, Cassie who finished her meal early went to check the movie listings and helped coordinate the movie ticket purchases.

We finished eating at 2 plus and proceeded to the movie theatre for the cartoon movie UP which starts at 2.30. Talk about perfect timing and coordination! LOL. But it has all to do with good luck and help from experienced friends!

After movies, we brought the kids to MPH to buy them new stationaries and books. At this moment we were joined by Adila, which I then found out was a Seira’s classmate in secondary school! The kids were happy choosing their brand new stuff. They were practically running around the bookshop choosing their new freebies. Once everyone has gotten their new goodies, we proceeded to the cashier and paid. I had to vet through the stuff they want to buy while Seira kept touch with a handphone calculator to ensure that we do not go overbudget.

The kids were clearly happy with their outing that day, getting new books and stationaries. Hopefully this will inspire them to work hard in their studies and achieve success. After MPH, we proceeded back to the orphanage and hang out with the kids for a little longer. By then it was already 7 plus and we decided to call it a day.

It was a rather interesting outing. I am glad the kids had a great day out during their school holidays choosing new stuff for their studies. I know so many of them being so grateful for having new stationaries for their UPSR exams, things which we all have taken for granted. Well I hope I would be able to do this again. What this outing actually taught me was it is really actually quite simple to organise an outing with an orphanage. And it is ridiculously affordable to bring 22 kids out for a lunch at McD and a movie outing. All it takes is the initiative and the cooperation of a few friends. I shall do this more often in the future!

And talking about it, I guess I should have gotten involved in a more long term project with an orphanage like giving them some sort of tuition of sort earlier in the year.

Anyway, there were some additional funds from the outing the other day. I have donated the additional funds to Yvonne Foong. You can go google her and read all about her plight and battle against a rare form of cancer. I thought hers is a deserving cause and I am proud of her battle against this disease that had affected her for so long. I am also proud of her use of the online media to fundraise money and I think you should all support her too.

Finally, here’s some photos that I took from the outing with the kids the other day. Have fun!

The last few days for some weird reason, my mom has actually been pestering me to buy a car since that I’m going to stay in UK for 3 years of studies. Reason: I can bring the car home without paying any taxes! Apparently I can get an Approved Permit (AP) to bring a car back to Malaysia without any taxes after staying abroad for 1 or 2 years. The good thing about UK is that the cars are right-hand drive which is the same for Malaysia. My uncle and aunt who were here a few days back also supported the idea. They are staying in Czech Republic now and they said they can’t bring their Hyundai back because it is a left-hand drive. It would not suit Malaysia’s roads as it would bring lots of trouble especially when paying tolls. Recalibrating it would be costly. They are sad that they can’t bring back their car. They are back to stay in Penang already. Only my uncle is going back to Czech Republic for another month to clear things up and I’m going to visit him for my early Euro trip before university.

I don’t mind getting a car in UK. After all, a weekend car for me? That would be great! But parking’s gonna be really expensive. I told my mom where shall I park the car?!?! And petrol’s really expensive there. Perhaps hybrid cars would be good but close to RM7 per liter of petrol is just insane man. I don’t think I can even afford driving in London. Gulps! And not to mention the congestion charges in London.

So what car shall it be? A prius? It seems pretty nice. Or no car at all? I think it’s gonna be a no car for me. Besides I don’t see the point of getting a car in London. It’s just dumb. If I had been in the US, I would have definitely bought myself an old car for ease of travel. But London with its extensive train coverage? Nah….no need for a car. Perhaps might just rent one for a Euro trip later with some friends! Guess I would just sit back and enjoy looking at car pictures before I finally get my own car 3 years from now.

I’m excited to go London! And am more excited to go conquer the whole Europe and if possible north Africa too!