Photo is taken from: startuproar.co.uk
My cousins and I decided to meet
somewhere nice and halfway closer to where we are all based. I am living in
Singapore, I have a cousin from the Philippines and another cousin based in
UAE. We decided to visit the UK. My mom is also based in the UK so I find it a
good idea to reunite with my family. I booked my flight end of Q3 of the year
prior and I can no longer refund the ticket when I decided not to continue the
flight as I was diagnosed with high-risk twin pregnancy. And since I cannot
refund the ticket, my husband decided to come along, instead.
With my cousins
VISA APPLICATION:
We applied online through this website.
For Philippine passport, we have just filled out the online form, prepared our
bank statements, photos, employment records, and we were asked to pay SGD160++
each. We were then asked to proceed to the visa application centre in Singapore
(somewhere in Raffles area) to submit the documents and our passports were with
them for a little more than 10 days.
FLIGHT: FINNAIR (via ZUJI)
Menu we tried via Finnair Sky Bistro during our short flight from Helsinki to UK
We always book via Zuji. I have
always been doing so for the past 5 years. They are very reliable and their
customer service is extremely helpful. The small additional charge is worth it
when you have some questions or if you need some assistance with your flight
arrangement or travel insurance. We took Finnair this time and paid somewhere between
SGD900-SGD1,200 per pax for the shortest travel time with 1 stop at Helsinki
for only 2 hours.
ARRIVAL: LONDON SHARED ARRIVAL TRANSFER (Via Viator)
For a hassle-free experience, I
will suggest that you book a car that will pick you up in the airport and will
send you to your hotel. No need to do it from the hotel back to the airport as
you can take a cab and get the assistance of the hotel concierge to get you a
cab. Uber is also something you can use there so it is convenient. But since that was our first time in London,
we wanted to be sure plus, I was pregnant so I was not allowed to stand up for
a long time. I booked this via Viator too. This is the exact website. I paid
around SGD38++ per pax.
HOTEL: THE GRANGE ST. PAUL (via Agoda)
View from the hotel overlooking the St. Paul Cathedral
I am a fan of good hotels and I
pay for good sleep in these hotels. I can save costs on flights and take
economy class if I am not with my kids. But for hotels, I will definitely
choose a good one. For this trip, I selected The Grange St. Paul’s Hotel.
The bar area on the 1st floor and the breakfast area on the 2nd floor
I
always book via Agoda. I collect and use the points and convert these to
savings and they are most of the time cheaper compared to other booking sites.
Ok fine, I guess they are not always the cheap, especially for Europe but I got
used to their site already and I never encountered issues with them. So I
continue using the site.
The Grange St. Paul's welcome message
Decent sized room and usually bigger than the others I've checked online
The Grange St. Paul is a really
nice hotel, it is next to the famous and scenic St. Paul Cathedral where everyone
was queueing up to enter and take a picture. The location is the best for me as
it is not too close to the town where it is so much packed. It is close to the
tube station and there is food all over the place. Their service is good too.
We didn’t order the breakfast package as the tours we booked were too early and
it’ll be such a waste if we bought the hotel breakfast.
We stayed here for 4 days-3
nights and paid around SGD1,400++.
WEATHER:
I have to highlight this topic as it is
not what I thought it was when I read that the temperature will be between
12-16 degrees Celsius. For Filipinos who stays in humid countries, we thought
that this is just like the temperature in Baguio or Tagaytay. So I told my
husband to not pack the “Canadian” outfits as he’d look overdressed. But
because I assumed wrongly, we were underdressed. There was sun and it looked lovely but the wind was
too cold and it was painful whenever it hits my face. Have you ever encountered
that kind of weather? So I will suggest that you still bring your thermal wear
guys. Don’t need to bring your down coats. Thick jackets plus knitted outfits
will be your best friends. And also, a lot of moisturizer for the skin and for
your lips.
FOOD:
For the Asians, reading this-
please be aware that there is not much restaurants or food place where you can
get RICE asap. It was difficult for us to find one. We used a food app in the
UK to get our food delivered as I was craving rice as I was pregnant. We liked
the idea of pasta and pizza and fish & chips for 1-2 days. But on our 3rd
day, we’re missing Chinese-Asian food already. We missed Singapore food. So
we decided to pay double to get a Chinese restaurant to deliver food in our
hotel. Well, Asian problems right. And yes, we are very Asians. 😝
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