London

Inspired by yesterday's Royal Wedding, I decided to use my Saturday to post the London entry. Not that we had any canapes or dinner in Buckingham Palace, but at least I remembered I had such a good pack of chips before entering the Westminster Abby's tour. Slightly different but ah..brings back good memories..

So flash back two months before - hey two months is not too bad, I have entries that I was meaning to post since last year, okay make that a different story.

Anyway I remembered it was dark at night when we arrived, windy, pouring rain and we got lost when we were walking looking for our hotel dragging our heavy luggage in one hand and the other hand trying to fix the broken umbrella *sad music on*.

Once we finally got to our hotel room and emptied out load (and Pierre Hermes' macarons that we hand-carried from Paris, that looked like crumbled oreo at that point), we didn't waste any time to rest, we just needed to find a good soup and possibly some rice. Yes I need Asian food, it was cold, raining, and I was super tired so I think I deserved at least a hot bowl of soup. Luckily I had some insight from my friend who used to lived in Lodon for a good Asian restaurant, so up to Bayswater we went.

We actually almost missed the place since the sign was so small, and at that time the road was quiet so there was no line like what my friend said. I was tempted to just walk in to a random Asian restaurants (there's a row of restaurants just outside the tube, handy for my hungry eyes!) But luckily Moco found the right restaurant and behind those close doors the restaurant was indeed packed!

Well we did check some reviews before and can't agree more that we normally go to affordable Asian restaurant for the food not the service. So I think The Four Seasons is no different in Asian restaurants in Sydney in fact I think the service was not as bad as the review at all. As for the food, too be honest I think we've had better in Sydney but it's definitely good enough for my Asian food intake of the week.

pan fried peking duck dumplings for entree

dumpling soup! I'd settle with just any chicken soup but hey not complaining..

as my friend and the review said, can't go here without ordering the duck! yum..

not normally ordered greens in the restaurant since God knows I hate being ripped off, but this time is an exception..we need the greens, who knows if we're gonna eat Mc Donalds for three days in a row

Ah..satisfied..

The next day we head early to Convent Garden to check this Indian Cafe that Moco found from a magazine he read on the train to London. Yeh random found sounds good to me.

And it was quite impressive found actually, I love the cafe's decor and I quite like having naan bread for my brekkie..along with giant size of good coffee, ah..good coffee. Surprisingly I haven't got good coffee in Paris, crazy (different post I know)

there's no much variation on the breakfast menu, so I took time to take photos of the beautiful decor instead..

more seats in lower ground, I'd imagined it will be a good place to hang out after work to have some beers or some chai latte..

yes yes it's gross to take photos of the loo especially after the naan bread, but it just looks so neat, check the old medicine cabinet at the back..I just feel like I went back to the old colonial times..

At dinner time we met up with my friend, she's been raving for this crepes place that she claimed better than French crepes in Paris. So I was very much looking forward to prove it :)

And oh my..delicious indeed! They had so may options for savoury and sweets, we decided to have dinner and dessert there..

check out the rewards they've received!

And don't forget one in London should visit the good ol' pub to have baked beans for breakfast or fish and chips for dinner, or do both like we did..


Our time in London was brief (well it's brief in every country actually), but London has a special spot for me since I had to wander alone for two days whilst waiting for Moco for his conference. Perfect time to have alone time, at least in London public transpot was a breeze and there's no language barrier. I love spending hours in the museum, taking random photos and when it's sunny it's so beautiful just to sit down at the park, shopping at Oxford street and not to mention staring at the groceries in Mark & Spencers, d'oh dork.

Oh and I found the photo of my budget lunch, sandwich with the super awesome chips I had before I went to The Abbey (total costs around AUD$3 - can't even get lunch with that price here)


London..we'll back again for sure..although last time I visited you was probably 15 years ago..but you'll never know!

The rest of the Europe photos are coming soon...I hope. Happy Saturday :)

New Zealand - South Island

Lots of people gave us a funny look when we said we wanted to do a campervan road trip in NZ for our honeymoon. But I think it's exciting, we wanted to go to a place where Moco and I both haven't been before, and surprisingly (considering how close the location is) we both haven't been to South Island. And also the fact that Moco and I always wanted to try to travel with a campervan. So here's bits and pieces during our 10 days road trip. And yes I figured I should update the blog now before our first wedding anniversary and omg it's actually less than three months away, how time flies!

Here's the burger in our first night in Christchurch (when we also experienced an aftershock from the earthquake, luckily only a small and quick one)

And for comparison here's the famous ferg burger in Queenstown. oh dear. highway to heart attack, with style.

Not until someone pointed out to me, I just realized we had lots of burgers and chips on the trip! But really it was like the easiest thing that's available. You have no idea how desperate we were for Asian food and even though the instant noodle fulfiled my needs temporarily. I need something a bit more proper, i.e: rice. Lucky we found Kohan, the only Jap restaurant that still opens at Lake Tekapo after 1pm. Nothing's special with the food, and especially not with the price, but oh the view..the view is priceless. Gazing through the window with my rice = happiness.

one of my fave views at lake tekapo..

I just don't understand why most of the Asian resto closed so early there? And I thought Australian restaurants close early, pfft.

Well the food on the road always can be a hit and miss. Luckily the worst food we had was the venison stew and grilled chicken, that doesn't look like any of the descriptions. Make me miss the burgers indeed.


But that's it, that's the only food I probably I didn't finish in the trip. The rest of the food we had were divine. Must be the fresh produce that they have been using. Fresh salmon and lamb with a very reasonable prices.

beautiful pork ribs and sunday roast special at Te Anau's pub

one of the breakfasts menu in our first hotel, hotel so - good value budget hotel, but don't expect a window :)

beer battered oysters

Bonjour - a nice and cosy French cafe at Arrowtown

Even though we went in the middle of October the NZ weather was still crazily cold (other words - forgive our crazy appetites for comfort food). Snow is still common during spring and even the local said snow sometimes still come in December, right in the middle of summer. Goodness me and I thought Melbourne's weather is moody. pfft #2.

And...here's our last night in Christchurch, our highlight of the trip. Putting aside the fact that we finally stayed in a gorgeous boutique hotel after staying in a campervan for so many nights, but I'm talking about the beautiful food that we had in their in-house restaurant! Check out Moco's lamb shank, it's just melted in your mouth!! Ah..memories..

our last burger in Christchurch from Burger King, love the wedges!

wonderful event to put Cantebury together after the 2010 earthquake. Our hearts go to the people who were affected in the recent earthquake..

lucky we've been listening to kiwi's artists on the road :)

So that's it, we finally did it. Road trip in a campervan to a place that we've never been. I remember some days can be really tricky, i.e running out of petrol in a winding road at night or experienced a thunder storm inside the van etc, but really I won't change it for a thing.

til later NZ..