Baker Street & Madame Tussauds - London

I must say, going to UK without paying a visit to London is like visiting Malaysia without having a plate of Nasi Lemak! Yea, it's a total waste of time, if you've been to the country but never visit the capital city...!

So there we were, packing our bags, travel all the from Sheffield to London by bus! After a 4 and half hours of bus ride, we ended up in Victoria Station, where we get our very own Oyster card before we headed to our accommodation.

Victoria Station!

Back in KL, we always think that taking pictures in train can be very embarrassing, but then when we were in London, who cares? Let's take pictures in the tube! Haha...!

Our very first picture in the Tube!

Just right after we drop our luggage in our hostel, without any delay, we made our way straight to Baker Street before it was too late as our time is quite limited! Lol... Why Baker Street? Because the world most famous fiction detective - Sherlock Homes lives here!

The statue of Sherlock Holmes in Baker Street.

The home of Sherlock Holmes which had become the Museum

Well, we didn't enter the Museum as we are not really the fans of Sherlock and little entrance fees is need for the tour, hence we saved it for other purpose.

Baker Street is not only famous for Sherlock Holmes, but also the great Madame Tussauds Museum, where you get to see most of the movie characters, singers, historical character, royal family and etc. Even though the lifelike wax figures are not real, but they look so similar with the real person that you get so excited to see all of them! What will you do if you get to meet your idol in real life? Take lots and lots pictures! Haha... There are too many pictures that I've taken in here, I'll just show some of it!

The outlook of Madame Tussauds London

Getting inside!

The museum were divided into few categories with different hall, and the first hall we entered is the Hollywood Stars where you get to see the famous actors actress all over the world, Bruce Willis, Robert Pattinson, Emma Watson, Angelina Jolie and etc. Of course you will see them dressed like the character that they famous of.

Selfie with M from James Bond - Skyfall~~!

Then we hopped into other halls like, the Royal Families, Marvel Heroes, Singers and etc! Well, let the pictures show you how real the look like.

Beyonce!

Why do I seems to hate him? Because he created lots Law and Theory that I had to study! Isaac Newton

Chubby Shrek!

Prince William and Kate!

Hallway to Marval Heroes Hall!

My favourite Marvel Heroes of all... Iron Man!

The gigantic angry Hulk!

Captain America with his strongest shield!

Awesome right? It's totally worth the price of admission! ^o^

Climb Climb Climb~! --- Peak District, Castleton!

There is always a time where we wanted to leave all the technology devices, works, assignments, and stress behind our lives, merely just enjoy a little moment of peace. That's why we decided to had a little road trip to Castleton, one the most beautiful village in Peak District which located not far away from Sheffield - approximately one hour bus ride.

By the time we arrived at this little village, we have forgotten everything that bothers us and simply enjoyed ourselves in the hugs of our great Mother-Nature.

Away from pollution, the river is so crystal clear...

Peaceful village

The first things to do in order to start our little trip is get to the visitor centre to get some information and of course a map that can guide us along the way. 

Castleton Visitor Centre

Well, Castleton is a very small village which surrounded by hills and caves, so you can actually explore it by walking around without getting lost. Everything in Castleton seems to be brown and green, it feels so comfortable be in it.

A group photo before we started to wander around!

Into the cave...!

It would be such a waste, if we didn't visit at least one of the caves in Castleton, so we chose Treak Cliff Cavern, where it's a famous mining spot for Blue John Stone. As we walked through the cave, veins of the stone are visible and the cave contains the largest known single piece of Blue John in The Pillar.

Exploring the cave while listen to the explanation of the friendly tour guide~

Stalactites that were formed through years of calcium salts in the dripping waters

The beautiful Blue John Stone

Just as we finished our little tour in Treak Cliff Cavern, we continue our trip by conquering the Peak of Mam Tor which is located just opposite to Treak Cliff Cavern!

Welcome to Mam Tor a.k.a The Mother Hill~!

Sheepsssss~

Sheeps are everywhere along the way to the peak of Mam Tor, they look cute but the bad news is..... sheep's poops are everywhere too! Not only that we have to avoid stepping on them, but almost got suffocated to death because of their poops too~

One of the most beautiful scene you will see in Castleton

Finally! We arrived at the peak of Mam Tor

Taking a short break while being amazed by the awesome view

After a great long rest on the peak, we find our way back to the bottom of the hills, of course having lots of fun along the way too! We can even have fun with the cracking roads which is caused by landslide.

Helppppp.... Am falling!

Wondering what's lie in our future... Hmmmm...

One of the best picture I had, blowing dandelions that brings hopes to everyone!

If you think this is how we ended our trip in Castleton, then you are wrong, few of us were too energetic and we decided to conquer another hill which is way higher than the Peak of Mam Tor, we end up with exhausting body, but....! The view up there is so awesome, and we risked our lives to just sit on the edge of the cliff!

Looks dangerous isn't it?

One last wefie before we ended our trip in Castleton!

Boracay - The white sand beach island!

Before I continue with my UK and Europe travel days, I would like to write about my very recent trip to Boracay! As I'll compile my 4 days 3 nights trip into one post, the post might be a little long, but don't worry, I'll let the pictures do most of the story telling! =)

Sand castle built by the locals to earn tips

Boracay is one of the best getaway island where it's famous for its powder-fine white sand and crystal clear blue water. As Airasia offer a new path to Kalibo, which makes the journey to Boracay become much more simpler as we can skip the flight transfer in Manila. So we took our flight from the newly built KLIA 2 to Kalibo Internation Airport in Philippines. The duration of the flight took about 3 and a half hour, and there's no time difference between Malaysia and Philippines, we did not experience any jetlag, but since Boracay is located far east, so the sunrise and sunset time is different from what we had in Malaysia.

Airasia A320 Model in KLIA2

We departed at 11.30am in the morning, and arrived at Kalibo airport at 3.30pm, the very first thing we did when we touched down at Kalibo is to get our transport to the Boracay Island, the moment we got out from the airport, we saw some booths offering transfer service from Kalibo airport to Boracay. 

A glance of Philippines from the plane

Booth selling tickets to Boracay

It took us 1.5 hours to get to Caticlan Jetty by van and another 30 minutes to Boracay Island by taking the boat. As I mentioned earlier, Boracay is located in the east area, so the time we arrive at Caticlan jetty, the sun has already set.

The ferry that we took from Caticlan to Boracay

Soon, we arrived at our hotel - Mecasa Hotel, we quickly check in to our own room, and without as soon we get our luggage into our room, we headed out to the famous White Beach to fill up our empty stomach after a long day.

Our hotel room

Night walk near D' Mall

So, we finally found this restaurant to have our dinner after some walk at the white beach, it's a buffet style dinner where you can eat as much as you can with bottomless iced lemon tea. There's not much variety of the foods provided by the restaurant, but the price is reasonable and the food taste very good! We ended up eating lots pork, crabs, and of course oyster! My favourite food of the night would be the banana cake, it's so tasty that I couldn't stop eating!

Outlook of Deparis Restaurant

Buuuuffeeeet Diiiinnnneeer!

After we've done our dinner, we take a little walk and explore the nightlife along the White Beach, things that you probably get to see the most is fire dancing! We did stop by some of the bars to watch some of the performances.We ended our first night in Boracay by having a little romantic walk along the White Beach before going back to our hotel to get some rests.

Fire-dancing performances offered by some of the restaurants and bars

Some very nice "shell" lamps hanging on the coconut trees.

I must say one of the best thing in life is wake up in the morning and your breakfast is ready! We get to chose our desire breakfast from the menu provided by the hotel. I must say, the portion might not seems big, but it does taste wonderful!

My very small American Breakfast.

Outlook of our hotel

It's time for the exciting island-hopping after having our wonderful breakfast, so we get ourselves to Station 3 where most of the activities take place at. We then met up with our boat captain who will be in-charge of our island hopping tour.

It would be such a waste not to take a photo with the beautiful beach and weather!

Our boat and crews during the island-hopping!

Let's ride with the wind!

The first stop of our is Puka Beach, it was very quiet as not much people were here as there's not much activities can be done here, so we didn't stay long, and very soon move on to the next destination!

Puka Beach

The sea water is so blue and clear!

So eventually we arrived at Crocodile Island where we actually won't land on the island, it was called Crocodile Island because of shape of the rocks which look like crocodile and not because there are crocodiles in this area. So, the activity where everyone did in Crocodile Island is snorkeling and so did us! The water is crystal clear and there are so many different kinds of tropical fish, lobsters and coral. To be honest this is the first time I do snorkeling, and I'm so not used to the snorkeling tube where I removed it and finally swim like a mermaid! Haha...!

I finally removed the tube! Lol~!

Happy Snorkeling

Soon, we used up the energy that we obtained from our breakfast and get up to our boat, we then move to Magic Island, final stop of our island-hopping where we take our lunch!

Magic Island!

Delicious lunch cooked by our boat crews!

If you did some researches on the activities in Boracay, cliff diving at Ariel's Point is a thing you don't want to miss here! Unfortunately, we did not have our chance to get there as it was closed due to raining season. But we still get to do cliff diving at the sister island of Ariel's Point which is the Magic Island. You get to choose the jump from several heights, 3 meters, 7 meters, 9 meters, and of course10 meters! Don't worry if you don't know how to swim, because there's lifeguard down there to help you, so everyone with guts can do cliff diving! Haha...

Posing on the 7 meters diving board!

It might not seems to have much different between 7 meters and 10 meters, but when you stand on both diving board, you will a totally different feelings! It's not the same at all...! But we still did it for the 10 meters cliff diving and got addicted to it, we jumped few more times before we finally ended our island hopping tour. No doubt cliff diving is the highlight of the whole island-hopping.

Never look down before you take the leap!

Selfie on the tip of 10 meters diving board!

 

Me jumping off from the 10 meters cliff! Awesome!

We didn't just end our island-hopping tour by jumping off the cliff but instead we make some awesome Taiwanese friends! We added each other facebook, and promised to visit them in Taiwan! I must say the island-hopping tour ended in a very wonderful way!

A group photo with our captain before we ended our island-hopping!

It was quite exhausted after island-hopping, so all of us went back to our hotel to get some rest. I know the sunset in Boracay is definitely something that I wouldn't want to miss. So, I took a quick refreshing shower and head out to the White Beach again! It was still early for the sunset, so my friend and I decided to grab a Fruit Shake from Johna's while waiting for the spectacular sunset.

White beach in daytime~!

Sunset is on its way soon~!

Apparently, the bestseller fruit shake is Avocado milk shake where it was sold out by the time we get there, so I get myself a Mango Milk Shake as I know the mangoes are the best fruits in Phillipines! It was very delicious, fresh and refreshing, somehow, it was a little too sweet for me, that I was craving for water after finish the whole bottle of it! Lol~!

Johna's Snackbar

Yum yum~! Mango Milk Shake~

So finally, the moment had come, the beautiful sunset in Boracay, while most of the tourists chose to do Paraw Sailing, I chose to enjoy my little moment on this beautiful beach. When the sunset is about to set, you notice everyone on the beach become so quiet and calm, you get to listen to the sounds of waves hitting the shore, and the sun slowly make its way down to the horizon. From a big, bright, scorching, shiny fireball, it transformed to an orange egg yolk, then slowly becoming red when it reached the sea horizon, and with just blink of red light, it sink down to the sea, leaving a dark blue sky which slowing turns dark. Awesome isn't it? I'm sure it would be very romantic to enjoy the sunset with your love one! 

The sun is sinking~

Just before the sun goes down...  Beautiful right?  =)

After enjoying the magnificent sunset, we went to one of the high-rated restaurant Tilapia 'N Chips. No doubt the the foods served here is very tasty and in a big portion! I ordered a fish and chips sandwiches, and out of my surprise it taste really good that it reminds me of those I had in UK!

Yummy! Fish and Chips Sandwich~

After a fun and tiring day, we decided to end our night by enjoying an hour of relaxing full body massage before heading to bed! Opps... No picture for that, because it was too dark and I'm so enjoy with my massaging session~

Very soon, it comes to the one last day that we had in Boracay before we left on the very next day, so we decided not to make our day packed with too many activities. All of us was actually plan to find some excitements and prepared to get wet by falling into the sea, so we signed up for Banana Boat, cause from our previous experience, banana boat is one of the cheapest yet very exciting sport. Somehow, it was a little disappointing in Boracay, it' more like a photographing session instead of having some great fun. We didn't fall into the sea, and we went from yelling and shouting, to chatting on the banana. The very first time that I didn't get wet with banana boat... Blaaa... Not recommending~  Opps...

Taking a speed boat to the floating hut in the middle of sea

The captain actually allow us to drive the speed boat on our own~! Lol~

Finally arrived at the floating hut where we board onto the Banana Boat~

Say Cheeeeese~!

One last pic before we ended our not-so-exciting banana boat

So, next... We planned to join an water activity that we never heard or experience before, and it is one of the famous thing you will find in Boracay - Helmet diving. Unlike scuba diving, you don't get to swim under the sea, but instead you walk around with a bulky helmet. I must say it was a new experience! But I will still go for scuba diving if I had to choose. Ha!

Helmeeeeets! It's very heavy!

A nice group photo before wearing the helmet! Opps...

A group photo with the ugly, bulky helmet under the sea... Lol~

Fish feeding session with breads given by our instructor

The night before leaving, we decided to have a great seafood feast before leaving this beautiful island, so we went to Boracay Uptown for our dinner. The dinner was great! It was so delicious that I could have finish everything by my own....! Haha... So what do we had for our dinner? Tadaaa.... Lobsterrrrrr! Big prawn with garlic & butter, Squid stuffed with vegetables, steam fish and our favourite belacan kangkung~!

Seafood to be chosen!

Big big lobster....! Yay~

Dinner served! Let's eat!!!

If you think, my last night in Boracay ended with this wonderful dinner, then you are wrong! The night before this, my friend and I actually signed up for the Bar-hopping party organized by Pubcrawl, and I must say that it was awesome! It turned out to be the most enjoyable and fun moment I had in Boracay. Upon signing up for the event, we were given a yellow Pubcrawl T-shirt, a shot glass, and a wrist band. Basically, the theme is Turning Strangers into Friends, and yes, we make some great friends from different places~ Haha...! So let's the pictures do the story-telling.

Pretty girls from Singapore~

Friendly staff from Pubcrawl~

We-fie session while hopping onto the next bar! Lol

Awesome Lady Captain of the night! Lol...

Photographer and a handsome Filipino guy

Great pictures taken by Pubcrawl photographer~!

That's how I ended my awesome trip in Boracay, partying..... but not get wasted! Haha...! Before I end this post, I'll share a little tips in below, please take note of it if you're planning to travel in Boracay~



There are some fees that you need to prepare besides your flight tickets & accomodation:
175 php terminal fee and environmental fee at Caticlan
250 php transportation fees from airport to Boracay island (Boat & Van)
500 php terminal fee when leaving Kalibo airport

*Do not simply receive helps from locals, or take any pictures... It's all about TIPS!

All of the water sports price can be negotiated with the dealers,
just try to get the lowest price possible~
Foods doesn't seems to be very cheap, so prepare for extra money~!

I think that's all I can share with you guys... Tata~!