The London Eye

The photo shows the world-famous London Eye from below. I took this photo while I was waiting in a line to ride on the humongous ferris wheel in London, England. It took almost a half day for everything. Here is my today's itinerary; got out of the hotel at 09:00, then exchanged my currency for GBP at a post office, then caught a Tube from Paddington to Charing Cross, then took some photos in Trafalgar Square, then crossed a bridge over Thames river while taking some photos of the Palace of Westminster, then waited in a line to get a ticket for the London Eye, purchased a ticket at 11:40, after that enjoyed to see some street performances until the valid time of my ticket, then waited in a line to get into a capsule. So then, finally, you know? It was already 14:30. I was in a capsule for 30 minutes and got out of it at 15:00.

Red telephone box

The photo shows pretty famous Red Telephone Boxes of the UK. Sometimes "pretty famous" means only among the foreigners, and I guess the red telephone boxes are no exception. How come I say like that because one of my young female English acquaintances had said that she had no idea why a lot of tourists want to take a photo of a telephone box. She said she didn't feel anything to see them. Well, it happens. People see the same things from a different perspective, that is why life is interesting. I see the UK's red telephone boxes as the prettiest public phone booth I've seen in the world.

Paddington to Tower Hill by the Tube

It's been three days in London, England, and I've been having lots and lots of fun so far. Greater London has a convenient public transportation system called the London Underground or commonly nicknamed the Tube. Also, there is an awesome electronic ticketing system named the Oyster card. I didn't know about the card, but one of the station staff recommended I get the card, and kindly helped me purchase it. So First things first, I went to see Tower Bridge by Tube. The best thing about the Oyster card is that it is convenient, good value for money.

I'd love to sit on the John, I'd love to.

If I upload this photo today, I guess you might be able to expect where I am. Yep, I'm in London, England. Yay! I took this photo in a loo right under the London Eye. Long story short, but after I watched the fabulous opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games, I really really wanted to come back to London for the first time in many moons, and worked pretty hard just to save enough money for a long vacation includes London. It has been being a hectic / amazeballs trip, you can imagine. I'll keep posted, stay tuned.

Pretty-arranged flowers

Today I went to Phaya Thai post office in Bangkok to send some post cards. Come to think of it, I asked several souvenir shops if they had postcards, but they didn't. I came back to Thailand for the first time in 2 years 9 months, and from what I remember it wasn't such a tall order to buy postcards. From my point of view, IT era has been ruining traditional businesses and souvenir postcards is one of them. By the way, this pretty-arranged flowers is one of the hotel's comps. I appreciate it.

Shopping @ Big C Ratchadamri

I went to Big C supermarket in Ratchadamri district in Bangkok, Thailand yesterday. My hotel offers free shuttle services for guests to a couple of BTS train station, so I used their shuttle bus to get to Surasak station and took a BTS sky train to Ratchadamri station. When I returned to the hotel, I took a motorbike taxi from Surasak. The driver didn't know the exact location of my hotel, but I knew it like the back of my hand, so I came back safe and sound.

I prefer half and half

I flew in Bangkok on the 22nd of October at 15:25 in local time in Thailand. The temperature here is 32 degrees in Celsius. It's hot as always and streets were a bit of busy due to the notorious traffic jam, but I arrived in my hotel around my estimated time. First of all, I took off my pre-winter clothes and changed to my favourite summer dress, then enjoyed hotel's comps; Welcome Drink, Welcome Fruits, and Welcome Flowers. As my arrival dinner I chose hotel's fabulous Thai Vietnamese restaurant and ordered their Thai specialities with bottles of Chang beer. There were Thai Jasmine rice and red rice. I could choose which one I wanted, and I went half and half.

Leave lunch on a back-burner

The photo shows a huge standing statue of Ramesses II. I took this photo in the awesome open-air museum in Memphis, Egypt. In Memphis, you can also see the other stunning statue of Ramesses II which is laid on the ground and you can take some photos of the statue from the upper story. That day, I went to Memphis via Giza from the capital Cairo, and I also wanted to visited Saqqara after Memphis within a time limit of its opening hours, so I left lunch on a back-burner and visited those places in one go.

Make eye contact with cows

I took this photo somewhere in between Unawatuna and Talpe in Sri Lanka. I was walking down Matara Road and suddenly realized that a couple of cows were staring at me. I was so surprised and was like a deer in the headlights. Then in the next breath, I took a photo of them and walked away from there. After a while a tuk-tuk driver stopped his vehicle next to me and asked me to take a ride to the place where I headed. I just walked around the street aimlessly, so I refused his offer. I really love Sri Lankan tuk-tuks, though.

A view of Nyhavn 27

The photo shows Nyhavn 27 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The area is famous for its stunning colorful buildings on both sides on the canal. There are so many restaurants and bars in this area. On my day of arrival in Copenhagen I visited Nyhavn for the first time. The street were lined by colorful buildings exactly like the pictures I've seen on the Internet. The biggest difference from my imagination was the canal. It was in the middle of January and the canal was completely frozen with ships.

The weather can make or break the trip

Recently, I've been preparing for my next vacation. I will depart on the 22nd October. It'll be a solo-trip again, but I will take my iPad mini as my travel partner and I'm planning to update my blog from countries where I will visit. During my next vacation, I will visit Zagreb, Croatia for the first time and I'm really looking forward to getting to a country where I've never been. By the way, I took this photo in Athens, Greece. It was a perfect day to explore the beautiful ancient city.

Take first things first

I took this photo at my hotel room in Madrid, Spain right after my arrival. My flight from Barcelona was delayed and I was starving, so I stayed in the room for about less than 10 minutes and got out of the hotel to find a place to eat. There were so many restaurants in Madrid and also there were so many people. I mean a lot of places were just packed, but I found a very nice place to have Jamon Iberico with nice afternoon beer. After lunch, I went back to my hotel and unpacked a suitcase.

Enjoy a view of the Pyramids from my hotel

I took this photo during a twilight stroll in my hotel's garden. I was in Giza, Egypt and my hotel was really close to the three famous Pyramids, so I could enjoy this kind of fantastic view from my hotel room, hotel's swimming pool, and hotel's garden. It was my birthday in 2010, and it was some time before the birthday dinner at hotel's Tex-Mex place. The good times were killing me. The following day, I moved to the capital Cairo and spent five more days in Egypt and visited the Egyptian Museum and so on.

Any regrets?

I took this photo in Tel Aviv, Israel and I will go back there in next month. When I visited Israel for the first time, I drank carrot orange juice at the airport and it tasted like heaven. I didn't know that Israeli carrot juice is that yummy. One of my regrets is I forgot to take a photo of a glass of carrot orange juice before I drank it up. So, next month, when I revisit Tel Aviv, Israel, I just want to enjoy nice carrot juice everyday maybe during afternoon. Also, to not forget to take a nice photo of a glass of carrot juice.