Sleep well, sleep cheaply and safely in London: Part 1

Whenever we try to save money, we sort of always check out the YHA or youth hostels, thinking that it should be the cheaper alternative. No, in London, these are not any cheaper than privately run hostels or hotels. Private hostels do have rates starting from £9/night, and usually average around £13/night or so. There are plenty of rooms available, and you don’t have to worry, unless you decide to come on Fridays! Fridays and Saturdays are when the whole country and Europe come to town to play. So make sure you got a room on these days in spring or summer!

I have been helping my friend find a short term accommodation for a couple of days and have been surprised by the number of hotels offering from £120 per week. These hotels usually charge about £25-40 per night for a non en-suite single room.

These hotels are located around Earls Court and Bayswater, and these are good, safe and well lit areas to stay in. There are lots of hotels and activities at night.

What kind of room can you get with that kind of price? Well, you get what you pay for.

Usually they won’t give you breakfast, or just give you the basic coffee and cereal plus milk which I had mentioned. If you want to have an English breakfast, you might have to add £5.00 or something like that per day. Is it worth it? Well, I would not pay for it. Would rather save it up for a nice brunch at a nice café or grab a quick lunch at Pret a Manger- a popular sandwich joint that you will see everywhere. For £5, you could also have a huge plate of roast duck rice at FOUR SEASONS or other Chinese restaurants, or even lunch buffets at Chinatown(Chinese Food) or Bayswater (Indian food)!

The size of the room? Small!

It is always small in London, anyway, unless you pay top price in a top hotel. Usually there is just enough room for you walk around the bed, and the bed would be pushed against the wall for maximum space saving! Some rooms would have a small cabinet for tv and bar fridge, and some have only one of these! There is usually a chair, or a small sofa.

You might have to share a toilet and bathroom with others, usually a 2-4 more rooms. I know, that will give you the creeps, especially for gals, because of all the sagas of hidden cameras. Unfortunately, I have no solutions for that. For the toilet thingy, what I do is always have a small packet of baby wipes or moist toilet tissue with me. I will give the seat a few wipes (using a bunch of toilet paper to grab that wet toilet tissue) before using. The soap solutions in the tissue should kill off most of the germs, and you get a clean seat. If you are not bringing this from home, you can get it from one of the supermarkets or at Boots.

If you go for an ensuite room, you got to find out more about what you are paying for. Usually it is a TINY shower plus toilet only. A bath tub is rare, except in hotels that cost more than £70/night.

Security? This is something which you must be alert to when you go to the hotel. Some small hotels would lock the front door, and a staff would open the door for you to go in. I think that is very reasonable, since they have no security guards. I prefer this to hotels whereby you could just walk in, and head off to the lift.

P/S: we found a great bargain at Holiday House Hotel at Leinster Garden, near Lancaster Gate tube. Damage? Only £125/week for an ensuite room. You got your own bar fridge, and there is communual lounge for tv, cooking facilities and coin operated laundry!

Another good deal is at Hyde Park House at St Petersburg terrace. Also £120/week.

Added: 1 June 06
Note:
We did not like the Holiday HouseTHAT much, probably because of the ongoing renovation, and some "dodgy" lookinh characters who try to be "friendly" to gals. Make sure they give you a room to lower floors, the top floor means more than 80 steps up the narrow stairs, with feeble water pressure.

For a more $$, get a place at Royal Bayswater Hotel at £45/day, including an English breakfast. We saw the room, small but very clean and nice!! It is along the Bayswater road, and the bus-stop is just downstairs. Thumbs up for location and security

Cheap eats for London Part 3

The cheapest of cheap eats is obviously supermarket food!

As a general rule of thumb, this is the rank in terms of taste

1) M&S, Waitrose
2) Sainsbury
3) Tesco, Asda etc.

In terms of price??

Use the same list, the other way round. It is fair isnt it? Pay more, get more yummy, healthier food.

M&S "Food to go" are yummy, but at a price. Eg of price list?
Bacon Roll, £2.50
Sausage and Egg Bagel £3.00
Porridge £1.30
Singapore Noodles with Chicken and King Prawns £3.75

Sainsburry have some nice sandwiches, and the bigger branches have a whole roasted chicken going for £3.99. It is also interesting to taste their interpretation of "Asian Food". Talking about Asian food, my general rule of thumb is stay away from Tesco!

Tesco's Sandwiches are cheap-less than £1.00 to 3.00 and generally very filling, especially you picked the "deep fill" options, with a huge amount of fillings. These sandwiches are generally high in calories, with that amount of cheese and mayonaise heaped inside. These are great for a filling meal, but if you want something more "healthy", go for the "healthy living" Brand for Tesco, which would be much cheaper than Weight Watchers' sandwiches. However, I find the taste really bland! So, the compromise? Get from Boots! They have a miximum limit of £3.50 for meal (sandwiches or salads) + snacks + drinks for £3.50.

Dying for some vege? Get some coleslaw at 25 p from Sainsbury.

Still too expensive?
Then just resign to eating donuts, buy a pack, and it will come up to only 10p per donut. Or if you stay near a Budgens, the one at Porchester is great- go there about 1 hour before closing and get all the French pastries you want for 15 p each, a whole baguette for 19 p each 1/2 roast chicken for 99p a loaf of premium bread from between 20-49 p.... For less than £1.00, you will get enough to feed 1 person for a day.

How much cheaper do you need to go?

Cheap eats for a short london stay: Part 2

This is the best possible arrangement for a 3-5day camp in a backpacker's hostel:

Breakfast - try to look for one which is provided.

Don't pay extra just to have BREAKFAST included. It is not worth it! Most of the time they just give you plain and watery coffee, and the cheapest possible housebrand cereals with milk. These are very very cheap stuff, and you might as well buy it from the supermarket! The exception will be "english breakfast" with sausages, baked beans, bacon eggs and coffee/tea/milk. This will be worth an extra few pounds, and give you a good start. If you are a vegetarian...hmmm .. forget it.

If breakfast is not provided, you might have:
1) Milk (£30pence/pint) + cereal (about £1.00 for a 500mg box if you buy housebrands like Tesco, Sainsburry etc) + coffee/other hot beverage, if you have access to kettle. You could buy those sachets about £2.20 for Nescafe's cappucino 10's packs and about £1.20 if you buy housebrand ) You will have filling breakfast for about £4.00, for 4-5 days at least.

2) Fruits(from markets) + yogurt (about 50 pence for a 500mg tub of housebrand, 25-40pence for a 150g).

3) Grab a sandwich for £0.90 to 3.00 from supermarkets or Boots (Boots pharmacy has yummy sandwiches too!). If you stay near Gloucester Road in South Kensington, go to the "SANDWICH shop"! I am sure your hostel people know the shop location, cos it is always packed with hungry backpackers and students from the nearby universities plus a smoothie/coffee etc for another £1.00

4) Look out for coffee plus croissant for £1.50 signs in shops. These are only for takeaways. However must warn you that this will not keep you full.

5) for an Asian treat, go to Malaysian hall at Queensborough terrace, very near Bayswater station for a nasi lemak (£2.50) or roti canai/prata (£1.10) and teh tarik (1.10).

6) Check out the 1.99 breakfast promotions for Mc D, Burger king or Benjy's.

7) Clearance!!-Around the closing time, supermarkets clear their food like ready to go meals and sandwiches for a fraction of their normal price. If you go past a supermarket at its closing time, be sure to check out their "reduced" shelf. Things can be dirt cheap sometimes. I got 8 slices of stuffed turkey which usually retails for about £5 for 20p before, and loaves of bread and sandwiches for 10p each.

Other cheap stuff for breakfast: Donuts (12p each) Cakes from Sainsburry basics (15 p for a chocolate roll, and about 25 p for a rather large slice of madeira cake), Biscuits! (Go for Marks a Spencer!= 49p for 400g of yummy yummy custard cream), make your own hard boiled eggs, if you got kettle. Eggs is about 10p each.

Finally, if you are a group of hungry people, just go to Tesco, grab a loaf of bread (about 50p), a box of ham (1.70 for 400g!) a packet of cheedar cheese (about 0,50p for 12). For about £3.00, you will have enough to last you through lunch for about 3 people.

EAT WELL, EAT CHEAPLY in London : Part I

This is going to be the first of a long long series, I guess.

I have been talking about eating with my friend's sis who just arrived, and I am all fired up about eating cheaply and eating well.

Ok, let's see. What strategy you will take depends on:
1) how many days you stay here
2) how broke and desperate you are
3) whether you have basic cooking facilities.
4) can you bring some stuff from home?

Let's say you are a terribly broke backpacker, just managed to scrimp and saved and begged enough to get tickets for a short trip to Europe, and London is part of your long (and poor) holiday. It is also applicable to students who just set their foot here, have not found permanent accommodation, and getting shocked looking at prices at restaurants.

Unlike Asia, you have got no hawkers or roadside stalls here,so eating out is not cheap.

Here is how you could save some pennies if you know these general "rules"

1) If you want to really want to save money, prepare/cook your meals yourself! The difference is HUGE!!!

2)House brands, house brands and house brands.
Buy house brands and you can save up to 1/2 (sometimes more) of your budget. Eg? 2 litre coke= about £1.50, 2 litre "Tesco cola"= £0.46. 1 bottle of Cadbury Hot chocolate powder is about £2, 1 bottle Sainsbury hot chocolate is around 60pence.

3) Eat-in vs take away prices in the same "restaurant" can vary between 20-50%.

4) Small supermarkets or "express" stores are more expensive than bigger ones, even when they are the same company. So , always shop at the bigger store if you have one round the corner..... and open markets are CHEAPEST, especially at closing time or Fridays/saturdays. In central London, Church Street market is usually the cheapest for fruits and vegetables. Berwick street at Soho is very small and relatively expensive, unless you walk pass when they are closing. Portobello Market is my favourite. The range is wide! You got expensive stuff (Organic, Fair Trade etc) to feed the "discerning" movie stars and the "professionals", but look properly, and you get the best bargains around. The good bargains are stores nearer to Tesco, further "downhill", away from the antique market. This is the place where a punnet of strawberries cost between £2.60/punnet and 3 punnets for £1.

5) Pubs aka public houses are not only drinking holes. These also function as feeding grounds. Food is pretty standard in the pubs, as many of them are part of a large chain. The food is supplied from the same source, and heated up here. However, the price can differ by more than half for the same stuff.

6) Milk is almost as cheap as mineral water. 1 pint of milk 500+ ml is about 30-35 pence. 1 litre is about 50+ to 60 pence. So for nutrition, and energy, not to mention it makes your sandwich lunch seems more substantial, a pint of cold milk is a nice, nutricious drink. Oh, and did I tell you the British milk seems to taste better??? And for the alcoholics, just head to the supermarket the moment you arrive, and lug back a carton of beer. A bottle of 500 ml beer costs only about 50p when it is on "offer" and sold in a carton- and there are always offers!

8) Talking about offers, London is an offer town. Everything is will be on offer- it is just being "rotated". Offers are as good as "buy 1 free 1", and this applies to many food items and also toiletries in supermarkets.

9) Lunch buffets in Chinatown or other Chinese/indian restaurants are time and places where hungry ghosts stuff themselves full. It is a great way to save money (breakfast plus lunch and tea is covered), and you have less risk enlarging the tummy.

10) Central london is more ex than zone 2 or 3 areas for almost EVERYTHING. Need I say more?

Ok, that is all now. Will get to the details when I have time...

Other related posts:

Cheap eats for a short london stay: Part 2

Eat well, eat cheaply in London: Part 1

London is expensive? The insider's guide to do it in a cheap way.

Getting around Cheaply in London- An insider's guide

SLEEP WELL, SLeep SAFELY and CHEAPLY in London.

Other posts:
CALLING HOME CHEAPLY from London!!
Calling home Cheaply from London or UK : Part 2
UK's calling cards- call the right number to save $$ (Part I)
Calling cards- Great deals for Malaysia or singapore: Part II

Calling cards- Great deals for Malaysia or singapore: Part II

I just spoke to a friend yesterday, and found out a great deal.

"Pineapple" calling cards!

The catch is you have to buy it from Chinatown. The deal is if you could find the shop, you should only pay £7.00-£7.50 for a card with £25 of value.

Another catch is the connection charge of 50p, which is actually about 14p considering you paid £7.00 for a £25 card.

So where is the shop?

You can try this "electrical shop" at Wardour Street called Lee Fook, and other shops which sell calling cards in the area.


Other related post:

UK's calling cards- call the right number to save $$ (Part I)
CALLING HOME CHEAPLY from London!!
Calling home Cheaply from London or UK : Part 2
London is expensive? The insider's guide to do it in a cheap way.
Getting around Cheaply in London- An insider's guide
SLEEP WELL, SLeep SAFELY and CHEAPLY in London(coming soon).

Curling up with a good (cheap) Book

It has been raining all day. Grey and wet. I think I know what they mean by the dreadful weather in London.

I am supposed to write about eating cheaply in London. I feel like writing it. But where is the energy???

I will just curl up with the Empress Orchid, maybe. I am not sure what is the cover designs is like for Asia but it is quite ugly for UK's.


Despite the ugly cover, the book generated 27 reviews in Amazon UK in just a short while.

One of the CHEAPS in London is Cheap Books!!!! Most best sellers go for 1/2 of the recommended retail prices printed at the back of books. For example, the Empress Orchid Book starts at £2.25 in Amazon UK for a brand new book and less than £1 if you want to take a second hand one. Good bargain huh? No wonder my friend shipped a container full of paperbacks home when the posting finished.

So, on the shopping list: Books are a must!!!

Calling home Cheaply from London or UK : Part 2

II) Call through special discounted numbers

Someone gave me these series of numbers:

(will put here later, got to check that they are working first...)

Frankly, I have no idea how this works or how these numbers come about. It is passed on through friends, from their friends. Probably it is just like Zone1511 in Singapore. Anyway, it works. And I know people who always use it, (including myself sometimes!!)

These numbers are very popular among office workers and students here who have access to phones in their offices. To make it worth while, you got to call these numbers from a landline, and you just incur some charges of a few pence/minute (usually 1-2p), depending on destinations. Before they put you through, they will explain these to you.

The disadvantage of using this is the “instruction” or “introduction” is lengthy, and you might be told to call a different number if the destination you call is not “covered” by the number you are calling. The benefits? No calling card, you pay nothing. Very small fees to the phone line owner. (the schools and bosses are not complaining, so it is really cheap!)

III) Buying a local SIM card

You can get a local SIM card, if you plan to stay a week or so in London.

The following is for the point of view of tourist or short-term visitors to London or UK, who wants to call home or stay in contact while here.

Virgin Mobile is usually recommended when you try to purchase a SIM card from a store. Most shops sell you cards for £10. Virgin is considered cheaper, as it came with a £5.00 airtime when you get the card.

Choose carefully!! The charges differ by as much as a few times! It is crazy. Example O2 charges £1.50 per minute of international call, Mobile world starts with a few extra pence and Tesco charges 20-40p/minute.

I bought a Virgin mobile SIM too, and my friends bought them as well when they first arrived. For me, it was ok, not too bad. But for my friend, she had it bad. Her hotel room is at the basement, and she had no line!! And it is not that cheap! 30 or 35p/minute for the first five minutes! Just calling a friend in London to tell her that you arrived can cost you a pound!

My suggestion is consider FRESH mobile

• The charge is 15p/minute and 5p/sms. One of the cheapest around.
• Reception is ok.
• The international calls are the cheapest for this one, I think. International SMS only 15p/message.

Downside?

I think only Carphone Warehouse sells them.

Upside?

Carphone Warehouse is present in every corner, every high street here. You can’t miss it! Find out more from www.carphonewarehouse.com. You can also check out Mobile World by carphone warehouse.

My current SIM is Tesco Mobile.

Cheap!!! 15p/minute and 5p/sms for the “Value” option.

Downside?

You got to buy the SIM by post if you choose Tesco Value. SMS home for 20p. You can find out more from http://www.tesco.com/telecoms/ if you got a friend here who can receive the card by post on your behalf.

Other options?

Easycall – need to buy from internet https://www.easymobile.com/. Yes, this is from the same people who give you the cheap and relatively good EasyHotel chain. P/s: There is a promotion till mid May. You get £5.00 airtime free!

Other related posts:

London is expensive? The insider's guide to do it in a cheap way.

Getting around Cheaply in London- An insider's guide

EAT WELL, EAT CHEAP in London (coming soon).

SLEEP WELL, SLeep SAFELY and CHEAPLY in London(coming soon).

UK's calling cards- call the right number to save $$

On your phone cards, you will see a few numbers. These are the usual “options”:

“Dial access” or “Freephone” --- starting from 0800

“National”-- starting from 0845

“London local access number”--starting from 0207

“Payphone” – starting from 00800

If you don’t have a landline, you got to call the payphone number from a telephone booth. From my own experience, not all public phones allow you to call this number. I did not manage to get connected a couple of times. Through my own experience, your best bet is those RED, traditional looking phone booths. You could connect without any problems from here.

If you live with a friend or have an accommodation that comes with a phone, you could try using 0207. This will give you more minutes than using the 0800 numbers. But check with them first. Most people here would buy a package when they get their land lines, as local calls here are not cheap! (Imagine, the local calls are listed in bills!) With these packages, usually they can call 0207 numbers, or local numbers without any extra charge. Some people have packages where they call for free during night time and weekends, and some could call all day.

Don’t try to use hotel phones…obvious reason—it is very ex!

If you have a GENEROUS friend, or your friend got a phone package that gives them free national calls, you can call 0845, the national number. National numbers are expensive to the phone bill, but give you’re the max number of minutes. Eg: if you use 0845 to call Singapore or Hong Kong, you get 1500 minutes using iphone. If you use 0800 number, you get only 400minutes or less. So, if you can use 0845 number for FREE, use it! Otherwise, don’t fleece your friend.

Lastly, the dial access number or free phone number. You can call this from landlines without incurring any costs to the line owner. So, use without guilt! The minutes are slightly better than payphone numbers (from experience), but worse than 0207 number. However, check before you use your hotel phone, whether they will charge you for using 0800 numbers. By right, they should not.

Related Posts in My blog:

• Getting around Cheaply in London- An insider's guide
  
• EAT WELL, EAT CHEAP in London (coming soon).
• SLEEP WELL, SLeep SAFELY and CHEAPLY in London(coming soon)
• CALLING HOME CHEAPLY from London!!
  

Calling home Cheaply from London or UK: Part 1

Part 1: Calling Cards

If you tell your family and friends that you will go on a shoe-string travel, they will WORRY about you. So, cheap travel should not come with lazy calling home. The folks, especially will really worry. So, here are some CHEAP ways to call home!

If you want to call home to Asia, eg Singapore or Hong Kong, calling cards are the cheapest options for overseas call. The other options are special numbers (if you have access to a landline or a local sim card) and also using and “pay as you go” sim card.

Generally there are 3 ways to call:
A) Calling cards
B) Call through special discounted numbers
C) Buying a local SIM card

Lets starts with calling cards.

There are a few things to look out for when you buy calling cards.

1) Where do you buy them?

This can affect your calling cost by as much as half!

Usually, there is value in your card. Common denominations are £5,£10 and £20.

For a card worth £5, one shop may sell it for £5, another may sell it for £4, another for £3.50, or 3 for £10, and yet the cheapest I ever bought was £2.50- at a market stall.

The cheapest place to get it is in markets-look out for a small “table” with lots of cards displayed. These usually sell £5 cards for £3 or even less, usually £2.00.

Never ever pay full price, ie same amount as the printed card value. Usually there is discount. The exceptions are “Unitel” cards- I have not come across any discounts yet, and iPhone, usually will be priced more highly than other card. However, these two cards have decent call qualities.

2) Any surcharges for using a payphone number?

Beware when you buy the calling cards. Some of them charge you 20p just to get connected. It is small sum, but you might not get connected all the time or the person may not pick up your call! Some cards also have a surcharge of 1-2p/minutes when you use a payphone, so read the posters outside the shop for fine prints. Imagine, my most disappointing card only gave me two-10 minutes conversation to Singapore. (and I paid £3.50!!).

3) Expiry dates

Once you “activated” your card, there is an expiry date. This is usually 30 days or 45 days. iPhone gives you 90 days from first use.

4) Can you use them outside UK?

Look out for statements like “global freephone”. It means that you can call a 0800 number in UK from overseas. This is very useful when you are going to travel to other countries after UK, because you can still use them to call home!!

5) Calling the right number

Calling the right number when using a phone card is an acquired ART! I have wasted so much money doing a trial an error thing to get the cheapest was to call. They don’t give you these information when you buy it, and you can’t find it the information on the internet either, so consider what I am sharing as EXCLUSIVE!!

To read more >>>>>

If buying a calling card is not for you, then you can consider using some special numbers and also get a local sim card.

To read more (will post soon)>>>>>

BEWARE!!!
When you walk along a busy street, eg Oxford Street, a leaflet distributor may hand you “phone cards”, promising you free calls when you call a number. Never, ever use those numbers. When you call the numbers, they will immediately charge a huge sum to your bill!!! Read the fine prints!

Other calling options?

B)Call through special discounted numbers
C)Buying a local SIM card

Other related posts:

London is expensive? The insider's guide to do it in a cheap way.

Getting around Cheaply in London- An insider's guide

EAT WELL, EAT CHEAP in London.

SLEEP WELL, SLeep SAFELY and CHEAPLY in London(coming soon).

Getting around Cheaply in London- An insider's guide

Here is the chapter one of my series; Insider's guide to survive cheaply in London!

I start with GETTING AROUND IN A CHEAP WAY, and try to put up other stuff when I have time.

London can be a really expensive place to move around, if you do not know how to. Getting around takes up a big chunk of your budget, if you are not careful in planning it.

GETTING around Cheaply in London- An insider's guide.

1) Find out more about transport in London!

Before your come, spend a while getting an idea of how the transport system works, and you can save a bundle. Travelling around can be expensive, and taxis and cabs are not an option, except to those really loaded people. Checking out www.tfl.gov.uk, the Transport for London website is a MUST DO. You get information about Oyster card, the prices of various travel options and give you interactive maps. Those maps are really impressive, they guide you point to point, and come with an estimated travel times.

2) Use the TUBE to get from the Heathrow Airport to Town.

Want to try the Black Cabs? Forget it. It cost about £48 to get to South Kensington very early in the morning. If you stay further east, you pay more! If you are caught in the rush hour, fish out that credit card.

You don’t have to worry about walking to your hotel or hostel with your luggage. In London, you see people pulling their luggage ALL the time. Some areas have more tourists than locals.

3) Buy OYSTER CARD!!!

Ignore this advice at your own peril. Serious. Buy Oyster card->the first thing when you do when you arrive. Then use this card to go from Airport to the hostel. The Oyster Card is the cheapest way to get around London, and the difference between using card and cash is worth it! Imagine, you pay £1.50 cash, £0.80 by card for non peak bus travels. And from 2006 onwards, it is cheaper to use Oyster Card than travel cards. So, it is worth buying even if you just stay for a few days!

4) Use the bus

Those double-decker red buses are the best way to see London. If you go for those hop-on, hop-off tourist buses, you see about the same thing, but pay a lot more. With buses, you have a cap of maximum £3.00. Remember, buses in London charges a flat rate, no matter how far you travel. It can also be safer than tubes, as some tube stations can have no staff at night, and a favourite crime spots.

5) WALK

London is the perfect place to walk. Most major tourist attractions in centre of town can be covered by foot. I have acted as tour guides, and brought friends from the South Kensington Museums, to Hyde Park, to British Museum via Oxford Street, and then to Piccadilly Circus and Soho/Chinatown via Regent Street. The weather is perfect, and the traffic at Oxford Street could be bad. So walk!!

6) Get a good, detailed MAP

You can either spend £1.50 to get a map on the tube stations on your way in, or check out the tourist centres. The “Police Post” at Piccadilly Circus also hands out free tourist maps of central London. (but slightly less detailed)

Other related posts:

London is expensive? The insider's guide to do it in a cheap way.

EAT WELL, EAT CHEAP in London

SLEEP WELL, SLeep SAFELY and CHEAPLY in London(coming soon).

CALLING HOME CHEAPLY from London!!

London is expensive? : The insider’s guide to do it the cheap way!

Why are tourists avoiding London???

I am tired of the “lame excuses” which my friends have been giving for not visiting me, or staying long enough in London. Come on, there is really lots to see in London, and lots to do!

OK, I will put up some tips for a cheap cheap way to cover London, after seeing people coming and going and spending a bomb in the process.

I start with GETTING AROUND CHEAPLY in London- An Insider's Guide, and try to put up other stuff when I have time, including EATING aka FEEDING yourself WELL and CHEAPLY in London, Cheap phone calls from London, SHOPPING TIPS etc etc. Please come to London, it is a very interesting place!

The chief complains that I got including it is very difficult to "survive" in London. The accomodation is expensive, the transport is expensive, and even the food is expensive! Everyone complains that it seems one would take about £20 to feed yourselves 3 meals a day. Entertainment is also expensive in London. By entertainment, everyone think of the WEST-END musicals and operas etc. That would be expensive, of course!

Well, there are definitely ways to get around and enjoy london within your budget. Don't forget that london is full of broke students, and full of tourists and migrants from all over the world. It is possible to get around this place in a "cheap" and fun way!

London is not so much of a tourist trap, it is possible to enjoy your stay without sleeping in the park or starving.

Related Posts in My blog:

• Getting around Cheaply in London- An insider's guide
  
• EAT WELL, EAT CHEAP in London (coming soon).
• SLEEP WELL, SLeep SAFELY and CHEAPLY in London(coming soon)
• CALLING HOME CHEAPLY from London!!

Another cheap travel link- cheap flights fr London to ASIA

We went for lunch with a friend and came back with another piece of information for cheap travel. Acoordingf to my friend if you want cheap fares from UK, you should look for lee's travel

This is probably the cheapsest site. The downside is if you want to pay by credit card, there is a 2% surcharge, and a surcharge of £1.00 if you want to use a debit card.

ANother thing is it is cheaper to travel before July, which means I better make my plans early!

Missed Cotswolds- again!!

What a complete letdown! The trip to OXford and Cotswolds did not happen as hoped and planned.

1. The car had to be spent to be repaired again. Which means we did not go to Cotswold!
2. I just found out that there were 3000 BLOOMING cherry blossom trees in Oxford, and we just missed a beautiful sight! This was a gift from the Japanese govn for educating the prince!

Hmmm. Perhaps we should have considered a rental car? I have never tried car renting in UK yet.

Anyway, we spent the whole day shopping in designer stores in Bicester Village. That village is a shopping mecca. The carpark was full of cars on a Sunday, and you see lots of expensive cars, families and of course GAY couples! Perhaps this has something to do about designer stuff and being gay. I was more three couples within 30 minutes at one time when I we were in a suit store. The most notable couple was that which walked in matching pink embossed suits and sunglasses perched on their balding heads.

What would you expect? Think intellectuals, think moneyed, think London commuter belt. Then spell GAY.