Greetings from London!

london

Hello! This is the obligatory “I iz here” post. I am where GMT is exactly that – zero! I’ve been up for quite a while, my body thinks it’s 8 pm when it’s actually only 12 pm. T_T

alex sharon

I didn’t manage to get much sleep last night too but you know the oft repeated phrase “Small world, huh?” Yup, I bumped into Alex and Sharon in London! I asked them about a bus route and later we bumped into each other while waiting for the coach and he asked if I was sixthseal.com coz my face looks familiar. See you both in Amsterdam!

Anyway, back to London, it looks old…er, I mean it has character at first glance. The skies are a little bit gloomy and it drizzled almost non-stop. >.<

kind local

I have a very good first impression of this city though. I got a little lost on my way to the hostel where I’m backpacking and asked a hurried looking woman on the street the way. I expected her to walk on saying she didn’t know but she stopped, rummaged around in her handbag for a book and patiently consulted it and told me where to go. She said that book/map is the only way she manages to find the way around the city. Good first encounter with the locals – willing to help despite being in a hurry.

I’m waiting to check into my hostel right now, having a pint of their fine local draft beers. Let me just give you a brief run through of what happened after I got here:

breakfast

Grabbed a full traditional English breakfast with two pints of the local ale. Where else can you have a pint at 9 am in the morning without having weird looks, nay, with other people doing the same thing! =D

milk

Went to the local and bought some essentials and this creamy milk – it’s unhomogenized fresh milk from Jersey cows and it tastes awesome!

I made a huge mistake by exchanging the bulk of my currency at the airport. I got a 5.8 exchange rate instead of a 5.1 exchange rate in KL, resulting in a loss of GBP 80 (around RM 400). I saw that the exchange rates are more favorable in town so it’s still okay to change your money here, just not at airports.

roulette

Anyway, I decided to take matters into my own hands and get back the GBP 80 by stepping into one of the many betting places over here. They operate kinda like the Aussie betting spots – horses etc with a couple of pokies machines thrown in. However this one offers Bacarrat!

roulette win

I inserted GBP 100 and bet GBP 40 on Red – and won! I bet another GBP 40 and lost, and the losing streak continued till I finished my GBP 100. I put in another GBP 200 (swearing that if I lost this, I’m going to go) and started betting consistantly GBP 100 (about RM 500) per spin. I kept on losing and winning and lost the GBP 200.

winning slip

I damn won’t give up lor and put in another GBP 200 (for total buy in of GBP 500). I bet GBP 100 each round again and kept on losing and winning and was about to give up and just write off the GBP 500 (RM 2,500) loss until I went on a winning streak.

It was a tough battle but in the end I managed to get GBP 600. w00t!

pound winnins

That’s a GBP 100 (RM 500) net profit after my GBP 500 buy in. I managed to cover the GBP 80 loss in exchange rate and have a nice breakfast and a couple of pints courtesy of the machine to boot. 😉

600 pounds me

God Bless the Queen! =D

pints

I’m heading down to Stonehenge and the Roman Baths tomorrow. Catch you on the flipside!

Posted: 1:11 pm London time

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156 thoughts on “Greetings from London!”

  1. HB, yum what kind of breakfast was it? Roulette is my best game always winning and giving my sister money won from it so she could play other game too. My mom taught me how it done a special way of playing it.

    Reply
    • It’s a traditional English breakfast. Best served with ale. 😉

      I’m a big fan of almost 50-50 odds so my games are always either Bacarrat or Roulette.

      How do you play it?

      Reply
      • Hmm…yeah but if you play like that it’s an approximately 30% change of winning vs an approximate 50% chance of winning if you play Black/Red Odd/Even.

        I saw someone play like your mother too in Auckland – takes a lot of patience and time, something I don’t have. 🙂

        I’m always in and out within 15 min max. I think this one took 15 minutes too, can’t be more than that but it felt more than that coz I was chasing back my buy in and wanted to win. 🙂

        Reply
    • Wow! That would be nice. You can go from London to Paris with under GBP 90 and a full rail ticket. I wish I had more days to spend here. T_T

      Reply
        • i truly believe that usual tourist spot like the tower bridge, big ben even eiffel tower of paris didnt excite me much..coz this have been something that we seen all this while in the media..it was those small little alley, those second hand shops around london that got me feeling woooooohooooo and of coz that special street in Amsterdam too hehehe

          Reply
  2. woo….u r one hell of a man…”never giving up” ehhh….i miss those black pudding in Eng bf..something that they dont usually serve anywhere else of the world i think(at least not in malaysia)..go get english steak kidney pie..also best served with a black ale..^^

    Reply
    • No la seriously this will drain all my savings…the Bacarrat bit was just a bit of fun. 🙂
      Maximum bet is 100 pounds, max payout 500 pounds, just wanted to punt a bit.

      Reply
    • Heh! I won’t be so stupid, I would have stopped at 500 pounds. 🙂
      Still need to travel around and Amsterdam still to go.
      I’m heading to Stonehenge and Roman Baths now.
      Cheers Eiling!

      Reply
  3. Lucky chap! 😀 Hmm, maybe I should visit the casinos over here. Who knows, I might have beginner’s luck, eh? Have fun there!

    Reply
    • Heh! There are a lot of casinos over here. Saw one attached to a hotel. However, not going to bet anymore, point was got the exchange rate back plus some so now am going to just enjoy my trip. 🙂

      Thanks Yvonne!

      Reply
  4. Dude,

    My heart was beating when I saw you at the pokies again. Thought it was going to be a “How I lost 10,000 GBP in 2 hours” moment.

    Lucky you with the extra 100 quid =)

    Reply
    • Heh! To be honest I was quite frustrated and ready to give up too but a last minute rally put me back up and into the black. 🙂

      I was willing to cut my losses, that’s how frustrated I was and just get on with the vacation.

      Luckily I didn’t and I won instead of losing.

      Cheers mate! It’s not extra actually, it’s to offset the exchange rate fiasco. 🙂

      Reply
    • Heh! Yep, very lucky of me. I always do that, bet at maximum and hope for a quick win and/or recovery. Sometimes I make it, sometimes I don’t. This time I made it. 🙂

      I saw a couple of casinos over here but am not going to bet…I’m on vacation bro!

      Cheers Alex!

      Reply
    • Awesome Jon! The pints are great and I indulged in them heavily. I’m drinking the local ones – it’s interesting how London has some brands and Bath has some other brands but they’re cheap (if you don’t start converting). GDP 2 per pint and it’s hand drawn! =D

      Reply
  5. HB? Do you know how unspeakably envious I am of you. ? London is a nice place, been there twice. and while there do all the touristy things. but definitely the tower, the crown jewels, madadam tusads, trafalgar square, wesminster, st pauls ( yes, you relly can hear a whisper around the dome) uh, that leads me to another thing. a us guy here, and history buff. but the magna carta, and before that … but my family roots were not there. try bristol. at st mary redcliffe or torque, devonshire or cirencester. so much history… but the people are really nice, also. just dont expect them to be like you, exactly, or the food. eel pie or grilled kidneys are not for me. but the people are wonderful. as long as you dont get in a big stand up arguement about national origins. case in point. when 10 years old, I visited some ancestors. in their home. they had laid out a big tea. I meet one little guy, my age. a son of a servant in in that rich home. we were not rich either. He said, I wouldnt eat that, if I were you. why not? cause it’s been set out since noon, and the cats have been eating it. he was pakistani, I was white, but we were fast friends after that. and thats the point of this… friends are friends… although if you tavel north, Id avoid haggis, ( sheeps liver and lungs, and oatmeal , boiled in a bladder. no wonder you take a drink of scotts whiskey. but hey… I like … new adventures… new friends.. dont resign, Hb. ( read the other post) you are better than that. still envious though. thanks. ( go to buckfast abby. they make wine, cheap but good, now it is about to be banned. you dont retire from the conflict, you rest in the midst of it. ( e.v. hill)

    Reply
  6. London is really catchy place. I have visited London couple of days ago with my whole family. I have noticed that Car expenditure is really costly in London. Due to scar of time, I have not enjoyed historical place. Now I am planning to visit London in this weekend.

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