Hi everyone! Happy Chinese New Year to all of my fellow friends and family who’s reading the blog! Its Chor 3 today, which is the 3rd day of CNY. In the past years, I’ll be currently back in my parent’s hometown- Penang with my family, enjoying the reunion time and fooooooooooood! Words just can’t describe how much I miss home during this festive period as this is one of the biggest thing for us Chinese. Looking at pictures of family gathering and reunion dinner posted by friends and family back home makes me misses home even more. I guess as we grow “older” (not that I’m saying I’m old though 😛 ) and we get so busy and tucked away in our own life, we kind of learn to appreciate time that we get to spend with our families. And so, thanks to the advancement of technology, I get to greet my family back in Malaysia!
From left: Grandma, Uncle, Aunty, Grandpa, Mum, Dad and Brother!
Anyways, back to my topic for today. So I’ve actually went to visit Stonehenge and Bath last Friday with my flatmates. I’ve always wanted to visit Stonehenge as its one of the seven wonders in the world! Initially, we only planned to visit Bath only by train. However, the price of the train ticket was so expensive and thus we tried looking for alternatives. And at last, we found out that hiring a car is actually much cheaper! The total cost of hiring a car is only about 30 pounds a day, and petrol for about 350km only cost us about 35 pounds, which the total cost is only 65 pounds. After dividing to 5 person, it only cost us about 13 pounds. As for train ticket, it was about 30 pounds per person! And so, if you’re planning to travel in groups, hiring a car is a much cheaper alternative if you’re eligible to drive. (For your information, Malaysians can drive in the UK for the first year of stay here with our Malaysian Driving License) As I’m the only one who is eligible to drive, I volunteered myself and became the driver of the day. 🙂
And so, we set out at 8.30am in the morning after collecting our car nearby. The day was cloudy and drizzling and we were really worried we couldn’t visit Stonehenge due to the bad weather. However, thank God that when we reach Stonehenge, the rain stopped and we could enjoy walking around admiring the stones and taking pictures. According to the tourist guide, Stonehenge was built 5000 years ago as a temple to worship God. I was really amazed by how the ancient people managed to move the heavy stones weighing tens of tonnes without machines. The stones were arranged neatly in a half circle and the view was just amazing!
The Stones
Yayyyy!
Me and my housemates
After finish taking pictures in Stonehenge, we proceed our journey to Bath. It was around 1.30pm when when we reached there and we were rushing as we wanted to join a free walking tour provided by the Mayor of Bath Honorary Guides at 2pm. The tour started in front of the Bath Abbey and the Roman Baths. Our tour guide, Bill was an ex-headmaster of a school and thus he is really informative and very knowledgeable about Bath’s history. He brought us around the local area of Bath and we really learned alot on the history and sights of Bath. The tour lasted for about 2 hours and I thought this was a really good way to see all the city has to offer in the shortest time!
The Bath Abbey!
We then proceed to visit the Roman Baths. The Roman Baths was really grand and beautiful! There was a museum inside the Baths and the history of the Baths were explained really detailed inside. After visiting the Baths only I learned that it was a not only a hotspring used by the Romans during leisure time, but also a temple built in the 60-70AD by the Romans to worship the Goddess Sulis Minerva. Again, I was amazed by the architecture of the building. Imagine how people built such a solid temple and building without the help of machines!
Roman Baths!
After visiting the Baths, we went and tried the famous Bath Buns at Sally Luns! The buns were very famous thanks to Jane Austen as it was her favorite buns. And true enough, the buns are really delicious! 😛
The Bath Buns!
After finishing the buns, we went for dinner in a local Chinese restaurant before heading back to Guildford. It was a really pleasant trip and we really had fun relaxing and enjoying the beautiful scenery of Stonehenge and Bath for the day. Driving is a really good option as it allows us to see the beautiful views along the journey to Bath, and also allows us to travel and walk at our own pace. Looking forward for more trips in the UK as this is a really beautiful country! 🙂
On a side note, it was Shrove Tuesday yesterday and it was an English tradition to make pancakes to celebrate. And since there’s no proper CNY celebration here, I decided to join in the Pancake day celebration and made myself some pancakes! 😛
Made some pancake in my kitchen 🙂
Think that’s all for this post. Will be heading to London’s Chinatown for the CNY celebration this coming sun so look out for the next blog as I post my experience there!
Once again, wishing all of you 新年快乐，万事如意，身体健康，猴年猴赛雷！:)
Love,
Adeline
