Hi everyone! How’s everyone doing? Time really flies and January is coming to an end. 🙁 Good news is that I’ll be finishing my exam this coming Friday and then its one week break! 😀 Might be going off for day trips around the UK so do remember to keep a close eye to this blog for further updates! 🙂

So today I would like to introduce all of you to a small town called Guildford. This town is home to the University of Surrey and the Guildford Castle, and is located within the county of Surrey, with close proximity to London (which is only 35 mins by train!) Guildford is definitely a very comfortable town to live in as it is a walkable town, whereby the town, train station and coach station are all within walking distance from the University.

Well, some of you may think that since Guildford is such a small town, life there will definitely be boring! The answer is NO of course. Although Guildford is small, it has everything that a person needs to live life to fullest! Firstly, lets start with the parks and hills around Guildford. The Surrey Hills, which is also designated as Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is located nearby the University! The view on top of the Hills is just so scenic and breathtaking! Besides, there’s also the Stoke Park, which is a Green Flag award-winning park with woodland areas, formal gardens and also some sport pitches which is just the perfect place for a family or friends day out together! The River Wey also runs through the heart of the town which offers boating or rowing activities. If you’re not into boating, you can also opt to stroll along the river banks which is really relaxing.

On top of the Surrey Hills!

Next, lets talk about the shopping and entertainment life in Surrey! For girls who enjoy shopping, fear not cause you can find most of the big labels and brands in town! Big brands such as H&M, Mark & Spencer, Topshop, MANGO, Superdry & etc can all be found here in town. Besides, if there’s really more shopping needs to be fulfilled, you can always go to London to satisfy your needs! 😛 There’s also weekly markets on Fri and Sat that sells cheap fruits and vegetables so students, remember to head in town for fresh and cheap fruits and vegetables! As for entertainment, people who love watching movies in cinemas can pop into ODEON cinema for the latest blockbusters. However, if you prefer to experience live music, comedy or theater, you can always go to G Live, Yvonne Arnaud Theater or Electric Theater for a night of theater performance.

One of the streets in town! So beautiful 🙂

On the other hand, for students who enjoy workouts and sports, there’s our famous £36milllion development Surrey Sport Park, which is also one of Europe’s premier sites for sports, health, wellbeing and leisure. As students of University of Surrey, we even have the benefit of a whole year’s student membership which gives us access to all sports facilities and fitness classes in the Sports Park for only £210 per year! Aside from the sports park, there are also ice skating rink and bowling in Guildford Spectrum located near town, and also the Airhop Trampoline Park if you feel like jumping out all your stress during studies!

So lastly, FOOOOOOOOD! As Malaysians, food always play an important role in our life and we can’t live without having nice food right. 😛 Luckily, Guildford town offers more than 100 places to eat and drink which ranges from budget-friendly to upscale fine dining! There are also lots of cafes for those who love to do cafe hopping 😛 In the university itself we already have 2 Starbucks on campus, and there are more choices in town for those who love to grab a cup of coffee and relax and in a cosy environment. Food choices here are really wide too which you can find the fastfood chains such as McD, Burger King, KFC and Subway here, and also some big brands which are familiar to us such as Nandos and TGIF. 🙂

And of course I’ve received questions from my fellow Malay friends who are concerned with the availability of Halal food in town. So basically there’s nothing to be worried about as there’s a Halal meat section available in the nearby Tesco where you can always buy and cook yourself, and there’s also weekly Malay style food sale in the Malaysian Student Society Surrey where some nice abang and kakak will cook delicious Nasi Lemak, Laksa, Nasi Tomato, Karipap & etc to be sale on reasonable price! Of course there are also some Halal restaurants in town if you opt to eat out. 🙂 As for our Chinese and Indian friends who craves for Asian food, fear not cause theres alot of nice Asian restaurant in town such as Rumwong, Sir & Madam, Thai Terrace which are all thai cuisines, Kokoro, Sushi Nara or Wagamama which are Japanese and/or Korean cuisines, and also Chinese restaurants such as Bamboo shoots, Mandarin and Beijing Restaurant. There is also a Chinese mini mart in town where you can get Asian food ingredients and sauces if you prefer to cook yourself at home!

Well, if you’re really craving for authentic Malaysian food to satisfy your tastebud, you can always go to London’s Chinatown! There are loads of Asian food and supermarket there. And I would really like to recommend one restaurant named Rasa Sayang. Dengar nama pun tau ini dibuka oleh Malaysian. Haha. I was really really craving for mamak mee goreng and bubur cha cha so I went there with my brother to have my cravings satisfied. Although its abit expensive compared to Malaysia price :P, still the taste of food is really soooooo good and I’ll definitely go back for more!

Me and my mamak mee goreng! 😛

So basically, Guildford is a really comfortable and nice town to live in. The size of the town is just nice as everything is within walking distance. And if you crave for something more that you can’t find in Guildford you can always jump into the train and head to London. 🙂 I really do hope that this post benefits you all in giving you all more on the insights of this small town, and I really want to tell you all that I’ve never regretted in choosing University of Surrey in furthering my studies as not only the University itself is really good, the living environment is really comfortable too.

Hope to see more of my fellow Malaysians to come join me here in Surrey this year, looking forward to welcome all of you and do remember: wonderful things happen here!

Love,

Adeline 🙂