Castleton, United Kingdom #throwback

Castleton is my first ever trip when I studied in United Kingdom back then and I had never blog about this before. Frankly speaking, none of us had ever heard of this place before but after our senior explained how beautiful and scenery was that place, immediately we signed up with our senior to join for this 1 day tour. Afterall, discover new place wasn't a bad idea and might gain new experiences.

#1: Castleton signboard

Castleton is a small little village located in the north east of England. The name itself was taken upon a castle which built besides the famous river known by the local. You won't find any high skyscrapers or even public transportation such as trains surrounding this village. All we saw just a row of old dark brown houses and shops without any paint of them, two or three small churches and an art gallery.

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7: Colourful blossom flowers in front of somebody's house

#8: As we walked further, we saw a flock of white fluffy sheep and it's my first time of seeing them.

#9: A flock of sheep, a clear blue sky and a lush green field makes this a perfect photo.

#10:Oh look! Even the sheep know how to look in front of the camera. Amazing!

#11: Initially I had this naughty thoughts of rolling down the hill but tons of sheeps' poo poo. 

Castleton might seems nothing extraordinary but this place totally gave us the relax feeling and also stress free from keep thinking of the non-stop weekly assignments and presentations. Especially for people like us who living in the big city might not able to enjoy this kind of place back in our own city, this place is incredibly breathtaking and pristine. Castleton, a truly clean and fresh air village.  

#12: Before leaving Castleton, a group photo with my unimates.

Read more »

Snapshot Sunday: Cardiff Bay, Wales

Cardiff Bay, capital city of Wales is a home to a large freshwater lake for sailing and water sports. It is not just an ordinary bay, it does offer few notable buildings that rich with their own kind of history and culture such Wales Millenium Centre, Norwegian Church, Pierhead Building, The Seneed and more.

For more, check out my old travel post: Cardiff Bay and It's Attractions

Read more »

Road Trip to Birmingham & Visit National Sea Life Centre

Let's us talk a break for a while for my Taiwan travelogue and I'm gonna bring you to UK this round. Not Ulu Klang lah but it's United Kingdom.

Back in few years during my summer degree program, weekend use to be our favourite day because no class was conducted and most of the time, we fully utilised our weekend by joining the school's trip or organise by our own. Unlike currently where I had my class on most weekend and worst case scenario was my class start from 10 am until 9pm - soon I'm gonna be zombie.

Out of sudden, 2 of my group assignment members suggest that we should try for a road trip. It's was a brilliant idea but unfortunately non of us has even reached the age of 25 at that moment. In United Kingdom, to rent a car, besides having a valid car license, you should at least 25 and above. But thanks God, one of my housemate who was eventually 25 at that moment heard of our idea and interested to join us. Thanks for the blessing, God.

Yeah! No wait for more and let's us start our road trip

Don't you admire with UK's road system? Smooth, clean, no traffic jam, no holes on the road, etc.

The item besides the spec is GPS. Not included the rent of the car but it was bought by my housemate himself. Too rich, no idea where to spend his money :P

Approximately less in 2 hours, finally here we are in Birmingham city.

Birmingham is a metropolitan city located outside London and it's United Kingdom's second most British city.

Wander around Birmingham city

We spend most of our day at here.

National Sea Life Centre of Birmingham is an aquarium which displays more than 60 of marine and freshwater life sea creatures. There are 35 centres of sea life located around the world and I happened to come across the other one while I was in Berlin, Germany. All of these 35 sea life centres only available around Europe and USA.

Anyhow, there are few countries around Asia that have these kind of aquarium which might slightly differences such as Singapore and its Underwater World located in Sentosa Island, Malaysia with its Aquaria KLCC and not forgeting Underwater World situated at the Langkawi Island, Japan with its one of the biggest aquarium in the world located in Osaka, Coex Aquarium in South Korea and etc.

My assignments groupmates, my housemates and I

Say hello to Nemo!

There even has this glow in the dark room.

A big and giant green sea turtle that really exist and swim happily in the sea tank but unfortunately we unable to snap using our low and unstable compact camera.

I almost forgot! Before I end my this post entry, let me introduce the car that we rent.

Tadaaa.....

Oooppps... The wrong photo. How could this car accommodate 7 of us?

This is the one...

Ok! I fool you for the second time. Nice to see but unfortunately not this one.

This is the actual car that we rent. I am serious this time, no more fool you guys around.

Not bad at all. Comfort, elegance, stylish

I even bring along my pillow xP. By the way, the guy behind me is the one who has reached 25 at that moment. The guy on the other side is my housemate too.

Let's take a group of happy family travelmate photo before start our journey.

Hey wait! Our journey doesn't stop there. We rent the car for 2 days. But anyhow, I will continue the other half in upcoming upcoming upcoming post. So, stay tune!

Read more »

The Red Devils of United Kingdom

Had you watch the match last Sunday between the Red Devils and Chelsea in the English Premier League? The Red Devils scored a goal within the first minute. OK! Now I sounds like I gonna blog about sport report. I am not gonna blog about what happens during the match and what is the final score but I am gonna blog about the Red Devils.

Again, this is my backdate post and suddenly I realised before this, I ever said want to post about this (click here) but then again, blame my worst sickness, "Short-Term-Memory (STM)". Not until last Sunday, accompanied TTM watched this match at my home together with my dad, while waiting for the second half match, I showed my picture to TTM. From there, I only realised that I never blog about this. And now, I'm taking this chance to bring you all to the Red Devils's stadium.

The Red Devils is the nickname of Manchester United and the name of the stadium is Old Trafford. During my study in UK, the uni organised a day trip of the virtual tour to Old Trafford Stadium, the home of Manchester United Football Club. So without thinking too much, immediately I signed up and registered for this day trip. My uni organised lots of day trip on every weekend for summer students like us.

Here we come to kick the ball (Neh, I am kaki bangku =P)

The journey from my uni to Manchester took almost one and half hour.

Finally, I got the chance to see the glory and great stadium right in front of my eyes

The place where the roar of 76,000 fans came from.

Reserved for the players and also here where Fergie keep shouting "GOAL! GOAL! GOAL!"

I'm not a big fan of MU but to show to my dad, who is absolutely big fan of MU.
He never ever miss each and every MU match.

During the virtual tour, we were also got the chance to visit player's dressing room. This room contains a spa pool, six showers, two small baths and video facilities which can accomodate up to 22 players.

Smell Ronaldo and Rooney's soaking sweat =P

The spa pool.

Did you spot what I spot? Our own Malaysia's budget airline on the sponsored board

Spotted the former MU superstar player.

Players' autograph book.

Guess who is Brooklyn?

Although can't take pic with the real player, but this already makes me feel satisfy for it.

Before we ended the tour, we were giving a special certificate to serve a souvenir of remembrance for the visit.

"During this virtual tour you'll get a taste of the history of Manchester United, and move a little closer to understanding just why the club has touched the hearts of so many. Enjoy your visit." - by Sir Bobby Charlton.

[Credit to: Manchester United Official Website, Wikipedia]

Read more »