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Day 21: London Wednesday, 9th April 2008
We awoke late this morning, recovering from the late night before. As we were too tired, we had decided that we would not follow our plans this morning, and would go to see the Change of Guards at Buckingham palace on the next morning instead. It wasn’t supposed to be a problem, as in April, the guards changed daily. Daryl soon woke up and sleepily, commented “Let’s just check the schedule on the website to be sure,” Chun Yang agreed, and did so on his laptop, only to reply, “You guys are screwed!” THERE HAS BEEN A CHANGE IN THE SCHEDULE AND THE GUARD CHANGE WILL NOT TAKE PLACE DAILY IN APRIL BUT ON THE FOLLOWING DATES ONLY: We bought ourselves single trip tube tickets (£4!) and took the short 2 stop ride from Gloucester Road station to Victoria. We got lost shortly along the way because we had not a compass, but we soon found our way to Buckingham palace, where we were just on time (11am) for the ceremony! The crowds were unbelievable. It was as if every single tourist in London had gathered all together in on spot for the ceremony. But rightly so too, as the Change of Guard at Buckingham palace IS a major highlight. The Ceremony - One of the bands performing a pop piece to entertain the public.  The Captains of the Guards Band of the Irish Guards The Queen's Guards from ARRC Support Battalion  View of "The Mall" from Buckingham Palace When the ceremony was over, we started our long walk towards Westminster. We walked though one of London’s many parks, St James’ Park, where we enjoyed the flowers and the picturesque sceneries. It is hard to imagine that such serenity exists in a ultra-metropolitan city like London.   Following lunch, we continued with our long walk towards Westminster. We were met with the site of some of London’s most famous icons. Westminster Abbey  Big Ben Westminster Palace / Parliament House London Eye Our next stop was Hyde Park, very much famous for the speaker’s corner. Unfortunately, when we were there, there was not a single speaker, which was a disappointment. Nonetheless, it was also a beautiful park with plenty of wide open spaces, and it was a joy to walk through with such fine weather and such beautiful skies.     We soon arrived at another London icon – Harrods. Harrods is probably most well known as one of the most extravagant and expensive department stores in the world. Walking around, we could understand why. A shirt that costs £1400? Or a £8 char siew bao at the food section? Nevertheless, it was an experience to have looked in Harrods. It is said that the service in this department store is legendary and is touted as a store sells “everything”. One story goes, a man walks into the store and asks for an elephant. That sounds impossible to accomplish. But in Harrods, they called a zoo, purchased an elephant, and sold it to the man. Amazing!    In this store also houses a memorial to Princess Diana, and Dodi, the son of Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed.  We also took the chance to visit the “luxury toilets”, which were spotlessly clean and luxurious, and even had a member of staff inside to greet you when you enter and when you leave. It even has separate doors, one for entry, and one for exit. I didn’t know running a toilet could be so complex!  It was late afternoon, and we had to be off to our next destination. We met up with the Londoner, Chun Yang, who brought us to China Town.  Here, we, for the first time in three weeks, tasted some authentic Chinese food. Dinner was a satisfying meal of roast meats and rice. Never tasted better.  We were at West End, and what better thing to do than to watch a West End theatre production? Our musical of choice this evening was Avenue Q. In a few words, it is basically about a group of 20 and 30-something year olds living on Avenue Q in New York, trying to find their purpose in life. The show has puppet characters on top of human ones, and they sing about real life issues such as racism, depression, sex and internet porn, and even includes puppet sex. Surely not one for the kids! Musical numbers include “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist Sometimes”, “The Internet is For Porn” and “If You Were Gay”. It was a great show, and we all enjoyed it thoroughly.   In the Noel Coward Theatre   Avenue Q is one of those shows you wouldn’t expect to see in Singapore anytime soon. But guess what? The Philippine production is coming to Singapore for two weeks on 31 October 2008! Tickets go on sale 31 May, and can I say, I highly recommend this wonderful musical. Catch it if you can! You won’t regret it! The night was late by the time the show ended, and we left back for the hostel, where we checked into our own individual rooms for the night.
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