London Pass

During my recent London and UK trip I decided to get the London Pass to see the attractions around London. Got to know about this pass through the blogs online, so decided to post my experience using it so hopefully this can come in handful for others to plan their holiday.

There are 2 types of London Pass, 1 is just the pass and 1 comes with Travel card. With the travel card, you can have unlimited travel using the tube and bus around London for free during the length of the pass only. Its quite useful but i opted not to get the travel card cause I already have the Oyster card and I can have better control of the money used for travel. I bought my pass online from their site https://www.londonpass.com and got the physical card option cause wanted to keep it as a souvenir once I'm done. Collected the card at their collection center near Leicester square. Got the 3 day pass cause they were having a promotion of 20% if get 3 days compared to 2 days. 1 day pass is £59, 2 days is £79 and 3 days is £95, since had the 20% the 3 day pass is £85.50, which is £6.50 more than the 2 day pass. So it was a no-brainer to go for 3 days. Here is the breakdown of what I went for and how much it would have costs if you went without the London Pass.

Day 1
- Tower of London (£22.50). A must visit, get to see the crown jewels and Queen's Guard, lots of history in this place.
- Tower Bridge Exhibition (£9). Nothing much, only get to stand on the glass panel floor and looking down to the road and river below and see the Victorian Engine rooms.
- HMS Belfast (£16). Totally enjoyed this ship. Spent quite some time exploring and seeing how the crew used to live. Pretty sure most guys will enjoy this place, very metal smell inside and feels like living in a Hollywood war movie
- London Bridge Experience (£26.95). Horror movie fans should enjoy this as you get to feel walking around a haunted place with lots of jump scare at every turn.
- The Old Operating Theater Museum (£6.50). I simply entered here cause had time to kill and was nearby. Get to see a very old operating theater which was above a church. Medical people will appreciate this place more

Day 2
- Arsenal Stadium tour (£20). My favourite place, nuff said. Self guided tour with audio, so you can take as long as you want looking around the stadium.
- Westminster Abbey (£20). Beautiful place to visit, but kinda pricey. Heard if you go on Sunday around 5 or 5.30 pm they have some prayers or songs, so you can enter for free.
- Churchill War Rooms (£17.25). Nothing much for me as lots of WW2 history, lots of reading materials everywhere. I prefer to see old and beautiful things :P

Day 3
- Royal Observatory Greenwich (£9.50). Pretty much paying that price just to see the GMT 0 line and seeing some old clocks and astronomy stuff. This place is on a hill, so its quite a walk up, but nothing so bad, just take your time and enjoy the scenery around that place.
- Chelsea Stadium tour (£22). Guided tour at Stamford Bridge so you have to follow the tour guide, tour takes around 1 hour, so you cant spend time walking around like the Arsenal tour. Its always nice to see whats inside the stadium and where the players hang out
- Kensington Palace (£16.30). Nice to see where the Royals used to live before, pretty garden outside.

All together it would have cost me £186 for all the attractions above, but using the London Pass it was only £85.50, a savings of  about £100. If you're planning to get the London Pass, you will need to plan your journey and the attractions which you want to visit so you can maximise the time you have each day. The full list of places covered by the pass is at their website. As most places opens at 9 am and closes by 5 pm, so plan wisely. I spoke to a guy from my tour about the London Pass and he said it was a waste, cause he took the Hop on Hop off bus tour and it took up most of their time due to the jam. Since I was already walking around London on my own, I decided to skip the bus. If you look at my Day 1, all those attractions were nearby and walking distance, just be prepared to walk a lot, wear a comfortable pair of sports shoes and enjoy London :)

Yearly

Yes, I still managed to keep my word. This is my yearly blog post, haha. Trying to at least do this so I don't forget the nonsense I've written in the past. It's always nice to look back at how my mind was few years ago. Have I matured? I guess so.
Feels weird to write a blog post now cause seems like even blogging is now something ancient. Previously I knew a lot of people who write good articles in their blog, seems like in time, the blog is soon to be buried in the vast and growing Internet Graveyard. Just like how Friendster is now 6 feet under :P

Lately what I used to write in blogs/articles, I'm just writing it as a short and simple Facebook status or in a meme picture which summarizes what is intended to be shared out there. Its faster, simpler and easier to convey the message while on the go.

I would also like to take this opportunity to have a moment of silence to all our once favourite internet services. I will truly remember all of you as you have played a very big role in my life growing up. To laughing like bloody fools in front of the pc chatting, to seeing when your crush is online, to sending assignment homework to friends and vice versa before submitting it the next day. Many many memories.

Rest in peace
- Hotmail email, now Outlook

- MSN Messenger

- Friendster

- ICQ (117715863, damn I still remember my ICQ number)

- mIRC

Ps - Seems some old picture link which I used are not available, hence the blank picture in certain post..