The blue travelling diaries

Outside of India London and New York are probably my two favourite cities in the world. They're both teeming with art, culture, fashion, food and commerce, all at the same time. London, more than anywhere else, boasts a mélange of peoples from around the world. Primarily Europeans, but quite a sizeable population of North African, Middle Eastern, Australian and East and South East Asian peoples. For a student of languages, I can't think of any place tastier.

The best way to get around a city like this is to get lost. Get lost intentionally as many times as you can. This isn't a largely planned city. It's an old city that's been rebuilt once, and the large number of lanes and alleys can find interesting squares. I'm a little partial towards the West End because that's the liveliest part of town. The areas around Picadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Oxford Street and Bond Street have the biggest department stores, theatres and restaurants. Then there's the uptown residential areas of Hyde Park and Notting Hill, with a few expensive restaurants and pubs. You'd need quite a bit of time to take it all in.

Local Londoners are a busy bunch. Always hurried, almost running. Perhaps it's because they always need to get somewhere, or perhaps it's to counter the cold. The thing that I've learnt is to not bother keeping pace with the crowd. Let them move on, just feel the whoosh as they go by.

Taking off from Mumbai and landing in London during the day is a strange experience. From the air, the roads and traffic look almost the same. Red buses, driving on the left, and traffic buoys. One can see immediately where Mumbai's architectural influence came from.

I've visited the UK a few times, three of them as an adult, and London's been on the cards on every occasion. I've been here at all times of the year, and I can't say that the weather changes much. It's sunny when it's sunny and it's rainy when it's rainy... and often it's both at the same time. For someone from the tropics, it's cold throughout the year, but in winter it's freezing.

Getting around is fairly easy. The tube will get you anywhere, and a day pass is valid on any train and bus throughout the day. There are travel zones from 1 to 6 depending on where you need to go and can get you all the way from Heathrow airport to the centre of town... which is a very convenient way to get from the airport to any place you need to get to — if you don't have too much luggage.

There are innumerable tourist booklets with lists of sights and places to see. What I recommend is to take one of those tourist buses that get you all around London in a day. For a little extra they throw in a boat ride down the Thames. I started out at Baker Street - the home of Sherlock Holmes. Walk down to the Sherlock Holmes museum, and then the Beatles museum. Get done with Madame Tussade's and the Planetarium. You may want to get a combined ticket and go into the Planetarium first. You'll avoid the long line for the wax museum. Then get onto a bus and take the tour. Get off anywhere and roam around.

The London Dungeon, Tower and Tower Bridge are all near each other, and a night walk by the Thames, and across London Bridge is lovely, especially if you have the right company. The London eye offers a complete view of the city, but it doesn't compare to actually being there.

Walk around Hyde Park, and visit Portobello Road at Notting Hill for the antique market every Saturday. You might just find an interesting bargain. If farmer's markets are your thing, head down to the Borough market at London Bridge, also on Saturdays. Try the Ostrich or Kangaroo burgers. They're delicious.

If you already have your route planned, and have done some research on spots of interest, it may be cheaper to just get a Zone 4 or 5 travel card and take the red buses around. Traditional tourist locations include Westminster, Trafalgar Square, St. James' Park, Buckingham Palace and St. Paul's Cathedral, but be a little adventurous. Walk around and find places.

Take the tube down to Greenwich and have a look at Cutty Sark. Search for the prime meridien. Look for pubs with interesting names like The Pig's head or Trotting Horse. Step into the Roundabout and watch a local game of football or cricket. Walk down to the West side and go to the theatre, then stray into China Town and take in the aroma. Be part of life here, because there's a lot of it around.

There's much to choose from for the seasoned gourmand. Take your pick from Italian, French, Belgian, North African, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Malaysian, Caribbean, German, and whatever else you can find. There are restaurants everywhere serving every cuisine, and where there aren't, you'll find a host of pubs. Just explore.

Fashion. London is one of the big four cities for fashion, and heck there's a lot of it here. On the streets, in the department stores, in restaurants, in night clubs. Everywhere. I'm not an authority on fashion, heck, I don't have any dress sense, but fashion is hard to miss in London. If shopping's your thing, you won't be displeased. Go all out.

Whether its food, finance or fashion, art, history or language, music, movies or haberdashery, London has it all. Visit London, and visit often.

Hey chappies, how are you'll doing? I'm doing jolly good out here. Arrived in the UK on Tuesday the 5th of September, but didn't do too much during the first few days. Spent a few days visiting family, so I won't bore you with that. Let's jump straight to my trips around the place.

The first Saturday, I had to go visit my mum's friend in the South West. I'm staying in Luton (North of London). Had to change trains five or six times to get there because there was a dead body on the tracks.

The stations here all have very good directions and signboards everywhere. Each platform serves only particular destinations, and these are well marked on the foot over bridge as well as at the ticket booking office. On the platform there are television screens that tell you when the next train is due, and if it is late, what time it will actually arrive. This is updated every minute. It also has all the stations that the train will stop at.

There are multiple train operators in the UK, and all of them run through London. Try and imagine how they coordinate with each other. One can buy a single ticket for all these operators as well as most of the buses that run through London. There are travel zones within which each ticket is valid.

On Monday, I visited London - alone. Took the train to King's Cross, and then switched to the Victoria Line subway to Baker Street.

The first and most obvious visit on Baker Street was to 221b - the home of Mr. Holmes. There's the Sherlock Holmes museum there and it's filled with stuff from Doyle's books. There's even letters to Holmes from people all over the world. There's a guy dressed as Holmes standing outside the station handing out business cards, and there's also a statue of Holmes there. Admission for adults is £6.50, but if you're a student, carry your ID card - you get discounts on everything in the US and the UK.

After Holmes, there's Madame Tussaud's. The planetarium and Wax museum are attached from the inside. The line for the Wax museum is huge, but there is no line for the planetarium. You can buy a combined ticket for £2.50 less. You can also get coupons from the train station where you buy your travel card and get further discounts of up to £2.00.

The planetarium show is pretty cool, but could have been better. After that, the wax museum is really cool. The whole place is amazing. One can spend quite some time there.

One can also get the London City Bus Tour from Baker Street. It costs £12.50, but the Thames catamaran cruise can be added on for £2.50. The tour is great and there's running commentary for the entire route. The cruise also has a good commentary, and shows you many sites that you can only see from the river. The Thames is pronounce Tems by the way, the 'T' is pronounced like the hard 'T' in Hindi.

I stayed late in London that night. At about 8:00 pm, I went down to the Tower. It closes at 5:00 pm, but I just walked around the outside. Walked across the Tower Bridge. It is probably the only bridge in the world that is a suspension and a draw bridge.

Walked along the other side of the Thames to the London Bridge. The New London Bridge is a short distance from the original one built by the Romans. At that time, it was the only connection between the two banks of the river - apart from boat that is.

On Tuesday, I left for Nottingham. One of my friends is studying there. I spent the whole of Tuesday there. At night, she took me to a French restaurant called Café Rouge. The weirdest thing was that I was an indian boy eating in a french restaurant in the UK, wearing a Pennsylvania T-Shirt. We tried to go to a club after that - there were five of us by now, but they were all closed. One thing about this country - everything closes early. When shops say that they are open late, they mean 9 pm. English restaurants are open till 9 or 9:30, while others (French, Thai, Chinese etc) are open till 11:30 pm.

Spent the rest of the night working in the computer lab at the University of Nottingham. Took the 10:35 bus in the morning back to Luton, which was supposed to get back by 12:35. Unforunately though, there are huge protests over the rise in petrol prices and the M1 was blocked, so we had to take the A5. Finally got into Luton at 2 pm.

Today (Friday) went with my aunt to watch Buddy (The Buddy Holly Story) at the Strand. It's a play by the way for those of you who didn't know. We had seats almost at the front, so could see every note being played. It's an amazing play and if any of you have the chance, go and see it. Goes on for about two and a half hours and every moment is great. There are also a few other plays showing right now, including the ever running Phantom of the Opera, The booked a year in advance Lion King, Mama Mia, Whisper in the Wind and many more.

All in all, this is an amazing place to visit, but only if you have a lot of cash on you. Everything is really expensive here. The pound's about 54 Rupees right now, and most stuff is around 10 Pound.

That's all for my report from the UK, ciao all.