Glory glory Manchester...

I stayed in Manchester for 2 nights after a 13 hours work in the sky last week and frankly, I kindda like the town of Manchester.. Its pretty peaceful and chill and full of pretty people!!!! Seriously, most of them are quite good looking (no matter male or female) and they dress up pretty well. I was really impressed and had a great time scanning the people in the street. Anyway here are some photos and brief story of my 2 nights tour in the city of Man U...


My colleagues and I were placed in this self-proclaimed 5 star hotel at the heart of Manchester. Its quite strategic in terms of their location as it is accessible to loads of shopping places and 'makan' area. The weather is so cold that the moment we step out from the bus that pick us up from the airport, all of us immediately run into the hotel. After handed our room keys and saying 'Have a good rest' to everyone, with a tired feet and brain, I drag my HUGE cargo bag and cabin bag into my room at 3rd floor.. The moment I step into the room, I brought out my camera and started scanning the room and taking pictures..

There's a tiny living hall in my room which is pretty rare to get in most hotels.. especially for rooms at 10th floor and below.. coz normally these are standard rooms and usually very small and cramp..
There are 2 queen size beds for me!!! I HAD A HARD TIME choosing which to sleep on.. hahaha..

In the end I choose this 1.. I know i'm lame..

The toilet is pretty simple though.. compared to the ones I had in Shanghai and Dubai..

Oh, the hotel and address and contact number is stated in the cup! Dam cute.. So, in case U scared that U will get lost in Manchester, U can bring along this cup and just show to the taxi driver when you wanna go back to the hotel...lol..

The tiny little 'cafe' they provided.. The cookie which is wrap in the black packet (at the left bottom corner) is just WOW!!! Its called banana and butter scotch... I can't find it in the supermarkets nearby and I forgot to check with the receptionist.. stupid me!

THis is what they called a Trouser Press which I really have no idea how to operate it.. The instructions are displayed on the board but it is very blur..

Before you fall in love with this hotel and decided to come to Manchester with your honey, check out the price here first.. My room is considered the cheapest here and it cost a saliva-chocking blood-cloging 185 Pounds!!!! I was shocked and stunned.. Its not cheap to have holiday in Europe man..

After a power nap, me and one of my colleagues decided to hit the street..

This is their Taxi!! SO CUTE!!! I love them.. so classic and vintage.. I wonder how much it cost to ride on them.. I'm sure its not cheap!

The buildings are quite vintage too.. I really like the architecture of this building.. It just look majestic..

The pic speaks on its own..

Mark and spencer BUILDING!! I've never seen such a huge M&S before.. The ones in Malaysia and singapore are just small and sad...

Random pic of the street.. Really old school and I really like it..

I feel that I look dam old here.. probably is the jacket that makes me look old.. and mind u.. the jacket is dam expensive.. Cost me a whoping Sin$130!!!! I will never forget this.. It was Autumn and the wind is really cold there.. It can literally bite you whenever it blows.. My hands were almost frozen..

This is Esther.. my company and partner in checking out the guys there.. hahaha..

Hungry, we went into an italian restaurant because it has the most reasonable price main courses after we checked out more than 5 restaurants in the street.. I forgot what is the name of the restaurant but all I know is their service sucks!!! I'm not sure its because Esther and I are asians or they are just pure not good in service generally..

The candle and the holder which is on all the tables in the restaurant.. I feel they should get some nicer candle holders from IKEA..

The atmosphere in the restaurant is pretty nice and warm.. We kindda like it but we still hate the service..

Starter 1 which I ordered that comes with the set lunch..

Garlic bread which the not so friendly waitress recommended.. Its quite yummy..

Starter 2 which Esther ordered for her set lunch.. Basically is Cheese baked Spinach.. I love this..

We had salmon spaghetti for main course and the salmon is raw.. I like to eat raw salmon alot whenever I enter a Japanese restaurant but Raw SALMON + italian SPAGHETTI is just weird.. Italians, pls cook your salmon!! Thank you...

I met up with my cousin brother-Caleb who happens to be there to further his studies in the evening.. We hardly meet back in Malaysia because I was in selangor and he was in Penang.. We weren't really close but I'm really glad that we met up.. We had a long chat in my room and I allowed him to sleep on the other unoccupied bed.. It feels good to have someone you know with you when you are at overseas..

This is Caleb checking out the bible that was placed in my room by THE GIDEONS...

Caleb brought me to a chinese restaurant at for dinner because most of the other restaurants are either closed or too expensive for us to even drink their water..

Accordinf to Caleb, this is the best Chinese Restaurant in Manchester city and normally you will have to Q up for a very long time during peak hours.. Thank god we went before the crowd comes in..

This is the cantonese fried rice we ordered which tasted above my expectation.. The dim sum here also can fight with those served in Asia.. THe prawns they use are very very fresh! They only have ASIANs working in the restaurant and I really feel at home when I was in there.. No weird strange looks from the ang mohs and no bad service.. hahaha.. I was quite pleased with Caleb's recommendation and the bill came out to be less than 20 pounds which is hard to find in other restaurants and considered cheap to dine out in ENGLAND..

The next day, 4 of my other colleagues and I had breakfast in a cafe which is just a 10 mins walking distant from our hotel..

The ang mohs drink beer early in the morning and it was a weekday.. All no need to work 1.. very chill...

We cam-whored while waiting for our breakfast.. Pamela, Claire and Shil-lyn

Shil-lyn, Lynn and Jason..

Look the the wide variety of sauces they have!!! Its free and up to us to take how many we want.. They even have 3 choices of Jams!!! I took back few packets of Ketchup and Jam because it comes in handy and its free wat.. BTW.. you will not be able to find Chili Sauce in the restaurants in Manchester.. So, bring your own bottle of Maggi Chili Sauce if you wanna go there..

My tea with a small cute jar of full cream milk on top..

My English Breakfast with toast.. Always have a full breakfast before you start your day with shopping.. hahaha.. it cost less than 4.5 pounds all together.. quite a good deal already..

Jason with his 'vegetarian english breakfast'.. Look at how black is the vegetarian hotdog.. hahaha..

I was trying to act poised before I feast on my breakfast..

Then we went shopping and sight seeing around the hotel area..

The sky is always gloomy looking there and it always look like its gonna rain anytime..

Manchester United was suppose to have a match against Celtic that evening and we happen to pass by bars at the street full of Celtic fans singing marrily even before the match starts! They were drinking and almost feel like a celebration and condeming Man U fans.. It was fun to watch them and they were really hyper..

Stupid sign board blocked the fans.. Most of them were in Green and white stripe long sleeved jersey.. sad to say.. their celebration was a waste because Celtic lost that day.. it was a 2-0... Caleb was so happy...

I really adore the buildings here.. so cute and classic.. No wonder English pound is so strong.. they save alot of money because they dont paint their walls... it was a joke.. laugh la!

Lastly, I would like to close this entry with the EYE of Manchester.. It seems that everywhere also got this ferries wheel.. And its so much more expensive to ride there..

Overall, it was a pleasent trip which nearly burnt a holl in my already-thin pocket.. Although I like Manchester but I feel that there's no where like home.. I still prefer Malaysia and Singapore's weather although i enjoyed layering my clothes.. If I get to go there again in the future, I would love to attend a football match just to have a feel of the adrenalin rush alongwith the hardcore fans of football whenever a team scored a goal.. I do not have any fav team but definitely against MAN U.. hahaha..

P/s: GOING to AUCKLAND soon.. I'm so broke.. due to all the currency changing.. but now is the best time to go New Zealand and Australia.. their currency really dropped..

Not looking forward..

I'm going to work on a flight to Manchester in few hours time.. I'm looking forward for the job but not really looking forward to stay there for 2 nights.. y? Because I just used almost s$300 to change for 115 pounds!! Why Pound has to be so big and strong all the time? How to survive 2 nights without going shopping in Manchester? And how to survive shopping when you only have 115 embarrasing Pounds in your pocket? I think i only can buy yogurt and eat in the hotel.. or order McD.. wait.. Mac Donalds.. Must speak proper english.. or perhaps I can find Tesco and buy English Bread with English Tea.. Why Pound has to be so strong? Argh.....

P/s: I'm going back to Klang after my manchester flight!! yeepee!!! Will be taking bus from Singapore on Thursday (23.10.08) evening and will reach klang at midnight.. Will be there till Sunday morning.. Pls meet me ya!!! Can't wait to see all of you..

Pam's 1st attempt..

What do u do when u feel bored and you are just sick of the 'tah bau' food from the only hawker centre near your house?

You take a bus to the nearest supermarket, you buy stuff, you come back, you ting ting ting tong tong tong in the kitchen and wuo la...

Before 'they' go into the 'sauna'...
Up close n personal...
After their 'sauna' session..
Now i'm hungry..

My 1st attempt on cooking in Singapore!!! I'm so proud of myself.. I categorize myself as someone who loves to cook but too lazy to move and after staying in Singapore for almost 4 months.. I cooked!!! Yeepee.. My Pizza Toast.. hahaha.. My housemate- Alex (Fyi, he's an uncle with a wife in Philipine who treats me like his daughter.. We both rent a room each from an auntie whom I call Auntie Dorris but Auntie Dorris stays in Malacca and comes back to Singapore for holiday once a blue moon) said its quite good even though i just simply cook for fun.. No kidding k.. Pam cooks!!! I'm so proud of myself..

Now I have carrots, onions, garlic, cheese, ham, bread, green pepper, tomato.. And i'm so lazy to cook again and all of them are perishable items... die... and I wont be at home for few days after sunday..

P/s: Cheese dont go well with instant noodle.. I woke up in the middle of the night 2 nights ago and cook the packet of cheese flavour instant noodle I bought from Dubai. It smelled like rotten cheese and I only ate like half of it and threw the rest of it away.. can't stand the horrible 'cheese' smell... and then I went back to sleep.. not satisfied and was still hungry..

The land of super duper richness n gold..

Dubai Dubai.. The land of so many dreams and hopefuls.. Tonnes of humans are waiting for the chance to go there to work and dig the money of the rich there... Seriously.. the middle east countries are so blessed with the gift of nature that they have abundance of oil to take and sell.. How fortunate.. Anyway, I just came back from Dubai and its not as pleasent as what I thought. It was just a 1 night stay (time constrain and wasn't able to visit places) and I was cheated in broad day light.. (read further and you will know) Anyway, the moment I came out from the well-airconditioned airport, I can feel the heat as though I'm in an open air sauna. It is super duper HOT and very very pack!!! Packed with humans and cars...

To cut the long story short.. I stayed in Traders Hotel situated along a busy road and its facing a cross junction.. the exterior architecture of the building is well.. not really eye-catching and at first I thought it was a government building..
But the interior design is pretty nice and warm feeling.. I especially love the room with all the brown colour family all mix together creating a harmonious peaceful aura..

Just the bed itself makes me wanna jump to it and just sleep without showering and removing makeup..
The room is decently sized and I have all the bed by myself.. Very very shock!!!

I always like to check out what the hotels provide in their so called mini bar which is always and forever over-priced and this is what I found in the mini fridge underneath the TV..

There are the normal soft drinks and all but I found few very interesting items.. Starting from left are 2 fruit juices in a very voluptuos-shaped bottle, then 4 super tiny bottles of HARD liquor and creamer for coffee or tea.. I really like the size of those hard liquor bottles which is so cute and tiny.. Here is the comparison of the bottles with a normal coca-cola can..
Its so cute that I'm so tempted to buy them but I dont drink and unfortunately its quite expensive to just buy it for collection.. No point.. so I just put it back into the fridge after cam-whoring them.. ADIOS bottles..

After a good night sleep.. Me and one of my colleague decided to check out their shopping mall in town the next day and its called 'CITY CENTRE'.. I just feel that they should spend more time on coming out with a better name for the mall instead of just naming it CITY CENTRE.. very boring..

The mall looks like Mid Valley in KL and we felt quite at home when we step in.. (My colleague is also from malaysia) Its is pretty spacious and clean and not much crowd because it was a weekday. They basically have almost every shops you can find in Singapore and Malaysia like ZARA, Topshop, Debenhams and etc.. It didn't really attract us because we feel that the things sold there are more expensive compared to those in Malaysia.

We went and check out CAREFOUR instead.. I know its pretty sad but we just wanna find some unusual food that we can bring back home.. Its always very interesting to check out the local supermarkets whenever you are in oversea.. You will never know what you can find..
Alot of arabic writings which is very new to me.. You have to read from right to left (if you know how to read them), unlike english and mandarin and most languages in the world.. Like the man in the centre of the pictures, you can see alot of men dress up in white gowns everywhere you go around Dubai..
We noticed there are loads of sweet dessets sold in the supermarket. Like the picture above, they have loads of cakes and tarts all packed in boxes ready to be bought by you.. Most of them looked pretty nice and appetising unlike those that are displayed in supermarkets in our country..
This is strawberry chocolate cake that looked really nice in real life.. Pardon me for my bad photgraphy but it looked really good.. I wanted to buy but its perishable and afraid that it will rot even before I reach Singapore..

We walk we walk and we walk and found the instant noodles section where I bought 1 pack of cheese flavour and 1 pack of spicy tomato.. Its very very unusual to find a cheese flavour instant noodle.. You've heard of cheese back rice and cheese cake but what about cheese instant noodle? Sound interesting? I will let you all know whether it taste good or not.. Somehow deep in my heart, I feel that cheese dont go well in soup and instant noodles..

We found this counter selling peanut sweets and tibits freshly baked everyday.. Its so tempting and mouth watering we each bought a box of assorted tibits..
Look at the mountain high of peanut HAKLAWA KATHA.. Just for your info, their currency is almost like RM but theirs is slightly stronger compared to RM.. Dhs 44.95 might be in the range of RM 48-RM50.. The things here are not very cheap and the living standard is quite high..

Stomach growling, we decided to check out the food court in the mall.. Its brightly lighted and very very spacious.. I love the atmosphere and most importantly, its very clean..

They even have KFC and McDonald stalls in the foodcourt.. wanna learn how to write KFC in ARABIC? You can learn now.. Its very long..

This is lebanese food stall which the pictures of the food does not really appeal me..

This is taken from a stall selling briyani rice and their curry look really dilicious.. even the briyani rice smells really good..
Each of the curry and dishes are properly named and we just can't wait to try out their food.. I ordered a Vegetable briyani rice with Mutton Curry and Veg Jalfrezi.. The waiter suggested to put my curry and Veg Jalfrezi seperately with my rice and put them in 2 different bowls so that I can have more and can share with my friend.. Looking at how friendly and good service the waiter is, I said ok and ordered a glass of Mountai Dew to quench my thirst and in case the curry is too hot for me to handle..

To my horror, when I wanted to pay for my brunch.. the nice and friendly waiter told me that I have to pay DHS 53.50.. that is equilvalent to almost RM60 or $25++.. I was shocked and stunned and speechless.. What the heck.. Nasi Briyani with mutton curry and vegetable cost less than RM10 in malaysia and now I have to pay like more than 5 times of it in a Dubai foodcourt.. Its not even a buffet or high class restaurant.. its just a foodcourt!!! IT IS SUPER DUPER EXPENSIVE LO!!! But I have no choice.. I have ordered and they have served.. I got to pay.. I swallowed my saliva hard and painfully bring out my money to pay him.. DARN... My friend wanted to laugh but managed to control his laughter..

This is the culprit of my throat-chocking brunch.. Shamiana.. Dont ever eat their food when you are in Dubai's CITY CENTRE mall!!!! Unless u dont mind paying so much for some Briyani... You tell me la.. am I cheated? I really feel like cursing man!!!!

P/s: Being a cabin crew is not easy... really.. But I think I'm beginning to like this job sincerely.. Although sometimes I really feel like quitting even during my training days.. But I thank God that I can even have a job now because the economy is so bad right now.. Being blessed with opportunities to travel around really broaden my horizon and I'm glad that I'm at this stage.. But I still miss malaysia and the cheap mamak food..