First Place to go.. London EYE!!!

The first thing to do in London is have a panorama view of London, and The Eye is the place to visit!!
Since, my hostel is near to a rail station, then it's better to take the rail to there.

To London Eye by rail
The closest rail stations to the London Eye are Waterloo and Charing Cross.
Waterloo is the closest rail station to the London Eye. Waterloo is about five minutes walking distance; take exit six for the South Bank and follow the signs.
Charing Cross is about a fifteen minute walk to the London Eye. Cross over Hungerford Bridge.

For winter (from October to April), the opening time daily is 10.00am - 8.00pm.
Ticket Price : Adult (16 plus) £15.17, Child (5-15 years) £7.59,Senior (60 plus)* £11.74

Virtual Tour of London Eye

Morning means less fog and a better view of London.

Where's next?

Virtual Backpacking Destination----LONDON!!

First stop, London!!

The flight would be from Singapore Changi Airport to London Heathrow Airport

Date: 6/12/08 Time :23.35
Arrive : 7/12/08 Time :5.25
On Qantas Airways
zuji.com.sg -->London Top Flights Deals



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Choice of Hostel is
Queen Victoria Hostel
118 Wellington Street, London, SE18 6XY, England
Located only 20 minutes from the world's most famous and historical bridge. LONDON BRIDGE.
Why there? Because they can store my backpack for me if I arrive before the check-in time at 12pm ( and base on the flight details.. I would really be early)
Book Queen Victoria Hostel, London, England with Hostelbookers

Directions to get from Heathrow to Queen Victoria hotel

Catch the Piccadilly Line and change at Kings Cross, from here catch the Northern Line to LONDON BRIDGE. take a train to Woolwich Arsenal. We are only a 5 minute walk.

Virtual Backpacking

Although the economic slowdown is the best period to go backpacking but I have obligations that is stopping me from hopping onto the next flight and just go and walk around the world.

I came up with the idea of Virtual Backpacking using this blog.

I would use Google Map to draw out my Virtual Backpacking route.
Virtually stay at a certain hostel or couchsurf or sometimes in 5 start to relax..
Then virtually visit the area...
Constrain of time would still impact to my virtual route,that means I won't be going to the Louvre and be at Shang Hai the same day.

Now to decide where my first destination would be.....

Backpacker's accommodation --Local Lodging

Backpackers tries very hard to save money during their travel.

A very effective way is, AVOID HOTELS!!

Hostels is a cheap alternative to hotels.
you can book a Hostel anywhere in the world with the widget on the left sidebar of this blog.

There's another way to save money and ALSO.. get up close and personal with people living in that particular place.

Local Lodging -->that's the key.

When you local lodge. you are actually living in the same house as your leaser.

How does this actually happen?
Well, people with spare rooms but do not want a permanent leaser would put their rooms up for rent for a few days.
We (backpackers) would just book the room online or offline and stay for our traveling period. Some rooms come along with meals, some owners just invite you to meal even if it's not included. So be friendly , then you save both on accommodation and meals...

This is more popular in the Asia region especially in Japan and Taiwan where they name it 民宿 （min su).. means local's accommodation.

What to expect?

Don't expect 5 star service or 5 star food...or 5 star rooms...
The quality actually varies, some would have 6 star service and room but some would be more like hostels.
So make sure you only book those with popular ratings..but they do cost more..
If you can withstand anything and any enviroment then, just go ahead and book the cheapest one available.

Have fun lodging with the locals and get near to them.

Here's a few local lodging website:

For USA local lodging --> Roomorama
For UK local lodging -->SpareRoom
For Worldwide --> Vacation Renatals by Owners

A place to show people your route, GOOGLE MAP

Google Map is a new thing to me (that's outdated right?)

This program from Google enables travelers, backpackers alike to view satellite pictures, maps and terrain of their destination.

The program can even help you find directions to go to a place on the map.
You could even, gain access to maps with pictures and route all by fellow backpackers and travelers. This would help a lot in planning one's traveling route.

There are even more features like
1) pictures of the places of interest
2) short film of happenings at the place.

Put it this way,
You just got your personal Atlas to draw and play around with...
and you could also peep into people's Atlas..

That's FUN!!!

Backpacking Philopshy 2

Backpacking is a the ultimate test of endurance and sanity.

Endurance

You might think running a 42km marathon is a test of endurance,
Try walking,running,hiking, for 4 months and about 4000km..
That's what a real backpacker does, and that's endurance.

Sanity

If you have been alone before, you know what it feels like.
Alone for 1 hour, you will feel nothing.
Alone for 10 hour, you would feel lonely.
Alone for 1 day, you would start to imagine things.
Alone for 1 week, you would be afraid of the littlest sound.

That's what you might encounter during a backpacking trip.
Some people might be alone throughout their trip, that's 1 month, 2 months or even more.

That's really a test for sanity.

Increase your endurance and you Sanity level.
Go BACKPACK!!

Couch Surfing

Want to go backpack but have a low budget?
Run out of money but need a place for the night?

The best place for you to go is www.couchsurfing.com

Couch Surfing Project is a Non Profit Organization founded by Casey Fenton,Sebastien Giao Le, Tuan Daniel M. Hoffer and Leonardo Bassani da Silveira.

This project is simple. You can register as their member at their website, get connected with the members in the place where you are traveling. With their permission, you can just sleep on their couch for the duration of your travel. What's more, they mostly would also offer to be your tour guide. That's the best idea I have seen in these few years.

It will be great if you could join in and grow the numbers of couches available every night for fellow backpackers and travelers.

How did it started?

Well, the idea solidified when founder, Casey Fenton, got a cheap ticket to Iceland for a long weekend one April. With his ticket in hand, there was one problem: he had no place to stay and no desire to rot in a hotel all weekend and play Mr. Tourist. So, he came up with the 'brilliant' idea of spamming over 1500 Icelandic students in Reykjavik and asking them if he could crash on one of their couches. After exchanging emails with many of the students, he had several groups of friends offer to show him 'their' Reykjavik. So, after spending an amazing, crazy weekend just south of the Arctic Circle, Casey decided he would never again get trapped in a hotel and tourist marathon while traveling. From that point onward, it was all about crashing on exotic couches and cultural exchange. And, thus, the CouchSurfing Project was born.

For further understanding of the project, please visit their FAQ

What are you waiting for??? Let's COUCH.. SURFING!!!