Tourist Season Part 2: the UK

For part 2 of our tourist season, we shall be looking at the United Kingdom - my adopted country. The UK couldn't be more different from Sri Lanka which we looked at in part 1.

First impressions: Now everyone would have had some kind of impression of the UK based on movies, music videos, TV programmes and literature. All these would have built up some kind of expectations by the time you get off that long flight and stumble through immigration at Heathrow Airport. Now how close those expectations meet your first impressions really depend on what you do in the first few hours!

What are your impressions of the UK?

I remember my first visit to London years ago - my Malaysian travelling companion was responsible for finding us somewhere to stay and for some reason, he picked this B&B in Hither Green which was like this suburb way out in South East London no where near anything that could've been of any interests to tourists. So my first taste of London was the underground system, changing to a train at Charing Cross Staton before emerging in this rather uninspired suburb full of Victorian terrace houses - I was so underwhelmed. It was also a lot hotter than I thought, being about 26 degrees that day (well it was summer) and for some reason, I had expected it to be cooler than that.

Getting there: Most tourists would fly in via one of the London Airports: Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted or London City. London is one of the best connected cities in the world by air - though an alternative way to get to London is via Paris, where you can pick up the Eurostar from Gare du Nord and be in St Pancras International in two hours flat. Interestingly, many budget airlines fly to London, which means you can get here on a shoestring from as far away as Kuala Lumpur with Air Asia. Sadly, British airports are at best grim and grey in comparison to their Asian counterparts - groan. Two words: potted plants. It's not rocket science.

Transport: Now I am going to do this in two parts: firstly, London, then the rest of the country. Many tourists to the UK barely make it out of London because there is so much to see and do in London itself and if you only have say 4 or 5 days - then why bother spending a day travelling to Scotland? Within London, there is a very well organized (but rather expensive) public transport system which consists of the Underground (aka the Tube), buses and trains. You can also hire bicycles for just £1 for a 24 hours period.  Public transport is usually quite efficient, but expect trains and buses to be crowded during rush hours. You need to get an Oyster Card for London's public transport (similar to the EZ Link in Singapore) for the best prices - it is always a lot cheaper with an Oyster Card than buying a single ticket.

As for getting around the UK, you have a choice of getting around by bus or train. Buses are always cheaper but will take longer. For example, if you're travelling from London to Manchester, the train can get you there in about 2 hours but the bus may take up to 4 hours depending on traffic - but the train will cost a lot more than the bus. You can also of course, rent a car and drive around. Once your train journey exceeds 5 or 6 hours, you may consider flying. About 4.5 to 5 hours on the train (that's London to Glasgow) = about 1 hour on the plane, but do consider how much time you would have to spend around airports for that hour long flight with all the security checks associated with airports. Besides, you will have to spend more time getting from London to the airport which will take at least an hour and another hour on the other hand getting from the airport into town at your destination.

Yes you can rent a car and drive around if you like. 

However, if you are going say from London to Aberdeen at the opposite end of the country, then it would make sense to fly. It takes just 1 hour 50 minutes to fly but by train, it takes at least 7.5 hours - though there is always the option of getting the overnight sleeper train from London to Scotland, the bunk beds are very comfortable and you depart London at night and you wake up in Scotland. In doing so, you save money by spending a night on the train rather than in a hotel - pretty cool eh?

Attractions: Where do I begin? There is so much to see and do, it boils down to prioritizing what is important to you. Here's what I suggest. You need to sit down and compile a list of things which have contributed to your impressions of the UK over the years: movies, music videos, TV programmes and literature. Then based on that list, you can compile a list of places you want to go to. If we were to simply take movies as a genre to compile that list, then you could have a very different holiday depending on that movie you have chosen, I can think of a few: The King's Speech, Johnny English, Four Weddings & A Funeral, Trainspotting, Spice World, Emma, Notting Hill, Love Actually, In The Loop, Shakespeare In Love, Billy Elliot, all the Harry Potter films, all the Bridget Jones films and all the James Bond films.

If you have less than 4 days, then stay in London and make the most of your time there - it can take several hours to get from city to city and you are losing precious time waiting around for trains or on buses when you could be actually doing something very fun in London. But if you do have more than 4 days, then do venture out of London. Where you go is up to you: if you are a fan of the Beatles then you will want to head up to Liverpool - or you may prefer to get the overnight train or a flight up to Scotland and experience the wilderness of the Scottish Highlands in the winter (and yes you can ski in Scotland). If you prefer a more cultural experience, then you should go to Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare's hometown - or perhaps you would want to check out historic Bath and Stonehenge.

Weather: Ah, now the UK is a country that experiences four seasons and the weather you will experience depends entirely on when you visit! In the summer, it can reach 37, even 38 degrees whilst in the winter, it can fall away to -25 degrees in rural areas. Rain is fair evenly spread out throughout the year, though the wettest month (for London) is October and the driest is February. In the winter, this precipitation may fall as snow if you are lucky! Whenever you visit, do come prepared for some rain. (Umbrella, raincoats, appropriate footwear etc.)

London in the winter! Yes it can get very cold!

One quirky aspect of the Brits though is that they are quite well prepared for the cold - for example, buildings are designed to keep the heat in and will have very good heating systems. However, the moment you get a really hot summer's day, these buildings become greenhouses and are unbearable. The older buses and trains do not have any air-conditioning and can feel like ovens when it is over 30 degrees. Another aspect you should bear in mind is the length of the days: in summer, the sun sets around 9 to 9:30 pm whilst in winter, it gets dark by about 4 pm. Long days = warmer weather as the ground soaks up the sun's rays, whilst the opposite happens in winter, where there just isn't enough sunshine to warm the place up.

Food: British food sucks. Big time. Okay, there is a certain kind of high end modern British cooking which can be spectacular and there are some restaurants in London like The Ivy, Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's, the Savoy Grill and Hix (in Soho) and Hawksmoor (Covent Garden) which have this "proud to be British" ethos and if you're determined to eat British and are willing to splash out, then by all means go for it.  But otherwise, your average British meal will leave you incredibly underwhelmed. The famous Sunday roast is bland, tasteless and remarkably boring.

British food can be bland and tasteless - you were warned!

Sorry, this is a wet, cold island and they don't do flavour - the fact is, in the tropics, it is necessary to use spices to prevent your meats from going off in the heat, that is why food from places like India, Thailand and Indonesia is typically very spicy and if you are used to eating spicy, flavoursome food - then British food would be a shock to the system. Given the relatively cold weather for most of the year, the whole country is pretty much like a fridge (or freezer) and you don't need to smother your meats with salt and spices to stop them from rotting.

British people have long accepted the fact that British food is bland and tasteless and you have two kinds of Brits today: the ones who are used to tasteless food and will only eat tasteless, bland food; and the ones who simply eat Indian, Italian, French, Turkish, Chinese, Thai etc food. You will be able to find food from all over the world in most British cities - though in smaller towns, your choices will be limited.

Prices: Britain has always had a reputation for being expensive but that is not necessarily true. You can spend as much or as little as you want - but you always get what you pay for. If you're paying £25 a night for a backpackers' bunk bed in London, then don't expect anything more than the most basic facilities! But if you're willing to pay for the roof terrace suite at the Dorchester (£9000/S$18,000 a night), then yeah you will have the time of your life - and there's everything in between but be realistic in your expectations.

Hotel Rooms: you get what you pay for!

Let's look at transport for example. Say you want to travel from London to Cardiff - you can go for as little as £0.50 (S$1) by bus if you book with Megabus far ahead in advanced. Yes it is that ridiculously cheap - it can work out to be cheaper to go 200 km to Cardiff with Megabus than a few stops down the road by a public bus in London (£1.35 with an Oyster Card/£2 cash). But if you were to turn up at London Paddington, walked up to the ticket booth and said, "I would like a ticket to Cardiff please", you would pay £99.50 for a peak hour single or £50.50 for an off-peak single. If you had booked in advance, that price goes down to £39 for an advanced single, but still. Ouch. The train gets you to Cardiff in about 2 hours whilst the bus can take about 3.5 to 4 hours (depending on traffic).

Language: English. What did you expect? It's the one place in the world where you don't expect the locals to speak anything else - even most Welsh people don't speak Welsh, they speak English instead.

English rating: 5 out of 5 - this is the UK. However, if you expect the locals to speak another language, forget it. The Brits are hopelessly monolingual.

Beware: The weather will change from day to day. Always check the weather forecast so you can plan ahead. You don't want to be climbing Snowdonia when heavy rain is expected - so if you know it's going to rain heavily on Thursday, then you will plan to go to art galleries and museums on that day instead.

London in the Winter, Trafalgar Square in the snow

Safety: The UK is reasonably safe, touch wood I've not had any problems with crime in the last 15 years - but there is a lot to be said about common sense. I can't believe I still see tourists walking around with big, expensive looking cameras dangling around their necks. If you do have a camera like that, keep it in your bag and take it out when you wish to take a photo and then put it away after you're done with it. Stop advertising yourself as an easy target for snatch thieves. Keep your valuables out of sight and do not carry large amounts of cash around. Violent crime is rare - you're far more likely to be a victim of a pickpocket if you are not careful with your valuables. Again, common sense applies - so if your friend is drunk, stay with him/her and get him/her back to the hotel safely, don't let him stagger down the road by himself/herself when s/he is clearly intoxicated and unable to fend for himself/herself.

There is a fairly large wealth gap between the rich and the poor in the UK. Hence there are some neighbourhoods where the poor live and these are very far away from where tourists usually visit given that there is nothing of interest to a tourists in these run-down, poorer neighbourhoods. To be on the safe side, you should avoid such neighbourhoods in the poorer inner city areas. It is highly unlikely that you can accidentally stumble into such a neighbourhood - you'll have to be like ten miles off course in the wrong direction for that to happen. Nonetheless, to prevent even the remote possibility of that happening, always plan your travel route before setting out - which bus or train do you need and from where do you get that bus/train? How many stops are there to your destination? Always plan your return journey as well to make sure that you do not miss the last train/bus home. If in doubt, ask for help and check with the staff at the bus/train station. "Is this bus going to London Victoria?"

Always plan your journey in advanced.

Comparisons: The UK is going to remind you of other destinations like Canada, Australia and New Zealand, for many reasons. Many British people moved to these countries, bringing their language, customs and culture with them to these countries - even place names. Camden is a neighbourhood in North London - but you can find towns with the name 'Camden' in Australia (near Sydney), New Zealand (South Island), Canada (Nova Scotia), USA (way too many to name here) and South Africa (East of Johannesburg).

Do I need a guide: Absolutely not, the UK is such a tourist friendly country and there is no language barrier if you speak English! There are always local tourist information offices, even in small towns where you can get advice and help. It would make sense to plan ahead though and book your accommodation and travel (including train and bus tickets) online to get the best deals and discounts.

That's me in the Rose Garden in Regents Park. 

There are options to join local guided tours if you wish to get a greater understanding of the place you're visiting - for example, there are walking tours of London where you can get a guide who will tell you fascinating stories on a theme, such as Jack the Ripper, for example. I even went on a Ghost Walk in Llandaff Southern Wales and got more than I bargained for when I actually did encounter something spooky that well and truly freaked me out. Even at say, the British museum or the Museum of London, you can join guided tours and have an expert tell you fascinating stories of the best exhibits. Some of these tours are free but most would involve a small fee.

Okay, so that's the UK for you in a nutshell - the next country we will talk about is France. I totally love France but am aware that it suffers from a bad reputation. All shall be revealed in part 3 of our tourism season! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below.