London calling

I had basically two choices where to head next after Miri. Brunei seemed interesting but once again Ramadan had an impact on my trip. I did some googling on Brunei and found out that they passed a law on 2014 that even non muslims can't eat visible on Ramadan. You can go buy some take away food but have to go back to your accommodation/parallel to consume it. "No sir, don't like that"

Brunei was out of the equation. 

It was then time to change the Malaysian state and go to Sabah. I decided to skip the bus ride with five border crossings and a whole day wasted and took a plane instead. I'm an Airasia regular customer aka "Big shot" which means I've got some perks when I'm flying. Flying with my backpack means that I have to pay some extra for the cargo but as a Big shot I also get to choose my own seat when booking the flight. More legroom for me thank you! I also get a complementary meal and my luggage is always priority which means that it's amongst the first ones when they unload the plane. But the coolest thing by far is the express lane when boarding the plane and dropping the luggage. Imagine the regular mortal's queuing to board the plane and me, a lousy backpacker, taking the express lane. It's been a blast and couple of times I've been queuing in the regular line and then remembered that I'm a big shot! Muahahahaa. 

So I flew to a place called Kota Kinabalu which is known to posses the highest mountain in SEA. Unfortunately the mountain was closed due to an earthquake. The reason for the earthquake was even more unfortunate. Please, read the news on this link :D Damn you boobs! Well, maybe I go back some day... 

Nothing much happened in Kota Kinabalu and to be honest I was quite eager to start my next part of my travels. I woke up one wednesday morning around 9am and left for the airport. 2,5 hour flight to Kuala Lumpur and then 4 hours wait for the next plane to head to Hanoi. Yes, Hanoi!!!! Back to Vietnam you might think now. Well, not quite. Another 4 hours for my connecting flight to London which was first 4 hours late. Then another 4 hours and as a cherry on the top one more hour delay. 

I have to say that it was really weird feeling to start flying back to Europe but I was also really enthusiastic since I was gonna meet some friends I'd managed to make on my journey. 

Btw, I tried to use the few Vietnamese words in Hanoi's airport with the same effect as always. They just didn't understand. So unrewarding. 

I arrived to London 9 hours later than anticipated just to learn that the tube was on strike. Damn you tube! 3 busses and 2km by foot later I arrived to my hostel at 10pm on thursday. I was quite a wreck to be honest and boy did I enjoy my first proper cider and g&t in a long time. It's the small things...

Reunion!

You might remember "Crippie" from Dalat, Vietnam. Well I was due to meet her the next day in London and a merry reunion it was! Thank you Chloe, it was so nice to see that your foot was healing well and you were doing well. 

I've been to London before but it was still a shock how expensive everything was. Buying a pint was loosing one night in Vietnam including a breakfast. Oh the tears. Other than that experiencing the western culture wasn't that bad. I kind of enjoyed it after quite a long time in SEA.

Two icons in one picture.. 

The coolest hand washing apparatus ever