Winter holidays - pt 1 : Manchester

The winter holidays as it is known here is similar to the year-end holidays that every student get no matter what your level is.

As it is my 1st year studying in UK, thus it was my first winter holidays and I guess as usual for the Bruneian students here, most of us would go traveling across Europe during this period. I was no different. After weeks of planning, it was decided that the destinations are Manchester, London and Barcelona!

I thus plan to blog about my trips (hopefully interestingly)..

First off before heading to more of the trips, let me introduce to you

the crew..

The uninteresting me

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who's not alone,

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thus,

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PLUS


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(Girls control yah..)

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"L.A.T", Glasgow's hottest property!

Now, da members :

Member #1 : Mr J. Ang aka "A" of L.A.T

Interesting Facts:
Known around the world for his crazy out-of-the-blue camera poses and farts.
Girls go crazy for his Jap "Hiro Nakamura" look and of course his famous renditions of Peterpan's hits.

Nickname: Eason Chan

Favourite Quote: Wo yao fang pi

Member #2 : Mr Tan aka "T" of L.A.T

Interesting Facts:
Brought a new breed of poses for the cam, now recognized as the "The KW pose" or poses.
Infatuated with his hair which is touched at an average rate of 999 times per day.

Nickname: Nicky Li Jiu Zhe

Favourite Quote : Erm, bu zhi dao/sui bian lo

Member #3 : Mr SC aka "L" of L.A.T (the one in white, pls ignore the left one.)

Interesting Facts:

Holds the record for reading a book w/o break on a 5 hr++ train ride.
Fanatic Manchester United fan

Nickname: (To be announced, throw your ideas in the chatbox!)

Favourite Quote : ShitZ ah

=)

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Destination # 1 : Manchester

If you happen to remember, I was slightly worried about the 5hr ++ bus trip from Glasgow to Manchester. I was expecting a bumpy, boring, noisy trip all the way. However, one of the things I was slightly anticipating during this trip was the scenery along the way. Scotland is known to be a place filled with places with great scenery, if you hadn't known. Check out BBC's UK link (Pic of the day or smth.. Lots of really awesome pics)

Another thing that I wasnt anticipating was being the last to board the bus(blame Eason, who loves his bed so much). What do u get for that? Lousy seats thus sitting with strangers =( However not that bad actually. My seating neighbour was not irritating or anything thus no big deal.

The trip was certainly filled with nice scenery along the way. Its just like those images you see when you read storybooks when young. Lots n lots of lush green hills. Herds of sheep n goat dotting happily munching at the green grass like there's no tomorrow. There were even windmills along the way. A windmill up close is seriously gigantic! The windmill however was a modern one(steel blades and all that) thou', not those old-fashioned smaller ones.

Something like the top n bottom, however not as foggy as the above thou
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There was a short 30 mins break after the first 2 hours or so at a place meant for those with long journeys I guess. Its not some random kedai runcit behind a gas station or smth. The place was huge. Filled with lots of eateries, and a souvenir shop.

I think around 2 hrs+ after leaving the place, we started to see huge boards showing the way to go to various England places such as Manchester, Liverpool n a few others I think. I heard from SC that we went past one of the stadiums whilst I was asleep. It was the Bolton stadium! Shyt!

Not long after, you started to see names like 'Trafford', 'Sir Matt Busby Way', etc etc.. Oh noes! We're in Manchester! I tried to spot a glimpse of Old Trafford or City of Manchester Stadium. Nah, but failed.

We arrived way earlier than stated on our tix. An hour ++ earlier if I ain't wrong. Yippie! Arrived at this bus station that was really close to University of Manchester. After a bit of doing circles in our attempt to go to our hostel, we decided to just board the taxi.

First stop : YHA Manchester(Our home for the next 2 nights)

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LOL, on check-in, I remember the receptionist asking us why we're here. Haha "Football" was the reply. One of the receptionists who I presume was a Man. Utd fan straightaway told his colleague to give us the best rooms lol. Well of course, that was just a joke.

Window looking out. Notice the lake? We found that it became frozen a bit later into the night!

Room with lots of drawers, but super small toilet!

Yeah, the room's air was filled with Eason's 'awesome-smelling' socks. SUI!!
See how proud he is with one half of his prized possession

After leaving our luggage in the room, its time to discover Manchester!

A blurry taken pic of the canal at the back of our hostel which was filled of ducks actually.

Just down the road from our place, lies the Hilton Tower.

What's so special here?
- One of the locals told us that this was the tallest building in Manchester
- He also said that there was a bar up there that footie players regularly hang out
- What more?

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LOOK What I just found! OMG! No. 2 - 5.
No idea who No. 1 is. I didnt know this until now when I googled about this tower!

Heading down to town..

A bengkok-ly taken pic of Manchester's version of the Big Ben

Directly opposing the "Big-Ben"..
No, its not the 4-faced God of Thailand. Hahaha

The pretty looking Wheel of Manchester which I chickened out
due to my fear of heights, to the dismay to the crew of L.A.T. lol

First meal in Manchester. Super delicious, roast duck + rice.
MILES better than SeeWoo's one.. We actually had smth similar for nearly the remaining of our meals in Manchester! Hahaha.. hopeless! LOL.
Too hard to fang qi, coz so far haven't found one to match this in Glasgow


After eating, further into town.. Christmas tree made of lighted-spheres

Just behind the Wheel of Manchester

It was really cold that night, thus after our walk around town. Time to head back ..

There goes Day 1 in Manchester =)