England & Scotland

16 days... one of the longest trip I have made in recent memory! It was a refreshing trip and I must say, one of those where towards the end, you feel you have had enough and wants to return to the comforts of home, and I do add - to start work. LOL! Spent a good 16 days travelling around Scotland (Edinburgh, Inverness, Isle of Skye [lotsa places], Glasgow) and England (Manchester, Birmingham, Wareham, Bath, Brighton & London) and finally got to visit 2 places that I had read so much of but never got to visit - Inverness (home to the Loch Ness monster) and Stonehenge. 

Here're some quick call outs about the trip:

• Lovely to be able to move about without the face mask (even in public transport). We were a little apprehensive initially but decided to join the crowd eventually. We were, after all, vaccinated, boosted, and had gotten COVID before.

• Scotland was really beautiful, especially with the mountains and the lakes. It's no wonder they call it the Highlands. Lovely sceneries but the weather was a tat erratic. I really like Inverness. Its just about the right size to walk around, and people were really nice.

• Although it wasn’t planned, we got to experience the locations in Edinburg that inspired JK Rowling when she wrote the Harry Porter series. Also, by sheer coincidence, it was Peter Rabbit’s birthday when we visited his birthplace in Windermere!

• The small roads across Scotland and England were mostly single lane and narrow. It was rather stressful to drive on these roads, especially when there were many reckless drivers who chose to speed, even when the roads were wet and slippery (and I do suspect many were tourists from Europe, judging by the vehicle number plates).

• The smaller towns were really charming, with the rows of old buildings and manicured gardens - very Scottish & English indeed. We also had lots of fish & chips, haggis, pies, scones, etc... but, admittedly, at some point, we yearned Asian food!

• I had a deeper understanding of the history of Scotland and England and experienced the richness of the culture through the castles, foods, and people. And it was interesting to hear the different accents as we travelled from Scotland towards S England.

• I enjoyed the grandeur of the palaces and abbeys. The displays of chandeliers, paintings, jewelry, etc were just mind blowing. And it was just nice that our visit coincided with the Platinum Jubilee celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II.

• Stonehenge was not as big nor grand as I had expected. It was, nonetheless, a defining visit for me given how much I’ve read and heard about it since I was a kid. Walking around it and savouring the history and stories made the whole visit rather magical.

• The larger cities were really crowded, especially London. And I did notice that city people tend to be a lot ruder. People raised their voices, pushed around, gave rude stares, etc. I suspect these were tourists and they did it because they know they could get away with it. Or perhaps because we are Asian? Ok, let’s not go there…

• London is way too crowded today compared to 20 years ago. And it felt different now too. Less English, and more cosmopolitan. I suspect its the change in the profile of tourists - e.g. I visited Harrods and noted that a huge percentage of the shoppers were from the Middle East. For that matter, even the drivers of logistics trucks and taxis queuing outside Harrods looked Middle Eastern to me! Another possible reason could the the lack of PRC (Chinese) tourists given China’s current COVID travel restrictions.

• The trip would have been perfect if the weather had held up better on some days. Nonetheless, it was really nice to experience the coolness of Scotland (as low as 6C and no more than 23C). We ended the trip with a heatwave in London. It hit 34C - hot by London standards at this time of the year but tolerable to us.

I have slightly less than a month before my sabbatical ends... will do another trip up Malaysia at the end of the month!