Information for Filipinos in London

[ginapeterb]

As we are learning about your country and the Philippine Island we thought you might like to learn about ours.

I would llke to start a topic about London and the surrounding area........especially how to enjoy London attractions.


Filipinos in London will want to visit some of the attractions the most popular attraction by far and the simplest to enjoy is the British Airways London Eye.

How to get there.

Depending where you are located in the the London area or out of London.......best tway to get to it is to take an overland train on the One Network.

Filipinos coming in from the Home Counties should use Kings Cross Station....if comin in from the East Anglia area or Essex you should use Liverpool Street Station.....if from the South.....you can use Charing Cross Station or Waterloo. If from the West........you can use Paddington Station.

Best to buy a 1 day travel card which includes your transport into the Capital and the use of the London Underground system very simjilar to the Metro Transit rail network in Hong Kong and the Subway system in NYC USA.

The London Eye is closest to Westminster Station whch is on the District and Circle Lines........the Circle Line trains run about every 6-8 minutes.....(you hope) and a circle line train will get you to Westminster Station.

Turn out of Westminster station and you will see the London Eye across the River Thames...just go up the steps and take a walk across Westminster bridge to the Saatchi Gallery......you will see hundreds of tourists millling around.....tickets for the flight cost around £11.00 pe Adult and £9.00 per child.......try to avoid Saturdays as the waiting time to fly it is around 1-2 hours and an endless queue but filipinos should be used to that.

Best time to go is in the week as although tourists are around.........the locals are not.....and Brits are generally at work so they dont go.

The London Eye is about 400 feet over the City and gives a Panoramic view of the whole city which is a great experience and well worth the cost of going up at least to say you did it......and the photos are good too.

River Trips

There are various River trips you can take along the Thames.....point worth mentioning..... if you have a travelcard for the day you can obtain a third discount on most river trips.....just present your travelcard for London Transport and you will get a 30 per cent discount on your trip........typical costs are around £6.00 to go from Westminster pier down to Tower of London Pier......you get a amateur audio comentary by the crew albeit its a p.... take and many Americans dont understand our sense of humour and our obsession with making fun of our people and our politicians, not sure how filipinos will take that.

You can take a River Cruise down to Hampton Court Palace which is great cos you get to see all of the River and it takes about an hour each way.....well worth it when the sun is out.

ok keep watching for more instalments of Petes Guide to London his home City.

[ginapeterb]

If you really want to see London and all of the famous and historical places, the best way to get around London is either to obtain a 1 day travelcard, yiou can buy these at any of the London Underground Stations, this entitles you to use any of the London Transport network using Zones R1256 which means you can jump on any London Double Decker Bus, and the tube network.

Another way to get around the City is to jump on the Big City Bus tour........this can be taken opposite the Tower of London, Westminster Pier and the Embankment opposite Charing Cross Station.

Its the best way to see London or the City of London and the City of Westminster, many visitors to the London area are confused about the differences between London and Westminster.

For one Thing The City of London is basically the Business and Financial District that starts in the East End of London and goes as far as Cleopatra's Needle which is on the embakment.

Cleopatra's Needle can be spotted when you take a river cruise from Tower of London to Westminster Pier.

The City of Westminster is a seperate part of London and refers mainly to the areas occupied by the various Ministrys and Government departments and Embassies of which there are numerous properties occupied by them.

Most of the tourist areas center around Buckingham Palace ( The home of our soveriegn Queen Elizabeth the 2nd) and the Palace of Westminster often referred to as the House of Commons.

Other buildings such as Kensington Palace the former home of the Princess of Wales and St James Palace Home of the Prince of Wales are well worth a visit, and if you are fortunate enough to be in town ( as we Londoners) refer to the city, on the Queens Official Brithday, you can joint the many thousands who hang around Pall Mall which is the road that runs from Admiralty Arch to the Buck House and wait to see the Soveriegn escorted by her personal troops the Household Division back to Buck House.

One of the main spectacles is the Changing of the Guard which takes place at 11.00am most days, you can find out more about this on the notice board outside the barracks of the Guards Division which is adjacent to St James Park, St James Park is across from Buck House and you will note various swans and other protectedspecies of birds in the Park. The area around Buck House used to be cordoned off, it is now free to walk around although it is closed off during official functions, but you can gete close up to the Palace railings and see the Guards performing their duties, the changing of the Guard is the best attraction at the Palace and look above the Palace to see whether the Royal Standard is flying...this indicates Her Majesty is in residence.

You can gain entry to Buckingham Palace by doing a tour of certain areas of the palace.........this is something that has happened over the last 2 years or so its about £7.00 for one Adults and well worth the tour.

If you take a slow walk through St James Park and follow the path, you will arrive in Parliament Sauare, yoiu may notice a statue of one of our Greatest Prime Ministers, Sir Winston Churchill our wartime leader during the 1939-1945 war with Germany.

in Front of you is the Palace of Westminster, yoiu may also notice to the right Westminster Abbey, the large structure in front is often confused as Big Ben, in fact it is not Big Ben......it is the St Stephens Clocktower although known throughout the world as Big Ben, Big Ben actually refers to the large Bell which is inside the clocktower.

Over Westmnster bridge takes you to the Saatchi Gallery and the British Airways London Eye which has been previously mentioned.

[Admin]

One piece of software (free 30 days) is Earthviewer Nvidia, excellent for looking at all the sites in the Worlds major cities.

You can clearly see the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, etc, even the roundabout in Baghdad were the Saddam monument was pulled down.

You do need an Nvidia graphics card though.

[ginapeterb]

Shopping in Cit of Westminster


Most Filipinas will like to shop and the best shopping experience is in Oxford Street W1 (little tip for you) Most of the City of London and City of Westminster are affectionately known by their postal codes, for example if anyone mentions W1 OR W2 most people who are from the area will tend to know where you mean, W1 refers to the Mayfair district of London, it is very expensive, very posh (up market) and costs the earth to do anything in, whether that be eating at restaraunts braserries or other pastimes.

Oxford Street is a nice shopping experience, it goes East to West for about a mile and their are various exit points on the London Underground Network you can stop and get off at.

The Central line runs the length of Oxford Street, starting at Holborn and ending at Marble Arch, in between you can get off at Chancery Lane, Tottenham Court road, and Bond Street, all of these stations are located throughout the Oxford Street area.

You have the world famous department stores such as John Lewis, Selfridges, M and S and l ots and lots of shops dedicated to ladies fashions, when the sun is out and the city is bustling with Red double decker buses, their is not a city like it in the world, even as a Londoner I still get a big buzz out of the city on a Saturday afternoon, their are lots of snack places along the route serving everything from Thai red cutty to Steak and Cheese baguettes, you name it they have it, in many ways its like the Philippines, with food, if you want it and you have the money its there.

Electrical Goods

For those of you who want to take a bargain sight seeing browse for electrical items such as DVD Players, Televisions Plasma, LCD or RPT (Rear Projection Television) Dab Radios, Video Cameras, Digital Cameras, computers, everything solid state, Tottenham Court road is the place to be, its mile of shops going North from Tottenham Court road station on the Central Line will keep you busy for a about 2 hours, their is bargain after bargain and many prices are as much as 20 per cent less than even on the internet, many of these shops are run by Asian business people who tend to like a bargain sale as well, you can shop around and have a good haggle session with them within reason.

The thing to realize about City of Westminster is not to ry to walk everywhere, use the Double Decker Buses on your 1 day travelcard, hop on the back when it stops and jump off when you see a shop you want to browse, pressing the bell on the back of the bus wil get the driver to stop and let you off.

Also if you fancy a jaunt up to the North london area, Camden Town is a nice area to look for a bargain especially in Ladies fashions, but its quite a way out of Westminster, the Nothern Line service runs up to Camden Town, which is a favourite of Londoners, for its endless market stalls, restaraunts and cafe bars.

Covent Garden is pretty in Summer, again an area of restaraunts, theatres, braswerries, wine bars and cafe's if you just want to sit out on a Saturday afternoon and while away the day sipping a pelegrino or Campari, watching the world go by, Covent Garden is the place, you will find over 200 different nationalities living in the city, and thousands of tourists wandering around daily, watch out for Saturday's though the streets can be packed and difficult to get around on foot, always use TFL (Transport for London) network, to get around its easier on your feet.

If you want to get down to Picadilly Circus which is popular with tourists, dont try and walk it from Oxford Street or Marble Arch station its a long walk down Park Lane, take a TFL Tube you can take the Picadilly Line from Tottenham Court road down to Picadilly station, thats much quicker, Picadilly Circus is mainly a neon light extravaganza similar to Times Square in New York at night when the lights are on its a dazzling spectacle, most people head down there during the darker hours to see the various advertising lights, and during summer its very popular for younger people who enjoy hanging around HMV Chicago Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood and various other cool places to be.

well watch out for the next instalment.

[ginapeterb]

Kensington and Knightsbridge.


Filipinos who love to shop, may like to head on down to Knightsbridge home of the world famous "Harrods" now owned by Egyptian businessman Mohammed Al Fayed, Mr Al Fayed is famous as he repeatedly keeps being refused British Citizenship, something of which he sees red every time it happens.

Harrods is a world famous shopping experience, mainly because it so expensive, in fact filpinos will think its exorbitant and tantamount to daylight robbery, thats because a decent pair of panties can set you back 30,000 pesos, its not for the faint hearted, a pair of nickers costing £300.00 is a bit of a tall order.

Knightsbridge is the home of all things exclusive, the area bustles with double deckers, heading down the A4 that is the Cromwell road, a well known road to London taxi drivers, as the gateway to the West end, the exit out of the city up to Heathrow airport via the Hammersmith flyover, the Cromwell road is also home to many hotels in the London area, mainly the Holiday Inn various locations and Raddison suites and hundreds of major hotel chains, if you want somewhere to stay close to the Shopping in Kensington and Knightsbridge, then the Cromwell road is the place to be.


T

[ginapeterb]

Hotel rates in the area.

London hotels can be notoriously expensive, especially those in the Cromwell road area, quite frankly their isnt many places to stay of a budget type accomodation, remembering this is not the Philippines, by Manila standards, the hotels in London are 10 times the price and more, if you want to spend a weekend in London, its cheaper to commute in from where you live, if you are staying out of London, then use the trains, and get yourself in on TFL.


London hotel rates can be from £150.00 to £350.00 per night, there are superbreak packages available, but by the time you ahve paid per person, which London hotels tend to be charged as, its not much different to what I have said, the Holiday Inn in Cromwell road, (3 locations) has reasonable rates, but still around £130.00 per night per room, you can get a good hotel in the Philippines all week for that.

London is probably the 3rd most expensive city in the world to get a hotel room, the 1st being Tokyo, the 2nd being Hong Kong and New York city not far behind.

London can be incredibly expensive for just about everyhing, its easy to spend £150.00 on one day out, by the time you ahve been to one or two attractions, transport food, money just goes.

however there are certain attractions that do not cost anything, for example the Natural History Museum and the British Museum both run on voluntary donations, these are excellent places to see our nations heritage, they are bot located on the Cromwell road, SW7, you can use Earls Court station to get to them, thats on the Picadilly line.

If ou want to see A World famous hotel, the Ritz in London which was seen in the film "Notting Hill" starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, is just across from Green Park station, on the Cental Line, the Ritz is also mega expensive, a coffee will cost you around £20.00 or PHP 2000 not for the faint hearted I am afraid.

Well keep watch on London information, if anyone has any questions about London, what I dont know can be written on a postage stamp, fire away, I will try to help.


Forum mod
Pete

[Admin]

I always founs staying a guest house about 10-15 miles out was much cheaper, and friendlier, and then get the tube into the centre for the day.

It also saves breathing in the smog at night as well :)

[ginapeterb]

The Main Airports of the Greater London area, our Country's Capital City, and largest concentration of population in the United Kingdom.

London is by far one of the largest over populated cities anywhere in the world, in the Greater London area live some 15 Million people, and because of this, House Prices are at a premium, so much so that there is a massive shortage of affordable housing.

Because of a huge population explosion and the onset of easily affordable international air travel, London is a major stopping over destination for many of the worlds airlines, it is the link with Europe for the United States and is the Home of British Airways the worlds largest airline.

British Airways the national flag carrier operates from the two Main International Airports, Heathrow and Gatwick.

British Airways also has its own terminal at Heathrow Airport. that is Terminal 4, it also operates out of Terminals 1 and 2, terminal 3 being reserved for many of the worlds South East Asian carriers and some of the European and U.S. Carriers.

Firstly Heathrow Airport London.


Filipinos who arrive in London will normally arrive at London's Heathrow Airport, most probably terminal 3, although not always, Heathrow is one of the older established international airports, in London, but was originally built to be easily accessible to the West End of London.

It is about 20 minutes out of the city and can be accessed by taking either the A4 out of Knightsbridge which merges with the M4 motorway, there is also a link with Paddington Station that is the Heathrow Express which is the preferred method of transport...time is 20 minutes, cost about £22.00 return.

Their is also a TFL Link via the Picadilly Line, although this is not recommended if you have lots of suitcases..and as Filipinos like to take the kitchen sink and the bathroom scales with them suggest you use Heathrow Express, also you can take a Airport Bus, which go from Victoria Coach station SW1.

Gatwick Airport.

London Gatwick Airport is about 25 miles to the South of the London area, near to Crawley West Sussex, Gatwick was built to provide the City with a second major international airport, and is home also to British Airways, Emirates, Virgin Atlantic, and many other European carriers, also American Airlines, Delta, Continental, and US Airways, getting to Gatwick for Filipinos may seem a little harder so here are som help tips from Forum Mod, who tavels past the airport most weeks by road down to Sunny Brighton on the South Coast.

From the City of London you can take the Gatwick Express train, this goes from Victoria Overland Station, not to be confused with Victoria station on the Victoria line, on TFL, you can take the TFL Tube to Victoria, then get off and walk up the steps into the main terminal, the Gatwick Express has its own platform, ( A tip for Filipinos, be assertive and ask if you cant see it, Network rail staff tend to be Afro Carribean and will just say "Over there" over there means absolutely nothing to a filipino, after all, being in a strange country does not help, watch where he or she points there finger, ask again for the platform number, dont take "over there" as an answer.

If travelling by road, if you are filipino and want to drive, and are not used to our traffic system, dont bother, we drive much faster than you do in Luzon or Mindanao, but you can take various routes out of the City, to get to Gatwick, it is located next to the town of Crawley on the M23 south out of the City, if you are coming out of London, You can take the A3 the A23, the A217, the A20, the A2 the A24, all of these major routes exit the City of London but beware, they can take hours to get down if traffic is heavy, not recommended unless you are a Londoner and familiar with London traffic and short cuts.

All of these routes at some point hit the London Orbital motorway that is the M25, the worlds largest moving car park, named as such as it is the users like me who suffer for hours and hours in car to car slow moving traffic at night, once having hit the M25 you can pick up the M23 to Brighton, its about 11 miles down on the left, exit to Gatwick Airport, thee are two terminals , North and South, for Filipinas who dont know North or South, (especially you lot who cant find your way out of Glorietta in Manila) dont worry, its sign posted North and South, there are short term car parks, and Long term Parking available.

The quickest way is as I have said the Gatwick express train, and also there are coaches that go there from Vichtoria Coach station.

[ginapeterb]

London Stansted


London stansted is the East Anglia's answer to Gatwick in the South and Heathrow in the West.

Stansted is a new terminal and is similar in looks to the new Philippine Airlines terminal at NAIA, Some U.S. Carriers use this terminal especially for flights to Boston, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Montreal, Some European carriers, and it is the home of the low cost budget airlines, Ryan Air, Easyjet, and Buzz, passenger numbers are rapidly increasing in this airport and a 2nd Runway is planned in 2005.

The Airport is brand new, and has a fantastic new dual carriageway link road, Running from North East London from the Northern Circular up the M11 at Wanstead, right up to Bishops Stortford, where you exit to the A120 dualling to Colchcester, the Airport is just off to the left as you camber round to the right, and there are excellent facilities at this airport, I cant conceive of a situation where filipinos will use this airport however, its good to know its there isnt it.

The Stansted Express train connects London at Liverpool street station and brings you right into the airport terminal which means not a lot of walking with your bags, that will almost certainly help filipinos who have their cases stuffed with Pasalubong and M and M's.

Their is also a National Express Coach station which is located in the Long term Car park.

[gmanalo]

Here is another tip to save you money on London Attraction ex. Tower of London , London Dungeon etc... ticket for half price. This is a voucher you get at train stations its called 2 for 1 London where you get 50% off . You can also get the vouchers on line http://www.london2for1.com/2for1/

Gerry