We flew to London (Stanstead) from Tirana on Ryanair. No dramas, no problems. And the bus from the airport through to London dropped us off almost at our hotel, in Whitechapel. It was the first time either of us had spent much time in the East End. Our hotel was close to public transport and we spent most of time using the Elizabeth line.
It had been 7 or 8 years since we had been in London and we had forgotten just how expensive London is. So we ignored the conversions and did what we wanted in our short 3 days there. Each day we tried to have one good meal and our 3 picks were Ottolenghi, Le Relais de Venice for entrecote – no reservations and so popular we didnt think we were going to get in with the 1st sitting and St John Bread and Wine. All were different and all were very good meals.
We visited the Sky Garden for views over London on a rainy morning, at the top of the Wlkie Talkie Building.
We had a Roman day when we visited the Mithraeum. It was only uncovered in 1954 and is thought to be a cult temple to the Roman god Mithras, It had a short multimedia display and was both free and very good. We visited the roman amphitheatre only found in 1988 under Guildhall and of course the bits of the roman walls in that area of town.
Our London show was the Witness for the Prosecution (Agatha Christie) mainly chosen because it is performed at County Hall, the former London city council chambers. It worked really well as a theatre and we sat in the leather councillor seats. The play was also very good! If we wanted to pay an astronomical sum we could have sat on the stage as one of the jury – but we preferred to spend that money on eating and drinking.
There were visits to places such as the British Museum and National Portrait Gallery – we packed quite a bit into our short time.
Then we flew to Singapore and up to Vientiane for a week of work. This time everyone came to the capital for the company annual meeting and I could see lots of staff all in one place without having to travel down south.
Vientiane had some bad flooding this year as the Mekong breached flood barriers, and there was still evidence of this about a couple of months later
Then on to Bangkok for a couple of nights. We found the Burmese area, quite close to our hotel and lots of good Burmese restaurants.
As we left the hotel one evening a turtle was walking across the carpark. Andrew aimed his camera at the animal, but he failed to capture any photos 🙂
The turtle was moving too fast……..