7 things I learn on my 3 weeks in the UK
- British people loves Football!
- The fact that hundreds of thousands of fans watching and discussing football in and outside various stadiums every week says it better than anything else.
- Watching football looks like a (habit,) family outing and sometimes a festival to British people
- They’re superbly punctual. I mean on time is late.
- Buses (except in York) always arrive on pre-specified time. Some if arriving the bus stop early, the bus driver will stop, “take a break” until the exact arriving timing (it looks kinda weird though).
- They don’t call and wait for latecomer even if you’re 5′ late #Stonehenge #Tour #London-to-Manchester :O
- They give everyone a full refund if their trains start later than 60′ #Virgin #York-to-London
- Their transportation “sucks” – I mean not as convenient as in Singapore!? Singapore does get the benefits of the being small though. Literally.
- There is no universal way for customers to pay across the country (using the same card – same thing in China)!
Bus drivers needa handle (cash/coin) ticket payment. This is fine if it’s a optional way of payment but it looks like most people buy tickets on the bus. As many doesn’t return you change, we’d better prepare the exact amount 😀 - I’m still wondering why they don’t scan people’s stuff before boarding the train though we surely can. Not Safe! #Terrorism #MassKilling
- There is basically only one door on most buses :O
- Most people park their car on the road causing traffic jam on small roads, which are popular in some cities like York & Edinburgh. Again they can surely build some specific buildings for parking, but I don’t know why they don’t (e.g even in small city like Singapore there are parking lots at almost all shopping malls and residential areas).
- There is no universal way for customers to pay across the country (using the same card – same thing in China)!
- They’re way ahead of most other countries not only economically but also culturally and architecturally. The later probably leads to the former result!?
- Judge a country or a city by its libraries and museums respectively.
- They manage to keep most buildings and its architecture built thousand years ago. As a matter of fact, people are still living and working in those ancient buildings which apparently don’t affect its development.
- It’s the People who create history – not environment (or things) which apparently ain’t that influential.
- There is hardly any night life in the UK even in London. Almost everything (except private bars and clubs) is closed at 6 – max. 7pm.
- Apparently, it’s boring at night not only in UK but probably in Europe too, which is totally different from big Asian cities such as SGP, SG & Bangkok.
Some weird things:
- There is no “close” button on most of their lifts. Why? :O
- There is basically only one (front) door on most buses around UK (except some classic red double-decker buses in London). Why again? 😀
- I like how people almost always say “thank you” to the bus driver when alighting from the bus.
- Their cabs look cool albeit expensive! Uber saves us!!!
Experience the so-called “jet lag”. I adapt very well! Sleep well on my 2nd day in UK!
I had problems sleeping when coming back to SGP though. Lost sleep for almost 5 days… Sleep at 12pm and wake up at 3-4am…