The kind folks at flickr’s “England” group had responded with many useful tips! See this thread. Also, here’s a reply from my good friend Evan from Issaquah High School. On 10/26/05, Wang, Nicholas wrote:
Not sure yet, I just know Bath, Yorkshire, Edinburgh are musts, I’m still doing research. Hey your wife is from England, ask her to give me some ideas!
Driving… I want to save money by renting a manual, but I’m afraid that’ll be too much for me to handle… manual + wrong side of the road. :D LOL
—–Original Message—– From: Evan Tsang Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2005 10:53 PM To: Wang, Nicholas Subject: Re: Yahoo Travel - Create a share trip itineraries !!!!! what?? i thought you knew how to drive manual…and you’re from HK, so wrong side of the road = no problem! it’s not that hard, actually. The big thing to remember (other than which side of the road you’re supposed to be on) is to LOOK RIGHT…ha ha, i almost got run over by a bus crossing the street because i forgot to look right instead of left. Oh, and don’t bang your hand against the door reaching for the shifter. It kinda hurts (ummm…or so I’ve heard, LOL)… at least when you do it more than once… Yorkshire is where Vicki is from. Hit Manchester–it’s a great city, and their Chinatown is pretty nice. We ate at East, which is a good restaurant. For something a little less “big cosmopolitan city” and more “England” go to York. The old city (near the main Cathedral) is absolutely charming (except for the Starbucks). Also Liverpool is terrific. The docks and their clubs are pretty cool. And don’t go looking for Penny Lane (made famous by a Beatles song). All the street signs are stolen, including the ones they painted onto the bricks of hourses. They just took the bricks too. Haworth is definitely also worth visiting, but I guess only if you read any of the Bronte sisters’ novels (like Wuthering Heights). Hell, read one of them before you go and you’ll have a better appreciation of the novels. You’ll definitely get an appreciation of the English countryside. It’s very pretty, very nice. Oh, you’ll have to try Yorkshire pudding while you’re in Yorkshire. I like it with roast beef best. Doesn’t taste anything like the crap they serve here. And black pudding. I won’t tell you what it is. Just try it and email me, I’ll tell you afterwards. You should have no problem…you’re Chinese, and we eat everything…!! If you want to see where Vicki is from, go to Halifax…not much to see there, I guess, although it’s a small English town. I think it’s real charming, but I’m biased since my other half is from there. Yorkshire isn’t all that small (there’s Yorkshire and West Yorkshire), it really depends on what you want to see while you’re there–the big touristy stuff or the smaller stuff. If you get to go to Wales (which is opposite the way of Scotland), Cardiff is a blast. Great city. Lots of places to walk around, an old castle to see, etc. etc. Nice clubs too. Didn’t get to see much else of Wales, but I’ve heard there’s some other neat stuff too. Never been to Scotland…always wanted to go though. Oh, you’ll also probably see why they wanted to take over the world. All in all, the weather on that little Island is shit… It’s also kinda small, relatively speaking. And definitely not sunny. Find some nice small roads to go on. They are an absolute blast. I bet you can find some resources on the web to tell you where some great drives are. Apparently there are a lot of them in Scotland as well… I think car magazines might be a good resource too. Oh, drink some Guinness while you’re there, as well as McCaffreys. If you like beer at all…well, even if you don’t. You might afterwards. Fish & Chips: get ’em from a fish & chips shop (you won’t be able to sit there and eat ’em). They’ll fry up the fish and the chips….ask them to put salt & vinegar on the chips…and they’ll put ’em in wax paper and newspaper. Take ’em back to the hotel and eat ’em there. The wax/news paper will soak up some of the grease and it’ll taste great with the salt & vinegar. Oh, you’ll be there during Thanksgiving…lots of Christmassy things going on. Roasted chestnuts aren’t bad…mulled wine tastes like shit. Their crepes with lemon (i think it’s like a jam) and cream are great. Gregg’s pastry shops… try the sausage rolls and cream cakes. Fantastic and cheap. Actually all of Gregg’s food seems fantastic and cheap. Hot, too, where appropriate (sausage rolls…hot. cream cakes, cold). They make enough to sell for the day so don’t get there late in the afternoon, or they’ll have nothing left. Apparently there are 1000 shops in the UK, so you should be able to find one. Somehow they’re a chain but still good (and cheap!). If I can think of anything else I’ll let ya know (I’ve been to England quite a few times by now, as you can see). I’ll also ask Vicki for some hints… Hope you have fun, I’ve had fun every time I’ve been there…!!!\