Never in my life, had I imagined that I would ever, ever venture into the world of musical theatre. I hardly even knew what it was 4 years ago. But Les Misérables changed everything and I haven’t looked back since.
Les Misérables, Queen’s Theatre, 2014Since then, I wanted to go to the West End (and later on Broadway) to watch this musical live. I knew that the odds of it touring in Asia is pretty low and the odds of a local production being staged is even lower because of how massive this mega-musical is. So, if it doesn’t come, that means, I gotta go there and see it for myself.
I’m blessed with parents who didn’t look at me incredulously and shake me when I mentioned it to them, and they agreed to take my family to London, with the musical as an important part of the itinerary. And then, because Miss Saigon is being revived on the West End stage, why not?
With the exchange difference in mind, the prices of the tickets were exorbitant – partly because we opted for good seats, since it didn’t make sense for us to go all the way across the globe to sit in the balcony and watch specks bounce around the stage. But the musicals of similar stature that come here on tour easily fetch 70 dollars and above with the touring cast – it’s the same price in pounds (or less) that we pay to watch them on home-ground.
Arriving at Shaftesbury Avenue was surreal. We took a while to find the theatres since there were so many of them and the place was just lit with different show marquees – both the familiar and the not-so. Like “The Book of Mormon”, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, “Urinetown”… just to name a few (obviously I only remember the familiar ones).
Luck had it that we didn’t catch most of the principal cast members in Les Mis, but the understudies were pretty darn amazing and I surely wasn’t disappointed. I practically know the lyrics and notes to each piece of music in this show, and slip-ups just stood out for me like a sore thumbs. But there’s nothing like live theatre and each mistake just further highlighted the fact that this was all done live – with no lip-sync, no prompters and no NGs.
On the other hand for Miss Saigon, we caught most of the principals for the revival cast – I saw Eva Noblezada, Jon Jon Briones, Alistair Brammer, Rachelle Ann Go, Hugh Maynard and Tamsin Carroll… what am I talking about, that IS the principal cast. Recognised Julia Abueva too, which was cool. Jon Jon Briones seriously stole the entire show for me, I could only see him and him alone when he’s on stage. Fabulous actor and comedian, I never liked the Engineer as much as I did with him in the role. Eva was amazing as well. As a die-hard Lea Salonga fan, I truly believe that Eva makes a conceivable Kim – she seriously makes the character unique to her. (On a side note, I like how most Kims don’t fall into a mould and act the same way. It’s like you see a different Kim every production.)
Miss Saigon, Prince Edward Theatre, 2014Being super attached to the original production of Miss Saigon because that’s the one I’ve been listening to all these while (and because I can’t see anyone else but Lea Salonga and Will Chase as Kim and Chris), I wasn’t a big fan of some of the lyrical changes – like those in “Sun and Moon”, “Movie In My Mind”…many actually. But the one that sticks in my head is the change from “he’ll keep us safe all day” to “he’ll keep the fear at bay”. I’m in camp #safeallday.
But the good news is that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and watching the actors sing their hearts out. The helicopter scene was MAJESTIC. Bui-doi is still my favourite song (aside from the Kim songs) – it’s the only time in the show I was close to tears. I kind of like the fact that Ellen has a song now to ‘explain’ her predicament because it was so easy to hate her in the original production, and this song added another layer to showcase the complexity of her situation. I’d still like to hate her, but I can’t. Okay, maybe I still do, just a bit. I mean, I already could empathise with her in the original production with deeper thought into her plight, but having the song also in a way, gives the actress doing Ellen the opportunity to act out her character better.
The staging has changed, a bit, I think. I know the opening scene has changed – and for the good. You kind of see Kim differently – the desperation cuts through. In the original production, the desperation is something that comes through and builds up across the plot, but for this one, it hits you straight in the face. But the ending doesn’t hit me as painfully as it usually does, and I have no idea why. Maybe because I knew it was gonna happen?
But all that said, my allegiance to Will Chase and Lea Salonga remains. They are THE Chris and THE Kim. Forever. Although Simon Bowman with Lea Salonga in the 25th Anniversary Concert did sway me a bit because they were such cute forty-over-year-olds.
This was such a trashy post filled with nonsense and you should totes ignore any rubbish I wrote that you don’t agree with. I didn’t read this over. And I’m writing this at midnight, so my brain is in hibernation already. Okay, that’s enough, toodles!
Ba Zang (or 肉粽 in Chinese and meat dumpling in English) – this was basically what I felt like every day while in London during winter. Coming from the sunny, tropical island, cold was never really something that I experience regularly, and the times we actually have to pull out a jacket are far and few between. My definition of “cold” is probably some 16 degree Celsius if the air-conditioner happens to be turned on in the classroom or shopping mall, but cold was never as much of an issue as the heat. Because in the cold, you can snuggle into your jacket and feel nice and warm immediately, but with the heat, the only choice you have is to bear with it. However, this time around, I had to wear an average of 4 layers of clothing and still chattered non-stop. Which makes me feel like a legitimate swollen dumpling day in, day out – not to mention, it looks as if we don’t change clothing in pictures taken because it’s the same down jacket all the time. Wait…who said “cold” wasn’t an issue again?
Anyway, this was initially a SUPER long (I mean like 2000+ words long) post but I think I’ll just cut it short because I can’t even be bothered to read through the entire thing myself to edit my grammar or whatnot. Despite the freezing weather (I don’t think it’s actually THAT cold in the books of others but hey, being someone who is more used to 32 degree Celsius heat, I think “freezing” is a relatively reasonable adjective), we managed to visit quite some places, though we had to duck into cafés very often to grab piping hot chocolate or cappucinos as well as to thaw ourselves.
Platform 9¾
Totally unintentional, but this was our first stop considering that our hotel was near King’s Cross Station. And being a HP geek and all, it was cool to walk in the footsteps of the wizard. Too bad I never got my acceptance letter. Funnily enough, I knew that the scene was at King’s Cross Station, but not exactly its location. We ended up chancing upon it because I had to answer nature’s call…go figure.
London Dungeons
I found this attraction while doing my online homework in preparation for the trip and it sounded real cool on the website so I thought, why not just try it? Furthermore, reviews were great and there were some rides included that made it more interesting. So we went. The actors were awesome and each of them pretty convincing. There was some interaction with the visitors and 4D effects, especially for the Sweeney Todd and Jack the Ripper sections. I thought that we would get drenched on the boat ride because of what some reviews wrote, and was really worried about it because WINTER and WATER…it’s crazy to even think about it. But we turned out pretty dry (sit in the middle of the boat) so it was an unfounded worry. My parents opted out for the drop ride while my sister and I happily received our “hanging sentence”. I would not say that it was really scary, but pretty exhilarating, though it would have been better if it lasted longer. It is a bit difficult to understand the sequence of events being as clueless about them as we were (my parents and my sister didn’t even hear about Sweeney Todd before).
Imperial War Museum
The Imperial War Museum.
As it turned out, this place was the attraction that had my family hooked. My initial thoughts were along, museum = tiring + boring, but because I love to read about history and world wars, I knew that I wouldn’t be averse to this place. However, I could not say about how my family would react to it, and was pleasantly surprised to see that they loved it a lot. The exhibits were well-put together, having a proper sequence such that the people who didn’t know much about history could follow the sequence of events well. The WWI exhibit was slightly harder to follow because of how crowded and how big the exhibit was (not exactly HUGE but there was quite a decent collection of artefacts), while the WWII exhibit was on the smaller side and though easier to follow through, had less interesting things to see. For example, they didn’t cover the Eastern front of WWII. We spent about half a day there and still could not finish the entire museum. A personal favourite would be the Holocaust exhibit. There were great interview segments being shown on screens throughout the exhibit that really helps visitors learn from the survivors how those times were. And it inspired my mum to want to watch Schindler’s List again (the first time we watched it, I spent about 2 hours until 2AM googling about the Holocaust so I’m not sure if I’m game for it again HAHA).
The green dome of Madame Tussauds along Baker Street – the home of Sherlock Holmes.
Madame Tussauds
Personally, I initially thought that this place was overrated. I mean it’s a pretty expensive place to go in just to see wax figures…right? Turns out, they looked pretty darn real some times, and I got scammed by a wax figure of a photographer, thinking that she was a real person. However, for some of the celebrities, their wax lookalikes weren’t as “live” and they didn’t seem to capture the actual liveliness of the person…I don’t know how to explain it. It just doesn’t look real enough. For example, Emma Watson. I had to look at the plague next to her figure before exclaiming belatedly, “OH MY GOD EMMA WATSON!!” (as if she was a real person – I’m such a dork). Then my family just had to ask, “Who’s that?” and I answered with pure HP geek-iness, “The girl that acted as Hermione Granger.” Have I said it before? My family doesn’t watch much TV or movies so I guess that explains our clueless-ness. The Marvel Superheroes 4D movie was pretty darn amazing though, I will add. Or maybe it’s just me because I love 4D movies.
Awesome view of the city area from St James’ Park.
St James’ Park
My dad was worried that the park wouldn’t look nice in winter because the trees are supposed to be botak (bare) but GUESS WHAT? The park still looks like it came straight out of a movie. Maybe it had something to do with the pinkish-orangish hue of the sky, being sunset when we were there. We walked along the park to Buckingham Palace just to see it (can’t enter in winter) while my sister (and dad to some extent) went on a squirrel photo-shooting spree trying to compare who could take better pictures of a squirrel. We’ve about 10+ in the camera, courtesy of that, and here’s one:
The squirrel we have MANY, MANY pictures of.Exterior of Hampton Court Palace.
Hampton Court Palace
Because Hampton Court Palace is not really near any tube station, we had to take a train instead. Being a classic dork, I thought the trains may slightly resemble the ones in HP (what a moron…) so when I found out it was more or less like the tube (and our MRT) I was kinda disappointed. Again, the palace was another historical journey that can’t possibly be completed in a day, and we had to skim through parts of the Tudor exhibition and skipped the Baroque part. No doubt a pity, but there was nothing we could do about it. The Palace Gardens were gorgeous and the trees looked so cute being trimmed to identical shapes and sizes. I really wanted to try the Maze but sadly it was closed and anyway, I don’t think we could have squeezed out the time needed. The visit was some sort of a throwback to Year 4 History (which I practically slept through because I didn’t understand anything at all and skipped too many lessons for competitions to be able to catch up), where we learnt about Hapsburg Spain and Tudor England. The minimal knowledge I have of that era as I walked through the palace just shows how much attention I paid to lessons then. (Oops.) But we saw a replica of the crown. Which is cool. Though nothing compared to what we’ll see at the Tower of London.
The White Tower, I think.
Tower of London
It was, once again, impossible to complete the visit in the short 2 hours we gave for this place (I honestly don’t know what’s with us and only touring places halfway through, but it’s truly frustrating). The cruise, that we took as our form of transport for the day, had a guide cum safety guy who did a pretty nice introduction of the buildings and iconic landmarks we came across along River Thames, such as the HMS Belfast, London Bridge (is falling down – sorry, I had to!), Tower Bridge, Big Ben… yadayada. He was pretty funny when introducing the Tower of London and went something like, “People always ask me, where’s the Bloody Tower? And I’ll reply them, ‘Well, you can’t bloody see the Bloody Tower because it’s blocked by the bloody trees!'” Okay, maybe I’m weird and you don’t find it funny, because I don’t recall anyone laughing then either. (Sighs.) The highlight of the trip was easily, seeing the Crown Jewels with my own two eyes. I thought that the glitzy crowns and ornaments would blind me and not be that awe-inducing but WAS I WRONG! They were shiny of course, but not to the extent of making your eyes hurt. With exquisite and such intricate designs on each item, the whole gallery was filled with so much gold and my mouth was probably hanging wide open as I took in every single orb, staff, crown and sword in the place. And you know with just one look that those things are VERY expensive.
London Eye from the Westminster Bridge.
London Eye
BLAHBLAHBLAH. I’m kidding. But I never liked ferris wheels much so take my words with a pinch of salt (I realised this anti-ferris wheel sentiment when I was 10 and never sat in one ever since). On the ride up to the top, I was pretty amazed by how much I could see and the view of the city skyline in the night. Strategically placed near Westminster, the skyline was dotted with many lights and looked rather gorgeous. But as with all ferris wheels, such astonishment lasts for about 10 minutes, and for the rest of the ride, you basically see the same thing again, and again, and again…and again, and again, and again. Before we hit the top of the Eye, I was hoping we would be able to get off soon. I didn’t even realise that we were past the top till we were about a quarter of the way down. Yup, that’s how gradual the wheel was moving – expected, but there’s really not much to see after a while since it is not like the skyline would change all of a sudden to something different. I feigned a bit of excitement since we paid good money to get on it but ultimately, I still don’t like ferris wheels.
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That’s all for London, folks! Stay tuned to the next few (maybe 3?) parts of the Ba Zang Travels and I totally lied to you at the start because that above, is no short post. At this point, I’m close to 2000 words already.
DAY 01: After a long and tough ride (from suffering from stomach cramps the whole way) from KL, I finally reached Penang. Crossing the bridge, we took another bazillion years to get to the hotel and everyone was dying from butt cramps (HAHAHA). Mum was telling me to not have overly high expectations of the hotel ‘cos it looked rundown from pictures. I got a super big shock when I got there.
IT WAS PRETTY! Well, quite, since I was expecting a dilapidated place. The room was pretty damn huge and it could fit 6 people although it was supposed to be for 4. Bed was comfy too.
Anyway, by then it was approaching dinner time, so we took a little stroll along the beach and a little debate on whether to go parasailing (I really wouldn’t mind trying). Then we headed for dinner nearby.
Dinner was the highlight of the day I swear. We happen to pass by a roadside place and just decided to makan there. Turns out it was kinda eating in the dark ‘cos it was pretty late and there were no lights. Opposite it was Hard Rock Café.
And this place? It was called Slow Rock Café. SERIOUSLY THOUGH?? I didn’t dare to have too high expectations of the food. And thank god I did not because to be honest, it was horrible. It glorifies my own cooking (yup, I pledge loyalty to instant noodles)! The Nasi Goreng Cina tasted like salty baby mush with egg. The Nasi Goreng Biasa was equally mushy, or worse. I didn’t try the Kampung one but the rice was probably the same texture. Mee Goreng was nasty too from what I heard. The only one that tasted slightly better was the satay, and even that was not good.
I’ll remember this place FOR LIFE. For some reason, you’ll always remember your worst experiences the best. Like how 3 years ago, we went to this Chinese takeaway place for dinner in Australia, and all of us had to throw away our packets ‘cos it was just too horrid.
Halong Bay is definitely a beautiful place, but it has been commercialised, about to be too much for its own good. Pictures speak a thousand words, so I shall be filling this post with more pictures. Besides, there’s not much to talk about Halong Bay.
We took a junk cruise to sail along the bay. There were 2 levels – one being the area where we ate our lunch, and one being the upper deck which is an open area. I love the upper deck. With the sea breeze blowing in my face, and mountains surrounding us, having to put up with my hair flying everywhere was worth it. We got off at a few points, and for one of them, we took a sampan to reach areas where the bigger junk cruise can’t go into. That experience was definitely quite fun. For every inch that I moved, the boat rocks violently. But I feel that those caves we went into using the sampan were much overrated. Anyway, pictures! Just 9, not much 🙂
The scenery was beautiful, and some of the mountains were special – like there was one with a rock at the top which looked like a cat, and also two big rocks which look like a hen and rooster fighting over an egg (and for that matter a duck egg). I particularly love the bottom right picture because the waters look very clear. But when we went deeper, the waters were unexpectedly dirtier. Having seen the waters in Tioman, I have been looking forward to going deeper out into the sea to see another crystal clear sea. For that fact, I think Halong Bay was disappointing, because their waters were quite green. But it may be because of the algae on the mountains as well 🙂
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