Arriving in London was a very interesting experience. Over the past couple of years, Chris and I have traveled to well in excess of 10 countries, crossing borders left, right and center. Not once had we had anyone at border control question the reasons why we may want to visit their country... until arriving in London.

Chris and I ended up speaking to different immigration officers and while Chris' experience in London was not unlike those he's had before, my officer decided to be, well, a bit of a dick. He started off by asking me what I was planning to do while in London - ok, a valid question. I said sight-seeing of course, and visiting some friends. He then asked me when I was planning on leaving the UK. I said on May 16th (which was when our flights back to NZ were scheduled for). Obviously he didn't believe me because he asked me to show him the tickets. Immediately I wasn't impressed. Why would I be lying? I've never been questioned about this before in my life! Do I look like a liar? :|

I showed him our e-tickets (itinerary which luckily I happened to be carrying with me). By this stage, Chris has already been admitted into the UK and is wandering about behind the immigration officers, in the area they tell you to move quickly through, waiting for me. The officer I was speaking to didn't seem too impressed by our Flight Center itinerary and so continued to interrogate me. "Who are you staying with?", "What's her full name?", "Where is she from?", "How are you going to support yourself while you are here?", "How much money do you have?", "Do you have a job back in NZ?", "Why would you quit your job before coming to the UK?", "What is your profession?", "Will it be hard for you to find another job as a software developer in New Zealand when you return?"... The questions where endless!! Man I was either about to burst into tears or strangle the guy... either way, I wasn't very happy. He made me feel like I was a criminal trying to fob my way into his country... which btw, I am not.

Eventually I said, "Look, my partner is waiting for me on the other side - he's already been let through... like 15 MINUTES ago!". The officer I was talking to then asked me to point Chris out, and even made me walk through into the area Chris was standing in to point him out... yes, the one with the green t-shirt on... yes. That's him. Yes. YES! After a bit more interrogation and more frustration on my part, he finally said, "Ok great, have a nice stay in the UK!". OMG. I was so not impressed.

Once through immigration and customs, we found our friend Abby Cass waiting for us. It was really nice to see a familiar face and finally be in London. Abby took us back to her place on the tube - which by the way is nowhere near as nice as the subways we've been on around the world - and after not having slept for more than 24 hours, Chris and I collapsed onto our airbed... :)

We spent the next few days just moving slowly around London, taking long strolls through some parks and seeing a few of the important sights.



Thanks to Stoo and Abby for letting us crash at their places for the time we did - we would've been in trouble without you guys giving up your valuable space as you did. Claudia it was really cool to meet you and it's a shame we didn't get to stay in London because it would've been great to hang out with you and Abby more! Hankey - it was great to catch up with you after so long and it's cool to see that you've got everything sorted in London.



So, with those words we've reached the end of our trip 'Exploring the East' :(:(:(:(:( - it sucks! We've loved this trip more than mere words can express and we're now both thoroughly hooked on all things Asian. We plan to go back as soon as we realistically can so that we can absorb more of the things we've experienced over the last 3 months.

Until next time - sayonara from Chris and Annie. :)