Wednesday, 22 April 2009

CURRENCY

1 British pound = 11.2382975 Hong Kong dollars

Info for the brochure

Ok, the excel thingy i saved on the somuter.
But we are taking a british airways flight and going to REgents park, jubille garde, Nutural HIstory Museum and I think you have the rest
THe transport cost will be 500 by rent a bus service
The maximum people that can go is 40
THe places we are eating are pizza hut, burger koing, KFC, Mr. Fish and Chips and McDonalds. We will be staying in Royal Bayswater HOtel in Bayswater Paddington, leaving on 3rd October and returning on the 11th... THe flight info is already on the blog.. Additional visa costs are 1048 per person and the passports that need visa are chinese, indian, phillipines.
I think thats all you need right?
Oh, and include the ssight seeing bits. Ofr action... Regents park, sketching in NAtural HIstory museum and visit the elderly for service. Include that all the money is included and no extra money is need because the 2000 that will be given to us, we will give to the children to spend when on the trip.

Wednesday, 1 April 2009

Jessica! Cost breakdown
ie.
_____ to ______ : _____ pounds
_____ to ______ : _____ pounds
_____ to ______ : _____ pounds
_____ to ______ : _____ pounds
_____ to ______ : _____ pounds

etc

AND THEN THE TOTAL!
and i cant open the new version at home, so I need to do the food and hotel and airfare into my new spreadsheet...
PLEASE!!! Do it now, or we'll die

Wednesday, 25 March 2009

shopping!!!

Whiteleys.Queensway,
London
W2 4YN
United Kingdom
http://www.whiteleys.com/contact/contacts/contact-us-at-whiteleys.html

FOOD FOOD FOOD

places for the restraunts that could be used during the trip-
  • Burger king
  • pizza hut
  • mc donalds
  • Mr fish
  • KFC

Wednesday, 18 March 2009

The total cost

The total cost is 5496
I did the spreadsheet
I'm putting the additional visa costs, what passports need visa and stuff
K?

POWERPOINT THING

1st slide- introduction
2nd slide- map of london
3ed slide- cost:

Torquay hostel cost- 12 pounds per night
Fights- using British airways
The departure time from HK on 3rd Oct: 00.35 (Friday night)
Arrive at: 6.35 (in the morning) - check cost for the transport
The coming back on 10th Oct:
18:35 on 10th Oct from Heathrow
we arrive in HK at:13:25 11 OCT (Next day )

*The total cost would be : $5881 HKD
Extra money needed- $750 - $1000
* The cost of flights will have a 60% discount

4th slide- torquay hostel information

Our group has decided to use the Torquay hostel as our accommodation for this week in London. Since our budget is tight and we would like to keep the spending rate as low as possible we decided instead of staying in an expensive hotel we would instead stay at a hostel which is built to accommodate students during camps , study trips etc.

Cost-
12 US dollars per night
HKD 93 per night
5 nights- $ 468 altogether.

5th slide- natural history museum - creativity

As part of the creativity- we choose the natural history museum, which is well visited all over London.
To get to the museum we would take:
Paddington /Eastbound Terrace line (tube)
To interchange at : Paddington Underground Station
Where we would arrive at: South Kensington Underground Station which would lead us to the museum (time – 13 min)

Entry is free!
(There is a charge for some temporary exhibitions)
Opening times
Open every day 10.00 - 17.50 Last admission 17.30
[The museum also provides special courses for visiting schools]

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/index.html

6th slide-action regent's park

To get to regents park you can take the underground train (tube) from Paddington which is where the Torquay hostel would be.
Regents park would be two stations away from the hostel so this would make it convenient and easy for the students to travel from one destination to another.

Within the park students can look at the exotic wildlife animals such as rare birds etc.
Besides this the park also facilitate tennis courts, badminton courts, sports centers etc.

7th slide- visit elderly homes kensington

As a part of service we have decided to visit Kensington elderly home.
How to get there:
Take the bays water tube rail
Arrive at Kensington elderly homes
5 minute walk to elderly home
This elderly home allows all types of volunteers (schools, families etc.) to visit

http://www.contact-the-elderly.org.uk/page.php?page=volunteer&gs=1

8th slide- sight seeing pictures of the london eye

9th slide-timetable
day one- arrive at london
day two- take train to regents park
day three- take train to brighton beach then to orphanage
day four- sight see and shop
day five- more sight see then go back to hong kong


10thslide- transportation- map of tube line

11th slide- end thank u for watching

Regents park---

Getting there:
Tube:Regent's Park - Bakerloo line
Great Portland Street - Hammersmith & City
Circle & Metropolitan lines
Baker Street - Hammersmith & City, Circle, Jubilee, Metropolitan & Bakerloo lines
St John's Wood - Jubilee line
Camden Town - Northern line
Bus:
2 Marylebone Station - Crystal Palace
13 Aldwych - Golders Green
18 Euston - Sudbury
27 Chalk Farm - Turnham Green
30 Marble Arch - Hackney Wick
74 Baker St Station - Roehampton
82 Victoria - North Finchley
113 Oxford Circus - Edgware
139 Waterloo - West Hampstead
189 Oxford Circus - Brent Cross Shopping Centre
274 Angel Islington - Lancaster Gate
453 Marylebone Street - Deptford Broadway
C2 Oxford Circus - Parliament Hill Fields

Thursday, 5 March 2009

JESSICA PUT THIS ON THE POWER POINT...




Jessica: plz, finish the ppt by monday and bring it to school so we can transport it to our respective thumbdrives. I'll do the newsletter and the spread sheet thingy and seraphim can do the video. Put the total cost in the end.. I'll double check the ppt with you later... Lolz. ^.^


Seraphim: all the info you need will be on the ppt, so kindly post all the info (onlye where we ARE going and how, travel cost etc. on the blog so that she can assemble the ppt)



FLIGHT COSTS
British airways... this is the page...
The departure time from HK on 3rd oct:
00.35 (so thats friday night at midnight I think)

we arrive at HEATHROW airport at
6.35 (in the morning) - check cost for the transport


The coming back on 10th Oct:

18:35 on 10th Oct from Heathrow

we arrive in HK at

13:25 11 OCT (thats the next day!)

The total will be 5881 HKD but with the gropu discount thingy it will be 3528.6 (THIS IS CHEAPER THAN THE PRICE B4, PLZ NOTE!)

YOu only have to put the second price on th ppt.
Guyz, i put a comment on ur transportation post... can u plz check it put? I think it might be of some help... I'll try and see if I can find any more info abt the regents park and post it
PS!
We needa get to gether sometime to decide the script for the ppt..
YOu know, its not supposed to have too much text

Wednesday, 4 March 2009

Well well well! I found there is this site where they leet volunteers to go and have many elderly homes in London!!! Here are where they listed they have it:

Town/Borough
GREATER LOND0N -

Barking and Dagenham x 2
Barnet
Bexley x 2
Bromley x 5
Camden x 3
Croydon x 2
Ealing x 3
Enfield
Greenwich x 3
Hackney x 2
Hammersmith and Fulham x 2
Haringey x 2
Harrow x 4
Havering x 2
Hillingdon
Islington
Kensington and Chelsea
Kingston upon Thames x 3
Lambeth
Lewisham
Merton
Newham & Tower Hamlets
Redbridge
Richmond upon Thames
Southwark x 2
Waltham Forest x 5
Wandsworth x 2
Westminster x 6

The nearest one to Paddington is these few:
Kensington and Chelsea
Lambeth
Islington

The webstite is - http://www.contact-the-elderly.org.uk/page.php?page=locations

I hope this will work out! :)

maybe we can go to regents park?

I havent really found any info...
but the park has excellent sports facilities, and its really close by so we can go there easily...

http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/regents_park/

please consider

Tube:Regent's Park - Bakerloo lineGreat Portland Street - Hammersmith & City, Circle & Metropolitan linesBaker Street - Hammersmith & City, Circle, Jubilee, Metropolitan & Bakerloo linesSt John's Wood - Jubilee line Camden Town - Northern line

its just 2 stations away from paddington on the underground

MAP OF LONDON


--------

Monday, 2 March 2009

Service!?

Okay....I was checking and checking and checking - but there's no orphanage in London!!! I even asked people on yahoo answers but they say orphanages are no longer common anymore and there are hardly any in where we are planning to go!

So...they say those childrens there are either in foster homes or adopted already. Now I'll have to think of another way of doing 'service' - help in schools? Help in elderly homes? I am leaning toward the idea of helping in schools but seriously I don't think London would have much schools need help, yet I think the idea of having STC students meeting people at same age would be a great one. Helping elderlys is not bad, just not as fun~ :P

I hope I'll find some useful info. soon! :)
*Oh, and I'll probably add a song here :D*

Sunday, 1 March 2009

Transportation in london!!!

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/gettingaround/9444.aspx - goverment website about transtations in london

TAXIES-
Taxi fares
The table shows typical fares and journey times based on distance for three types of tariff. Fares and journey times may be higher if there are delays or heavy traffic.
Distance
Approx journey time
Monday to Friday 06:00 - 20:00(Tariff code 1)
Monday to Friday20:00 - 22:00Saturday and Sunday 06:00 - 22:00(Tariff code 2)
Every night22:00 - 06:00Public holidays(Tariff code 3)
1 mile
5 - 12 mins
£4.40 - £8
£4.60 - £8
£4.80 - £8
2 miles
8 - 15 mins
£6.80 - £10.60
£6.80 - £10.60
£7.40 - £11.60
4 miles
15 - 30 mins
£11 - £18
£12 - £18
£14 - £21
6 miles
20 - 40 mins
£17 - £27
£18 - £27
£23 - £32
Between Heathrow and Central London
30 - 60 mins
£40 - £70
£40 - £70
£40 - £70
There is a minimum fare of £2.20 at all times.
How it works:
The meter calculates the maximum fare based on:
Time of day
Distance travelled
Taxi speed
The passenger will be expected to pay the full fare displayed on the meter at the end of the journey unless the driver and passenger agree on the final fare to be charged before the start of the journey.
What you can expect from the driver:
Unless they have a good reason not to, drivers must:
Accept any hiring up to 12 miles or any hiring up to one hour duration, if the destination is in Greater London
Accept any hiring up to 20 miles if starting at Heathrow Airport
Accept any hiring up to one hour duration, if the destination is in Greater London
The driver does not have to accept a hiring if the destination is outside Greater London, if the driver does accept the journey, the fare can be negotiated with the passenger.
---------------------------
Extra charges
Extra charges must be added on the meter at the start of the journey. There are no extra charges for luggage, additional passengers or carrying of assistance dogs.
Telephone Bookings
There is an extra charge of up to £2 if the taxi is booked by telephone.
Heathrow extra
There is an extra charge of £2 for journeys that start from Heathrow Airport ranks.
Christmas and New Year
There is an extra charge of £4 for journeys made between 20:00 on 24 December and 06:00 on 27 December or between 20:00 on 31 December and 06:00 on 2 January 2009.
Bank cards
Some taxis accept credit or debit cards, typically with a surcharge of between 10 per cent and 15 per cent of the metered fare.
Soiling
The driver may charge the passenger up to £40 for soiling if it requires the taxi to be taken out of service for cleaning.
All taxi fares and tariffs information shown on these pages is effective from Saturday 5 April 2008.

----more information coming soon!!!---

REVIEWS REVIEWS REVIEWS!!!!



Although these reviews aren't written by me i thought i would be nice for u guys to see what people thought of the hostels i talked about so far!!

Comments on the torquay hostel-

Comment by Anonymous
May 2005
This is basically a hostel, a so so hostel. I guess for the price I shouldn't complain. The bathrooms are fairly clean, there as a huge kitchen on every floor (so we were told), which is great. We did have a fridge in our room as well. The staff were fine. There is a common room but no one uses it. The bad sides include the area (its close to the tube but first stop of zone two) and the fact that the hostel sits on an unpleasant highway, next to a gas station. This makes it noisy and not pleasant out the door. The mattress was terrible, really terrible. Some sort of a worn away box spring - and really, I'm not fussy. The girl at the desk suggested I sleep on the floor instead. They did try and exchange the mattress when I complained, but I guess they didn't have anything better.


Comment by AKRW
February 2004
I've spent there 3 nights with my boyfriend and we really enjoyed being so close to the tube station. It was great to have a bathroom of our own and we saved a lot of money by cooking in "our" kitchen. Bring some stuff like washing-up liquid along...

Comments about hostel 63-
Awful!
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 09/21/07
Everything in this hostel was filthy. There were crochrockers in some rooms. The showers and toilets were dirty and very small. In some rooms and in the kitchen were broken windows. The beds looked like they weren`t washed for 4 weeks. They smelled terrible.You also couldn`t close the windows, because there were no interlocking at it.

don´t give it a try
By A Yahoo! Contributor, 09/21/07
we were at hostel 63 in september 2007 on our class trip. it was just awful, the dirtiest place we ever have seen, the kitchen ... better not talk about it.our beds nearly broke down as we lay in, and everywhere we looked we saw mildrew. into one shower was a great hole in the wall so everyone could watch us as we took a disgusting shower .SO ALL IN ALL: DONT ENTER IT OR YOU GET CLOSE TO THE COKROACHES




Total dump! Filthy kitchen and bathrooms.I backpacked through Europe for three weeks. This was absolutely the worst place ever. It was filthy and the bathroom was beyond unsanitary!





Comment by Ripped off
July 2007
The worst ever!!well for a start, the secure store is not secure, we ourselves found it wide open one day with people's belongings there for us to help ourselves, and the manager didn't even seem bothered when we told him of this. the other comments of the mice and the bedbugs obviously haven't been listened to because they are both evident. we came home one night to see two girls in reception rubbing themselves with cream for their bites, should have been a warning sign! As for drunk people, they were vomiting everywhere and when we complained to reception, nothing was done about it. also if they overbook the hostel, they put you at their worse "sister" hostel around the corner! just don't even bother paying for a place like this, you'd be better spending your money to go to a club then sleep in a park the next day!





Comment by Simon G
October 2006
Bedbug alert! (I'm not kidding you.) It certainly is the filthiest hostel I have ever stayed in, but the real nightmare of this place is its apparent bedbug infestation. My girlfriend and I stayed at a super cramped and dirty eight-person mixed dorm for two days. She got lucky and only got about ten bedbug bites on her hands, but I was bitten sixty-nine times (I counted) all over my body. If you have never been bitten by a bedbug before, and I for one haven't, I can tell you that they itch worse and last longer than mosquito bites. I had a dermatologist look at mine and she identified them as bedbug bites. Furthermore bedbugs are suspected of spreading diseases such as hepatitis and may cause allergic reactions and what's worse, you may end up bringing the infestation to your own home if a bug should end up in your bagpack! If you want to see how they look -- just make a google image search for "bedbug." The thing about bedbug bites is that the skin eruptions can be delayed as long as nine days, so you might not even put the two together if you stay at an infested place. Although we didn't actually see the pests (they only come out from nests inside the mattresses at night to suck your blood while you're sleeping) our itinerary made it unequivocally clear they came from Hostel 63. And considering the filthy state of this hostel, I'm not surprised. I'm just thankful I didn't wake up to see them crawl around in my bed in the middle of the night. My advice, stay far away from this hostel.




PLEASE NOTE NONE OF THESE REVIEWS AREN'T WRITTEN BY ME!! THIS IS JUST A REFRENCE!!!

Saturday, 28 February 2009

Torquay Hostel, London only 12 US dollars!!!














Torquay hostel london is located near bayswater and paddington areas of london. This hostel includes a large dining room study and mini kitchen facilties which provides a fridge and cooker,i feel that this hostel can also be worth considering since you can cook your own food and supply for yourself, not only do you get to know what it is like to cook for yourself you also get to experiance the feeling of doing things on your own etc.
Down street from Torquay hostel there are lots of shops cafes and bars, there are many convient small shops and souviner shops.
Here are some of the hotel details-
Breakfast Included
Internet Access
Linen Included
Towels
Security Lockers
Luggage Storage
Guest Kitchen
Telephone/Fax Facilities
24 hour reception
Common Room
24 Hour Check In
WiFi in lobby
WiFi in room
Breakfast

oh yess p.s i read some reviews on the internet from people who have been to the torquay hostel i think we are better off using this hostel than hostel 63... cause like i read some really bad reviews on hostel 63, they claim that there are rats and lice there, and this complaint wasn't from just one person so yeah even if it is 1 US dollar more expensive this hostel is defintaly worth considering!!!

Friday, 27 February 2009

FAMOUS ATTRACTIONS IN LONDON!!!

The london eye-


Opening Times10.00am - 8.00pm daily (Winter)


10.00am - 9.00pm daily (Summer)
Prices: Adult £15.00

Children: £7.50Senior: £12

UnderFive's FREE


**Disabled guest £12.00
**Disabled guests (including disabled children) may bring one personal assistant with them for free, except for under fives.



The London eye is a very famous attraction, many tourist travel to see and ride on the london eye, the ride is famous for its over head view of the city you can see almost everything within 25 miles of the london eye!!! Although it is a little bit expensive but it is worth it ( we can maybe use this as an optional activity aka. students can add extra money to ride the london eye while others go walking with group leaders)

---------------



Also to learn abit about the history of London i feel that we should also visit Buckingham Palace


State Rooms Opening Times: 31 July - 29 September 2008


Open daily, 09:45–18:00 (last admission 15:45)


Buckingham Palace operates a timed-ticket system, with admission every 15 minutes throughout the day.

Here are some of the normal prices-

Normal Pricesincludes an audio tour:Adult £15.00

Over 60/Student (with valid ID) £12.50

Under 17 £8.75

Under 5 Free

Family £39.75(2 adults, 3 under 17s)

You can also book online- please research and check:

phone- (+44) (0)20 7766 7300.

A booking fee of £1.25 per ticket applies. All major credit cards are acceptable
Buying a ticket on the day Tickets may be purchased from the Ticket Office,which is open from 09:30–16:00.


-----------


We can also visit the big ben- no price just to experiance some culture and take photos





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The houses of parliment-

House of Commons open between 6.00pm and 10.30pm on Mondays and Tuesdays, after 1.30pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays and at 9am on sitting Fridays
Tourists can take a tour of the Houses Of Parliament in annual Summer Opening in August and September. The guided tour visits the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Ticket Office opens from mid-July and is located on Abingdon Green, opposite Parliament & The Victoria Tower Gardens.

MORE INFORMATION COMING SOON!!!
england/london/topsights/index.htm

Airlines we might consider using to travel to CAS destination




















Wednesday, 25 February 2009

Lesson Researching :)

So, this lesson we were searching around for MORE information to put together a powerpoint for the parents....I fail.

The jobs were seperated like this:
Creativity - Jessica
Action - Sohini
Service - Seraphim
It is kind of hard! I think because london is just so big there is no information for every orphanage....oh yea, I want to go to an orphanage ;) I need to find all trasportaion and food etc. for this. My other job is to put a video advertisment summarizing all these....well, I'll have to wait for all info be searched up first. I'm going to finish this later, rushing to the other lesson now. :)

Some Useful Websites

If you find any useful websites relating to this project please post it below
http://www.ukguide.org/london/attract.html - london attractions
http://www.londontourist.org/attractions.html#guard -london local attractions
http://www.hostelbookers.com/hostels/england/london/1327 - cheap, good quality hotels that could be put into considerations
http://www.otel.com/hotels/days_hotel_north_london.htm?s_kwcid=days%20hotel% - webiste to Days Hotel North London
http://www.hostelz.com/hostel/8222-Hostel-63- a new hostel that could be considered for the accomendation of this cas trip
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-hotel-16429423-action-describe-hostel_63-i;_ylt=ArEesb1.mZFVjR.Lnum8JsLiphQB#amenities - information and reviews on Hostel 63
http://www.hostelz.com/hostel/454-Torquay-Hostel - information and reviews on torquay hostel
http://travel.yahoo.com/p-hotel-191501822-london_hotels-i-sort-lowprice-prhigh-55-prlow-10?fromiy=1 - an excellent website for finding cheap hotels with reviews!!!
http://www.londontoolkit.com/accommodation/bayswater_briefing.htm - good website to find out transportation, food, shopping centres in london, bayswater which we would be staying