VAT Tax Refund @ Heathrow Airport

Before traveling to Europe, I have googled about the VAT tax refund and read from there that most of them are getting back their refund like 2-3 months after. One of the worst I've read is that the guy only got it back like 18 months later and that was really long huh. 

I am going to share about my VAT tax refund experience here. I purchased bags in Paris using my credit card and the staffs in the shop will asked you if the VAT tax refund to be credited back to the credit card which is most of the case. I'm not sure about using cash though, as in how do they refund the tax back to you if you're purchasing by cash. You can easily google about it and you can check out France VAT tax refund here as reference. There are only 2 simple steps to follow during VAT tax refund.

First things first, the customs do not care who did the VAT tax refund so long as the person doing it is the person who has filled in the VAT tax refund form (the shop will actually helped you to prepare one, so no worries). In the tax refund form, it is written as 19% tax but minus off those administration fee / handling fee / whatsoever fee it comes to 12% only but it's a lot still. So, don't freak out on why it is written as 19% but in the end they are giving you back 12% only.

Secondly, you must have your items for VAT refund with you, in case the officer wanna check it out. But in hubby's case, the officer just asked him whether the goods are with him and he replied yes and that's all.

You're done with the VAT refund and now you just need to check your credit card statement whether they have credited it back to the card. In my case, it just took them 2 weeks plus to refund it back to the credit card which kinda surprised me as I do not expected it to be that fast. Anyway, developed countries are more efficient than our own country right?! It has always been that way, sigh.

*If you are traveling around Europe and you have made purchases early in the trip, you will only need to do your tax refund at the last embarking country which means the last Europe country you are at before leaving back to Malaysia. In my case, we went from Kuala Lumpur --> London --> Paris --> Rome --> London --> Kuala Lumpur. Those bags were bought from Paris, thus making the VAT tax refund should be at London Heathrow Airport. You can also ask the staffs in the shop for any information on this.

Riot Romeo and Juliet

This is an interesting news I saw from E!Channel which creates curiosity in me that I decided to google about it and look what I have found. Check out the details of the story and also some related videos here. According to the news, they are caught kissing during a riot in Canada but the guy's dad was explaining in a way that they have actually been knocked down by police and the guy is comforting the girl perhaps by giving her a kiss?! Lolx. Anyway, it does looks like those storyline we saw from movies huh but this is based on true story. :]

Hubby's Birthday 2011

June 23rd is hubby's birthday but too bad this year he'll be at Alor Setar celebrating his birthday with colleagues. Though I'm still figuring out whether any surprises that I could think of for him. Below are 2 of the best choices that I could think of.

1. Flying to Alor Setar on Wednesday night to give him a surprise (but I do not know which hotel is he staying at??!! So, could probably eliminate this)
2. Fetching MIL to KL for his surprise party?? This sounds quite hard to achieve though.

OMG....or should I do nothing? That's pretty bad hor?? Any suggestions?

Happy Father's Day

Father's Day is just 2 days away and what have you got for your lovely daddy. Hmm..though my dad is not here anymore but I still remembered what he says about Father's Day. He once said that no one talked about Father's Day but everyone is talking about Mother's Day!! Lolx..he's kinda jealous though. Even though we could not be celebrating with dad again but he's still with us as always and we've been talking about him as if he's still around. So guys, take this opportunity to show your love to your dad while he's still around. Just to make sure you don't regret for not doing it at the moment he's not around. 

Here's something cool I found out from ChurpChurp and this could be one of the more loveliest gift to dad. Check this out! Personalise a shirt for ur Dad! But in a form of an Oreo T-Card!

London Trip 2011

It's been one month plus after my Europe trip and I have yet to blog about it. What a lazy bump I am as I have no excuse to say I'm busy! Lolx! Alright, I'll briefly tell about this 1st Europe trip of ours (hopefully there's more to come).  We got cheap tickets to go to London from MAS Travel Fair at RM3,650 round trip. We're (erm...no I should use I'm instead)..sorry correction, I'm gonna travel to Europe first then only to Turkey. Turkey is another trip with sis, mum and her group of friends and excluding hubby. Hubby will only be joining me to London, Paris, Rome, Vatican and Venice. This Europe trip will last about 16 days and wow..that's pretty long huh! I'm super duper excited and at the same time also worried whether I can stand the 14 hours of long flight. Awh... Anyway, leave aside the long flight first and start with itinerary. Since Europe is so far away and it's not one of the place where you will say, we'll come again next time but instead we'll say if there's a chance, I would definitely wanna come back here, thus a well planned itinerary is almost as important as your passport. Well, it took me about 3 weeks to do survey and prepare the itinerary for the whole trip.

Our flight details from and to KL were as below:

SIM/FOONGGINMS

07/04/2011 (Thursday)

• Departing from Malaysia KLIA at 10:05A.M. 
• Flight No. MH 004 
• Arriving at London Heathrow on 07/04/2011 (Thursday) at 4:15P.M (Local Time)

30/04/2011 (Saturday)

• Departing from Turkey Istanbul at 2:00P.M (Local Time).
  
• Flight No. MH 031 
• Arriving at Malaysia KLIA on 01/05/2011 (Sunday) at 5:40A.M.

CHAI/YIKKUANMR

07/04/2011 (Thursday)

• Departing from Malaysia KLIA at 10:05A.M. 
• Flight No. MH 004 
• Arriving at London Heathrow on 07/04/2011 (Thursday) at 4:15P.M (Local Time)

22/04/2011 (Friday)

• Departing from London Heathrow at 10:00P.M. (Local Time). 
• Flight No. MH 001 
• Arriving at Malaysia KLIA on 23/05/2011 (Saturday) at 5:25P.M.

We stayed in London for 8 days not consecutive but is spread in between of 2 weeks. As for London, I did not prepare any itinerary as FY is there so it's kinda free and easy. And of course, we visited those famous tourist spots where you can't missed?! Below are few of the places that we went in London:

• Westminster Abbey 
• The House of Parliament
• Big Ben
• The Tower of London
• Tower Bridge
• Trafalgar Square & Nelson’s Column
• Tower Bridge
• London Eye
• Buckingham Palace
• Hyde Park
• Greenwich / Greenwich Park
• Billingsgate Market 
• Camden Market 
• Portobello Market

There are thousand of photos that we have taken throughout the trip and no way that I can post it all here. So guys, these are just some of the selective photos from my trip. 

Arrived at Heathrow, Terminal 4 - Taking tube to Canary Wharf

 Clouds being slashed into half @ Canary Wharf

 

Christmas Tree Traffic Lights

 

Our 1st dinner in London

Zizzi

Beautiful lightings from the offices @ Canary Wharf

1st Lunch in London with Jessica & Chris

Jessica and me

 Tea time

 

Covent Garden

 Hubby @ Piccadilly Circus

@ Regent Street

 

  

me @ Leicester Square (pronounce as les-ter)

*obviously one of the reason i hate english, you can never predict how they pronounce those words - they tend to read it with phonics i guess*

Us preparing to go Billingsgate Market

 

 

Fresh Scallops

 

Look at our faces! 70% awake only

 

Don't they look like doctors?

Look at how much things we have bought 

A normal garden that turns into a crowded gathering place 

for beer on Friday evening

Panaromic view of Soho Square Garden

Can you see the crowd in the bar? It's the same in each and every bar in London on Friday evening! They are standing with a plastic cup of beer in hand!

Tower of London

Tower Bridge

Panaromic view of the Tower of London & Tower Bridge

 

 

 

London Eye

 

Westminster Abbey

 Panaromic view of the Westminster Abbey and London Eye

Westminster Abbey - Night View

FY, me & Hubby (while waiting for Eugene to arrive)

London Eye - Night View

Buckingham Palace (The guards changing was a disappointment)

 

 Along Hyde Park

 Hubby with London Double Decker Bus

Harrods @ Knightsbridge

Princess Diana & Dodi Al Fayed @ Lower Ground of Harrods 

me with difference Harrods Bear

this is human not bear. lolx

Eugene came to London on Friday (15/04/11) night and he'll be staying for 2 days only and back to Berlin on Sunday evening! Thus we're gonna have a BBQ party and inviting Lynette as well. She's FY's primary school friend and has been in London for some time too. Her husband is a Causasian but speaks very well Cantonese. FY says other than his name, you can never tell that he's a Caucasian. When Eugene reached on Friday, we have already cooked him nasi lemak as per requested by him.

Our homemade nasi lemak - looks nice right? taste even better

Heading to Camden Market

 
Canary Wharf Tube Station

DLR first then changed to Tube

2 photographers

We have reached Camden Market

 

Food variaties

 

Same expression when he's with food

So packed with people






Done with Camden and heading to Portobello Market 

Heading home for BBQ preparation

Hubby starting up the fire



Eugene busy taking photos

Group Photo (Eugene, FY, Me, Hubby, Lynette)

Post BBQ - Cleaning up to be done

Our Breakfast the next day after BBQ night - BKT

See FY can finished the whole pot of soup!



Heading to Greenwich






Can you spot "someone" is ruining this photo?






Greenwich - View from uphill

Mini size van selling coffee spotted @ Greenwich Market

After Greenwich, FY and Eugene went back home to pack as Eugene is leaving back to Berlin later. Thus, me and hubby went to city and walk around.

Trafalgar's Square










Finally a picture with the telephone booth that hubby has always wanted



Such a giant heel



Meeting up FY for dinner










in the London double decker bus to Tower Bridge









Tower Bridge - Night view

We decided to do a 5 shot photo with every 2 interval seconds. Check this out!

Snap 1



Snap 2

Snap 3 

Snap 4

Snap 5

Ops..the last day of Europe trip has come and we're heading to city for a last minute shopping @ Primark. Things were so cheap but of course not so good of quality but it's still ok though.

Hubby with Son Goku @ Uniqlo, Regent Street

Lunch at Gaucho, Regent Street

Whole restaurant is covered up with moo moo skin. So cute!



England flags hanging along Regent Street -
Preparation for Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding

Spot this @ Body Shop - Imitation of Prince William and Kate Middleton :p