4 Great Reasons to Visit Bath

This is Part 2 of my travels in Bath. Click here for Part 1.

Many people only know of London as a tourist destination when they visit England. Take a wider look and you will stumble upon the lovely City of Bath which is an approximate 4-hour bus ride from London.

A return bus ticket from London to this quaint UNESCO World Heritage Site costs only GBP26.80 - quite cheap considering the loveliness that awaits you. Here are my personal 4 reasons why you must visit Bath:

1) It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Heritage Sites are properties which the World Heritage Committee considers as having outstanding universal cultural and natural heritage value.

World Heritage Sites I've visited include Ancient Thebes and its Necropolis in Egypt, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Luang Prabang in Laos, Stonehenge in England, and of course Kinabalu National Park, Malacca and Georgetown - Malaysia Boleh!

All these sites have never failed to amaze me, and Bath is not an exception.

2) Historical Buildings & Museums. There are many historically significant buildings in Bath like the Bath Abbey and the Roman Baths. Visit all of them if you have the time and money cause they hold mystery and wonder like the Temple of Sulis Minerva in the Roman Bath.

Facade of Bath Abbey

There was a photo exhibition on the sorry state of our environment outside Bath Abbey when I visited the place

What's a pig doing outside Bath Abbey? :-)

The Roman Baths

The Roman Baths is located beside Bath Abbey (in the background). Cloudy weather does not make good photography. But when the sun suddenly peeked from behind a cloud, I quickly ran to the other side and snapped this shot. Look how bright and sharp it is!

3) Lovely sceneries. Take a stroll anywhere in Bath and you'll see what I mean when I say Bath is so pretty.

The River Avon runs through the City of Bath

I thought that these swans completes the shot

Great place to take romantic walks with your love one

Brown and white swans make the River Avon their home

4) Gateway to Stonehenge and the Cotswolds
You can use Bath as a base to explore other interesting places in the area like Stonehenge and the Cotswolds.

Transport to the Cotswolds is scarce and difficult to travel on my own. So I opted for the Cotswold Discovery tour by Mad Max Tours. This full-day tour that costs GBP32.50 brought me to some of the small towns that the Cotswolds is famous for like Castle Combe, the Slaughters and Stow-on-the-Wold (notice how unique and cute some of the names are!)

I registered for the tour by paying GBP2.50 at the tourism office outside Bath Abbey. The lady at the office immediately called up the Mad Max office and confirmed my seat, which happened to be the last one. Felt so lucky!

The next morning I waited at the pickup point which was at the corner near the Bath Backpackers' Hostel and paid the balance GBP30.00 to the tour guide before hopping onto the minivan.

Here are 2 photos I snapped while on tour:

Arlington Row in Bibury. It is probably the most photographed attraction in the Cotswolds

Castle Combe

There are also tours to Stonehenge from Bath if you wish to explore the ancient stone arrangement. As for myself, I went to Stonehenge on a half-day tour from London which you can read about here.

Stonehenge

Now that you have seen the photos and read about Bath, are you convinced why you should visit this lovely city?

Journey to Bath

For the next couple of days I'll be posting my long overdue posts on my experiences in the beautiful city of Bath, a trip that I made from London in September 2009:

My trip to Bath started early that morning.

I left John and Nat's apartment in Hackney at about 7.00am and hopped onto bus number 149 that passes the Monument Station. From Monument Station, I took the train and got down at Victoria Station.

All buses depart from Victoria Coach Station which is located in a separate building behind Victoria Station.

Victoria Coach Station is located in a separate building behind Victoria Station.

When you enter Victoria Coach Station, you'll be greeted with screens indicating the various destinations and which gate you're supposed to wait at. The system works like an airport - systematic and efficient!

Screen indicating destinations and which gate to wait at.

I had bought return bus tickets to Bath a couple of days before, so I headed straight to the correct gate.

Return bus tickets from London to Bath costs GBP26.80.

After leaving Victoria Coach Station at 8.00am, the bus made its way to Heathrow Airport to pick up more passengers.

The bus finally arrived in Bath after approximately 4 hours on the road.

Eventhough Bath is a small city, its bus station can rival that of a big city like Kuala Lumpur.

Look at how clean the Bath bus station is. Love it!

Then I made my way to the Bath Backpackers' Hostel on Pierrepont Street to check-in.

If you're lugging a huge backpack, you would be grateful that the hostel is conveniently located near the bus station and walking distance from the main attractions.

Entrance to Bath Backpackers' Hostel.

I stayed in the mix-dorm that costs me GBP13.00 a night. It was my first time in a mix-dorm and you can read all about my experience here.

I also had an experience in the hostel shower which you can read about here.

This was where I slept for 2 nights.

The hostel had a big kitchen where guests can prepare their own meals for a "more economical option", as how Angelo from Australia told me.

However, don't expect the staff to pick up after you. All guests must wash up and ensure the kitchen is tidy after using any of the utensils.

Fully equipped kitchen at Bath Backpackers' Hostel. Don't cook any petai or pungent food like belacan here. You will not only stink the entire place, but also the toilets ;-)

Breakfast is included. And again, nobody is going to serve you - you serve yourself and you clean up after you're done.

 Breakfast was the same menu each morning - cereals, bread, butter, jam, peanut butter, milk and a choice of 2 juices.

I understand from one of the staff that the Bath Backpackers' Hostel is owned by a New Zealander. All the staff there work in return for free lodging at the hostel. I think it's a brilliant idea to maintain a low turnover rate. 

It was still early in the day and I could not check-in yet. So I left my luggage with Reception and went to explore the city of Bath.

Stay tuned for Part 2 ...

Bathing in Bath

As I told you previously, I stayed at the Bath Backpackers Hostel during my stay in the beautiful city of Bath.

On my first day in Bath, after a long day of walking and exploring, I decided to take a shower to clean the grime and dust before hitting the sack. So I gathered my toiletries, pyjamas and towel, and headed to the common female bathroom downstairs.

No one was there and I was happy as I've got the whole place to myself!

The bathroom was not big - only 3 shower cubicles. There was a stool and I used it to place my towel and clothes. I hung my toiletries on the hooks inside the shower cubicle.

The water pressure was good and the temperature was just right since the weather was quite cold in the evening.

As I was scrubbing myself, suddenly the lights went out!

I was horrified! What the fark happened???!!!

And then I remembered that the lights operated by movement. That means it will switch on automatically the moment someone steps into the entrance of the common bathroom. And after a period of time when there's no movement, the lights would switch off automatically. The lights only detected movement in the common area and not in the shower cubicles.

Since I was bathing for quite some time, and being the only one there, obviously the lights switched off because there was no movement. I think this must be the Bath Backpacker's sadistic way of deterring people from taking long showers.

I had to do something to get the lights back on.

While groping in the dark, I turned off the shower and opened the cubicle door. And while making sure I didn't trip over the stool and knock my clothes onto the wet floor (eeeyaaaa ...), I walked out naked into the common area, just to create some movement lah.

I was praying no one would walk in at that moment. Otherwise they would have gotten a fright seeing a naked Asian gal walking in the dark!

Thank goodness the lights came back on.

I quickly finished my shower, got dressed and got out of there.

Automatic lights are good for the environment because electricity is conserved. And you know how some people can be careless about leaving the lights on after they use the bathroom. But sometimes automatic lights can be troublesome, especially when I have to walk naked in the dark to switch them on again.

My First Time in a Mix-Dorm

During my time in Bath, I stayed at the Bath Backpackers Hostel on Pierrepont Street, which is a stone's throw from the bus station.

I stayed in the cheapest dorm there - the mix dorm with 10 fellas in one room. Costs me 13 quid a night.

I have stayed in an all-female dorm before and this was my first time in a mix-dorm. So I was expecting farts and snores from the guys.

True enough, there were snores during the first night. On the second night the snoring continued and some farts were also heard. I couldn't tell if the snorer and the farter were the same person.

But the most interesting thing is what these guys wore when they slept.

Since these fellas were sleeping in the company of ladies, I thought they would be dressed decently. But no ... they slept only in their undies. John said I was lucky they even had undies on.

My first encounter with a guy in undies happened when I went to the dorm to retrieve some stuff. Nobody was there when I entered save for this middle age guy who had just checked in. We spoke briefly and he asked if I'm from China. He's from The Netherlands.

My back was facing him as we were talking. When I turned around, he had already stripped down into a pair of dark blue undies. And while still talking, he nonchalantly got into bed and pulled the covers to his chin to get ready to sleep, as if though he was born to strip in front of stranger ladies.

I was surprised he didn't have the decency to cover up. But I guess that's how guys dress when they sleep in dorms in Europe. They don't give two hoots about who's around them.

Heck, I wish I could sleep in undies only. Less clothes used would mean less trips to the laundry and more money saved.

So If you are a female sleeping in a mix-dorm for the first time, expect snores, farts and half-naked men.