Posted By Rose Carville    Dec 01, 2016    Comments Off on My first overseas trip to the UK – Student Exchange Programme

My first overseas trip to the UK – Student Exchange Programme

Customer Experience 

My First Overseas Trip to the UK – Student Exchange Programme

6,800 miles away from my home in Singapore, 14 hours by plane, I was off for my maiden trip to London, United Kingdom (UK). I was ecstatic to be given the opportunity do a semester of my postgraduate course abroad under the Singapore Management University (SMU) student exchange programme.

Together with several of my peers, we will be attached to King’s College London for a period of four months. To prepare myself for the trip, I did some research on what to expect in the UK – for example, the country’s climate, culture, system and much more. And also the key itinerary that is going to take place on our arrival to the UK from London Heathrow Airport (West of London) thereon. On board, the Singapore Airlines flight, our group landed the London Heathrow Airport (West of London) close to 7:00AM in the morning.

To our astonishment, London Heathrow Airport (West of London) was buzzing with life in such an early morning and on a weekday too. We grabed a quick breakfast while waiting for our coach which had been hired to pick our group up at the arrival zone of the London Heathrow Airport (West of London). At 8:00AM sharp a friendly coach driver from Coachhire4U greeted us. He prefered to be called by the name of Marvin; he had been driving coaches with Coachhire4U for more than three years. Making sure that we were all strapped into our safety belts, he then whisked us to our first destination – King’s College London.

During our coach hire journey, Marvin was kind enough to share with us a little bit history and he was very funny. He also shared with us several of the popular destinations in London visited by Coachhire4U tourist passengers. Some of the top tourist attraction in the City of London includes the Big Ben, London Eye, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, plus the amazing West End of London and much more. Marvin shared with us that should we ever need private minibus hire, we could always ring up Coachhire4u and for coach hire or minibus hire. We approached the West End of London which Marvin advised was a major shopping are and we saw Marble Arch, Piccadilly on our approach to the Strand it was amazing to see these famous landmarks in the West End of London and Marvin told us about sights in the City of London.

Throughout the coach journey to King’s College London, I was amazed at the beautiful sights of London. Our coach driver, Marvin made a drive through the Westminister Bridge to show us the iconic Big Ben and London Eye from afar. Like any excited tourist would be, we whipped out our mobile phone to take several snapshots of the iconic monuments. The King’s College of London that we were heading to was situated in Central London – this making it easier for us to explore London during our spare time. On arrival to our destination, we welcome by the University Ambassador to facilitate us with registration and arrival briefing. At days’ end, we were back onboard to Marvins coach, this time round, for him to ferry us to our student’s accommodation. As it what nearing dinnertime, Marvin made a short stop to an eatery place for us to get our dinner. Settling into our accommodation place, our first day of the London UK experience has been memorable from landing at London Heathrow Airport to reaching a much needed first sleep. Aside from the University ambassadors and the member of university staff, our experience on board Coachhire4u’s coach with Marvin was a memorable event highlight. He went out of his way to provide us with a great first experience of London and the UK. We will definitely be ringing up Coachhire4u for our private hire to tour London very soon!