Road Trip Part 2-Bonnie 'ol Scotland

I was looking forward to visiting Scotland again...the last time I went up to Scotland was when I graduated five years ago.

Scotland will always have a special place in my heart because it was where I spent most of my formative years as a teenager. We drove up from Lake District and crossed the Scottish borders heading towards Stirling. Driving through the Cumbrian borders across to Scotland was absolutely breathtaking and enjoyable at the same time....It was like being in Top Gear where they run practice demos on a new car driving up winding roads...in between mountains...up and down the hills...really good fun! I felt overwhelmed driving in my lil car with mountains on either side of me. As Fad commented, at times we were even speechless looking at the amazing views. I think at times we are so caught up with city life that we forget to appreciate these places in the countryside.
After enjoying the scenic route to Scotland our first stop was Stirling. Stirling is famous for William Wallace Monument- He was a Scottish patriot of the 14th century who fought against the English and was a Scottish hero. One thing I love about the Scots are their patriotism who are proud of their heritage. We visited the William Wallace monument and there was a replica statue of Mel Gibson from his movie the Braveheart.I love the line from the movie- "You may take our lives but you will never take our freedom!.. ".


After a long drive we headed to Kinross where we we were going to spend the night. With a few hours of rest we decided to take a drive up to St Andrews-the home of Golf. St Andrews has always been windy but it's a nice 'lil quaint town. We walked around the clubhouse and visited the Old Course -one of the prestigious golf courses in the world.


All of us were knackered after a whole day driving but the night would not be complete without our usual card games. Fad brought UNO cards which I haven't played since primary school but it was definitely good fun! We played late into the night and made so much noise that we got a warning to keep the noise down by the hotel reception! oops! but it was all good in the end....... hehe


On our final day we went up to Loch Leven in Kinross to visit the Loch Leven castle. The castle is best known to be the prison where Mary Queen of Scots was held. The castle is located on a small island and reached only by ferry.. We took our time walking around the remains of the castle. I love this shot of Ezro and I breaking out of the castle and doing our own scene of prison break!. We even befriended the ferry driver's dog who was called Maggie. She insisted in playing with us...Bobby & Ezro managed to train Maggie to sit and fetch the stick without touching Maggie. It was amazing that after 30mins Maggie was listening to most of our commands..such a clever creature!

Our last destination for the weekend was Edinburgh. We went to visit Fettes college where I did my A-Levels all those years ago....It was weird driving back to the school. There was the feeling of familiarity and reminiscing the fond memories I had with people back there when I took the guys around my college and the schoolgrounds. The schoolkids were on holiday so the school was empty but I managed to see my old College East House.

Unfortunately I found out from the caretaker that my Housemistress Ms Pippa had passed away from cancer last December. Ms Pippa taught English and she loved the classics like Jane Austen novels which she shared with all of us in the House. My fondest memories of her was when I first arrived at Fettes. I was feeling very homesick leaving the family for the first time and being the only Malaysian girl in the school.. I felt like an outcast but she was so welcoming and always at hand whenever I needed her. It's amazing that after a difficult first term I enjoyed the rest of my boarding school experience. Attending boarding school was a character building experience for me and I will always have fond memories of the college. May Ms Pippa rest in peace



We also went to Edinburgh city centre and walked along the Royal mile which is the old part of Edinburgh. We walked towards Edinburgh Castle which is currently being transformed in time for the Edinburgh Military Tatoo which will take place in the summer. We were looking for a nice restaurant to have a typical Scottish lunch but we arrived late and most restaurants closed at 3 and won't open until 5.30pm. It was a blessing in disguise because we found a nice vegetarian baked potato shop. Fad & I shared a vegetarian haggis baked potato which was delicious! Even though I can't compare it with the normal haggis the vegetarian one was good enough for us!!

We left Edinburgh at 5pm and didn't reach London until 11pm. It was a tiring trip but really enjoyable....I do enjoy visiting Scotland because of the beautiful scenery and friendly people who always look on the bright side of life. One would have to have that attitude since Scotland does not normally have the best of the weather..but we were lucky that the good weather followed us for most part of the trip. Scotland will always have a special place in my heart...

Thanks to Bobby for providing us with walkie-talkies which helped us driving in our convoy and kept us entertained with our random ramblings on the walkie talkies, Aunty Yok & Aunty Tun for providing us with yummy food for the trip, Ezro for becoming my 2nd co-pilot cum navigator and Fad for providing us with the Uno cards and entertaining us with her antics!