Easter weekend in Cornwall

This could potentially be my last Easter break here (if all goes to plan).

There is still one part of the UK which I have not yet ventured which is the southwestern tip of UK in the county of Cornwall....

Cornwall is known to have one of the most beautiful beaches in the UK and is a popular spot for surfers. But I didn't really know much about the place apart from it's local dish which were Cornish pasties...

Eight of us- Edgware Road and d Bayswater crew with Zharin joining us from Liverpool decided to do a road trip to Cornwall for the first time. Ezro (chief organiser) booked us a nice house in the Cornish resort with the aim that we could use the facilities provided in the resort to relax.

While we were 'rockbanding' at no.53 we came up with a number of places worthwhile visiting using the tourguide leaflets Najlaa and Farhan provided for all of us.

And so we were ready to set off:

Day One:Tintagel-Padstow

Everyone surprisingly woke up on time (even Bobby!) and we managed to set off on our road trip on time. There wasn't much traffic (luckily) and we reached our first destination Tintagel Castle (supposedly the birthplace of King Arthur)

Being the jakun people that we were, all of us were asking "mana castle nye...?"-even when we were walking up the steep steps we were still wondering where was the castle..we soon realised that what was left of the castle were just ruins....but the views were breathtaking...

The photo session got underway and we were all clicking away -Bobby had his video cam recording our antics along the cliffs which will be turned into the Cornwall movie..Zharin had his ever loving camera 'glued' to his hand whilst Farhan was trailing behind us sketching in his sketch book to capture the wonderful scenery....

The rest of us were there to soak in the fresh air and sea breeze of the Atlantic Ocean....

We spent probably about 2 to 3 hours there but it didn't feel that long at all because of the sunny weather.

By the time we finished covering Tintagel, all of us were thinking about fooood.....and we walked around the Tintagel village to check out the local delicacies...we saw this cafe with a long queue which is always a good sign....

It was a cafe (probably an old house) with a garden at the back....it was surreal because we were having pasties and Cornish cream tea ( scones with clotted cream and jam with earl grey tea) at the back of a garden on a nice spring day playing with the local cat which looked like the bigger version of 'Millie d cat'...

Next on our itinerary for the day: Visit Padstow
I heard from colleagues that Padstow was famous for its seafood restaurants e.g. Rick Stein's and Jamie Oliver's restaurant are a few chefs who have had an influence in the restaurants around Padstow. A few are highly rated and appear on the Michelin Guide to the best restaurants...

We only had time to have the Rick Stein's Fish and Chips-mine was ok but the guys had the Dory fish which was yummy...

In the evening, we headed to our accomodation which was a house in the Atlantic Reach resort. It was like driving through Pleasantville as all the houses were identical except for the variation in pastel colours found in each house.

It was a self catered accomodation so we headed out to the village to stock up on our groceries...Najlaa and I had our grocery list which will feed the troops for the next few days...It's one of the things I miss living in a house with lots of people. After cooking dinner for the troops , it was time for Ginrami Card session...it's been a while since we all played cards so everyone was a bit rusty. It didn't take long for everyone to bring out the competitive streak...and we ended playing until 2am in the morning -such an addictive game...

Day Two:Newquay
We visited the Blue Reef Aquarium which had received top ratings in the reviews but we were disappointed in what we found. The entry tickets was nearly ten pounds but we didn't think it was value for money since there wasn't much collection to see and the place ain't that big. Nevertheless we made the best of the situation. Personally, Newquay was my least favourite town since it was too crowded and full of groups of people on hen-dos and stag-dos so a bit of a rowdy crowd. The rest of the day we went for a drive to find the nicest beaches around the area but we ended up driving more than we intended. By the time we reached back to our place it was getting late and Najlaa and Farhan became the chefs for the night with Farhan's speciality thai green curry and najlaas ikan goreng masak sambal cili-yummy!

Day Three:Penzance-Landsend
The itinerary for the day was busy since we wanted to cover as much area of Penzance and Landsend as we could...

First stop was St Michael's Mount which over the years had been a monastery to a family home under the National Trust in the present day. If you were lucky , you could spot dolphins swimming around the island at high tide...
When we visited, it was low tide but the views were still amazing. There is a conspiracy theory that Cornish people are descendants from the pirate family but it has not been proven and not widely admitted. But you couldn't help wonder that Cornwall would have been the perfect spot to smuggle things since its strategic position in the mainland.

Second stop was the open air Minack theatre. We heard the views are amazing but we didn't realise that it would be extremely amazing. We saw there was a soft sand beach called Porthcurno Beach. This is one of THE most beautiful spots I have seen in my life. The weather was perfect and we hiked up along the cliffs to reach the beaches. By the time we got there the high tide had come in but we sat for hours enjoying the view. A moment I will remember for a long time...

We then headed to Landsend which is the most southern tip of the UK mainland. I didn't like the commercial aspect of the place as we entered the area. I don't think you need to have outlet shops and amusement area to attract people to Landsend...the natural beauty of the place should be enough to attract people to the area...

By this point, we were pretty tired but we wanted to make the most of the trip so headed to St Ives for dinner-there was a range of restaurants to eat but parking was a problem and the roads aren't the most user friendly roads for a MPV van...we ended up getting take-away: pasties..again!

Day Four: Eden Project-Bude-Sandymouth Beach-London

This would be our last day in Cornwall. Once we checked out-we headed to Eden project-which is a charity with a vision of educating people in ways in which we can look after our environment and ensuring we can have a sustainable future. It was interesting especially the tropical biomes and mediterranean biomes that have built up a typical environment which we can expect in a certain climate. In the malaysian section , they did a good job because it was very similar to us being back in a kampung except animals were missing like the rooster and monkeys..
Unfortunately the weather wasn't pleasant as we got caught in some heavy rain which cut short our trip around the area...

We headed for Bude since some of the guys wanted to buy some souvenirs in the form of scones and clotted cream.... we then headed for Sandymouth Beach which was the rockiest beach we found so far with its huge pebbles..it was high tide so we didn't see any sand. We saw some brave surfers who tried to hit the waves but the waves were too rough and cold for them-the mission was aborted... I respected them for even trying to hit the waters though because it was freezing!

It was then time to go home....the trip was extremely enjoyable : a combination of good company, good weather and breathtaking views....
The trip was complete with our theme song-Lenny Williams -'Cause I love you' which entertained us in the van with the extremely corny lyrics.