April 2015
We arrived from Southampton into Waterloo train station around 2:30 p.m. and onwards to Paddington where our hotel (review below) was, arriving an hour later. We had a late lunch around our hotel area. Paddington has several halal restaurants including fast food outlets like Subway & KFC. You just need to be on the look out for the halal sign. Within Paddington bus stop leading up to our hotel along London Street, there are 5 halal eateries. A little further down Craven Road, there is a Malaysian restaurant.
Paddington underground exit besides Hilton Hotel.
Paddington halal restaurants location (there are more).
The Malaysian restaurant mentioned above is called ‘Tukdin’ situated at 41 Craven Road. From Paddington underground, walk pass Hilton and walk further down. It will be on your left. Menu features various Malaysian dishes.
Tukdin Malaysian restaurant. 41 Craven Road, Paddington.
Interior of Tukdin restaurant.
Our lunch bill ringing up at the cash register.
We’ve made advanced hotel booking via hotel aggregator booking.com for a four nights stay at Abbey Court Hotel, Sussex Gardens, Paddington. We’ve picked this hotel due to favourable reviews, close to halal outlets, nearby to train, tube and bus stations. Convenient access to Heathrow airport and St Pancras train station.
This hotel rate does not include breakfast nor wi-fi and is the most expensive during this trip. Apart from the ‘posh’ exterior of the hotel and the spacious lobby, nothing else good can be said of this hotel.
‘Posh’ exterior of Abbey Court Hotel aka Westpoint Hyde Park Hotel, Sussex Gardens.
To get to our room from the lobby, we needed to go through a maze of doors, no less than five. Room 410 is a twin bedded room on the ground floor with heater but no air-conditioning. In the spring night, the room gets warm but situated next to an air well, opening the windows lets cool air in.
The room is small but we’ve stayed in other hotel rooms of this size. But the bathroom is miniature that we, small-sized Asian felt squeezed in it. Zero reception of cellphone line in room. Hotel internet is at astronomical £10 per day, more expensive than subscribing to my home country roaming data package!
The most absurd incident is the cleaners opened our doors TWICE before the official check-out time. The cleaners however did apologised on both occasions. All-in-all, there are many, many, many more hotels in this area for you to consider. Surf around.
Small twin bed room, window opens to an air well.
Entrance door on the left. The wood-grain door leads to the miniature bathroom. About the only ‘space’ in the room is the width of a chair beside this bed.
Notice the ancient lock of the entrance door. The mirror, hair dryer and kettle next to it.
Next to the mirror, is the TV at an obscure angle, a ‘built-in’ table and an open closet. Lot of power points to charge your devices.
The ‘miniature’ bathroom. On the WC, your face is up close to the wash basin.
The super miniature shower cubicle. It’s slightly more than 3 tiles across. Assuming the tile measures 1 foot across, it’s about 39″ or about 1 meter wide!
