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TRAVEL | THINGS TO DO | Old Docks Tour with Eating London Tours / May 4, 2018 by Jenn Chan

Leigh Savage would be a great name for a pirate! Or, maybe, a porn star (sorry Leigh!), but it is most certainly also an excellent name for a tour guide! Mention his name while booking and you'll get a discount, mention mine while booking and you will only get a puzzled look. The tour started where all great food tours start: at a large, 19th century industrial engine house. No visit along the docks of Rotherhithe and Wapping, I'm told, would be complete without taking in the Thames Tunnel. The world's first tunnel built successfully under a navigable channel connecting these two beautiful boroughs despite the Thames' best efforts.

A quick jaunt up the street and you come upon the The Mayflower Pub, the oldest pub on the mighty River Thames. It was from here that the first pilgrims to colonize the Americas left England bound for the new world. Just think about that. Now think about bangers and mash and blood pudding all sat on a bed of fresh vegetables and chased down with a bitter, yet smooth pale ale. Aside from the really good pub food, a cheerful decor, ample historical significance and ambience the pub also boasts a huge patio that hangs out over the ancient river. If you peek between the slats you'll see the water lapping the shore and the sound and the sun and tranquility of the space makes this pub a must-see!

After we have descended the Thames Tunnel and examined the impressive, old-fashioned engineering we come up on the other side; Wapping. All along the way our cheerful, knowledgeable guide whips out his folder of history and photos and we take delight in standing on the sidewalk and learning about our surroundings. A tour like this gives you nothing, but time to smell the flowers! The Prospect of Whitby Pub also stakes a claim to the oldest pub on the Thames, but upon reading the fine print is relegated to being on the site of the oldest pub, advantage Mayflower. The Whitby wrestles away the title of my early favourite after a delicious plate of fish and chips is laid in front of me with a nice light lager to compliment it. It was so nice that I went back and got another glass halfway through my meal! The Prospect of Whitby is a place where they used to hang folk. They don't shy away from that fact either as a noose still swings in the wind at the edge of the balcony. Hanging Judge Jeffries was said to have executed some 700 men during his duties under the reign of King James II on this very spot.

Fish & Chips with mushy peas at The Prospect of Whitby

Joseph Turner was an eccentric man. A lover of women and secretive to the point of almost losing his own identity. Around the docklands of Wapping he was known as "Puggy" Booth. Puggy due to his slight stature and Booth adopting the name of one of his mistresses to further obfuscate his activities. When he inherited a pair of cottages in Wapping he converted one into Turner's Old Star and the pub still stands today after several renovations. Paul and Bernice Drew now run the freehouse and make their famous steak pies themselves from scratch! These are worth a trip all on their own, but the pub also has sports playing on every screen as well as billiards and darts. You could spend some time there!

Captain William Kidd was a notorious pirate. There is some debate whether he came about the monicker justly, but he was executed nearby for piracy. A converted warehouse with plenty of space and extraordinary views of the Thames. An alcove table with 180 degree views of the river and a spacious patio are just a few of the highlights. Oh ya, they also have beer, a lot of it! I would definitely recommend it for a calm night out or the starting point of a rager!

Four hours is a long time to spend with strangers, but with the masterful guidance of Mr. Savage we bonded and by the time we came up the Dickens Pub it was almost too early to say goodbye. Luckily, we were greeted with a giant cheese and fruit platter and some ciders, a truly European dessert! Excited chatter turned into a constant murmur and laughter rose up as the room started to fill around us. Leigh gracefully took his leave and we were left to socialize and eat and drink until our heart's content. I can't remember another tour where the group was left together at the end and the fun just simply continued! I would highly recommend it and don't forget to tell them who sent you!

English Cheese and Cider at The Dickens Inn

Words: Scott Allan
Photos: Jenn Chan

TRAVEL | THINGS TO DO | English Heritage Stonehenge / January 26, 2018 by Jenn Chan

Admittedly and, sadly, irrecoverably whilst I'm abroad in Europe I am at the mercy of my Global Positioning System (GPS). Satnav, if you're from these parts, but time, necessity and my own not-giving-a-mother-f'ing whaaaaa dictate that I'm not going to Google, or as Jalen Rose would say 'Goggle' "Satnav" to give that silly acronym any credence.

When you're prone in life whether it be: spiritually, financially or merely spatially your surroundings seem to push down on you from all sides trying to squeeze everything you have inside you outside of you. Satnav says you pop up out of this freeway on-ramp and when you're almost there your excitements mounts.

If Stonehenge is a term you recognise then Stonehenge is probably a place you put on your "to-do" list. That list that wanderlusters put, and rank, mostly mentally, the countries they can, will and must see. I'd put Stonehenge and it's pre-historic significance in my top five. It's a millennium old and it was made in that time where they didn't write everything down. Remains dictate Stonehenge started as a burial ground/ religious site and archeologists have found many remains to back up those facts. No one in this random enclave, in this unremarkable British countryside, has left word of their customs or intentions and it is all at once intriguing and remarkable. A puzzle which is insolvable and therefore there remains an appetite for the facts that is unquenchable.

For the first time in my life I saw a sign that warned "queues likely", but there it was. I thought "we have likely taken a wrong, dumb 'slip road' and now we're down a 20-minute-delay rabbit hole as we drive 10-20 miles in one direction and then flip the next roundabout and head back." Happily, this was not the case. The "likely" delay was, and will be when you visit, due to rubber-necking nincompoops who routinely drive past the 5,000 year old monument. If you're an office drone, à la Steve Carrell in the beloved American edition of The Office, maybe you slow to 5 MPH everyday, every week, on your commute to work and think about these Neolithic tribes traipsing across the countryside. Or maybe everyone sucks. Maybe when you're running late every freeway will have likely delays. If that's your mindset, I'm sorry... I love you, even as a stranger, and people still care.

When you're visiting a UNESCO Heritage Site you know there will be, at least, is going to be a vending machine. The commercial infrastructure is just there and, yes, there were several. AND a gigantic gift shop and delightful café/ bar. I partook, unabashedly, in a late afternoon Stonehenge Brewery lager. Twas good and twas adequately large so that when we boarded the shuttle out to the historic site of Stonehenge from the visitor centre I was still sipping it. A few pictures were snapped, Stonehenge lager in hand, of yours truly, astride the ruins. Whether this was once a religious centre, burial ground, community centre or just where the kids raved I did what I do; left no mark on the soil and only took the mark of the experience with me.

The Jenn Chan Photography blog is a viable, vibrant entity because of Jenn's humility and love of photography and not my narration, positions or hawkish entrepreneurism. The next time you're at the beach pick up a stone that looks about the size of your thigh. That's it. Everyone has a different sized thigh don't judge just grab it depending on your girth. I'd say definitely brace yourself. Get a wide stance and lift with your legs and not your back. Now picture that rock as the equivalent of 14,000 thigh sized, gargantuan pieces of stone laying in slabs 50 KM's away. What compelled these people? How many years did they study the stars before they calculated the exact angles where the sun on the longest day of summer and the shortest day of winter collide into its epicentre ? If you were left stranded for 100 years, be it on a beautiful, lush island or a cold tundra, could you ever make a device to send an email? Where would you start?

Words: Scott Allan
Photos: Jenn Chan