UK is A-OK

MANILA, Philippines - Indeed, there are a thousand and one reasons to visit Britain today — that is, other than wanting to visit the Queen or to find out, as that time-cherished nursery rhyme goes, if the London Bridge is falling down. But more on that a wee bit later.

And though we may have visited London and other parts of the UK more than a couple of times, we’ll never ever get tired of London — or ever get tired repeating English poet Samuel Johnson’s euphoric pronouncement: “When a man is tired of London, he’s tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford.”

“That Britain is too expensive may have been true in the past, but it’s less true now,” says Keith Beecham, VisitBritain’s overseas network director who flew into Manila from London to meet up with members of the Philippine press. “The sterling, our currency, isn’t as strong as it was over the last four, five years. A London five-star hotel would have cost 400-500 pounds — it’s half that much now. For the more adventurous visitors, there are the hostels, bed and breakfast at only 25 pounds with full English breakfast, good quality clean room for the night, and a hospitable family looking after you. It’s a great range of products.”

He adds, “A lot of what you do in UK does not cost you money. You can go to the museums for free. I won’t mention other countries like France, but they’re not free. Our galleries are relatively accessible and again free. Shows are very successful. There’s a half-price theater ticket center right in the middle of London, where one can buy tickets in the morning for performances at half the price.”

United Kingdom Ambassador to the Philippines Stephen Lillie, fresh from his China posting, welcomes members of the press to the lunch affair with a smile as warm as sunshine. “Philippine-British relations are in very good shape. Not surprisingly, we have a lot in common — values, democracy, respect for human rights, free press of course, free media, strong trade/investment links and, for me very importantly, strong people-to-people links between our two countries. We have a quarter of a million Filipinos, including those of Filipino descent in the UK, they make a huge contribution to our society. While I was ready to come out here, I had the pleasure of attending a number of Filipino community events in London. A warm welcome awaits Filipinos going to UK. Of the three things close to the hearts of Filipinos — sports, music, and food, possibly not in that order — we have a lot to offer.”

For starters, there’s food, glorious food! And because the proof of the pudding is in the tasting, members of the press get a generous sampling of English food via the sumptuous buffet prepared by the Tower Club in Makati. The cold items include assorted greens with five dressings, smoked salmon with horseradish and capers, smoked ham and pineapple on triangular toasties, mini spinach and Edam quiche. On the hot buffet are minted and sage roast beef fillet, English fish and chips (but of course!), shepherd’s pie (the famous English meat pie with minced beef and mashed potato crust), cauliflower cheese and tomato, nutty pilaf rice.

Oh, yes, taking center stage in this thanksgiving of sorts event is the stuffed turkey with everybody getting their fill of the meaty treat.

To cap a veddy good English meal, everyone makes a beeline for the high tea buffet with its sinfully delicious offerings of chocolate and coffee buttercream cake, assorted Macaron de Paris, tea cakes — walnut raisin scones, lamingtons (sponge or butter cakes) with butter, clotted cream, and fruit jam on the side.

After all that indulgence, a selection of soothing teas (or freshly brewed coffee) serves as a finale that’s fit to a tea!

“We don’t have Jollibee in the UK, but we have pretty much everything else, the very best in international cuisine, Michelin-star British cuisine,” banters Ambassador Lillie.

Lillie shares three personal tips for those planning a visit to the UK:

1) Get a visa.

2) One of the favorite cities of Filipinos in the world is Hong Kong. Why not combine your visit to the UK with a visit to Hong Kong? There are at least eight direct flights a day from HK to UK. HK is an excellent gateway to UK.

3) Some of the best of Britain are outside the city. The village is the bridgeway where the country comes alive. To experience the village, it’s well worth hiring a cab to get around, but do remember that in England, they drive on the left.

The British ambassador stresses, “We’re here because we believe in the future of the Philippines. We’re very optimistic about the future of this country. As an organization, we’re taking money out of places like France, Germany, and Italy, and putting it in places like Southeast Asia, Brazil; Philippines is in this group of countries, we believe these countries are the future.”

Call it the British invasion. “There are about 65,000 British that come to the Philippines every year,” notes Beecham. “There are only about 25,000 Filipinos going the other way, so we’re not happy. We’d like to see an increasing number of Filipinos coming to the UK.”

UK beckons. “Britain is a very traditional, very historical country, but at the same time, it’s very contemporary, very cutting-edge, very adventurous, sometimes experimental. And a country full of passion. I think the Olympics (2012) will share with the world some of this passion,” asserts Beecham with a passion.

Beecham further entices Filipinos, “Come to London but as quickly as possible, balance that city experience with the countryside. We’re a small island; an hour-and-a-half by plane, you’re anywhere — we have a very accessible system and despite what the British say, we do have a good public transport system. London is a creative hub, but not only London. Young people go to Manchester, Liverpool, home of the Beatles — they all have thriving, contemporary music sitting alongside the whole classical range of opera. Visitors can experience this whole diversity of new music, sometimes very avant-garde, together with very world-class orchestras.”

And then there are the English movies. “Tourism related to movies,” Beecham elaborates. “We’ve got a number of characters, Harry Potter is perhaps the most relevant one. The Sherlock Holmes movie came out in December. But Sherlock Holmes is that kind of image of Britain we want to move away from — it’s Victorian, sinister, foggy, a bit dark. See the film, it will change your life. Behind the celebrity stories are the destination stories, where these films have been produced. And four percent of 32 million visitors who come to the UK every year say they come directly as a result of seeing a movie. ‘Wow, where is that? I wanna go there!’”

Visit Britain now? Bloody right!

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VisitBritain is relaunching its award-winning website www.visitbritain.com to be even more user-friendly and relevant to travelers. It is working in close partnership with local travel agencies via the BritAgent e-learning program.