The eldest finished his junior cert exam and took the younger one out of school for a trip to London. We wanted to beat the summer travel crowd. This sounds bad, but we had a reason to go to London. The Malaysian High Commission in London is able to renew our passports on the day itself. We had initially planned to go back to Malaysia this year, but Qatar Airways cancelled our flights due to the conflict in Iran. So we were trying to make the best of the time we had taken off to maybe do more travelling in London. This would be our 3rd time back to London since coming to Ireland.

Our itinerary for this trip

We have already taken leave from work when planning for our Malaysia trip. When that was cancelled, we decided to take a longer stay in London and then visiting Edinburgh in this trip. When we planned for our itinerary, it felt like we did not have enough things planned for the trip. It all ended up well, some places took longer than we expected. The heatwave we were experiencing means we also took things slower, especially walking from place to place.

• Day 1: Priority is to get our passports done
• Day 2: Going back to Royal Air Force Museum
• Day 3: National Gallery
• Day 4: V&A Museum
• Day 5: Travel on the train to Edinburgh
• Day 6: Bus Tour to Loch Lomond and Stirling
• Day 7: Edinburgh Castle
• Day 8: Holyrood House

Day 1 – Renewing passport in Malaysian High Commission in London

The Malaysian High Commission in London can handle passport renewal on the same day. We also got our photos taken in the office. They open in the morning 9am-noon for passport application and we come back after 3pm to collect it. This information is correct as of June 2026, so do check with them when you want to go. We could have renewed our passports in the Malaysian Embassy in Dublin, it takes about 2 months to get our passports back and we have to pay an external party to get our photos taken. Another benefit going to Malaysian High Commission in London is that the eldest’s passport is free as he has the OKU card. We see a few cases where people did not bring the right documents for their application. That slowed things down a bit. One lady came in to try and renew the passport but did not even bring her identity card! She got a polite but blunt push back from the staff, saying that all services with Malaysian Government needs an identity card. Although we were there around 9.30am, we waited for 1.5 hours before our turn.

Nearby Attractions

While we were waiting, a man came in selling roti canai and biryani rice to ask if anyone was interested. We did notice a poster stuck on the wall showing places serving Malaysian food nearby. I suppose they know what Malaysians frequently ask about when they come to the high commission.

We decided to walk to Selfridges, 30 mins away. Saw they had Din Tai Fung and had lunch there around noon. We got a table and it was pretty quiet when we arrived but things got a lot busier around 1pm. Selfridges also have a Jellycat shop. Emily loved her Jellycat plushie. The Jellycat store in Selfridges has the Jellycat Cafe, this time they were selling Fish and Chips. The unique item here is the plushie for the Selfridges iconic yellow bag.

Money Saving Tip

While children under 11 travel for free, TFL has a little known discount for children between age 11-16. The discount is called Young Visitor Discount and the information is buried in the fine print. We have used this discount on various trips to London. First, we need to get an oyster card, the regular ones. We then have to approach a staff at a station and ask them to apply the Young Visitor Discount. This discount is only for “tourist”, so the staff will ask some questions. The discount is valid for 4 days from the day it’s activated. This gives the bearer of the oyster card 50% discount on public transport fares.