Spa time and China Town

The 31st of May was my best friend, Jasmine's 21st birthday and as a present I got us a good deal online from Virgin Experience Days for a spa day at the Mandara Spa at the Park Plaza Hotel in Westminster London. We've both been wanting to go to a spa for the longest so I thought why not get us a deal to go to one? We managed to get there pretty easy, just as you leave Waterloo Station it's a 10 min walk to the spa. 


As we took the lift down to the spa and the doors opened, there was this lovely sign in front of us saying Mandara Spa, it was pretty. We went towards the reception area and the atmosphere of the place was really nice, we were greeted by one of the staff who handed us our gown and slippers (very friendly staff here). We got into the changing rooms, put on our swimming costumes and headed for the pool area, where we sat on these comfy long chairs and just.... relaxed. It was honestly so nice to just take some time out and relax, I didn't bring my camera with me so I relied on my iPhone to take some decent photos, I wish I took more photos though. We had a little swim, tried to nap but failed lol and sat in the sauna to end our session. Jasmine really enjoyed it too which was great! 

After this we headed to China Town for lunch, again it didn't take us long to get there nor was it difficult to find. Once we got out the train station it was literally to the left of us lol. If you've been before, you know China Town is full of different restaurants, the majority are pretty much offering the same type of food but I guess it depends on which food is better. 

We walked around trying to find somewhere to eat and we were starving! We came across a restaurant called Oriental Dragon, it wasn't too busy so we just decided to try it out. We were given our menus, took some time to decide what we wanted to eat but we settled for one of their set menus which was serving prawn crackers, chicken and sweetcorn soup, seaweed, vegetable spring rolls (starters), steamed rice, sweet and sour pork and a chicken vegetable stir fry (main).. this all came up to £14.50 each which isn't too bad. 

Jasmine also ordered some dim sum.. yum! 

We really enjoyed the meal, everything was so good and cooked perfectly. I liked that they only had chopsticks on the table for you to use when eating, of course if you wanted a knife and fork you could ask for one but it really showed the authenticity. I won't lie and say I didn't struggle a little using them but I managed lol. Overall the bill came up to £39 (including drinks), the VAT and service charge was pretty high if I must say. 

Overall we had a great day, it was nice to treat my best friend to something like this. I'm very lucky to have a friend like her in my life, we've been friends for 9 years! It's important to surround yourself with good friends, they have to uplift you, support you, inspire you and more. 


Love Sham x