Re: UK Travel - Help & Suggestions required Some suggestions to you:
Mobile: Lebara - cheapest - 2p per minute talk time to india.
Internet: you will find zillions of choices of the USB stick. You can easily pick it up while there.
Milton Keynes: It is around an hour and a half to 2 hours from London Euston Station by Train depending on whether you take a fast or a slow. Nice modern place. Yes there are many Indian food places there. Affordability is a relative thing. You might be a bit shocked sometimes at what they charge for a simple Indian meal but thats part of the story. Try not to convert every time you spend or you will simply not be able to enjoy anything. Pace yourself, set yourself a simple daily budget with 10-15% deviation after spending 3-4 days there and you will be fine. In any case most pubs and Wetherspoon Cafes do you a pretty decent-ish curry meal if you like curries. If you are a hard core veggie and absolutely cannot do without your Indian grub, then you may want to take a few pre-packed meals along with you - "Kitchens of India", "MTR" etc. You can get a lot of nice foods from your local Tescos, Waitrose and M&S SIMPLY FOOD if you like Western food. Brilliant pastas and lasagnes and pizzas etc - all at very fair prices. You can peacefully drink tap water there. No problem. Else you can boil up some water in your apartment and carry bottles about if you dont want to buy water. However, bottles of water are available from around 60-70pfor 500ml or 1 GBP for 2 and other such price deals at Tesco, Boots and other places.
London and travel: Dont bother with buying a vehicle there for your six month stint. It makes MUCH BETTER sense to use public transport as most places in the UK are beautifully connected. Weekends in London are highly possible and you will have a lot more fun if you stick with public transport. Dont forget the congestion charge in Central London if you've got your own car/ bike. Simply doesnt make sense. Buy an OYSTER CARD for LONDON transport. It allows you to travel happily on the tube and buses as well as the Docklands light railway. Keep topping it up as you go and you never need to buy a ticket. For using the trains/ tube you swipe it on the yellow reader when you enter the line you are going to use and swipe out when you exit the station at which you get off. For Buses, just swipe once when you enter. the single swipe entitles you to go as far as the last bus stop and you can get off anywhere en route too. Dont swipe twice on buses as you will be charged twice. Oyster takes only the least expensive fare for that time of day, week and route so you save money overall in comparison to buying a ticket each time you travel on public transport. Buy your Oyster at any newsagent.
If you want to explore other bits and pieces of England, Scotland etc there are loads of trains and buses to use - book your tickets early via the net and you will get superb deals. Else you can always scout out a local rent a car place, use your India DL, your credit card and rent a car for a weekend if you wish. Try Budget Rent a car - they are really quite inexpensive and fair in their dealings. Else find a local non branded rent a car place - those are usually cheaper. Another piece of advice. In the UK, always follow the queue system - they are very polite and civilized people by and large and we guys from here sometimes become unpopular because we generally dont like to queue up!
If you want any further help, PM me and we can talk on the phone if you like over the weekend.
cheers and enjoy your trip. Dont worry. Always go with an open mind and see, feel, experience new things - you will love it! Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Boss Mods : If this is not the right place to post this thread or any similar thread exists, please do help me in moving to appropriate place.
Hi,
I will be travelling to UK by this Monday for my projects. I will be staying there for 6 months, my work place is at Cranfield and I will be staying at Milton Keynes. Accomodation & Transportation are not an issue.
Let me put out my requirements / doubts
1) Best mobile connection for calling India at a cheaper means (may be with BES, so that I can keep chatting with my lady love)
2) I hope the appartment in which I'm about to stay has wi-fi connectivity (I was informed by my colleague who visited 3 months back, it may or maynot have) if not, which is the best Internet Connection?
3) Would like to roam around the city, may be to London in week ends. How about getting a used bike / car there? or should I take public transport? Is that convenient?
4) Whether Indian food available at Milton Keynes? If yes, affordability? (People adviced to cook the food myself, but other than Chapathi I am zero in cooking)
Any T-BHPian from UK? Please do help me on the above queries.
Thanks in advance. |
Last edited by shankar.balan : 21st April 2011 at 09:29.
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