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Old 8th January 2009, 16:26   #46
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I lived in London for ~3 years and was lucky enough to stay in some of the very nice neighborhoods

For 1 year I lived in Holland Park and found that it was one of the nicest and calmest areas to live in. Lots of places nearby -- notting hill, portebollo street, hyde park etc etc.

Then for ~2 years lived at Regent Park and that was again a great place to live. The beautiful park nearby & oxford street, regent street, picadally etc nearby. Then you have Camden town on weekends & all the westend theaters etc.

And central london does have some very very nice Indian restaurants for food.

One of the best & most easy cities to live in -- though very expensive.

Cheers,
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Old 8th January 2009, 16:37   #47
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For places to LET look at - UK's number one property website for properties for sale and to rent, SPARE ROOM for flatshare, house share, flat share & rooms for rent

Both have houses/flat to rent as well as rooms to rent in house shares. Spare room is usally quite good. I've found some nice places on there.

There nothing wrong with Gumtree. Just dont get scammed.

The other option, if your looking for just a room - is to get someone who stays around the area to pick up a local paper and check for adverts in there. Because of the asian population in the area, you should be able to get something easily and get some home cooked food.
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Old 8th January 2009, 16:40   #48
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Looks like the advert came up instead of the website its name. Here's the 2 names again - www. spareroom .com and www. rightmove. co. uk

Obviously avoid the spaces.
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Old 21st April 2011, 08:51   #49
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UK Travel - Help & Suggestions required

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.
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Old 21st April 2011, 09:13   #50
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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 View Post
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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Old 21st April 2011, 09:53   #51
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Re: UK Travel - Help & Suggestions required

Quote:
Originally Posted by shankar.balan View Post
Some suggestions to you.....
........cheers and enjoy your trip. Dont worry. Always go with an open mind and see, feel, experience new things - you will love it!
Thank you for the prompt reply. All my points are covered.
Will PM you if I get any further queries.
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Old 21st April 2011, 10:01   #52
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Re: UK Travel - Help & Suggestions required

by the way your UK visa also entitles you to visit Northern Ireland - it s really lovely believe me. You can take a low cost easy jet or something and spend the weekend in Belfast or Londonderry. Nice vibrant cities both.
but you should try and visit Scotland especially Edinburgh and if possible the Highlands as well. The Lake District in England is lovely in Summer as are a number of other places. That country is simply dripping with history and culture (much like ours) but the only difference is that they maintain and preserve and respect things a lot more than we do. Which is why it is fun going there!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.Boss View Post
Thank you for the prompt reply. All my points are covered.
Will PM you if I get any further queries.
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Old 21st April 2011, 10:48   #53
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Re: UK Travel - Help & Suggestions required

I have lived in the UK for 6 years, both as a bachelor and with family. PM me if you have any specific questions.
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Old 21st April 2011, 11:16   #54
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Re: UK Travel - Help & Suggestions required

Buddy, Milton Keynes and the neighbouring Northampton have a BIG Indian community. You will not be stuck out alone, for either Indian food or company. MK is definitely a good place to stay in, and it is easy to travel to and from London as well.

Forget taking up a car during your short visit. Rent one whenever you need one. It will be far cheaper. Buying and selling a car, insurance, license etc... will be big hassles.

Completely forget picking up a bike there. You cannot even start to imagine the pains involved in riding a bike there.

For calling India, cheapest would be to get a landline connection at your home, and using a calling card that gives cheap minutes to India. Any mobile connection would be substantially more expensive.

For Internet connection you can try to take a "Three" Sim / Phone. They usually have very good data plans and their service rocks!

Places to "MUST" see:
- Highlands Tour + Edinburgh
- Lake District
- Peak District
- York
- The Sunny South (Beaches - Many locations)
- Northern Ireland (esp.. the Antrim coast drive)
- Isle of Man
- Get a Schengen and Amsterdam (you know what!)
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Old 21st April 2011, 11:22   #55
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Re: UK Travel - Help & Suggestions required

just a tidbit - chicken tikka masala is renowned as the national dish of britain (though I am told now that pizza is fast catching up!)

england is packed with our chaps - you wont generally feel homesick if thats what you're concerned about. as our other friends have advised, take this opportunity to travel experience and enjoy new things.
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Old 21st April 2011, 11:33   #56
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Re: UK Travel - Help & Suggestions required

Thanks a lot friends. All I could find here is each and every word posted here is 100% useful. Will take the print out of this entire thread before I start my travel.

Once again thank you all.

Cheers.
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Old 21st April 2011, 11:53   #57
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Re: UK Travel - Help & Suggestions required

Cheap pre paid India calling cards are easily available.At the same time ,Indian food is usually available in most cities in the UK.Even Subway has a chicken tikka sandwich .

Public transport is quite efficient .Parking charges are usually very high .So ,if you plan to visit the city center ,then public transport is the cheapest and most convenient option.

The train ride from London to Abardeen or Edinurgh is very scenic .I used to prefer Ryan Air for travel within the UK ,though Ryan Air doesnt operate out of the bigger airports .So even if you get 5 GBP air tickets,you might have to spend 10 GBP on travel to the airport.

PM me if you need any info on travel within Scotland
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Old 21st April 2011, 12:30   #58
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Re: UK Travel - Help & Suggestions required

Almost all the points have been covered by above posters. My two bits:

Just stick to public transport. That's best.

Don't travel by air inside U.K., unless really pressed for time. U.K., is Best enjoyed by rail or road. The scenery is out standing.

If you wish to see Scotland, goto Glasgow. Various tour buses will take you to Loch Ness and back or to Edinburgh. There is a train also. The views are simply superb.
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Old 21st April 2011, 12:31   #59
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Re: UK Travel - Help & Suggestions required

Quote:
Originally Posted by speedsatya View Post
Public transport is quite efficient
...
PM me if you need any info on travel within Scotland
Thank you

After getting all your feedbacks, dropped the idea of getting a car. Will stick to public transport only.

Once I reach there I will PM you regarding trip to Scotland.
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Old 21st April 2011, 13:17   #60
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Re: UK Travel - Help & Suggestions required

My two cents.

In central MK there is a flea market (on certain days of the week) near Waitrose, There is a chap who sells wada's, idli's, and dosa's also masala chai.

World Buffet in MK is an all you can eat buffet which also has Indian dishes.

Once in a while you can head north-east to Leicester which is 50 minutes from MK by bus. Leicester has a huge Indian population. Belgrave road is the place to be to satiate Indian food cravings. Feast India on Melton Road is an all you can eat buffet serving only Indian food. They have a wide variety to choose from and is pretty well known with the Indian community across UK.

I wouldn't recommend buying a car for such a short duration. Taxi's are pretty cheap and are available easily, for longer trips you can hire a car. But public transport is excellent, one hardly needs a car.

Last edited by IMP : 21st April 2011 at 13:23.
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