[abhinav.gupta88]

Thanks for all the info.

Will ask more if something pops up.
I am not sure but would have to wait for allotment.
Would be taking an appartment kind of room.
Its like 6-8 flats ( Small)

Each with its own room and washroom and there is a big combined kitchen and dining area.
So its basically like a big flat with 6 - 8 rooms.

Would contact you over PM for thing which should not be discussed in public.

Thanks a lot. Would you be in India or UK in september or so. Would like to meet the Bhpians in UK too.

[MileCruncher]

Originally Posted by abhinav.gupta88

Not a thin one. But not too thick as well. Its one of my favourites so i guess it would be good to go for the not too cool times. For the very cool kinds, i'll take something heavier

Thanks for the info.
And how far is the Indian place everyone talks about from Royal Holloway.

EDIT: That is south-hall

Southall reminded me of Sarojini Nagar Market. Its behind Heathrow. So do your calculations.
Cheap places to buy food - Tesco, Asda, Aldi, Lidl,
Cheap Places to buy clothes (in ascending order) - Primark, TK Maxx, Tesco, Asda George,Nexxt, Burtons, M&S
If you are into fashion and want the latest trends, but not too fussy about quality - H&M

End of the day if you are a smart shopper and have the eye for detail, you can things really cheap. I would say shop in UK rather than lugging things from here except Jeans and Crew Necks

[Samir Taheer]

Originally Posted by abhinav.gupta88

Thanks for all the info.

Will ask more if something pops up.
I am not sure but would have to wait for allotment.
Would be taking an appartment kind of room.
Its like 6-8 flats ( Small)

Each with its own room and washroom and there is a big combined kitchen and dining area.
So its basically like a big flat with 6 - 8 rooms.

Would contact you over PM for thing which should not be discussed in public.

Thanks a lot. Would you be in India or UK in september or so. Would like to meet the Bhpians in UK too.

Yeah thats the kinnda accomodation i had (University of Hertfordshire) and also the kind that a few friends had at Holloway. Usually clean, but its always good to have yourn own stock of dettol wipes and stuff.

Yeah, ill be back by then. Only going to be in India for 3 weeks in July/August and then back to work.

Do you have like an induction or freshers week? If so, then make sure you go for it. It's amazing fun.

[abhinav.gupta88]

Thanks for the info.
I would check out these sites and also compare it with the regular prices here in India.

So as of now i have decided to carry my laptop, phone , camera and normal jeans/t-shirts + a jacket ( not too thick ) just in case along with some more tits and bits.

The university website says that the course starts on 21st September.
The guys who visited one of the counsellor told me about the fresher's week where there's convocation, events and even some excursion he was talking about.
Will confirm with the people there about when would that be.
How much time in advance can we start living in the accomodation allocated to us?

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by akj53

I was told that I can drive with my International driving license only when accompanied by a UK license holder. So be very careful.

The person who told you confused it with a British Provisional Licence, which is what learners get

Originally Posted by Samir Taheer

Driving in the UK is over hyped, its really not that hard.

In fact it is easy! Most of the time, most of the people follow the rules, even when they seem absurdly restrictive. Uncertainty is very much less, predictability very much more.

What you must not do is drive in UK as if you are India --- although some people do

Originally Posted by Samir Taheer

I think and i might be wrong, but the common banks are HSBC and Barclays.

plus Lloyds, Royal Bank of Scotland, HBSO, Natoinwide --- and a handful of others

Originally Posted by abhinav.gupta88

Not a thin one. But not too thick as well. Its one of my favourites so i guess it would be good to go for the not too cool times. For the very cool kinds, i'll take something heavier

Thanks for the info.
And how far is the Indian place everyone talks about from Royal Holloway.

EDIT: That is south-hall

Originally Posted by MileCruncher

Southall reminded me of Sarojini Nagar Market. Its behind Heathrow.

Hmmm.... Southall is not that close to Heathrow. You will find Indian communities all over, and shops that cater for them. My specialist knowledge is of the other side of London, where I could tell you where to find Tamil and Mallu shops --- but not much use for Egham!

I heard it was 33 in London today: I am very disapointed I only missed it by a week :(

[Samir Taheer]

Didnt know we now had Lloyds, RBS and Nationwide in India.

Southall is not far from Heathrow. It's only a 15mins drive. Its not behind Heathrow, but very close.

As for the rooms abhinav, the university should give you a move in date.

[abhinav.gupta88]

A really valuable thread.

One more thing.
Will i be able to download stuff from Utorrent/Limewire from the university wifi.
All rooms have great connectivity according to the brochure.
Is there any restriction on P2P?

[IMP]

Hi everyone,
What a nice thread, I'm also going to the UK in September for my Masters.

This thread has covered almost all my queries, just wanted to know what weather to expect during mid September. I'm planning to buy most of the winter-wear once i am there. So for the first one or two weeks i need to take clothes, sweaters/jackets from here accordingly.

Regarding banks, many Indian Banks already have branches across UK for example SBI, BOB, BOI etc are they any good? I already have an account with one of them, and they do have a branch where I'll be going.

Regards,
IMP

[Samir Taheer]

Originally Posted by abhinav.gupta88

A really valuable thread.

One more thing.
Will i be able to download stuff from Utorrent/Limewire from the university wifi.
All rooms have great connectivity according to the brochure.
Is there any restriction on P2P?

Once again it depends on the university. I used to be able to download at uni, but that was 4 years ago. Be careful with utorrent and stuff, they are trying to crack down on it. You may have to give the uni, your MAC address.

OT - Piratebay got sold today :( The founders got £5mil for it.

IMP - Sorry never used any of the Indian banks here. As we've said earlier, Sept should be quite nice. Would expect tempretures to be around the 20's

[johnjacob]

Originally Posted by abhinav.gupta88

I'm looking at the following stuff for myself

• Apple Macbook Pro 15-inch : 2.8GHZ
• Nokia N97 ( I know not all would agree with this, but i like it a lot)
• Canon Digital IXUS 100 IS Digital Camera / Nikon Coolpix S60 / Any under INR 15000
• A Watch - From a good reputed brand - Around 15000

I would like to know whether to purchase the stuff from UK or India itself.

Looks like I'm a bit late to see this, but for the Macbook pro, my advice would be to buy it from the UK. As a student, you can get it with the student discount (by phone or from the online educational store which is only accessible from your university network, or in an Apple store if you show your university card) which gives you a 15% discount over the regular prices. And you can get an AppleCare 3-year extended international warranty for £47.50 (costs £273 otherwise).

[varun911]

Wow, awesome! I am glad that I stumbled upon this thread today. This thread has got me almost ready to embark my journey to UK this september to do my Masters.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Samir Taheer

Didnt know we now had Lloyds, RBS and Nationwide in India.

Southall is not far from Heathrow. It's only a 15mins drive. Its not behind Heathrow, but very close.

As for the rooms abhinav, the university should give you a move in date.

Sorry... didn't realise the UK bank list was restricted to those with an Indian presence. Should have done.

Southall is in West London. Heathrow is to the West of London; yes, it isn't far, these things being relative!

[simply_sunny001]

You cannot smoke inside any covered area in UK. period

parks, streets,outside pubs, you can smoke.

a pack of 20 Marlbouro lights costs 5.8£ right now so bring a lot from India.

Dont bring much clothes from India as someone rightly pointed the trends are different here than India and of course they are costly than india but better quality.

Primark/TKMaxx are the cheapest stores to buy clothes Debenham's and Next are better but you will know everything very soon after coming here.

Southall is not far but no tube service to Southall and lot of Indian eatries there, my fav is "Chandni Chowk"

And dont bother carrying Rice/Spices etc as all this stuff is readily available here.

HSBC is common between India and UK so if you have HSBC account in india, you wont have any problem opening a bank account here which is sometimes an ordeal for newcomers.

Its pretty unusally warm summers here this year(today max was 32 deg) but for September check previous years' averages on any weather site.

I dont think you will need thermals here but you can bring some jackets and all the stuff and bring 1 formal suit at least as you will need it surely.

Regarding Etiquettes, there is nothing new. etiquettes are same throughout the world.

Dont hesitate to ask more questions/queries no matter what.


Cheers

[Samir Taheer]

Just noticed that there's a few of you, coming to the UK to study. Why dont you post where your going to study. You may be able to find people going to the same uni as you.

Sunny is right about there being no tube to Southhall, but there is an overland station which is seviced by the Paddington - Reading train. If you have a multiple zone travelcard you can use it to get to Southall. I think it falls under zone 4.

[varun911]

Originally Posted by simply_sunny001

a pack of 20 Marlboro lights costs 5.8£ right now so bring a lot from India.
Cheers

I was thinking of the same, but was wondering is there a limit as to how many cartons are we entitled to carry into the UK?