I’ve been thinking about moving to UK in a year or two with my SO but the thing is I don’t know anybody there except for his brother and SIL. Of course I have a few friends there but it would be too difficult to meet up.
So I was wondering how hard it is to live in a completely new environment where you don’t really have a chance to meet new people.
In UK (London/Manchester) are cars a necessity? I don’t have a drivers license because I haven’t needed one so far and it costs way too much to get one here in Japan. How good/bad is the public transport?
The weather is pretty gloomy and people who are not from UK often joke about UK people getting SAD but do people actually get that?
Has anyone experienced a lot of racism there? I know a lot of British people hate Polish/Chinese people but what about other races?
Finally where are the areas that have a decent amount of desi population but it doesn’t seem like its mini Pakistan/India?
You can't go wrong if your going to be living in London.
The weather is gloomy but we have our good days too.
Fares are always expensive and always increasing but then the rail network is extensive.
Good to have a license.
Our TV is good. Try Only fools and horses! :)
We shop and go out to eat with friends/family. I guess u cud discover quite a bit with ur hubby.. I have always lived in London and still love discovering new restaurants here. Depending on where u live exactly u will/ will not need a car. If u leve in central London it may be a hassle keeping one if however u live on the outskirts it wud be handy having one. We do have buses/trains as an alternative which I use to commute to work in central London.. I wud say it's fairly reliable so if u don't have a car straight away it won't be a problem. When are u looking to move? And any idea which areas? As for racism I wear a hijab and the last time I experienced it was when I was a child. People are very accepting of your background and beliefs.. Furthermore we have a lot of Pakistanis/Muslims in London and other cities so u won't really feel like ur alone unless u move into a racist part of the uk.. Which I think are very few :) good luck!
We shop and go out to eat with friends/family. I guess u cud discover quite a bit with ur hubby.. I have always lived in London and still love discovering new restaurants here. Depending on where u live exactly u will/ will not need a car. If u leve in central London it may be a hassle keeping one if however u live on the outskirts it wud be handy having one. We do have buses/trains as an alternative which I use to commute to work in central London.. I wud say it's fairly reliable so if u don't have a car straight away it won't be a problem. When are u looking to move? And any idea which areas? As for racism I wear a hijab and the last time I experienced it was when I was a child. People are very accepting of your background and beliefs.. Furthermore we have a lot of Pakistanis/Muslims in London and other cities so u won't really feel like ur alone unless u move into a racist part of the uk.. Which I think are very few :) good luck!
I'm thinking about London or Manchester not really sure about specifics its just a plan. I'm not Pakistani but my SO is thats why I asked where there are big desi communities are.
I thought it was near impossible to move to UK without spouse visa or study/work permit.
SO will be getting a work visa and I will be getting a student visa.
I would rather live in Australia because it would be easier for me but circumstances dictate that it's not to be possible so I'm looking at what its like in UK.
Well if circumstances will force you to move here (UK) then these things don't even really matter. You can consider them when the situation arises.
To answer some of your q's. London is so much better in every respect, there is so much to do because it's huge, I don't think you can get bored. The public transport system, even with its faults is very good and extensive. You can get everywhere you want fairly easily with trains, the underground and buses all run everywhere and well within greater London.
I'm in my late twenties, and most of the people I know around this age, whether they are research students or working, single or in a long term relationship, don't have cars if they live in London. I live in the outskirts (see zone 5 of a London transport map). I use public transport to get into work in Central London and even out here, there are bus stops every few hundred meters and the buses are every 5-10 mins to the train station. It takes me an hour to get to work but then it takes 45min-1hr for someone living in zone 3 often as well. We have a car but mostly use public transport - the car is for going to my parent's house, grocery shopping and other journeys around here or outside London. Running a car is expensive and if we were a couple, like many of my friends who don't have family to visit and all their socialising is done in London, we wouldn't keep one either. Over a year, it would be cheaper to get the occasional taxi or hire car when you need it, in that case.
If you are going to be studying, I wouldn't worry about making friends. It should be fairly easy as you will be meeting people easily.
Most couples my age are paying £800-£1200 per month on rent between them on a 1 or 2 bed flat (there's not much diff in price) within London. Obviously, it depends on your financial situation and if you want to save, whether you will spend less or more.
Weather is just unpredictable. This year, it was actually quite nice during April/May. Other years, it has snowed in April. The SAD is more to do with the days being horribly short in winter and not getting much daylight. It's not much fun when you leave work and it's already dark.
It depends on your personality. If u are extrovert and can make friends easily it shudnt b a problem. There are loads of classes and I used my exercise class to meet people. I haven't come across racism yet but everyone I meet says it's regional so the big cities like London, brum, Manchester etc don't have so much of the problem.
People are very tolerant.
Public transport is very good in London and generally it's ok. If u live in suburbs u will probably need a car. Fares go up all the time.
Rain is not as frequent as I thot it would be. Summers are awesome. Winters are not so bleak. But coming from 45-50 degrees of Lahore, I thrive in the cold and never ever complain about the rain.
I don't know Manchester well but it will be a LOT cheaper than living in London (prob as much as half but then again that applies to many many places outside London).. You don't really need health insurance unless you're a bit fussy and want to go to a hospital with nice carpets, your own ensuite bathroom etc (and it's not common but sometimes an NHS hospital will actually move a patient to a private one if there aren't enough beds or something.. A lot of private doctors also work for the NHS so you're getting the same level of medical knowledge, just with the NHS you tend to wait around longer and the 'cosmetic' surroundings aren't as nice)..
If you're inside London it's easy to get almost anywhere on the tube and generally speaking there isn't much racism.. There are concentrated desi communities in the east (Ilford, Green St etc - mainly Muslim) and the west sides of the city (Slough - more Hindus, Sikhs and some Muslims) and comparatively fewer in the northern and southern parts.. The desi areas can seem a bit too chaotic or dirty to 'outsiders' tho, so you might not like that and bear in mind that altho it's not so much of a problem in London in some other desi Muslim communities views can be more conservative.. London is like a melting pot of different cultures.. I have never come across so many interesting mixes of ppl :) London weather is a LOT warmer than the midlands and further north and altho it can rain quite a bit it can also get very warm (30C+ if only for a few weeks a year lol).. Most of the year here it's not that cold or warm.. In London you'll rarely be so cold in the daytime that you'll need a scarf or even a heavy coat..
The main negative point of London is similar to that of most capital cities, crazy high property prices (to buy or rent.. you could literally buy a large detached home in a nice area outside London for the price of a little flat in an average or below average part of the city)..
I don't live inside London btw, just on the outskirts..
I'm thinking about London or Manchester not really sure about specifics its just a plan. I'm not Pakistani but my SO is thats why I asked where there are big desi communities are.
What is the medical/car insurance like in UK?
Well I spent about 8 years in Manchester. It rains almost 24X7 especially in winter. Public Transport is pretty good (lived 6 years on it) , and its relatively cheap, if u buy a week pass or year pass. Insurance is pretty high, In 2009 i use to drive BMW 3 series (2002-3 Model) and i use to pay approx £3000 a year.
Manchester holds a big Pakistani community, areas such as longsight and rusholme are famous amongst pankistani families (you can get a good 2 bed flat or a small house for £700 to £800, excluding bills). I suggest you to stay away from stretford and wythenshawe areas.
I hate the heat and a couple of years back I wanted to live in UK so badly but then I kept hearing that it rained all the time so I changed my mind. I hope its not frequent. I hate getting wet.
I was just wondering about insurance because I have insurance here and it makes doctors/dentists visits a hell of a lot cheaper. Well I guess I can just wing it and hope that I don’t get sick!
I don’t mind dirtyness I just don’t want crazyness… like where I live near Tokyo nothing ever happens no vandalism or anything. So I would want to live somewhere that won’t make me stand out being that I’m Eurasian and the crime rate being relatively low..
Could you please define conservatives? and would they bother you if you met them? such as do they preach to you or give you death stares..?
Do you get stared a lot when you’re with your guy?
What is “warm”/“cold” by British standards? the coldest it gets where I live was I think -3°.
I guess we would live outside of london as well I just don’t know what its like to live in UK hence all the questions. I’ve moved around a lot but I was always with my parents. A bit scared because I’m not that social in terms of going out and I don’t really like receiving so much attention at once but I’m predicting I will have to indure it once I move to UK considering my SO has a lot of relatives there…
Well I spent about 8 years in Manchester. It rains almost 24X7 especially in winter. Public Transport is pretty good (lived 6 years on it) , and its relatively cheap, if u buy a week pass or year pass. Insurance is pretty high, In 2009 i use to drive BMW 3 series (2002-3 Model) and i use to pay approx £3000 a year.
Manchester holds a big Pakistani community, areas such as longsight and rusholme are famous amongst pankistani families (you can get a good 2 bed flat or a small house for £700 to £800, excluding bills). I suggest you to stay away from stretford and wythenshawe areas.
Okay I'm crossing Manchester off the list then because of the weather. Whats so bad about stretford and wythenshawe..?
Okay, Stoppit and Deeba have more or less said what I want to say. London is more fun and mixed, but it does cost more to live in. But there are things to do and places to go everywhere, and I personally think that the transport links are pretty good. It does sometimes take time to get to far away places, but there are a lot of transport methods available.
There are several places you can visit which have concentrated areas of Asians, East London and West London especially. Central London is more of a shopping/touristy place but there's such a huge mix of people that you wouldn't feel like you stood out.
I also like the fact that there is a good availability of asian shopping for food and clothes, and that there are mosques nearby and other stuff like cinemas, shopping centres and what not.
London can get cold in the winter, probly goes as far as 0 degrees? Something like that, but only when it's cold enough to snow, and these days the weather is varied so much. Just today it rained in the morning, and like it's shining like anything.
I live in East London, so not quite in the busy parts, but still in London enough to experience the busy life. If you stay in the more 'towny' areas, then it's not too busy, there's usually a good community and neighbourhoods I think are not bad.