Finally I got the return ticket from Mombasa to Mumbai and reached back on 25th April 09. First target was to get visa for UK to meet Aparna. I struggled for few days to get UK visa and Schengen visa and I ended up getting the UK visa only, so left for UK via Dubai on 18th May 09. There was small halt at Dubai for few hours, which gave me chance to look at another airport of Middle East after Doha and Kuwait. From Dubai, I started my onward journey to UK. Dushyant came to pick me up at London Heathrow Airport. The airport was huge and I presume it would have been difficult to make my way out without Dushyant.
This was the first time I landed in a developed country. The most impressive thing to find was physical infrastructure created by them. Footpaths, cycle tracks, bus lanes, train network etc. are few of them.
Dushyant took me to READING (sounds different, but it is name of town where he lives) first and then we moved to Oxford to meet Aparna.
Spent few days with Dushyant at Reading, he introduced me to British culture and life style. After Reading, I moved to Oxford to stay with Aparna. Then we left for our much awaited trip to Scotland. We took Bus from London to Glasgow. Dr. Abhinav was our host and took utmost care of us in Glasgow and showed around the financial capital of Scotland. Next day, we took a tour-bus from Glasgow for highlands trip in Scotland. We spent three days in highlands of Scotland. We heard lot of stories from our guide in Scotland; which made us watch Hollywood movie named Braveheart.
We descended from the highlands and visited Dundee via Perth (no no this is not Australian Perth) but a city in Scotland, it was an interesting place as we got lost while searching for our bus and encountered Scottish hospitality for the first time. We were extremely moved by the help offered by an old gentleman to go out of his way to drop us at the bus stop. We stopped by in Dundee to meet Dilip, my colleague and friend at CEE. He was an equally warm and welcoming host; he showed us around Dundee and took us to a beautiful castle situated on the outskirts of the city. Our next destination was Edinburgh, another fantastic city and the official capital of Scotland. Though Edinburgh was a short visit, but it is worth a visit again. From Edinburgh we came to Manchester to meet Halima and Fahim, had one of the best food of lifetime at Nawab restaurant.
Next day, made planned to meet Saveena at South Hampton, Dinesh came to Oxford and then we moved to South Hampton. Saveena had prepared best of the food for us.
During my trip to UK, I met other friends Zankhana, Ankit, Kaushal. All thanks to my friends who have made this trip memorable. But this trip was not possible without Aparna. She arranged for every thing from ticket bookings to Scotland tour plan etc.
The best moments of this trip were spending quality time with Aparna. Chit chats and career discussions with Dushi, Dinu, Dr. Abhinav, Saveena, Nadeem, Dilip, Halima, Fahim, Zankhana and Ankit. I will catch you up again in near future.
Based on my brief experience of UK, i gave certain names to cities which i visited.
1. Reading - Red City (most of the buildings are constructed with red colour bricks)
2. London - Truly Global City
3. Oxford - Studious City (Everybody seems to be involved in eduction and related stuff)
4. Manchestar - Ahmedabad of West (As till date, I heard vice versa in Ahmedabad)
5. Edinburgh - City with beautiful architecture
6. Dundee - Dilip's city (Dilip is synonyms to Dundee)
7. Perth - Scotland's Perth (As i heard only Australia's Perth before this)
8. Glasgow - City never sleeps (till 11 in the night, there was sun light)
Hope you must have enjoyed reading my UK experience.
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