Hyderabad Business Trip

Two weeks ago I travelled to Hyderabad, India on business. We flew Emirates via Dubai: fairly comfortable, decent food and great entertainment system = good flight. The Hyderabad airport is impressive – definitely something for the people of Hyderabad to be proud of. It is, however, on the drive out from the airport that you start to realise that the development of infrastructure is very much still in progress. Four lane highways lead to dirt road off-ramps, which then lead back on to further stretches of tarred road. This theme runs throughout Hyderabad with pockets of infrastructure clearly outstanding.

The city is vast and best explored via taxi. We were fortunate to have one driver with us throughout our stay who diligently navigated the crazy traffic and roads. I have uploaded a couple videos from one of our rides into the office. Gives you an idea of what it is like out on the streets.

Hyderabad is known as on of the major IT hubs in India and this is clearly evident. A number of the large firms have built massive campuses, I managed to get a photo of the front end of Microsoft’s campus. There are masses of buildings going up everywhere. Most of them shells though, awaiting fresh investment since the recession.

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Why all the foreign investment you might ask? India has a large highly educated and skilled workforce, and with the favourable exchange rate, it is a desirable emerging market to invest in. A quick sum to give you an idea of the scale: 8 developers can be hired in India on the wage of a single developer in London. Hmmm that is a bit of a no brainer for CEO’s. This cost however comes with its challenges – cultural differences and communication being the most prominent.

My experience of the people and culture of India was limited to my interactions with those I met in our business meetings and at the hotel. Polite, humble, dedicated, genuine and hard working are some of the words that come to mind in recalling those we met. Unfortunately our time was limited on this trip, our only outing being a business lunch at a local curry restaurant to sample dum briyani (famous in Hyderabad). I was breathing fire after the starters, the briyani was great!

No sooner had we arrived than we were once again packing for the journey back. Next time we will have to hang around a little longer to explore.

India is a country full of potential and destined for greatness, let’s hope it is realised.

Day trip out to Windsor Castle

This morning we woke up early to trek out to Windsor for the day. The idea was visit Windsor Castle and wander down to Eton for  a pub lunch. Thankfully the weather cooperated!

Windsor is about an hour train trip from London Victoria, around 45 min direct from Waterloo. You are immediately struck by the Castle’s imposing figure as you walk from Windsor station. As far as castles in England go, this is the best that I have seen. As they say in the guide it is more of a collection of buildings as opposed to one single large castle.

The entrance fee is £16 per person which gives you a years pass to the castle (remember to get your ticket stamped). You get a free audio guide upon entering which is really handy and informative. I prefer the flexibility this allows you – in my opinion self-guided tours are far better than guided ones. Anyway the castle grounds are vast and you need to do quite a bit of walking to cover them.

No photo’s are allowed inside the state apartments so all of mine are of the outside. I could say quite a bit more about the tour but rather you get out there and experience it for yourself.

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After the castle tour we walked down the hill and crossed the Thames river into Eton in search of a pub for lunch. Note to self – next time just go to one of the 20 pubs located directly outside the Castle grounds, Eton has hardly any choice. After wandering round for ages and being seriously hungry we settled for a sandwich at a cafe along the Thames.

If you need to grab a few things before heading back into London, Windsor has a number of shops in close proximity to the castle and station. The shopping area was buzzing today with Castle tourists and locals.

If you get the chance, travel out to Windsor – definitely one of the better day trips that we have done.

Long weekend in Bath with friends

What a great weekend! The mercury is dropping close to zero in the UK but that isn’t stopping us from getting out and about. It is a 3 hour journey from London out to the picturesque town of Bath. Our friends stay in the suburb of Odd Down which looks out over the city of Bath with views of the country side.

On Saturday we hit the town and local sites. Stonehenge was our first stop. Now to cut straight to it – I was expecting more. We stumbled on the site rather unexpectedly – it is situated around a busy intersection and literally looks like a spare field that a farmer sold off with a rock garden in it. Anyways that said I jaywalked across the road to get a couple pics instead of paying the 7 pounds entrance fee. After Stonehenge we stopped off at a local pub for lunch and then headed off the city centre.

We strolled along the river, past the rugby club and sports fields (odd to come across a Lacrosse match in the UK?) and finally landed up at the Roman baths. The 11 pound entrance fee was well worth it – loads of interesting historical facts and architecture. This leg of the journey was rounded off at the supposedly famous Sally Lunns for Sally Lunns buns – not sure what all the hype was about?

Anyway – all in all what a great time – we are definitely looking forward to going back and possibly exploring Bristol and surrounding areas in more detail. If you get a chance make sure you stop off in Bath!

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Piccadilly, Battersea Park fireworks and Mercedes Live 09 – what a weekend!

This weekend has been great fun! It all started with a golf outing, otherwise know as a “work training course”, on Friday up north in Harpenden. Caught the train with my golf clubs all the way there and back (oh so committed – not too many funny looks). 18 holes of golf, including a quick pit stop at the Wicked Lady (pub) for some beer battered cod and a brewski made for a fantastic start to the day. Rain and the waning light bought a swift end to the round and saw me heading back to London for the next leg of the journey. All Bar One in Piccadilly was the next meeting point. Great to see a number of South African friends and grab a fairly late Italian meal after walking the streets of Chinatown and round the West End.

After a lazy Saturday morning the wife and I hit the shops with avengence – driven by the icy chill to find winter coats. Two successful purchases and we were ready for the fireworks in Battersea Park. What a fantastic display!! Quick clip for you to view below. Heard so many SA accents in the queue on the way in – we are literally everywhere!

Sunday morning saw us up bright and early to traipse off to the Mercedes Live 09 end-of-season event. Braving the icy conditions we managed to see all the Mercedes drivers and cars along with 12,000 other Formula One fans – great experience. Thank the Lord it didn’t rain. What a weekend!

Day trip out to the white cliffs of Dover, Kent

Today we travelled east from Maidstone Kent to the cliffs of Dover. About a 40 min drive from Maidstone city centre along the M20. We decided to go on a National Trust walk and then for tea. There was a 3 pound entry fee to the National Trust area which has fantastic panoramic views of  the White Cliffs, France and Dover castle.

The ferry takes 30 min’s to reach France where a range of fresh produce shops can be found. Quite popular to do a monthly shop and wine restock – definitely got to try this some time!

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What you need to relocate to the UK from SA

My wife and I have just gone through the process of relocating to the UK from SA. Along the way we have discovered loads of interesting sites and picked up valuable tips from friends see below:

British Citizenship and Passport

If applying for British citizenship and a passport before your relocation ensure that you give yourself enough time as these can take up to 6 months to process. Also factor in the time for collecting the relevant documentation required from home affairs. Here is a link to the website used to help with the processing of my application: http://ukinsouthafrica.fco.gov.uk/en/passports/. Note that if your mother is of British descent and you were born before 1983 then you are eligible for a British passport. That was news to me…good news!

Visa

We used a company called 1^st Contact to help us with the process of applying for my wife’s spousal visa. The reason for this being that it can be tricky figuring out all the documentation you need to send with the application. You don’t want to waste R 8,000 on a failed application. They handle all the paper work and admin which is great. Their services cost about R 2,000. I, along with a number of my friends in the UK, highly recommend them. 1^st Contact also offer loads of other helpful services.

Money

So how do you get money into the UK? Here are a couple options that we considered.

FNB offer a Visa Travelex Card which you can load pounds onto and draw from any ATM in the UK. There are fees which you are charged for drawing this money on the other side, obviously these need to be considered. If you are interested go to the Forex desk at FNB and ask for a Travelex Card or phone 08601 FOREX (08601 36739). You should be able to buy similar products from your bank or a local Forex company.

An SA credit card comes in handy in the UK, especially if you are looking to rent a car when you arrive. You have to have worked for a period before a UK bank will give you a credit card over here and car rental companies will only accept credit cards for payment. Your credit card can also be used as an alternate source for loading money on to, which you can spend when in the UK. Double check the expiry date on your credit card before leaving.

Opening a UK Bank Account

UK bank accounts are not easily acquired as most banks require a utility bill with your name on it before opening an account. To help us with this process we signed up for 1^st Contacts Kickstart package. As part of the service 1^st contact organise an appointment with a selection of UK banks (Lloyds, Barclays, or HSBC) and write an accompanying letter, which the bank accept as an alternative to a utility bill. This allows you to quickly set up a bank account upon arrival while starting the process of applying for jobs…very helpful! The Kickstart package also includes O2 SIM cards and loads of other use full information and extras.

Flights

When booking flights, naturally, you will always look for the cheapest options. We booked one way flights through Student Flights and found their service fantastic.

One thing to consider when moving country is the baggage restrictions of the airline that you are flying with. We flew Virgin Atlantic, they restrict passengers to one large bag weighing up to 23 kg and one piece of hand luggage of up to 6 kgs per passenger (Hint: they don’t usually weigh this). There is a chance that you could be charged up to $ 25 per kg for overweight bags when checking in. This all however depends on the mood of the person booking you in on the day. Most airlines will allow you 5 kg leeway, in my opinion though, stuffing in that extra book isn’t worth the risk. If you have the cash and need to send over extra baggage calco cargo and u-bag.com offer unaccompanied baggage transfer services, which are worth considering.

One bonus discovery that I made is that most airlines offer a free allowance for golf clubs. You can transport 14 golf clubs, boots, umbrella and 12 balls. Pity they don’t have a free musical instrument allowance – had to leave my guitar behind, bleak! You can pick up a decent golf travel bag at theProshop for around R 800 (see below).

Searching for employment

My advise is to get your CV out on one of the websites below upon arrival. Make sure that you include your correct UK mobile number – school boy error I made first time round! I was fortunate enough to be picked up by a specialist IT recruiter – Eurobase. There service has been fantastic and with their help I have managed to secure a job within the first month of being here. Here are a couple more good websites for job searching:

• www.eurobase.com
• www.reed.co.uk
• www.monster.co.uk
• www.jobsite.co.uk
• www.jobrapido.co.uk
• www.jobsearch.co.uk
• www.hays.co.uk

For any further information regarding applying for jobs and finding accommodation take a look at the 1st Contact website. Hope you found this info useful – you welcome to comment with any further suggestions for other readers.

Day trip through to Reigate Surrey

Today Nance and I day tripped through to Reigate Surrey. Reigate is approximately 4o min bus drive from Sutton where we are currently based (10 Pounds for two day passes on Metro Bus). The amazing views from Reigate Hill combined with the fantastic fading summer weather made for a perfect day. The biggest surprise of the day was Priory Park – wow – what an amazing facility for the community’s families. We arrived at the park around midday along with most of the towns business people, moms and tots on lunch break. After a quick walk around the park we stopped off for a pint and bite to eat at The Market Hotel. Couple photos of our adventure below.

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Day trip to Leeds castle in Kent

If you find yourself near Maidstone in Kent make sure to venture out to Leeds castle. The castle is beautifully kept and has a number of interesting attractions (Castle itself and surrounding grounds, aviary, falconry, maze, restaurant, golf course etc…).  You pay 16 pounds 50 pence for a year long season ticket which allows you full access to the grounds and all facilities…great value if you have young kids! The castle is a 15 min drive from the centre of Maidstone, the county town of Kent.

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Science Museum and the Boathouse

This past weekend we have ended up doing a range of things. Friday started with an interview for me in the centre of London which went well and ended with watching the Dark Night which was flippen awesome – even Nancy enjoyed it! Steve, of course, donned his batman t-shirt for the occasion.

The great weather has continued to provide us with opportunities to get out and see London and on Saturday we hit the Science Museum. Our highlights were the F1 display, sponsored by Mclaren, and the Deep Sea the 3D Imax film narrated by Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet.

The evening saw us navigate our way to Putney to join friends at the Boathouse pub for a couple pints while peering over the Thames. I am quite amazed by the amount of air traffic in London – you can literally spot a new plane every 3 min. Chinese lanterns floating up from the park across the river provided a welcome break from tracking vapour trails.

There a couple photos below – please excuse the quality – I had to use the camera on Nancy’s phone after leaving ours at home. I am working on updating our photo gallery so that you can view the photos in a pop-up on the site and leave comments without having to click through to flickr.

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Trip to Hampton Court Palace

Nancy and I travelled through to Hampton Court for the second time since arriving in London. This time to take a closer look at the Palace and explore the manicured gardens. We invited @SteveVanWest to come with us but he came up with some lame excuse about having to go to work…anyways next time Steve!

Here a couple of photos below – couple of points for anyone traveling to Hampton Court: entrance is GBP 14 which gives you access to all areas of the palace, make sure you rent the audio guide as their is limited written material and go on a sunny day so that you can take time out to chill out on the grass and enjoy the beautiful gardens.

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