I will be visiting the United Kingdom in the Spring of 2013 as a well-deserved treat for myself. I won’t be handing out birthday party invitations that time as I would be gone for a two-week backpacking trip to England, Scotland and Wales. That’s roughly two years from now but just enough time for me to REALLY save up. (Year 2012 is London Olympics, not ideal for a budget trip with prices expected to shoot to the roof with the influx of tourists from all over. And spring is usually the best time to go budget-wise.)
The best thing about this trip is knowing that I can maximize my budget up to a certain extent. Let’s see what I can make out of P100,000.
To travel across the UK, less Northern Ireland, I would need at least P120k (or 1,700 GBP) including miscellaneous expenses. If a trip to Belfast is included, I might end up spending a night or two in a train station. If I’m going to be bent on saving more, I might as well consider cutting my hostel expenditures by staying in my cousin’s place in Chessington and spend an hour of train-ride to central London. I might also stay in a friend’s place in Manchester on my way to Liverpool and Glasgow.
Overall, I am not sure if this is already the ideal budget trip. Anyway, I’ve got a year and a half to figure it out.
Very interesting slew of guests are set to grace the royal couple with their presence this Friday. Fifteen of them from A-listers, billionaires to a drug-dealing relative got the hottest ticket in town:
- Posh and Becks
- Mr. Bean
- Elton John & boyfriend
- Peruvian fashion photographer, Mario Testino
- Deposed Greek monarchs, King Constantine & Queen Anne-Marie
- Olympic swimmer, Ian Thorpe
- Guy Ritchie
- Prince Harris’ girlfriend, Chelsy Davy
- Prime Minister, David Cameron
- Soul singer, Joss Stone
- The royal nanny, Tiggy Legge-Bourke
- Billionaire daughter, Holly Branson
- Kate’s black sheep uncle, Gary Goldsmith
- World’s richest monarch, the Sultan of Brunei
- Martyn Compton, who worked with Prince William in Afghanistan
In the middle of the Middleton-inspired urban clothing and royal fashion, people are asking: What are these hottest celebs going to wear?
The latest news is that the average tuition fee for a college education in the UK has already tripled from $5000 in 2009 to $15,000 in 2012. For the longest time until 1997, the tuition was footed through the national budget. This made college education less daunting then compared to what the British Parliament has passed this year that will take effect in 2012.
What does this news tell Filipinos who are so vent on pursuing a student visa in the United Kingdom as if it’s some cheap flight deals and find work on the sides? This year, UK immigration has already tightened the screw by reducing the number of work hours, making it hard for most working students finance their studies. A year from now, the effect of the tuition fee hike will definitely bleed everyone’s wallets. It was not any wonder why students in London smashed windows at the Supreme Court, urinated on Winston Churchill’s statue, attacking Prince Charles’ car and burned the Union Jack. They felt cheated, and as British citizens, they all had the right to.
So if you’re an economic migrant trying to find your luck in the UK, abandon the dream and go find your fortune elsewhere.
