I'm only staying 2 days, but apart from previous visits for funerals ('closed' visits, since I only went from airport to cemetery and back again), this was my only visit to the UK in 23 years!  I'll give my general impressions of what I've found:

 

Things didn't get off to a good start with the London underground strike.  I had to book an expensive (73 GBP) private transfer from Heathrow to King's Cross Railway station.  That short distance took more than 2 hours....

 

I was somewhat like a 'fish out of water' in the UK.  The currency notes had changed colour, my request to pay cash at food vendors at the railway station was met with raised eyebrows, and the procedure to scan QR codes on my tickets was all new to me 🙂  Where was the ticket guy who would check my ticket at the barrier?

 

But the train to Peterborough was on-time and clean.  The modern toilet threw me a bit since the electronic entry button by the door was exactly the same system and in close proximity to the train carriage exit door!

 

My attendance and subsequent receipt of my new passport was efficient, no complaints there at all.

 

But my opinion of the town center was not good.  Where were all the English people? (Trigger warning to wokies and lefties - I call a spade a spade, as GG commented in another thread!).  Most people seemed to be African or West Indian or Asian. There were some 'whities', but they were speaking some eastern European language (I guess Albanian, it wasn't Hungarian or Romanian).  No police patrolling the town centre on foot.

 

In the evening (I was staying another day in the town, pre-arranged in case the issue of my passport was delayed), I stayed at a small guest-house close to the town centre.  My bedroom window was open and I could hear the voices of people walking past in the night.  Not a single word of English, again it was Eastern European, not Arabic, not Farsi.  Drunken men shouting out in strange tongues, no women, just young and middle-aged foreign men.

 

What were these people doing in Peterborough?  Did they attend English language and culture lessons in the daytime?  Did they do community work, such as cleaning the streets?  I doubt it very much.

 

I have a free day today (Friday), so will take some long walks (weather allowing).  I want to find where the English community is hiding!  It's a very strange place to my eyes, and certainly not the Peterborough that I remember.  

 

Of course, things are bound to change, and IMHO not for the better.. 'Diversity Divides' is my belief.  This view enforced by my experiences in Burma and the divisions and violent history between the many ethnic groups and the majority, ruling Burmans.  Different cultures, different religions, different attitudes towards women etc etc will NEVER lead to a strong and cohesive country, just look at history (Yugoslavia as one example).

 

Anyway, at least the primary purpose of my trip was completed satisfactorily 🙂

On 9/10/2025 at 11:41 AM, simon43 said:

Lol, you're so funny! Why should I ask about buying things in Thailand? I don't live in Thailand:)

 

You seem to have forgotten your own posting history 

1 hour ago, kinyara said:

 

You seem to have forgotten your own posting history 

The last time that I lived in Thailand was a few months ago, but I don't live in Thailand now because my 'retirement' visa runs out this month and with the Bangkok Bank hassles over agents I decided to hop over the border to make Laos my base again between my work in Myanmar.

For some reason this springs to mind.

 

 

On 9/12/2025 at 11:18 AM, simon43 said:

I'm only staying 2 days,

 

   What happened your your plans to relocate permeantely to the UK ?

Buying   a house on benefits ?

On 9/9/2025 at 4:03 PM, simon43 said:

Er, read my OP - you cannot just collect a new passport from Bangkok, you have to apply with relevant documents, then wait up to 2 months...

Surely you need relevant documents anyway no matter where you apply?

On 9/12/2025 at 9:48 AM, simon43 said:

I'm only staying 2 days, but apart from previous visits for funerals ('closed' visits, since I only went from airport to cemetery and back again), this was my only visit to the UK in 23 years!  I'll give my general impressions of what I've found:

 

Things didn't get off to a good start with the London underground strike.  I had to book an expensive (73 GBP) private transfer from Heathrow to King's Cross Railway station.  That short distance took more than 2 hours....

 

I was somewhat like a 'fish out of water' in the UK.  The currency notes had changed colour, my request to pay cash at food vendors at the railway station was met with raised eyebrows, and the procedure to scan QR codes on my tickets was all new to me 🙂  Where was the ticket guy who would check my ticket at the barrier?

 

But the train to Peterborough was on-time and clean.  The modern toilet threw me a bit since the electronic entry button by the door was exactly the same system and in close proximity to the train carriage exit door!

 

My attendance and subsequent receipt of my new passport was efficient, no complaints there at all.

 

But my opinion of the town center was not good.  Where were all the English people? (Trigger warning to wokies and lefties - I call a spade a spade, as GG commented in another thread!).  Most people seemed to be African or West Indian or Asian. There were some 'whities', but they were speaking some eastern European language (I guess Albanian, it wasn't Hungarian or Romanian).  No police patrolling the town centre on foot.

 

In the evening (I was staying another day in the town, pre-arranged in case the issue of my passport was delayed), I stayed at a small guest-house close to the town centre.  My bedroom window was open and I could hear the voices of people walking past in the night.  Not a single word of English, again it was Eastern European, not Arabic, not Farsi.  Drunken men shouting out in strange tongues, no women, just young and middle-aged foreign men.

 

What were these people doing in Peterborough?  Did they attend English language and culture lessons in the daytime?  Did they do community work, such as cleaning the streets?  I doubt it very much.

 

I have a free day today (Friday), so will take some long walks (weather allowing).  I want to find where the English community is hiding!  It's a very strange place to my eyes, and certainly not the Peterborough that I remember.  

 

Of course, things are bound to change, and IMHO not for the better.. 'Diversity Divides' is my belief.  This view enforced by my experiences in Burma and the divisions and violent history between the many ethnic groups and the majority, ruling Burmans.  Different cultures, different religions, different attitudes towards women etc etc will NEVER lead to a strong and cohesive country, just look at history (Yugoslavia as one example).

 

Anyway, at least the primary purpose of my trip was completed satisfactorily 🙂

Great reporting thanks for the update. Same here in my part of the UK. No idea why some BMs downvoted your post.

Accommodation must have cost an arm and a leg at least it does around here; what I’d pay for a month in Asia/SEA can be the price of one night in a UK dump.

Just thinking out loud surprised people haven’t considered throwing away their British passport on arrival and claiming asylum so they’d be housed in a nice hotel paid for by taxpayers.

2 hours ago, Nick Carter icp said:

 

   What happened your your plans to relocate permeantely to the UK ?

Buying   a house on benefits ?

Buying a house on benefits?  Not sure where you got that idea from... I don't think the UK social welfare system helps people to buy houses!

 

After investigation, I found one big flaw in my idea to move back to the UK - the availability of rented properties.  While the welfare system will contribute about 600 pounds/month to rental of a property, the properties that were within my price range were tiny, in disadvantaged regions etc.  Even those low quality properties had many people 'chasing' to rent them, typically 50 or so different rentees.  This was not the UK that I remember....

3 minutes ago, simon43 said:

Buying a house on benefits?  Not sure where you got that idea from... I don't think the UK social welfare system helps people to buy houses!

 

   Or was it that you get a mortgage and housing benefit pay the mortgage? 

56 minutes ago, falangUK said:

Great reporting thanks for the update. Same here in my part of the UK. No idea why some BMs downvoted your post.

Accommodation must have cost an arm and a leg at least it does around here; what I’d pay for a month in Asia/SEA can be the price of one night in a UK dump.

Just thinking out loud surprised people haven’t considered throwing away their British passport on arrival and claiming asylum so they’d be housed in a nice hotel paid for by taxpayers.

Thanks.  I got back to Laos yesterday and slept like a log, after the 14-hour flights to/from the UK.

 

As to those who downvoted my post, I guess many of them are from a younger generation than myself, and therefore have little/no experience of what the UK used to be like in the 60's and 70's.  

 

But TBH, I have been out of the UK for too long!  Of course many things have changed, and personally I feel that many things have not changed for the better.

 

When I flew into Bangkok yesterday, and then onward to Laos, I felt like I was coming home.  I'm used to living in these regions of the world and I'm used to the good and the bad.  I guess I'm just too old to enjoy the UK of 2025!

1 minute ago, Nick Carter icp said:

 

   Or was it that you get a mortgage and housing benefit pay the mortgage? 

Nope - they don't do that.  If I want help with accommodation costs, then I would have to rent a property.

23 hours ago, simon43 said:

While the welfare system will contribute about 600 pounds/month to rental of a property,

 

   I thought that housing benefit for single men was capped to 400 Pounds  month .

  You wouldn't even get  single room in a  house share for that in many locations 

On 9/9/2025 at 3:48 PM, chickenslegs said:

Crumpets and chocolate hobnobs.

Chocolate Hobbnobs now available in Big C Mate.    Crumpets galore from the many Brit Food selling places Online around BKK.

15 hours ago, Nick Carter icp said:

 

   I thought that housing benefit for single men was capped to 400 Pounds  month .

  You wouldn't even get  single room in a  house share for that in many locations 

I used the 'entitledto' website to see what benefits I would be able to claim.  I guess that as a pensioner the HB amount is higher than for those not claiming the state pension. So of course, one could - for example, rent a flat at 900 pounds a month, but only have to pay about 300 pounds/month towards that rental.

50 minutes ago, simon43 said:

I used the 'entitledto' website to see what benefits I would be able to claim.  I guess that as a pensioner the HB amount is higher than for those not claiming the state pension. So of course, one could - for example, rent a flat at 900 pounds a month, but only have to pay about 300 pounds/month towards that rental.

AI Overview

Pensioner LHA rates are the same as standard LHA rates and are determined by your household size and location, not your age. The rate you receive is based on the number of bedrooms you are entitled to and is capped at the 30th percentile of local rents in your area. You can find the specific LHA rate for your area by using the LHA-Direct website or your local council's information. 

Rates vary for a 1 bedroom from £92 per week Blackpool , Teeside for example to £331 per week for Central London

https://lha-direct.voa.gov.uk/