Hamdan Hamid Travel Site: Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK

In 1992, I had the opportunity for further studies in the UK. Got admission to the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne for a masters programme in Computer Science. Newcastle is a town in the north east of England bordering Scotland. I brought along the family with 3 boys aged 5, 7 and 9 years.

At Newcastle Airport we were met by Malaysian families and were put up at one of their homes We stayed with Nordin Endut family from UPM for a couple of nights until we managed to rent a flat unit right across the street along Wingrove Road.

Stayed at Wingrove gardens during the one year stay. A week later we bought a Volvo GL740 for 2700 pounds. During the time the exchange rate was RM4 to a pound. We did lots of travelling using the Volvo during our stay. It only broke down once during one of our trip to London. We shipped it back to Malaysia upon return.

During the first month of stay we had to huddle round the fireplace since it was winter and we are foreign to the cold environment. Strong wind that seeped through holes in the walls made it worst. We decide to move to another unit upstairs 2 doors away. It solved the problem since the unit comes with a central heater.

The kids go to schools just round the corner of the street. There are many Malaysian in that school and thus the kids had no opportunity to converse in English except on small occasions.

During the first week on Saturday Nordin brought us to Blaydon Car Boot Sale for us to get the necessities for the new home. We got all the basic home stuff at a bargain price. Even though they were used items, but are still in good condition. Car boot sale had been our standard weekly routine since then. They were however closed for the next two months due to winter.

On the second week we drove to Bradford to look for kitchen wares. Lots of Malaysian goes there shopping. Before winter came, we went to visit the lake district which is famous for their lakes

There are many Malaysian family around this neighborhood. In Newcastle itself there were about 100 families & bachelors. Most families are lecturers doing their Masters & Phds. Nordin had become our close family friends during our stay. Over the weekends we visit each other since the children are very close and are same age. We had 3 boys and they had 3 girls. At the end of our term, we had another boy and Nordin had another girl.

Every weekend apart from boot sale, we drove to Lake District, visits Castle, theme Parks which are within 1 -3 hours drive. They are mostly day trips and we normally bring pack foods during the trip to save cost. The allowances we got from the sponsor are just enough for the house rental and food.

Halal meat are plenty since there are many Pakistani shops around. We used to go to Kedai Haji along Tamworth Road. On several occasion we went to Tynemouth to the fisherman wharf to get fresh prawn & fish.

We used to organise meetings at the Malaysian house in Benwell. Every fortnight, Nordin, Arshad and Wan used to organise usrah at our homes. Each one of us will take turn to organise them.

During our one year stay, we travelled to London 3 times since it is only 5 hours drive. Each trip, we stayed at Rumah Pak Abu which charged us 50 pound per room per night. Pak Abu is a Malaysian who migrated to become a British resident. He was a retired Underground Tube train driver.

We also visited famous town such as Durham, Stoke-on-Trents, Blackburn, Blackpool, Liverpool, Nottingham, Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff, Bristol, Edinburgh. During most of the overnight stay, we put up tent and rented cabin.

In one of the visit we went for the summer student meet in Wales. We also travel west to stay in Lampeter and later drove to Stoke on Trent to take the children to the theme park - Alton Towers.

In one of our visit, we stayed in Glasgow in Rahman's house. Rahman is related to my sister in law. This is the first time we knew Rahman and he and wife are such a nice families. Rahman works with the navy and he was in Glasgow for the construction of Malaysia Navy frigate.

In winter, we played snow in Glenshee Scotland.

We stopped travelling for one month when my wife gave birth to a baby boy (the fourth boy) Hazim in Feb 93. Hazim was born at Newcastle General Hospital. However due to love of travelling, we were on the street again after her confinement. This time we travelled south to the Cornwall District. It is at the southern most part of England called it Lands End. Here we stayed in the caravan.

Our second visit to UK was during our return trip from US in Dec 1997. We stop over for a week stay. In London we stayed with our neighbour next door Abang Yusof who was attached to the Malaysian Embassy. We rented a car and travelled north to Lancaster, Stoke and our former home in Newcastle.

In Lancaster we stayed at a friends house studying here.The reason we travelled to Newcastle is to show Hazim the hospital where he was born. On our way back to London, we stop by Blackburn to buy Clark shoes and Stoke-on-Trent to buy porcelein wares.