A world traveller – who has been to 106 countries and lived in eight, including England – said he finds himself often thinking about the UK and revealed the number one thing he misses.
Shueyb Gandapur, 44, lived in the UK for 10 years after travelling from Pakistan to firstly live in Aberdeen, Scotland for two years, and then London for eight.
During his time living in the UK, while working in finance, Shueyb was able to apply get citizenship and receive a British passport, which he said opened up “way more doors” and gave him the ability to travel to more countries than his Pakistani passport did.
According to the Hanley Passport Index, which is based on the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa, a Pakistani passport ranks as one of the worst, placing at number 102 just before Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
However, the UK passport comes in at number four alongside Belgium, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland.
Shueyb described England as “one of the prettiest countries in the world”.
The British Pakistani man has lived in multiple states across the US, living in each area a few months at a time, as well as Scotland, England, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Brazil.
He now lives in Dubai after moving there around one year ago.
Although the world traveller enjoys his life in Dubai and believes the reason so many Brits are moving there is because of “the high wages,” he also misses England.
He said the nature in England “is beautiful” and he often longs for the “greenery” of the great British outdoors – as Dubai is “mostly desert with very little greenery”.
And despite Brits being renowned for their gripes about the often dreary weather, Shueyb says that he actually misses English weather sometimes.
“I miss being outside, it’s often too hot to spend a lot of time outside in Dubai,” he said.
Sheuyb said: “When I was in England, I kept thinking about wanting to travel and see other countries and cultures, but now I’m in Dubai, I find myself thinking about England a lot.”
According to statistics by JohnMason, there are currently more than 240,000 British expats estimated to live in Dubai.
