[ May, 2014 ] We went to the Isle of Man during the early May bank holiday.
My husband used to collect stamps and his first collection was those of Isle of Man, without knowing where this island was.
He had been wondering what sort of place this island was, so we decided to visit there.
The Isle of Man is not really in the UK to be exact.
But it is not an independent country, either.
It has got a lot of autonomy.
They use their own notes , and there is their own taxation system.
It is so called tax haven.
There are many many companies whose real business is in England, but their financial headquaters are in the island.
Apparently, if an English person wants to work in the Isle of Man, he/she needs a work permit.
They started this rule in 1970s when there was a bad recession and a lot of factories and mines were closed down.
They worried that many workers would pour in to the island.
Today, as long as he/she has a job already fixed, they will get this permit without any problems.
The population of the island is 85000 and 45% are original Manx.
The unemployment is only 2.8%.
Something I myself had a trouble with was that the network system of mobile phone was different from the UK.
I could connect to the internet without roaming or without wifi, so I used it as usual, but afterwards, I got charged a lot for that.
