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Philippines: Visa for the Philippines?:
Nope, no visa required for you. I'm in Cebu right now.
Safe travels Mark!
Philippines: Booking a flight:
If you fly Economy Class on Cathay Pacific you're allowed 2 checked bags up to 23kg/50lbs each piece plus you are allowed a carry-on bag with the following weight and measurement limits...
7kg /15lbs
1 piece
Max height ( H ) 23cm / 9”
Max width ( W ) 36cm / 14”
Max length ( L ) 56cm / 22”
You are also allowed to carry on a personal item like a laptop bag or purse, etc..
It's all on their website...
https://www.cathaypacific.com/cx/en_US/travel-information/baggage.html
Be sure to click the box where it says "See more about check-in baggage"
and then click on the box that says "On most flights (tickets initially issued on or after 15 September 2016)"
and then go down to click on "Flights to, from or via the Americas".
Enjoy your trip!
I'll be leaving 3/17 and arrive in Cebu just before midnight on the 18th. I'll be visiting for my birthday on the 19th and attending my gf's daughter's college graduation. I'll come back to Indiana on April 6th and I'll have no more vacation time until next year. :o(
I'm in Indiana, an hour north of Indy. I like to fly Korean Airlines out of O'hare. I like the airport in Seoul, Korea. They have free showers there and my layovers aren't to bad... only 2 or 3 hours which goes faster than you think.
I flew Eva Airlines once and had a short layover to catch another of their own flights and those sap suckers got us to Taipei late and they wouldn't hold their own plane for us. On that trip I was only going to be in Cebu for only 4 days to start with so to keep from losing one of those days I had them fly me to Manila and then waited there for 4 hours to get a flight on to Cebu. Eva Air's crap ended up causing me a lot of stress and costing me about 7 hours out of my 4 day visit. I'll never do a layover less than 2 - 3 hours again.
I have flown on Cathay a couple of times and I don't remember any problems.
One more thing I'll mention is that several of the airlines have gotten sneaky in their methods of making more money. They have taken the seats in Economy which used to all be the same price and they now charge extra for the exit seats, bulkhead seats and seats where you don't have to ask someone to move so you can get up. Korean doesn't do this mess but they do block out those seats and you have to ask for them if you check in at the counter early enough. The extra legroom is nice on a 14 or 15 hour flight!
This will be my 10th trip in 15 months. Maybe I'm crazy... ya think?
Safe travels!!!
jleo1
Philippines: Best flights from UK?:
roosters crowing early morning seem to come as standard!....
YES, early morning!!!
Like 12:30 AM, and 1 AM and 2 AM and 3 AM and...
The roosters here don't know the difference between day and night here. HeHe!
I got used to it though and sleep right through nowadays as I used to sleep right beneath the flight deck of an aircraft carrier for months at a time with 40,000+ lb jets landing 24/7.
Cock-a-doodle-dooooo!
Philippines: On my search to find a Philappino Wife:
I heard of the "line them up at the hotel lobby" deal from my girlfriend. She was invited to one of those by a foreigner. He told her straight up that he was going to be in town for a few days to meet potential mates and asked her if she would be there. Of course she told him where to go.
I've since had a guy tell me that he is still doing that. He does breakfast with one, lunch with another and dinner with yet another. If he doesn't like the one at breakfast, he ends it quickly and calls another for coffee, etc., to make better use of his time. I don't know how long he's been doing this but he said he still hasn't found one he feels he can settle down with though he visits some of the girls he's already met on different islands while at the same time he is still meeting other new ones. Just sounds so confusing and dangerous to me.
To each his own I guess.
Philippines: Why are the Philippines so poor?:
I've been reading just about everything you guys put on here for over 13 months now and I don't say much but the subject of foreign property ownership was mentioned and well... I know this is sort of getting off topic but...
Don't you think that if they opened up the Philippines for foreigners to become major stockholders of parcels of land and businesses there that the Filipinos would be ousted from their own land by the greedy, money hungry foreigners looking out for only themselves? And then the Philippines would become what, a mix of Korean, Chinese, Japanese, German, Australian, American, etc. all combined?
Then the greedy, it's all about me, foreigners would treat the Filipinos like sh_t, which they already do, using some of them for cheap ass labor, some for sex, and sh_t on the rest.
I understand them having the laws written the way that they are... to protect their country from being overtaken by greedy outsiders. I don't like the corruption and all of the other crap that goes on in the Phils but if the Phils were my islands, I wouldn't allow just anybody to come in and own everything either.
I took my fiancee and her daughter on an island hopping trip. We were at a restaurant for lunch. It was nearly empty when our boat arrived. Several more boats arrived shortly after ours. There were lots of groups of all foreigners. The tables were being waited on by Koreans. We noticed that the tables filled with foreigners... Aussies, Americans and Koreans, etc. were being served before ours even though we got there before them. The only difference is that I was the only foreigner at my table with the rest being Filipinas. We had to repeatedly ask for service and it was very easy to see that they were purposely ignoring us... treating the native Filipinas like sh_t while catering to their own. My fiancee is usually always on me about tipping too much but she didn't have to say a word that day. There was no tip left and we made sure to leave the table a real mess!
On another trip, we stayed in Moalboal and I got my fiancee certified to scuba dive. The dive shop was full of Filipino workers and they were great. We stayed at a resort owned by an Italian and his Filipina wife. The staff was Filipinos. Again... all was great.
Next door to our resort however, is another dive shop. We were going to rent some snorkeling gear since they were right beside our resort. The dive shop is run by a Korean. We never did see a Filipina wife. What we did see however, was a Korean girl behind the counter who let us hang around for probably 10 minutes and never said a word to us. We also saw a Korean guy sitting at a table dicking with some paperwork or something but never giving us the time of day. Finally a Filipino employee walked in and he immediately asked if we needed anything and we said we wanted to rent gear. He started helping size the girls for masks and fins. The equip he was giving us was old and in disrepair. He finally found enough stuff for us. It took a while digging through that old crap. There was a rack of nice looking equipment but he never went to that rack. We went to the counter to pay and only then did the Korean girl get off her ass, only to take the money and sit back down. I complained that the booties they gave me were falling apart and too small and only then did that the Korean guy get up from the table to inquire about my issue. Then he went to the OTHER equipment rack with the nice looking stuff (probably usually gives that to fellow Koreans) and got me some booties that fit. They were like new.
When we mentioned the place to some locals at a bar that evening, they told us that "those Koreans don't like customers except for Koreans or those who speak Korean." They supposedly don't want to have to deal with the language barriers. They come to set up business and make money in the Philippines but they don't want to deal with Filipinos. What? Then get the f__k out!!!
I don't think I need to spell out my point but... I've seen many foreigners look down on the Filipinos and treat them like dogs. To be sure, some Filipinos behave like dogs BUT NOT ALL!! Stereotyping?
Nope, I would NOT change the law and allow any foreigner to fully own sh_t if the Philippines were mine! Sorry guys, just my opinion.
Am I missing something? Probably.
Philippines: Held Hostage:
Moytopia -
Sorry friend.... it doesn't sound like what is happening right now is probably the kind of entertainment you had originally planned to spend your budget on either!
My biggest issue with relatives of the gf so far has been with her brothers deciding how big my budget was for buying beer. I was going to grab a case but the one brother had it in his head that I was buying however much he wanted.
Not that big of a deal... it's just aggravating when you think you're being a friendly, thoughtful guy and they leave you feeling like you weren't nice enough. Gosh, lets see... a case of beer or no beer at all? Oh wait.... there's the third option... sis's American bf can buy it all. And if I don't, I'm made to feel as if I've treated them poorly.
It's pretty sad when you consider that they don't even know, or appear to care, if it's my last few bucks cash before I have to use a credit card and go in debt. They just automatically assume you have a money tree in your backyard back home ... because you are a foreigner. It seems that most of the time they believe there is only one kind of foreigner.... the rich kind!!!
It's also sad to say but I honestly don't think they would care if I could afford to come back again to see their sister as long as they got the beer they wanted while I was there this time.
Sorry that was a bit off subject. Good luck with your situation.
Philippines: Changing dollars to Paso's:
Yes, they're going to charge you. Most banks won't even do it. They don't keep PHP at all.
You can just exchange as soon as you get to Cebu. Just Google the exchange rate and then expect slightly less. You might be just as well off.
How much were you exchanging for a $12 charge?
Philippines: Christmas & New Years:
OMG!!! Fireworks and partying? Last New Years, from the top of the Regency Towers, Cebu City was fireworks as far as you could see in 360 degrees! Party! Party! Party!
The bad news... I had to catch a plane back to the states a few hours after the fireworks. :o(
Philippines: Pinoy here from USA Im willing to help if you have any questions about PH:
Hello, Whereabouts do you live here in the US?
Thank you,
Jeff
Philippines: Filipina girlfreind is still married but can't get a divorce. Can she still get a fiancé visa so we can marry in the United States?:
Painter,
I'm in the annulment process right now with my girlfriend. It is very difficult indeed!
Your GF cannot leave without an annulment. One of the requirements of the Fiancee Visa process is that she must show proof of eligibility to marry which is impossible, of course, because she is already married. She can't be a fiancee if she is already a wife.
I cannot even start the application process for my girlfriend's fiancee visa until she has the documents in hand to prove her annulment has been granted and is registered with the courts and the NSO (National Statistics Office) and she has her Cenomar (Certificate of No Marriage) in hand. If I apply before that her application will be denied and possibly never have a chance again.
It sucks my friend! Trust me, I know. We met last November 2015 online. I've flown from Indiana, USA to Cebu four times, so far, to see her. We met with a lawyer to start her annulment process in August 2016. He is in Cebu City.
It will supposedly cost us 182,000PHP all in price but I'll be surprised if that number doesn't increase as the annulment goes forward.
It has been sloooooow!!!
What makes it the worst for us is that she has a 20 year old daughter who probably won't be able to come with her because the annulment takes so long. Once she turns 21 next summer, she is stuck there.
Her daughter has the maturity level of maybe a 12 or 13 year old. She has done nothing but go to school her whole life... sheltered from a lot of the life experiences many go through. Her mother has done everything for her so she can focus on her education and hopefully have a better life for herself later. She would have a hard time fixing breakfast for herself. School 6 days a week doesn't leave much time for anything else.
Anyway, if you would like to know more of what I can tell you, you can message me and I'll share what I can.
Good luck to you!!!
Jeff
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