I spent three weeks total in the Philippines, one at the beginning of August, one at the end of August beginning of September and one at the end of September. I had no issues using the ATM's in SM Clark during my first two stays in AC, however on the third i was given a suprise by my bank. Knowing that i was returning to the Philippines I had converted most of my cash (with the exception of 6 dollars) with the knowledge that I could just run to SM Clark and use an ATM if I needed more money, or for larger purchases use my Visa (all issued by the same bank).
Part of my plan was to head to Boracay for a Saturday through Monday, and return to Manila from Boracay to head home on Tuesday. I booked with the travel agent in the hotel on Friday for two people to go to boracay, hotel and flights for 15K peso, it was a package deal and worked out to be the easiest for me. Once everything was arranged the travel agent let me know that everything needed to be paid by 2PM. I said no problem and headed over to SM Clark to use the ATM. I used the first ATM and got the message to contact my Financial institution, having gotten this message in the past, i simply went to another ATM as I had in the past and the problem should be resolved, i went to the next atm and got the same message, and again at the third and fourth, not sure what was going on, i paid attention to the message at the fourth ATM and realized i was attempting to withdrawal more than the maximum allowed by the ATM. Damn, i blocked my card and would need to call my bank to unblock the card, i went back to the travel agent and let her know what i had done and she was cool, i asked her if their were any alternatives, and she said she could run it through as a visa payment, cool, i handed her my card and was willing to suck up the 7.5% fee attached to the credit card purchase. My card came back declined, shit, this isn't good, the block from using the ATMs wouldn't affect a visa purchase, at this point i've got a minimal amount of peso's in my pocket and not nearly enough to pay for the trip. I tell the travel agent that i need to contact my bank, but that they won't be open for another 7 hours cause their based in the US and don't have any type of after hours support. She was comfortable with that and said she would leave the tickets and info at the receptionist of the hotel and to just leave the money for the tickets their and they would release them to me when i paid.
At 8:00 i called my bank and made sure that their was not issues, their was a block on my card from trying to withdrawal at too many ATM's, and she did inform me that that should not have affected my Visa purchase. The Visa purchase was explained to me by customer service to be declined due to an update to the system, some kind of maintenance and upgrade to the system they were attempting to do when it wouldn't inconvenience any customers. This i took as complete bull shit but the card was working again and thats all i cared about. So now that that was fixed it was back to SM clark to use the atm again. This time i got the same message, this wasn't making sense, why was my card still not working, i again tried additional ATM's and after still getting the same message to contact my financial institution i called the bank again. This time, as with each time i called i advised them that i was in the Philippines and didn't have a lot of phone time, so of course knowing this the daft cow at customer service put me on hold for 7 minutes. I hung up and called back and got another, ever so pleasant customer service agent who advised me that my bank had placed the Philippines on their blacklist....meaning that all ATM and Visa purchases would not be allowed from that country due to the increased amount of fraud that was emanating from the country. My initial though was Oh Shit....I didn't have enough money on me to pay for to the trip to Boracay, pay for my hotel, take a taxi to the airport, pay the departure fee if their was one, or pay for any food in boracay once we got their....i was trapped in the third world with no money, i didn't even have enough to take a bus back to manila to catch my flight home.
In a panic i immediately start calling family back home, i finally get ahold of my grandfather in Alaska, and he agrees to western union me money. I call him back an hour later and everything is set to pick up. I go to four Western Unions, two are closed and two are out of money, i didn't realize their were so many WU's until Sunday, but its 2AM and I still don't have any money and have been told by the security guard at the two WU's with no money to come back at 8. Shit, i'm supposed to leave for Boracay at 6 AM to catch the 8 AM flight out of Clark. Well looks like i'm not going, i've got to get the money issue resolved before doing anything, hindsight tells me that i probably could have gone to a WU in Boracay. At 8 AM i go to another WU in AC to try to get the wire transfer, not a proficient person with the intricacies of Western Union i wasn't aware i needed the MTCN number, after playing phone tag with my Grandfather for 2 hours i finally get the number i need, fill out the form and submit it for payment. 10 minutes later the clerk tells me that he cannot find the payment, i tell him to check again. Now another wave of panic comes over me, I call my grandfather back and review the receipt with him, and low and behold we find the problem, the money went to Poland. He goes back to the Western Union, hoping its not closed at this point to try to get this fixed, only he doesn't go to the WU where he did the transfer from, he calls me back to let me know that he's not able to get this resolved until morning. A side note with a lot of irony, the clerk at the western union in the US was Filipino. The plot thickens, the town my grandfather lives in is having a festival that starts on Saturday and the town essentially closes down for it, so this may not get resolved in Monday. Now this sends me into a panic attack...i'm stuck, and a monday resolution means late monday night before the transfer can be fixed, leading possibly into to Tuesday Philippines time (theirs a 16 hour time difference between where my grandfather is and the philippines) and my flight leaves 6:30 AM Tuesday.
In a state of panic all afternoon (waiting for morning in the US), i pace around the hotel until 8 PM so that i can call another family member to attempt another wire transfer in the off chance that the one my grandfather sent doesn't come through. I get ahold of my father to send money, he graciously (even though i woke him up) went out and did it right away. My luck was beginning to change, i check back in with him an hour and a half later and the transfer has gone through, i get the MTCN number and were good to go. As i get around to head out to the WU, i get another phone call a couple hours later that the transfer my grandfather had sent has gone through. Its now after midnight and I'm ready to head out and collect, again the same situation as the night before, only this time all the WU's are closed. This is really starting to get old.
Sunday Morning has now come and I'm still without a means to pay for anything at this point. I have informed the hotel of my situation, and they are very understanding, this morning they have agreed to help me find a WU that is open, and has money. Jackpot they find one. I get a trike and a member of the hotel staff goes with me, as now i have over a 1000 us waiting for me. I get to the Western Union, fill out the necessary forms and 20 minutes later am walking out with money in my pocket. i think i may have even skipped out of the western union, a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.
What really chapped my ass through all of this is that my bank didn't even notify of the change, you'd think having used my cards in 11 countries (including the philipines on two different dates) they would have made some sort of notification. Even today i'm still not able to find anything on my banks website to tell me what countries my cards will not work in. As for the trip to Boracay, The person i was taking has been able to rebook for november 9th. I covered those fees upon checking out of the hotel so she's all set.
So next course of action for me is to establish an account at an international bank like HSBC prior to my next visit to make sure that this doesn't happen again.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Thailand to the Philippines
http://picasaweb.google.com/pdullock/Brunei?authkey=n24us40fJ0c#
So after the disappointing news from United I decided to do the easiest trip, and that was to Brunei. This would require me flying to Kuala Lumpur, then to Brunei, back to Kuala Lumpur then to the Philippines. This seems convoluted and out of the way but it was actually 100 USD cheaper than flying from Thailand to Brunei round trip then to the Philippines.
I left Thailand on the 23rd, early in the morning to get to the Bangkok airport, i flew Air Asia (great looking stewardesses) to KL, with a few hour layover, and headed to Brunei, it was a taxing day as i didn't get much sleep from the night before, and spending time in airports isn't actually the time of your life. The only odd thing that happened was after clearing immigration the customers agent wanted to have an in depth conversation about 9/11. Now I'm all about random conversations but this topic was not one that i wanted to have with a customs agent in a Muslim country. It felt like he was setting me up to say something bad either about the US or Islam, and either way i just answered his questions with a lot happened and has happened since then, avoiding giving him a personal opinion which he was pushing for. The flight to Brunei was good, i met a couple from New Zealand (actually he was from New Zealand, she was from London, and they both were living in Australia) who were transiting through Brunei to explore Borneo, they had some interesting stories and were getting anxious as their trip was coming to a close as well and they were both excited to go home and see their families.
Landing in Brunei and clearing immigration was a breeze, i thought i would be issued a visa on arrival, but it was much more simplistic and a stamp in the passport and I was off. After exiting the airport, the couple I had met and I decided to share a taxi into the city, as the taxi's didn't use meters and we were heading toward the same area. (the capital city isn't that big, and it takes about 20 minutes to drive from one side to the other and just a little more time to traverse the country). As we went to the Taxi stand line and stood their alone we did notice one odd thing, their were no taxis. We asked an airport employee if we were in the right queue, and she said yes, but that their were a minimum number of taxi's and they didn't always come to the airport, or even go out. She told us she would call the taxi company and send some out to the airport, and we thanked her. The taxi driver was a nice guy, his name was Ossie, and he spoke great english and had quite a decorated past. He served in the Brunei Army, and then on the Sultans personal detail on his private plane. I got the impression that he was retired and driving a taxi for something to do. We dropped the new zealand couple off at their hotel first, then to my hotel. I got Ossies contact information and asked him how much he would charge to hire him for the day for sight seeing, he quoted me $75 for the day (8 hours total), this was a bargain, and less than it cost to hire the taxi in Batam.
The next day i slept in, the bed at the hotel i stayed was probably one of the softest i had slept in at any point on the trip, i had breakfast and hung out at the hotel lounging until around 11 and then checked out. I had the receptionist contact ossie to pick me up to see the sights. She asked me how much i was paying for the day, and when i told her she seemed shocked and amazed as most of the taxi drivers apparently charge from 25-35 dollars an hour to do sightseeing.
The trip around the capital city was nice. We started at the National Museum and took around 2.5 hours to go through it. The collections included the sulatans private peices detailing the history of Islam, the oil and gas industry in Brunei, daily life, indigenous plants and animals and then a section on the sultans of Brunei (which has the longest hereditary monarchy in history). One interesting thing was that the museum did not allow any photography outside of the main lobby so i had to lock my camera in the lockers provided. In fact i think i was the only visitor to the museum, and was suprised that after around 15 minutes in the museum Ossie the taxi driver had joined me, he asked if I minded him going through the museum with me as he had not been their since it opened. I didn't mind, and he was able to explain some of the items related to the history of Brunei which was just like having a tour guide.
After the Museum we headed out to the coast to see the fish market and see the beaches, which were vacant, not a single customer, or beach goer, this didn't suprise me as we were in the middle of Ramadan. After the beach we headed to the Sultans residence, i was a bit disappointed that more could not be seen from the street but what could be seen was still impressive. The archway along the drive way was huge, and at the end of it in front of the house you could see a large fountain, and above the tree line you could see a gold dome. The house itself cost around 3 billion to build, and is opened to the public during a festival in October, and by opened, residents of Brunei can go meet the Sultan and are given complete access to the house, you could actually go to the fridge and help yourself to whatever leftovers might be available!
After the sultans house we headed to the national mosque, it was quite impressive and reminded me of the national mosque in KL. From their is was to the National Mausoleum where the sultans are buried. Just like in Cambodia I was shocked by the lack of personal space with the dead. the Mausoleum was built right on top of the graves of those that were their before, in fact their were breaks in the foundation where grave markers were. The other interesting point with the NM was that in addition to the Sultans and their spouses, the graveyard also served as the final resting place for the inhabitants of the water village. The next stop was a walk to the end of the parking lot of the NM to view the Water Village itself. This is an impressive set up and really seems a contradiction to Brunei in that it at one point was the wealthiest per capita country in the world, and still remains one of them. The Water village is self sufficient, a Mosque, Apartment Buildings, schools all built right over the river. The government of Brunei is systematically rebuilding the water village starting with the parts that are the most run down. The houses that we could see seemed to be quite decrepit and one even had quite a lean t to it, almost to the point where it looked like it was about to fall over.
Once back in the car, Ossie asked me if I wanted to go to the Malaysian border for a beer, and let me know that their were girls their as well. He suggested the Malaysian border because Brunei is a dry country and you can bring alcohol into the country but not find any when your their. This was only after 4 hours of touring the country. I asked him if their was anything else to see, he quickly responded no, we've seen it all. We drove around for a while longer before heading back to the airport at 5. This was three hours before my flight left, but as it was Ramadan, I felt guilty asking him to take me somewhere to eat and having to eat in front of him so I settled on Chicken Tocino at the Jollibee in the Brunei airport. This would mark the only time that i would eat at a Jollibee throughout my entire trip.
Once back in KL i made the genius decision to sleep at the airport. My flight landed at 11, and after clearing immigration it was close to 11:30, and my flight to the Philippines left at 7:30 the next morning. This meant i had 6 hours, and to get a hotel would only leave me with approximately 3 hours to sleep, not a sound investment, and as I had yet to sleep in an airport on the trip, i was up for the experience. The Low Cost Terminal for those interested is very uncomfortable, they are redoing the main roadway in front of the terminal and had cordoned off the section at the terminal with corrugated steel walls in effect expanding the "lobby" area in front of the terminal. Several benches had been sporadically placed around where this new road had been poured as well as on the sidewalk, people were sleeping everywhere, benches, luggage trolleys, on the ground, it was like the pictures you see of the airports in the US when massive amounts of flights are canceled during the holidays. Apparently i wasn't the only one with the idea of sleeping in the airport to ensure catching an early morning flight.
Once i was checked in for the flight i met an interesting Filipino women named Ilene (she had her name written in large block letters on her soduko puzzle book) who was very interested in me meeting her 18 year old niece. Almost to the point of being adamant, like having her meet us at the airport when the plane landed. As politely as I could i declined her offer, and almost suggested she go into selling used cars.
Back in the Philippines.
So after the disappointing news from United I decided to do the easiest trip, and that was to Brunei. This would require me flying to Kuala Lumpur, then to Brunei, back to Kuala Lumpur then to the Philippines. This seems convoluted and out of the way but it was actually 100 USD cheaper than flying from Thailand to Brunei round trip then to the Philippines.
I left Thailand on the 23rd, early in the morning to get to the Bangkok airport, i flew Air Asia (great looking stewardesses) to KL, with a few hour layover, and headed to Brunei, it was a taxing day as i didn't get much sleep from the night before, and spending time in airports isn't actually the time of your life. The only odd thing that happened was after clearing immigration the customers agent wanted to have an in depth conversation about 9/11. Now I'm all about random conversations but this topic was not one that i wanted to have with a customs agent in a Muslim country. It felt like he was setting me up to say something bad either about the US or Islam, and either way i just answered his questions with a lot happened and has happened since then, avoiding giving him a personal opinion which he was pushing for. The flight to Brunei was good, i met a couple from New Zealand (actually he was from New Zealand, she was from London, and they both were living in Australia) who were transiting through Brunei to explore Borneo, they had some interesting stories and were getting anxious as their trip was coming to a close as well and they were both excited to go home and see their families.
Landing in Brunei and clearing immigration was a breeze, i thought i would be issued a visa on arrival, but it was much more simplistic and a stamp in the passport and I was off. After exiting the airport, the couple I had met and I decided to share a taxi into the city, as the taxi's didn't use meters and we were heading toward the same area. (the capital city isn't that big, and it takes about 20 minutes to drive from one side to the other and just a little more time to traverse the country). As we went to the Taxi stand line and stood their alone we did notice one odd thing, their were no taxis. We asked an airport employee if we were in the right queue, and she said yes, but that their were a minimum number of taxi's and they didn't always come to the airport, or even go out. She told us she would call the taxi company and send some out to the airport, and we thanked her. The taxi driver was a nice guy, his name was Ossie, and he spoke great english and had quite a decorated past. He served in the Brunei Army, and then on the Sultans personal detail on his private plane. I got the impression that he was retired and driving a taxi for something to do. We dropped the new zealand couple off at their hotel first, then to my hotel. I got Ossies contact information and asked him how much he would charge to hire him for the day for sight seeing, he quoted me $75 for the day (8 hours total), this was a bargain, and less than it cost to hire the taxi in Batam.
The next day i slept in, the bed at the hotel i stayed was probably one of the softest i had slept in at any point on the trip, i had breakfast and hung out at the hotel lounging until around 11 and then checked out. I had the receptionist contact ossie to pick me up to see the sights. She asked me how much i was paying for the day, and when i told her she seemed shocked and amazed as most of the taxi drivers apparently charge from 25-35 dollars an hour to do sightseeing.
The trip around the capital city was nice. We started at the National Museum and took around 2.5 hours to go through it. The collections included the sulatans private peices detailing the history of Islam, the oil and gas industry in Brunei, daily life, indigenous plants and animals and then a section on the sultans of Brunei (which has the longest hereditary monarchy in history). One interesting thing was that the museum did not allow any photography outside of the main lobby so i had to lock my camera in the lockers provided. In fact i think i was the only visitor to the museum, and was suprised that after around 15 minutes in the museum Ossie the taxi driver had joined me, he asked if I minded him going through the museum with me as he had not been their since it opened. I didn't mind, and he was able to explain some of the items related to the history of Brunei which was just like having a tour guide.
After the Museum we headed out to the coast to see the fish market and see the beaches, which were vacant, not a single customer, or beach goer, this didn't suprise me as we were in the middle of Ramadan. After the beach we headed to the Sultans residence, i was a bit disappointed that more could not be seen from the street but what could be seen was still impressive. The archway along the drive way was huge, and at the end of it in front of the house you could see a large fountain, and above the tree line you could see a gold dome. The house itself cost around 3 billion to build, and is opened to the public during a festival in October, and by opened, residents of Brunei can go meet the Sultan and are given complete access to the house, you could actually go to the fridge and help yourself to whatever leftovers might be available!
After the sultans house we headed to the national mosque, it was quite impressive and reminded me of the national mosque in KL. From their is was to the National Mausoleum where the sultans are buried. Just like in Cambodia I was shocked by the lack of personal space with the dead. the Mausoleum was built right on top of the graves of those that were their before, in fact their were breaks in the foundation where grave markers were. The other interesting point with the NM was that in addition to the Sultans and their spouses, the graveyard also served as the final resting place for the inhabitants of the water village. The next stop was a walk to the end of the parking lot of the NM to view the Water Village itself. This is an impressive set up and really seems a contradiction to Brunei in that it at one point was the wealthiest per capita country in the world, and still remains one of them. The Water village is self sufficient, a Mosque, Apartment Buildings, schools all built right over the river. The government of Brunei is systematically rebuilding the water village starting with the parts that are the most run down. The houses that we could see seemed to be quite decrepit and one even had quite a lean t to it, almost to the point where it looked like it was about to fall over.
Once back in the car, Ossie asked me if I wanted to go to the Malaysian border for a beer, and let me know that their were girls their as well. He suggested the Malaysian border because Brunei is a dry country and you can bring alcohol into the country but not find any when your their. This was only after 4 hours of touring the country. I asked him if their was anything else to see, he quickly responded no, we've seen it all. We drove around for a while longer before heading back to the airport at 5. This was three hours before my flight left, but as it was Ramadan, I felt guilty asking him to take me somewhere to eat and having to eat in front of him so I settled on Chicken Tocino at the Jollibee in the Brunei airport. This would mark the only time that i would eat at a Jollibee throughout my entire trip.
Once back in KL i made the genius decision to sleep at the airport. My flight landed at 11, and after clearing immigration it was close to 11:30, and my flight to the Philippines left at 7:30 the next morning. This meant i had 6 hours, and to get a hotel would only leave me with approximately 3 hours to sleep, not a sound investment, and as I had yet to sleep in an airport on the trip, i was up for the experience. The Low Cost Terminal for those interested is very uncomfortable, they are redoing the main roadway in front of the terminal and had cordoned off the section at the terminal with corrugated steel walls in effect expanding the "lobby" area in front of the terminal. Several benches had been sporadically placed around where this new road had been poured as well as on the sidewalk, people were sleeping everywhere, benches, luggage trolleys, on the ground, it was like the pictures you see of the airports in the US when massive amounts of flights are canceled during the holidays. Apparently i wasn't the only one with the idea of sleeping in the airport to ensure catching an early morning flight.
Once i was checked in for the flight i met an interesting Filipino women named Ilene (she had her name written in large block letters on her soduko puzzle book) who was very interested in me meeting her 18 year old niece. Almost to the point of being adamant, like having her meet us at the airport when the plane landed. As politely as I could i declined her offer, and almost suggested she go into selling used cars.
Back in the Philippines.
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