A new scam at Ninoy Aquino International Airport

Haha
Yes that's a favourite in many places.
Happened to me first time I visited Nigeria.
Second Taxi wanted USD100
No choice

Best to avoid zippers entirely. You can open and reclose a zipper with nothing more than a cheap ballpoint pen - seen it done. And my son flew back from paying off his ship in Recife with knife cuts through the zippers of what had been a nice North Face rucksack and a nice new Musto sailing bag... Bastards.

It's not easy to find a case without zipper closures these days.

I searched for weeks on a regular basis and found only a handful. Luckily one found favour and we got it.
Hard case in shocking pink with solid clips on all three sides.

I'd also seen a video on YouTube showing just how easy it was to get into a case with zippers using just a ball-pen.

If you've never seen it done here's one:-

You just expect it in Africa, the Philippines too.

The other week I was in a taxi going to the airport in Zimbabwe and the taxi driver was pulled up by the police for a traffic offence, I had to pay the 10 USD fine for him because he didn't have any money, then he added the 10 dollar fine on to my fare (as soon as he got the fine I knew I would be paying for it), then he had the cheek to complain how corrupt the police were in Zimbabwe.

Couple of weeks ago the customer had arranged and paid for a taxi to pick me up from Monrovia airport (I had an email stating the taxi would be prepaid to take me to the hotel), the driver had the cheek to ask me for 60 USD, the full fare.

It can be quite amusing sometimes playing the taxi driver game, sometimes not.

Do taxi drivers regardless of Nationality really think that we are all stupid?

Here in Davao City the Taxi's are all metered and are activated the moment the journey starts.
The fare is shown on the meter LED screen.
The majority of drivers are cheerful and pleasant. Only a few are downright miserable.
A small number will try to take you on a 'short-cut' due to heavy traffic sir. I only agree if I know it's really a short cut.

Manila airport Taxis are a joke. On my previous visit to the Philippines I arrived with my girlfriend Joh who doesnt have the typical Filipina features, her hair is dyed blond and she uses every whitening product you can think of to make her skin look more pale. So all the Taxi men were fighting with dollar signs in their eyes to get a fare from the westerners and as we were tired we just jumped into the first taxi we came across because we could see no yellow Taxis down at the rank. Inside the Taxi the negotiations began and started at 2500php for a fare which costs 300php in a yellow Taxi! Joh is very quiet and she knew that I had plenty of experience with Taxis and I knew the proper fares but this guy would not back down. Then he asked me the wrong question ... Where is your wife from? And with that she exploded into a full on Bisayan verbal assault as I sat there like a scared 10 year old boy, then she told me to get out of the car and wait as she unceremoniously marched the Taxi man to the boot of his car and made him unload our suitcases onto the pavement. That Filipino Taxi driver had learned his lesson I think that day as he shuffled away quietly embarrased ..... What did we do then? I followed quietly behind the boss as she marched down to the yellow taxi rank ready for the next Taxi driver! ....

I remember getting a taxi with the wife from Ninoy Airport to Paranaque, that taxi had a meter, it was rotating so fast I couldn't catch sight of any of the digits, the wife was giving him hell but I told her to forget it as I knew it was only a few quid on the fare.

If its only a few quid then I say go with the flow and let the driver rip you off

I had a similar experience. Taxi driver who was driving me back to hotel from intramurous had an incident, some other car crashed into back of his car. I was felt sad for him so I paid him the fare what was on the meter anyway and police who came to the incident area stopped another taxi for me on the street to continue my way. But the other driver when I asked him few times why he didn't start his meter just answered me that the meter is not needed. So if not needed than okay. I asked him many times and he didn't wanted the meter. When we get to the place where I wanted to exit I gave him 150 pesos and say thank you. Because I always give more to the taxi drivers than is on the meter. And for a short distances like that the fare is never more than a 100 but the driver was starting to say some bullshits that this is not enough. I told him that I know this route because I travel it many times before so he start to saying that it was some special police charge. haha.
But I remembered the advices what you gave me before so I told him that I don't have any more money because I keep it all in my safe in hotel room. He said that I can go to the ATM to give him the money. But when I told him that I keep my credit cards in the safe in hotel room and showed him an empty wallet he gave up and didn't say anything more. Haha.

I have the same feeling when I was visiting baguio city. Drivers was always nice and they always start the meter without me asking for it. And fares was much less than in manila. I spoke with one taxi driver and he agree to be our driver for us for the whole day and was driving around all sights and attractions of baguio city and around. He even start up the meter too but after all day it showed only something around 1500. But in the morning we arranged the price for all day for 3000 so I was happy to pay him 3000. After all he was all day with us.

According to a family member, the "bullet-in-the-bag" scam is still being practised at Manila Airport but it is now so commonplace that the press has given up reporting individual incidents.

would it save time to wrap the bullet in a few pp bills with an elastic band round it ? and maybe a lipstick kiss on the bank note ?

oh--i forgot to mention---wipe your ar5e on the back of the bank note

I noticed many of the shopping malls and ATM's were fully loaded with brand new and crispy bank notes.
Now they could cause some very nasty 'paper cuts'