Beat on the new guy... I won't cry

Hello ladies and gentlemen, and if there's anyone that likes to cross dress on a weekend hello to you too!

I've been a reader of many Filipino wesbites and forums and have to say this is the most civil one that I have come across, some of them out there quite frankly are disgusting but thats by the by, I hope this will become my go to area concering all things Filipine related, also please excuse my bad grammer and spelling and apologies in advance for my jokes!

Now, I'm hoping that along with this introduction I can ask a question or two? Well more like 'loads' but I'll try and keep it focused, so a little about me, as by my user name, I'm Gav, 29 and a born and bred Sheffield lad, currently work for an insurance company, don't hate me, I just send out quotes, it's not like I look at peoples claims history and charge them accordingly, it is actually all automated so I spend most of my days talking, drinking tea and firing ever more effective things for launching paperclips from one side of the office to the other, in my free time I spend a lot of time talking to my palangga on Skype, or out bowling... guttering is more apt, and watching the so called football team we have here (the blue one for my sins).

Now, this is where I need you guys' advice, having fallen under the spell of an amazing Filipina I'm in the process of currently arranging a visit out to go see her and her family, now having thought that the coastal resort of the UK were fantastic, I've never been outside of the UK, let alone to the other side of the world so I'm jumping in with both feet and taking the plunge.
I'll be departing the UK from Manchester as there seems to be plenty of availability for flights to Manila from there, each with a transfer somewhere but I don't really mind that, is there a particular cost effective route? My priority really is to make the flights as straight forward and as short as possible, I've looked at Singapore Airlines, Emirates and KLM but just wondered what would you guys recommend? I know I'll need to arrange a domestic flight from Manila to Iloilo where my angel lives but hopefully she'll be there to meet me at the airport in Manila and guide me through the whole airport fees situation.
How does the visa situation work in the Philippines? I know we don't need one as such but when does the count of the 21 days start from? When you arrive?
Is there any definate no no's as regard to culture that we may take for granted here but may cause offense there? I'm aware that they are more conservative as regards to public displays of affection, but any guidance on things likely to cause offense I would greatly appreciate.
And finally (hey, it was shorter than I thought), has anyone here been to Iloilo? Any areas there that should definately be worth a visit?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and sorry for the wall of text for the first message

Kind regards!


PS. What is the deal with 'balut'? I'm under orders that I must try it but it looks... well... rather unpleasent? To say the least!

The island of Boracay is the only place I have been to near the Iloilo province. My wife's choice and has been described as one of the best holiday destinations in the world. I enjoyed it there even if it was a bit overcrowded.

If you are already on the main Panay island then it should be easy and inexpensive for you to visit Boracay. Its just off the Panay coast in the northwest corner, a short hop from Kalibo and Caticlan.

Hi Gav and welcome.
The Philippines is a wonderful country because of the people.
It is a third world country in comparison to the UK but the people are much more respectful of each other and also to foreigners.
Filipinas are the nicest ladies and are faithful compared to the UK IMO.
You can extend your visa at the immigration office before the 21 days.
In my experience (now married to a Filipina for some years and she lives with me in England) Filipina wives are truly the best.
Filipinas' eyes are truly extraordinary and their demeanour leaves you spellbound
My wife is more loving than any other woman I met before, she can be jealous at times but if I can leave an anecdote.....

When I once worked in Brunei, I met another Englishman who asked me if i was married.
When I told him I wasn't he said:
"Have you been to the Philippines?"
I told him I hadn't then he said "That's why you're not married!".
Need I "say" more?
Have fun when you visit. The weather is always hot and people here will steer you right before you travel there.
One other thing. Many taxi drivers told me that if I was looking for love to go to the province (countryside). Their advice was spot on for me even though I was not looking for love when I was travelling there on one of many trips scuba diving.
I met my wife in a restaurant as she was a waitress there. I have never looked back although the Filipino "tampo" (ignoring another) can be testing at times.
Best of luck in your new romance.

Hello Gav, a big welcome here.

So glad to hear you find this a 'civilised' forum of ideas and debate. There are many different 'frames-of-reference' her, along with different experiences but you're right, there is also a respect for differing perspectives and for each other. Long may that continue.

You've received some excellent comment and hope you'll take time to research and look around.

You haven't divulged too much information about how your relationship started and developed, so I hope your visit is well planned.
Almost all of us here have fallen under the same spell as you. Some for a long time and some quite short.

Anyway, I hope you trip will be the best ever. Just be relaxed and always expect (and accept) the unexpected

I am just back from three weeks - one week was spent in Mindanao with the outlaws on their farm, a weekend in Subic Bay and the rest of the time staying with my beloved and the stepsprog in her house in Bulacan.Now, what can I do to help?

Airlines - good ones - Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong (my favourite) Singapore via Singapore (this will be an A380) Emirates
via Dubai Duty Free al excellent. Within the Philippines expect to fly Cebu Pacific which is a sort of Ryanair but a bit nicer.

On arrival you will find the place noisy, hot, crowded and a bit smelly. After three weeks you will still be finding it that way but will have adapted a bit.

Get used to cold showers two or three times a day - the Filipinos are extremely fastidious - don't be a "smelly foreigner"

Take deodorant and - forgive me if this isn't appropriate - take condoms, as the local brands are not always easy to find and they may not fit. Whilst you are in Boots buy some multivitamins, Savlon, etc. These are for presents. Get some Imodium for yourself.

Filipinos never wear shoes inside the house - if you are not 100% comfortable wearing flip flops take a pair of Crocs (much more comfortable) and leave then as a present you go home because they cost a fortune there and are dead fashionable.

In the province, when meeting older people, take their hand in yours and touch it to your forehead - this is "mano po" and is the respectful greeting of an elder - children will do it to you. It is not so much done in Manila these days.

Get used to getting in and out of "tricycles" (small motorbikes with a big covered sidecar) and "Jeepneys" :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=tuIQHiAHExg

Do not show money in public and be careful with carrying cash and credit cards - put them where the light fingered are less likely to find them.

There are plenty of ATMs in the cities; not so much in the provinces. I have found that my Barclays cards work well in PBI ATMs and less well in others eg they won't work in Landbank ATMs. Ymmv. There will be a charge for the transaction.

If you can sing karaoke you will be a sure fire social sucess.

I hope you like fried fish and rice. Don't expect tea anywhere; milk is scarce and expensive, something vaguely resembling coffee is obtainable; the good news is that the beer is excellent and cheap.

People are young and numerous owing to the Catholic birth rate... hope you like kids...

Public displays of affection - absolutely NOT in front of her parents.Ever. In the street, she may choose to walk slightly apart from you - this is in part to stop you grabbing her and committing a faux pas and in part because a Pinay with a foreigner may have "bad things" said about her.

Oh yes, "face".

You are in Asia. Filipinos may be Christian and speak American, but you are in Asia.

Face counts.

NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES:

1. Disagree in public

2. Raise your voice

3. Make a dismissive gesture

That covers it for the girlfriend I think

As to other people, be VERY careful about seeming to challenge the manhood of the Filipino male.

I mean VERY careful, A few months ago a US Marine, George Anikow, was stabbed to death outside the gates of a gated community in a very expensive part of Manila by four twentysomething men, because...

... he touched their car.

I kid you not. The four are out on bail despite being caught on video and if you ask me they will probably be acquitted because their fathers are rich.

1). I agree, take a box of teabags with you.
2). For coffee "Mr Donut" has been the best option for me on many occasions.
3). I disagree, Philippine local beer is cheap, but awful.

Keep your head down, never play cards with the locals and all that crap.

Never trust anybody, especially the girlfriend.
She "loves you" to support her family.

A warm welcome from Davao, Gav.

I would personally not fly via a Gulf state if I could avoid it, been there done that. KLM is a far more civilised way to go although for tax reasons the flight is no longer direct but via Taipei. On arrival in Manila's state of the art Terminal 1, you will receive a Visa Waiver of 21 days and that starts on the day after you arrive.

Now, if you're going to stay in-country for more than 21 days, you would be well-advised to apply for a Visitors Visa from the Philippine Embassy; this will permit you to enter for 59 days and it is cheaper to do this than to extend your stay once inside the country. The other reason is that you would need otherwise to show a ticket exiting the country within the initial 21 day period.

For security reasons, your girlfriend won't be allowed to meet you inside the terminal building, so you will need to exit the building and wait for her to find you -- she'll likely come to you from the waiting shed on the other side of the road. Depending on which airline you use to fly to Iloilo - and I would not recommend Cebu Pacific - your next flight will depart from either Terminal 2 (Philippine Airlines) or Terminal 3 (AirPhilsExpress & Cebu Pacific). If you have plenty of time between flights (more than 2 hours), take the free shuttle bus between the terminals.

Please remember that your girlfriend and her family are likely to be quite conservative (old-fashioned) and lead simple (uncomplicated) lives and for this reason it is highly unlikely that she will sleep with you whilst you are in her home town. If you can, try to take her to another place such as Boracay, Palawan (Coron) or Bohol (Panglao).

Nobody else seems to have raised this, so I will. You are absolutely certain that the love of your life is aged 18 or more and that she is unmarried? Both of these are traps for the unwary foreigner.

- and I would not recommend Cebu Pacific -


All excellent advice Markham, however I have flown cebu pacific many times and never had a problem, in fact they are my prefered domestic airline......

I flew Cebu Pacific a couple of times and they had an onboard quiz for all passengers as soon as we got in the air!

If you are as quick as lightning you may even stand a chance of winning the quiz! I bought a toy for the stepsprog on board en route to Pagadian from Manila and it survived a week's playing by a four year old and is still intact today..

If you are wondering about the safety of Philippines domestic carriers, PAL has an excellent safety record in recent years and given the number of flights so have the discount carriers. Professional pilots whom I know speak well of the professionalism of Philippines aircrew. Having said that, some of the smaller airports ARE hairy and don't be too surprised to find a flight cancelled for weather.

Like Ryanair, Cebu Pacific is run by an Irishman with a very shewd eye for the bottom line...

To expand a little on the arrivals procedure.

On the plane you will be given a landing card and a Customs declaration. These you need to "accomplish" (your first brush with Philippines American, which is NOT the Queen's English!).

Unless flying PAL you will arrive at Manila's state of the art (c.1972) Terminal One, which has been operating beyond capacity since 1994. First stop Immigration. Once you get there, you have already passed the only decent Gentlemen's Convenience for the next several hours, so don't miss the opportunity..it is in the island block at the point where the two passageways from the gates meet before you enter the Immigration hall.


Queue up for Immigration. 25% of all single male arrivals are sex tourists, according to the US Amnassador to the Philippines. You will have an hour or so for people watching if you are unlucky.

Your landing card goes heretuckeed into your passport as you hand it overto be stamped. Then the baggage hall, where the trolleys are now actually better than the ones in Heathrow Terminal Three, in that they have all four wheels and are free, then Customs.

Your Customs declaration goes here. You are a Visitor, not a Returning OCW or a Balikbayan. Be aware that someone will check your bags against the baggage tags on your boarding pass so DO NOT LOSE THIS! This is an anti-theft precaution.

Now the fun starts - go out of the Customs area and you are in quite a spacious lobby. That is because there are no meeters and greeters inside it. To your left at the end are some ATMs and I usually get some cash here.

You now need to CROSS THE ROAD, pushing your baggage trolley (the warmth and the "thickness" (my childens' word for it) of the air will hit you at this point) and steer your baggage cart down the ramp to the "Arrivals Extension".

This has sections arranged alphabetically by surname. On the other side of the road are the meeters and greeters and you and your girlfriend now have to identify each other by sight at a distance of thirty yards...use of a mobile phone is a great help but to avoid going bankrupt don't phone - do as the Filipinos do and text each other. She is not allowed to cross the road to meet you - you have to go to her.

If she has brought a car or taxi it will be in the car park to the rear and your bags will be grabbed and carried to it by a local mafia whom you MUST Pay Off so have some small notes handy...

On leaving the country you must have 550 pesos left (it will be all you do have!) for the Departure Tax.

LOL

Cebu Pacific run by an Irishman, seriously??

Many PAL domestic flights have recently been transferred to Air Philippines, which I think is (now) a low cost division of PAL competing in the same low cost market as Cebu Pacific.

Yes, seriously, name of Mark Breen.

His title is "Chief Operating Officer" An Aussie called Garry Kingshott is "Adviser to the CEO"

Yes Air Philiipines is to PAL as BMI Baby is to BA...

I think the name of the game is "bums on seats"...

CX wanted £100 to change my booking from NAIA to HK - I bought a ticket on Air Asia from Clark for £62.10p...

Yeah, I was a bit slow on the way out. But on the return journey I was more determined. And won. But the prize was really just a token gesture and a bit of fun.

My reasons for not recommending Cebu Pacific are principally these:

• The OP is arriving from the UK and will have baggage and carry-ons and as we know, that airline loves to charge for luggage. And the carry-on might exceed the airline's acceptable weight and dimensions which are less than (almost?) all international carriers(apart from Ryan Air!).
• That airline is well-known for cancelling flights at the last minute and often because there aren't enough passengers to make the trip worthwhile.

The OP has never travelled abroad before so the whole experience will be a new one for him. It would be a pity for his first impressions of the Philippines to be ruined.

In any event, AirPhils often beats CebuPac on ticket pricing and it (AirPhils) has a sensible baggage allowance.

Hi guys,

Thank you so much for the warm welcome and all the advice so far, it's making the journey seem far less daunting although I don't think anything will prepare me for my first white knuckle, squeaky bum time during take off and landing which is why the less flights involved the better
A few things that I'm confused with at the moment (believe me, there will be more as my trip gets closer):

1) KLM via Taipei (seems to be the cheapest on last search), what exactly happens there? The KLM site is far from forthcoming other than simply stating that is has one stop there but it doesn't look as though there are any change of aircraft and I'm presuming with it being a Boeing 777 jet it wouldn't need to refuel, is it more of an annoyance stop for the passenger?
2) Thank you for explaining the arrivals procedure in more detail Methers, the only question I have is, are all the areas clearly marked? My sense of direction is akin to an octopus falling out of a tree, I can only go in one direction but flail around uncontrollably whilst doing so, and from past experience, the direction I go in, is usually the complete opposite of where I need to go. And finally *cue cheers*
3) The airport fee's, is that only when leaving the country or do you have to pay them on entry too? Have read a few guides on the fees and they seem to contradict one another.

Once again guys thanks for all your help!

Actually PAL hasn't transferred too many flights to AirPhils with whom it has a code-share agreement - meaning that flights have two flight numbers, one for AirPhils and one for PAL. The PAL flights now operated by AirPhils are some of those between the smaller "second tier" cities and Manila and they come and go from Terminal 3. Because they are code-share, if you're flying say from Bacolod to Davao via Manila, your first flight many well be AirPhils and they should transfer your bags to Terminal 2 to be put on the Manila to Davao flight, which will be PAL. But I don't know if this works in practice.

1. It's a long time since I did the trip with KLM so I'll leave that to someone else with better knowledge. Chiang Kai Shek International Airport in Taipei was miles too big when it was built, but is now nearer its proper capacity; it is quite a well run airport. Signage is English and Traditional Chinese. I believe the reason for the Taipei stop is to cut down the tax the airline pays in Manila.They are taxed on the revenues for the flight from the last take off.

2. I don't think you can get lost inside Terminal One at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (known to its friends as NAIA), The signs are in English. Just follow the herd.

3. It's a departure tax only. The only money you will be paying on arrival will be to taxi drivers and to the pests who carry your bags.

But that does lead me to another point - your lady probably earns quite a bit less than you do - we all routinely pick up cab fares, tips, meals out, etc when in the Philippines. Rather than try to pay yourself, give her some cash and leave her to negotiate.