planning a trip in october

[outwest77]

tom meet my honey in phils maybe a 3 weeker any suggestions
on pre trip preparation,s i know humbados says read culture shock
etc, and any tips on hotels in cebu or boracay, and diving
places, to see etc, plus wat to not eat or not drink etc
would be appreciated

[Stephen]

... in response to planning a trip in october, posted by outwest77 on Sep 3, 2001

I gather this is your first trip.

Of course you want to be prepared, but relax.

My experience was that I got all the information I needed to handle any situation from the folks on this board.

You'll be prepared and you'll have a good time.

Best of luck.

Stephen

[Lonny]

... in response to Re: planning a trip in october, posted by Stephen on Sep 4, 2001

You can be a hero,if you have a friend that works at a mall in the US or go there yourself, go to the perfume counter, tell lady that you are going on a trip, bla bla, and ask if she will sell (let you have)some samples. The samples are not for sale and they will give them to you. Perfume, lotions, lipsticks ect. Did not get enough, just go to the next store, most of the salesgirls are friendly and glad to help you out. I have a friend that works at the mall, she always has me a big bag of things I never knew existed. They are small, light, and free! The ladies in the RP love them.

[Ray]

... in response to planning a trip in october, posted by outwest77 on Sep 3, 2001

A few more travel tips:

For foods to avoid, I would recommend that you stay away from kinilaw or kilawin (uncooked seafood or meat). As far as the rest of the foods, it depends on what your stomach can handle. I always tried to carry a small bottle of Tabasco sauce if I was going to someone’s home for lunch or dinner. You never know what they will put out on the table in front of you. I always at least sampled almost everything, as long as it wasn’t moving. If it tasted really gross, I would politely whip out my Tabasco and douse it good. That way, it all tasted like Tabasco. The only problem with that plan was that when I offered them some, they often liked it and my two bottles ran out in 2 weeks. I suggest that you discuss ahead of time with your lady friend some of the things you cannot eat and she will try to steer those foods away from you. My list included squid, bagoong, dinaguan, balut, and anything not fully cooked.

Drink only bottled water & no ice. Beer and sodas are fine and Tanduay Rum can’t be beat.

Bring at least 12 changes of clothes. You’ll use at least 2 per day and need to allow a couple of days for laundry service.

Like Dave said, a hand towel is good for wiping the sweat when you go out. Handkerchiefs don’t work very well. Bring about 6 small hand towels.

Bring Pepto Bismol Chewable tablets and eat two before meals. It might save you from any intestinal problems.

Let your girl carry your money, change it, and pay for everything. You can pay for the hotel with a major credit card.

When everybody is fighting to carry your bags at the airport, bus terminal, or ferry pier, let them. But have your lady friend do the negotiations. It isn’t that expensive and saves a lot of hassles, especially if you will bring heavy bags on board a ship or ferry.

Take tons of pictures.

And most important: just try to relax and have fun. Be humble and polite. Smile!

Ray

[shadow]

... in response to Travel Tips, posted by Ray on Sep 4, 2001

I go with one carry on backpack, and buy clothes over there, as they are very inexpensive. If you are a large size, this is not a feasable option, as you will not find anything to fit you. I wear XL t-shirts, but what they sell for XL in the PI equals about a medium here, and their "free size" won't fit your average 15 YO. They will always try to sell you the "free size", don't do it. Two places to buy t-shirts that fit are Islands souvineers and habitat, which you can find in most malls. Look for "Lives" jeans. They are filipino imitation levis, and at about $8 are a bargain. You can find them in most malls and robinsons department stores.

You will often pay considerably more (50%+) for a hotel when using a credit card, so I use cash only.

I take several large bandanas, hand towels would work fine.

I usually take granola bars, beef jerky, or something similar with me for the plane ride, many times this has been dinner. If nothing else, there is always some hungry child in the street who would love a granola bar, which may be their dinner for the day also.

I don't let ANYBODY carry my money, and have on many occasions gotten better deals on taxi's, etc. than the girls I was with. Most often, you have to dicker with them. When filipino sees american price doubles automatically, but if you negotiate with them they will usually give in and give you "good deal" at normal price. Filipinos are born barterers, and it is normal to find them in the checkout line at the grocery store or mall asking for "discount". You can't beat 'em, so join 'em.

When fighting my way through the vultures (taxis) at the airports, I always ask "How much to ***?", usually in front of several of them, and let them dicker it out between themselves. This way, they are competing against each other, and you will almost always get a decent fare. I always walk past the first 3 or 4 that greet me until I have a group of them around me before applying this method, and it works. Have a firm grip on your belongings until you decide which one you are going with.

When getting in any taxi, be sure the meter is running or price has been negotiated beforehand, and make them stick to it. Many of them will try to take advantage of you if you let them. When they stick to the normal fee, I almost always tip them well, if they try to screw me, I don't tip them at all.

Bottled water, bottled juice, and san miguel are good staples. When in doubt on food look for a mcdonalds (I NEVER eat at mcd's in the states, but over there it is sometimes a welcome sign) Jollibee, shakey's, or greenwich. I eat at greenwich a lot while there, you can get a small pizza and a drink for a buck. (Sometimes it takes two of them to fill the hole)

When asking directions from a filipino, best to ask three or four of them. They are so anxious to please, if they don't know where something is, they will just point some direction rather than appear unhelpful.

If you find yourself in a nightclub, watch yourself. A drink for you may only be 50 cents, but the ladies drinks are $4+. I have paid as much as $8 for a bottle of san miguel in nightclubs.

Have a great trip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Larry.

[humabdos]

... in response to Re: Travel Tips, posted by shadow on Sep 5, 2001

What came with that $8 bottel of beer? ;-)

[shadow]

... in response to hey Larry, posted by humabdos on Sep 9, 2001

but I left after that one!  I can understand a little extra markup for a ladies drink, but $8?  NAH!    That place has since sold to someone who is a little more reasonable.

[SteveG]

... in response to Re: Travel Tips, posted by shadow on Sep 5, 2001

Larry,
  Good idea about negotiating prices with several taxi drivers around so they can all hear.   They HAVE to give their best rate and bargain with each other or lose your business altogether.   I'll do that next time!
                                      SteveG

[Ray]

... in response to Re: Travel Tips, posted by shadow on Sep 5, 2001

n/t

[SteveG]

... in response to Travel Tips, posted by Ray on Sep 4, 2001

OutWest,
  Ray gives good advice concerning the woman negotiating prices for carrying your bags.   I will go further and recommend you don't take HEAVY bags....don't even take bagS(plural) at all.  Take only one(1) - uno - no more!  The porters and other pests will irritate you trying to pull them out of your hands (yes, they are that aggressive) - you can control one bag much much better.
 
  The worst thing about luggage though is just the plain inconvenience of where to put it when getting on buses or jeepnies or worse the tricycles.  Life is much more basic over there and you will have to carry whatever you take for long distances sometimes.  What feels light picking up in your bedroom while packing is a whole different ballgame when walking along a dusty road in tropical heat with a healthy case of diarreah creeping up on you!  (Yeah, you'll probably have some good 'bathroom' stories to share when you get back.) LOL

 Start prepacking about a week early and just keep asking yourself "What do I absolutely HAVE to have?"  Buy the small travel sizes of everything you use like toothpaste. Eliminate anything possble.  It's amazing how little you can live with if you have to.  And it's so nice to be able to carry all your stuff in one bag.   I get it down to one small athletic bag and have stayed nearly a month.   Now when I went back to visit with Melly, that was another matter.   We carried the max limit for NorthWest Airlines since filipinas have no qualms about traveling around the world with a bunch of boxes that makes them look like an ant trying to carry a concrete block.

       SteveG

[Ray]

... in response to One Modification, Ray..........., posted by SteveG on Sep 4, 2001

Hi Steve!

I know you have a "thing" against taxi drivers and porters in the Phils (LOL!). I happen to be one of those guys who don't like to travel too light. I like to be prepared and that 140 lb baggage allowance costs dearly when you buy your plane ticket. That's why courier fares are highly discounted, because they use all or part of your very valuable baggage allowance to ship their stuff by air without paying the higher air freight charges.

Buying your clothes over there may be a viable option for some guys, but I have to buy long shirts in a big & tall men's store here in the States. In the Phils, I could look for 10 years and probably never find my size. Same for shoes (size 13) and pants.

As far as the porters go, I never really have any trouble with them. These guys work their buns off and are very good at what they do. These are the guys that are working and supporting with families and not asking Bear for money to buy homes with swimming pools (sorry Bear :-) ). Sure, they can be a little pushy sometimes, but you have to know how to handle them. Take the first guy and negotiate a price. If you think it's too much, ask the next guy standing beside him. The price will come down quickly. Many of the official porters at the depots ask a fair price to start with and there is no need to haggle.

As an example, I had 3 bags (about 150 lbs) when I boarded the ferry in Cebu. I paid some old guy P35 to haul all that crap through the crowds of people, up the stairs and gangway, through the narrow corridors and up several flights of ladders, all in 100+ degree heat and 99+% humidity. That was possibly the best bargain I ever got in my lifetime. If I’m boarding a bus and only need to carry the bags a few yards, then of course I’ll do it myself, but overall I think the porters provide a very valuable service at a very reasonable price. You don’t have to feel intimidated by them.

Anyway, I just wanted to let the inexperienced people out there know that those porters in the Phils aren’t necessarily the devils you make them out to be (ROFL).

And no, I don’t carry all those bags down a dusty road in the jungle. I hire a trike for a few pesos to take me to the where I need to go. I really was not inconvenienced at all by having three bags of junk. And the pasalubong (small gifts & souvenirs) you bring means a lot more to them if you carried it across the Pacific ocean with you instead of buying the same thing down at the corner sari-sari store. It’s not the gift itself that impresses, but the fact that you went through all the trouble to bring it 10,000 miles with you to give to them. Believe me on that one!

Ray

[SteveG]

... in response to A Counter Opinion..., posted by Ray on Sep 4, 2001

Ray,
 I must just look gullable or something but I have porters asking for $5 to $10 and taxi drivers wanting $40 to over $100.   I guess it's a good thing I can't go armed when I go there or I might lose my cool and do a Dirty Harry on those guys.  LOL  Seriously, I am too independent for my own good I guess, I don't like asking anybody for help at all and that includes hiring somebody to carry things for me as long as I am healthy enough to do it myself.  If I had billions of dollars, I would still mow my own grass, paint my own house do all my own car work etc....it just goes against my grain to hire somebody to work for me.  Having a servant or maid would be embarassing to me - as if I were saying I was too good to work but the person I hired wasn't - and I don't see how it could not be demeaning to the person doing it.  Anyway, I'm wandering off the subject here.   Back to the porters - when those guys come on so strong insisting they 'help' me and then demand $10 and add insult to injury by having the nerve to act as if I would be cheating them by paying so little....well lets just say it gets in my guts and burns.    But you know that, don't you??  LOL

 OK, back to a more constructive discussion to help OutWest on his upcomming trip.  I think the number of bags you take and the troubles involved with lugging them around is very much dependent on where you are going in the Philippines.  If you are going to one of the larger cities where your penpal can pick you up at the airport and go directly to the hotel, then it's no real problem to carry as much as you would if going to Disney World and staying at DaveH's house.  (We are invited, right Dave???)  On the other hand, when going to see Melly, I landed in Davao and in going to Surallah we had to change buses twice and several Jeepnies combined with several tricycles so to me the trouble was too much with more than one bag.   What it boils down to is a personal preference really.   The best we can do here is try to make guys who haven't gone yet aware of what to expect so they can be prepared with whatever makes them comfortable.

 The deal with buying clothes over there is risky, I agree.   If a guy wears a medium shirt, say no larger than a 15" neck he might get away with taking only a couple of shirts and buying the rest over there but forget it if you are any larger.   I was considerably smaller back in 94 when we got married than I am now and still had a lot of trouble getting a T shirt to wear under the barong.   I am 5'10" and at that time weighed about 185.
                                    SteveG

[Ray]

... in response to Re: A Counter Counter Opinion..., posted by SteveG on Sep 5, 2001

Steve,

I’m like you. I always cut my own grass, wash my own car, do all the repairs around the house, etc. And I used to feel like you about the pushy porters in the Phils. But over the years I grew to where I would rather go with the flow and pay them 50 cents or a buck to carry the dumb bags for me. It just got to where it wasn’t worth it to fight it so that it “gets in my guts and burns” (LOL). I go to the Phils to have fun and enjoy myself, so I have learned to just let some things go and not get all upset.

Some of the common practices in the Philippines seem darn right rude to me, like cutting in line, pushing and shoving to get a seat on a bus, pushing and shoving to board the plane first, trying to listen in on someone going to confession in church, pushing and shoving to get communion first, snooping over your shoulder when you are on the computer in the Cyber café, trying to grab your bags out of your hand, staring in public, etc., etc., …

But it is more of a cultural difference than anything else, so I try to overlook a lot of the stuff that I would never tolerate here at home. “When in Rome…” Try it on your next trip and see if you don’t enjoy yourself more.

You’re right about the bags too. It’s simply a personal preference thing. My original point was that it doesn’t need to be a hassle to bring 2 or 3 bags. It wasn’t for me. After I reached my destination and had the wedding, we traveled around on our honeymoon with one small and one medium bag between us. The other bags were back in the hotel secure storage room (no charge) until we returned to the city. If I had 3 bags to transport from the pier to the hotel, I would take a cab or hire a trike for P15-20. If I went to visit the folks on the island for a few days, I took one small tote bag.

Bottom line: I do what it takes to make my trip enjoyable and hassle free even if it means compromising on some of my pig-headed beliefs and habits (LOL). And if it costs me another $5.00 total for porters during my trip, it was well worth it.

Ray

[greg]

... in response to A Counter Opinion..., posted by Ray on Sep 4, 2001

You only paid the Guy 35p for all that hard work?? Usually it costs me over 350 pesos(I wouldn't feel right paying chicken feed)..You sure know how to bargin hehehe..greg

[Jimbo]

... in response to A Counter Opinion..., posted by Ray on Sep 4, 2001

Ray, Dave,

I'm with Steve on this one.  I've always travelled with one bag and if I could convince them it was carry-on size then I had no baggage claim to deal with.  Once at LAX a friendly Filipino family asked me to check a balikbayan box for them because they were over limit.  I did it and later realized how dumb that was.  If there had been drugs in that box I would have been arrested.  People have been convicted for that even though they were totally innocent of the situation.

Travelling with Sally I've carried three bags and didn't really find it too troublesome - except one time.  On the bus from Balingoan to Butuan we had suitcases and I had no seat.  I sat on the suitcase, blocking the aisle, rocking and rolling, no air, getting climbed on and stepped on with every stop.  When I finally did get a seat the bag remained in the aisle.  As I start to relax I feel liquid pouring onto my sandaled feet.  I think it's from the water bottle of the lady in front of me.  But it's her kid who just let go right on the seat.  Later in Butuan the bus driver decides to gas up BEFORE stopping at the terminal so we bake in the bus for what seemed like eternity.

This was the worst bus ride of my life.  I couldn't even complain because Sally's mother was sitting behind us and Sally didn't want her to see me scowling.  Next time I'll pay the P1700 for a cab; the P40 for the bus (or P60?) didn't seem like such a bargain after all )

Jim