Touchdown Philippines

As a Filipino emigrant it has been my long time hope to visit The Philippines for a period of one month or so. Although, once in a while I would normally go back for a duration of  one week was never sufficient to catch up with family, friends, and country.

In the recent 4 years, I noticed a gradual improvement in the infrastructure. On my way to the Northeast of Luzon, I saw malls and most of them are considerable big. Mall-hopping was not the intention of this trip, so I didn't get to experience what  was like in the provincial malls of Northern Philippines. In the City of Makati, where I literally spent fifty percent of my years as a child and young adult, buildings and enticing malls are like mushrooms appearing. The radius of developments are expanding outward the city. At the south boundary of  Manila and  Laguna sits The City of San Pedro, Laguna. Where the other half of my life was spent when I was in the country during my early years. The spread of  clustered food shops, supermarkets and malls are pandemic in San Pedro. I can only share the names of cities and towns where I got to visit. It suddenly made me ponder on these questions. Is Philippines' starting to shy away from the traditional society and moving towards the transition stage of taking off ? Are we there yet ? For Filipinos out there ( well, that includes me ) are we aware and doing something about it ?

Arriving Philippines via  Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 early morning of 4:05 AM with 3 kids and a senior was not a joke. Left Singapore home at 09:30 PM to catch the midnight flight. They managed to sleep in the flight, while I had some naps from time to time. I knew it would turn out to be like this having a midnight flight in a budget airline, I am prepared and I am not complaining.

From the gate to the immigration officer was like less than ten minutes walk. The queue to the immigration counter wasn't that long, yet the airport officer was courteous enough to prioritize travellers with kids, disabilities, seniors and led us to the shortest line. I needed to present myself in front of the immigration officer together with my foreigner kids to be able to get a longer visa compare to usual 21 days for foreigner. Since I am eligible for the Balikbayan Program  ( returning home program ).  Finally got the BB or Balikbayan Visa of one year validity. Heading the ground floor to the baggage claim area was quite fast. Normally after collecting your baggage there will be officers randomly checking/ questioning your baggage contents. This time nobody has stopped us for the spot check.

Baggage carousel

This is the way to the airport ground floor exit. You will not miss this signage it is just opposite the baggage carousel.

On the right side of this signage you will see this Globe booth. There are two main network operators in the Philippines that would be SMART and Globe . For a short stay a prepaid card is  the most suitable choice. It's kind of interesting to know that having a prepaid sim card is fun in the Philippines.  Why owning a prepaid sim card is fun ? subscriber can choose and combine the functions he needs to use. Example for Globe they have "GoUnli20" stands for Go Unlimited for Php20.00 ( est. SGD.60 ) . Which means you spend Php20.00 for unlimited calls to Globe and Touch Mobile networks only, 20 all network texts and 15MB all day surf. By the way, Touch Mobile is also owned by Globe. They also have GoSAKTO, GoSURF50 for Globe and many other combinations you can choose from. It really depends on individual needs. There are times Filipino will use Taglish that is Tagalog English in short form, in the advertisement, promotions or even in communicating. Don't panic you can always ask around or you can always Goo_le the Tagalog word/s to know the English meaning of the word.

Beside this telecom booth is the exit to the airport coupon taxi. There are two types of taxis in the airport, metered taxi and coupon taxi. I was told that metered taxis are located at  the second floor of the Ninoy International Airport Terminal 3, while coupon taxi is located at the ground floor. I will try metered taxi from airport next time for the sake of experiencing it.

I chose a 12-seat van coupon taxi since I am travelling with kids and a senior plus our luggage. Coupon taxi are registered taxi in the airport. I believe it's is safer to ride and more convenient for my case. The usual price for a 12-seat coupon taxi is Php1,000, since the taxi driver was in a rush to get out from the airport to avoid the colour coding. I managed to negotiate the fare price down to Php700.00.

In Philippines, there are colour coding for all the vehicles travelling the identified thoroughfare. It aims to reduce traffic congestion during peak hours. Therefore those vehicles with plate number ending 1 and 2 Monday, 3 and 4 Tuesday and so on applies from 7:00AM to 7:00PM are not allowed to travel the designated thoroughfares. I am not going into details concerning the other conditions on the implementation of this rule. Unless the traveller intends to self drive around Metro Manila and other cities near Manila, then this information is very vital.

Just to highlight don't get side tracked by RENTAL cars coupon taxi in the airport as they can somehow operate side by side with the authorized airport coupon taxi. The rental cars coupon taxi charges 100%+ more than the airport taxi. Emphasize to these blokes that you are looking for AIRPORT coupon taxi not the rental cars coupon taxi. You can try to negotiate the price with the DRIVER only of the airport coupon taxi. In some instance, somebody might approach and offer the traveller some help, I would normally say " Thank you so much. " with a smile and walk away.

Frontage of the NAIA Terminal 3 at 5:00 AM.

Upon arrival at my relatives place in Makati at around 6:30 AM, I urged my kids to accompany me to a nearby place for a walk. I am not hesitant to bring my kids around since I know the Philippine culture and I know how to blend in well. I cannot recall seeing this when I was young or maybe I was too young to notice. It strike us to witness this little boy who was so fixed on what he was doing right in the middle of a street. He didn't even noticed that we were intently looking at him.

If you will notice on the far end of this picture a blue tricycle was traversing this street. We heard it coming really loud. We were so amazed as the little boy got up to a safer side of the street and wait for the tricycle to pass by. Indeed he must be having so much fun with what he was doing in the middle of the street. That immediately right after the tricycle has passed, he went back to the same spot where he was playing happily.

I really don't know how to explain this to my kids. How can this scenario happened ? How can an innocent little child be on his own in the middle of the street ? It was a norm for this  boy to be in that situation. He didn't get the fright nor stumble at the sight or upon hearing the tricycle sound. It was just a normal day as usual.

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