Thursday
2nd December - Today is the end of our journey
through India and the premature return to the Philippines. We arrived on 2nd
August from Malaysia, so have spent only 4 months out of our possible 5 1/2
months allowed on the visa. To be honest, it is a shame it is ending as there
was much more to see and we had originally planned to spend Christmas in Sikkim
in the snow and then head south to the Maldives before heading back to Malaysia after some time in Sri Lanka. Plans have been
scrapped due to family problems back east.
Not sure what will be happening after we return. There is much research to do
over in Malaysia in regard to the possibility of living there, and so the visit
to the Philippines will be brief for me, maybe until early February, and Shiera
will possibly stay in the Philippines for the time I am away. There will be an
immediate requirement to find somewhere partly furnished to rent for a short
while so that life can function. Shiera also has to get her passport updated to
her married name through the NSO (National Statistics Office), and also
possibly return to her birth Christian name too. She was born as Shiera
Baltazar, but her parents later changed her name to Joyce. We are trying to
ascertain how easy it will be to change from Joyce Ann Baltazar to Shiera
Bradshaw in one step and save later hassles with her passport. All a bit messy
and maybe taking a while to resolve, which necessitates being in the
Philippines to sort it out.
First stage
in the return is to fly to Bangkok aboard Air Asia
flight FD/AK3783 departing at 12:20. A time
zone change from India's GMT+4.5 to Thailand's GMT+6.
We now have a Sitar to carry plus extra baggage. A taxi from the hotel to the
airport cost Rs250 and it is a long way, taking about 50minutes to get there.
After
arriving at the airport we had a short wait before check-in opened, and then
the hassle started. Despite having pre-paid and extra 10kg extra baggage
on-line, the Sitar was not allowed as carry-on but my guitar was ok. They
charged me an extra 2,400 rupees excess baggage for it....excuse my
language...the swines! No ATM at the airport and I didn't have enough cash in
rupees, and only $20USD in extra currency on me, so changed it and managed to
just cover the baggage charge....the Stress!!! It all adds to the cost of
flying and carrying any goods of course. And the so called budget operators get
you every time.
I
always think that Air Asia's red livery is very smart. The A320 airbus was nice
and clean and the service good. I had pre-booked a meal which was small but
tasty. I always wonder about in-flight meals why they are designed to barely
keep you alive, and just about big enough for a 3 year old child?
Time
forward 90minutes and arrived at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport at 4:50pm.
Next and most
fraught with problems is the CebuPacific flight 5J932
to Manila. Why problems? I will attempt to get a 'Balikbayan' visa on arrival
at immigration at Manila airport, which allows for a 365 day visa as a husband of a Filipino national. Without that, I
will only be given a standard 21day tourist visa. Without such a visa I would
be forced to buy an outgoing flight from the Philippines to even be allowed to
board the flight. I have not done that, and will have to resolve it at the airport.
As
it turned out, we were getting a little stressed at the possibilities of it all
going wrong, and it turned out fairly well. There was a lovely girl on check-in
and her supervisor who let the Sitar on for free, and accepted a little over
weight without any charge. So, we had bought 40kg allowance on Air Asia and
still had to pay another 2,400 rupees, but had only 30kg allowance on
Cebupacific and paid nothing extra...now work the logic of that one out! And
air Asia was a larger A320 airbus whereas CP was a smaller 737. No excuses
other than being a rip-off!
Flight 5J932 Departing 00:35 on 3rd December and arriving
in Manila at 04:15 with another timezone shift to GMT+7. Smooth enough with plenty of time for another meal at the airport
before boarding.
The flight
was pleasant enough and we arrived at Manila at 5:15am in the dark. By the time
we got through baggage reclaim and passport control it was daylight. The visa
was easy enough. They have a 'Special Assistance' booth, where they gave me a 1
year visa without question once they saw the marriage certificate.
Our final
destination was to be Tagaytay to find a hotel. Buses would have been an option
to get there. But with the long journey and feeling a bit weary, we decided to
go for a taxi all the way, costing 1500 pesos from the pre-paid booth outside.
The taxi booth inside the terminal wanted 2030.
So it's back
to Tagalog, the Peso currency, the English accent with an American twist...and
Christmas. Yep, the first sight of Christmas trees and Paroles (the star
ornament), and Christmas tunes...at the beginning of December... You can tell we're back in the Philippines!
Slept for a
while and missed breakfast, so ended up with a late lunch before cracking on
with the main duties of the day, mainly finding some
better accommodation. We hired a tricycle driver for a couple of hours but
didn't find anything suitable around the Tagaytay area, so will have to look elsewhere
tomorrow. Somewhere less touristy where the prices should be more reasonable.
We
managed to find a reasonable option at the Robertson’s Inn in Kaybagal area of
Tagayatay city for a couple of weeks. Good location and plenty nearby to keep
us amused.
On
with getting stuff sorted out…..
