I’m not sure if this cathedral is actually the center of town, but it certainly feels like it for me. It’s where we usually get off the tricycle when riding into town from our neighborhood. We catch the FX to Manila nearby. The town hall is within sight of the front steps and the area is often host to a number of local celebrations and events like this ballroom style dancing that I saw and recorded a bit of in 2008:
The main cathedral is simple, by Catholic standards at least (compared to St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City), but it still manages to convey a majestic, reverent atmosphere that reminded me to remove my cap when I passed through the doors.
The pews inside are occupied by quite a few people at any given time of the day, but it’s especially jam packed on Saturday nights when mass is held.
These are some photos of the stained glass windows in the cathedral area.
And these are some of the statues of saints that are arrayed around the outer wall of the main chamber. In the first image, you can see a woman laying her hand on one of the statues and praying.
This is a very stylistic interpretation of Jesus carrying the cross, which people are laying hands on while offering prayers.
There are also areas where candles are lit. I don’t understand the exact significance of these candles, except that they’re meant as symbolic offerings. I suppose they’re used to ensure that the person’s prayers are heard?
This cathedral is known particularly as a place for travelers to pray for safe journey. I was told by my wife, who grew up in the area, that it’s common for people to make a ‘pilgrimage’ there before embarking on international trips to pray for safety.
The thing I found most peculiar about the cathedral is this sign:
If you look towards the bottom right you’ll notice that there are services for car blessings. My wife says that during this service the priest will sprinkle holy water on the car as a blessing against accidents. Call me cynical, but this immediately brought to mind a time when the Catholic church would sell a blessing or an indulgence for just about anything, if you could pay the right price, especially with the name and logo of a bank at the bottom of the sign.
Note: Most recently updated with new information on June 17, 2021. I very much hope that this proves to be a useful resource for anyone trying to get their pets out of Singapore and/or into the Philippines. Please keep in mind that a lot of the information is dated, but I’ve provided links to updated government websites where possible. Thankfully, a lot of the paperwork on the Philippines side can be done online through forms now, instead of having to contact actual people by email.
The process of importing cats from Singapore to the Philippines can seem like a lot of trouble, and it gave us a headache trying to figure out what is, and isn’t, necessary. The embassy website for the Philippines and the website for BAI (when it’s even up) even had some contradicting information. So, I’m writing this guide in the hopes that other people will benefit from my experience.
Picking an Airline
This is one of the most obvious things, but I thought it was worth mentioning because if you’re planning on taking pets from Singapore to the Philippines you only have two options: Singapore Airlines or Philippine Airlines. The budget carriers don’t allow pets at all.
With both Singapore Airlines and Philippine Airlines, pets are transported in the belly of the plane as cargo. Pets aren’t allowed in the cabin (in 2010, not sure about now). Don’t worry. My cats unfortunately went through hell prior to take-off, but they made it through just fine and are relaxing on my bed while I type this.
The real decision here comes down to how much money you want to spend. Both airlines will get you to the Philippines. Both airlines will carry your pets. Philippine Airlines is quite a bit cheaper, though.
Picking your Carrier
That’s not my cat at the top of the photo. He’s a cat that lived in our building on the 6th floor somewhere, but came downstairs during the day to lounge around and people-watch. He was checking out my cats, who were in the carriers, just prior to our boarding a taxi for the airport.
When you take your cats on a plane, an IATA certified carrier is required. We used the Ferplast Atlas Deluxe 20 Open Top to ensure that our cats had proper ventilation during the trip. Check out any of Pet Lover’s Centre’s many locations for a wide variety of carriers. Be sure to ask if the carrier is IATA approved before buying it though or you may be disappointed later.
Vaccinations
Before starting the export process, you’ll need to make sure your cats have been immunized. They don’t need to have been immunized more than once, so if they don’t have a booster shot that’s ok. When we imported our 3 cats to the Philippines, they had all received their first shots less than a month prior to the flight date. The shot you’ll have to get them is the standard 4-in-1 shot, which contains vaccines for feline rhinotracheitis, calici, panleukopenia, and chlamydia psittaci. There is no specific time frame for when, in relation to your flight, these shots have to be received by your cats. You just have to have them current.
One thing I would like to suggest is that before you head to your nearest vet, do some calling around. Prices vary quite a bit in Singapore for the same veterinary services. You can use the Singapore Veterinary Association site’s list of clinics as a good starting point to find a certified vet for your needs. We lived in the East area of Singapore and found Clinic for Pets to have the cheapest rate on vaccinations, and Mount Pleasant Animal Medical Centre (Bedok) Pte Ltd to have the best rate on the rabies vaccinations and Health Certificates. (More on that later in the post).
Philippines Pet Import Permit
Update (June 17, 2021):
Important update : pets being imported into the Philippines now require microchips. For more information, please see the Philippines Embassy in Singapore’s information page by clicking here: Bringing Pets to the Philippines
Update (March 12, 2019):
I’ve been made aware that requesting an import permit, or import clearance, from the BAI is now done through the BAI web portal (link updated 6/17/2021).
Detailed instructions on how to do this are found in the PDF below, which was created by BAI:
Within 60 days prior to your flight you’ll have to request, either in writing or by e-mail, an import permit from the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI). The BAI website has been down recently for upgrading and the email address that is listed on the Singapore embassy website is incorrect. We were actually told (after a month of waiting) that the email address listed there is not used and won’t return an invalid email address message to your inbox. To actually get a message to BAI via email you have to use the following email address: quarantine_bai@yahoo.com [Commenter “Allem” alerted me to the fact that the previous email address is no longer valid, and recommended the following: baiquarantine@hotmail.com]. The point of contact at that email address is either Maynard Lagmay or Virgie Tesoro, both of which were very helpful in sending us our import permit.
The written request for the import permit is very informal. Just write a standard business letter requesting the permit. Include the following details about your pets:
The permit is usually mailed I think, but due to our circumstances (the incorrect email address) they helped us out by scanning and e-mailing the import permit to us. When you get it, it should look like this:
Republic of the Philippines Veterinary Quarantine Clearance to Import Dogs and Cats
The import permit will be valid for 60 days you don’t have to worry about making any payment until you land in the Philippines. As you can see from the example permit above, you’ll be charged 350 PHP on arrival if you have 2 cats or less, or 650 PHP if you have two cats or more.
Singapore Pet Export Permit
Update (June 17, 2021):
A checklist is now available from Singapore’s Animal & Veterinary Services, which can be found by clicking here: Preparing to Leave Singapore.
Detailed instructions from Singapore’s Animal & Veterinary Services on how to apply for the export permit:
Within 30 days prior to your flight, you’ll have to request an export permit from Singapore’s AVA (no longer exists as of 2019) AVS (Animal & Veterinary Services), which will cost you 50 SGD (in 2010 with multiple cats allowed on one permit).
This export permit is independent of the Veterinary Health Certificate and you request it (and should request it) prior to getting your Health Certificates done. Getting the export permit is as simple as filling out an online form, which you can get started on by clicking this link (link updated June 17, 2021).
Information below in this section is probably all outdated at this point:
Once the page loads, scroll down until you see this:
As indicated in the image above, pick the situation that applies to you. Both options will lead to the same form, but if you’re not a foreigner you’ll have to enter your SingPass to proceed. Getting a SingPass is as simple as going to the CPF Building in Tampines. It takes about 5 minutes and you’ll leave with the SingPass in your hand.
Either way, you’ll be presented with a disclaimer that you’ll have to agree to and then you can begin filling out the form. The form is simple but it can be confusing at times. The same form is used for all situations, as well as importing and exporting, so the key is to just fill out the sections that apply to you and your situation.
Here’s an example on the first page of the form:
On the first page, as an individual exporting personal pets, the bottom details don’t apply. Don’t enter anything into the fields at the bottom of the form will fail in the end. The best thing to remember is that just because it has a red asterisk, it doesn’t mean you have to fill it out if that box doesn’t apply to you.
In the end, you should be presented with a confirmation page (step 7) that looks something like this:
The following day, you can go back to that first page where the green links are and click on “Enquire on my Application’s Status Now”, or just click here. You’ll be required to give the Application Number from the Submission Page, which comes after the Confirmation Page above, so be sure to write that down. It’ll be a long number that starts with a letter, like this one:
In the following screen you’ll be able to see if your permit is processing, approved or denied. Once it’s approved, payment is simple. You follow the link at the beginning of this post to go back to the AVA page with the green links and this time click on “Pay for my New Licence now”, or just click here. The payment is handled by a third party, but the payment should credit instantly. It did for me! They accept NETS and MasterCard. I can’t remember if I saw a Visa logo or not.
After making your payment you’ll be directed to a page where you can download your Export permit for printing.
Health Certificates & Rabies Vaccination
When you’re 7 days out from your flight, you’ll have to take the final steps to ensure your cats are ready to go.
One thing you’ll have to consider is whether or not to get your pet a rabies vaccination. This is one of the points where I got a bit confused, because some sources I read said it was required, and others didn’t. I played it safe and got my cats their rabies vaccinations. Technically, I don’t think it’s required because rabies has been eradicated in Singapore. However, there are rabies in the Philippines and if I was going to put this much effort into bringing them with me, I didn’t want them to get sick and die after arriving safely. The rabies vaccinations cost me 48 SGD apiece.
To get our Health Certificate, we went to Mount Pleasant Animal Medical Centre in Bedok. The vet will inspect your cat to make sure they don’t have any weird bumps, open wounds, or signs of any infectious diseases. If they appear to be in good shape, she’ll authorize the counter clerk to print up a health certificate, which she’ll sign.
Before she does that, ask her to apply Frontline to your cats and have it annotated on the health certificate. One of the requirements for importing pets into the Philippines is proof that they’ve been treated for parasites. I actually forgot to have her administer dewormer and annotate that as well, but we had some on hand to administer to the cats when we landed at NAIA, in case they asked.
Your journey isn’t over quite yet!
Update (June 17, 2021): The Philippines Embassy in Singapore’s website now reads:
Obtain a Veterinary Health Certificate issued by a private veterinarian by bringing your pet to any AVA-licensed veterinarian for examination.
So, it seems that you no longer need a certificate issued by the AVS (new AVA), but just one issued by an AVS-licensed veterinarian. I would double-check with the Philippines Embassy or by contacting the BAI directly to be sure. Or, you could play it safe and just apply for the AVS Veterinary Certificate.
Importing pets to the Philippines from Singapore requires an AVA Veterinary Health Certificate, which is 23 dollars per certificate (with multiple cats allowed on one certificate). Once you have your regular health certificates, you need to scan them and then head back to the AVA’s site to request the AVA certificate (link updated June 17, 2021). Click that link, scroll down and you’ll see the following:
Filling out this form is similar to filling out the export request form. It also offers the same method of payment. There’s just one catch. You have to pick this one up in person. The AVA Veterinary Health Certificate comes with a special watermark that only certain printers can properly reproduce. An average printer will print the form, but it will have a watermark that says “copy copy copy” in a ring, instead of the proper image. The airline you choose and Customs in the Philippines will require the original.
At some point while filling out this form you’ll see a check box that you either select or de-select to indicate that you’ll pick it up in person.
When you’re ready to go pick up your form, head to the Tanjong Pagar MRT station (EW15 on the Green Line). Exit towards Maxwell Road and you’ll find yourself at an intersection with Maxwell Road crossing just in front of you. Cross the small street just to the left of the MRT exit and follow Maxwell Road. After about one block you’ll see the Ministry of National Development across the street, with a pedestrian crossing leading right to the front doors.
Go up to the second floor, hang a right at the information desk and you’ll walk right into the office. You should leave with a form that looks like this:
Note that the watermark says “copy”, since this is a scanned copy of the original. Pretty cool how it does that!
Presenting Your Paperwork To The Airline Travel Office
No later than two days prior to your flight, you’ll have to present your completed documents to the airline office for validation. I’m not sure if Singapore Airlines has the same stipulation, but this was required by Philippine Airlines. The documents I was required to show were the Import Permit, Export Permit and the AVA Veterinary Health Certificate. The guy also asked me the weight of the cats and the dimensions and the weight of the carriers I was using. Be sure to have that information on hand. I had to waste a lot of time looking up the carrier dimensions and weight on my iPhone because I wasn’t prepared.
After the guy looks over your documents he’ll fax them to the airline office in the airport. Once that’s done you’ll be good to go.
The Philippine Airlines office I went to is located at Parklane Shopping Mall, which is close to Dhoby Ghaut MRT station:
It’s not too hard to find. There’s a Singapore Arts school on the corner of Orchard and Selegie. You just turn up the road and then look for this facade:
The entrance is located between the DBS sign and the McDonald’s sign there on the left. When you enter the mall go down the first hallway on the right and it should be the 2nd or 3rd storefront on your right. They close at 5 PM.
Changi Airport
Once you’ve presented your documents to the airline office, you can kick back and relax. The next thing you have to do with your cats is get them ready for their trip on the day of the flight.
When you arrive at the airport and get in line to check-in, an attendant will likely usher you into the Business Class line for prompt handling of your cats. Since the documents are faxed in ahead of you, they’ll be watching for you. The clerk will weigh your cats and perform your usual check-in process, but before giving you your boarding pass you’ll have to go to the excess baggage counter to pay for your cats trip. The rate was 20.50 per kilo when we traveled on May 6th, 2010 and we paid 330 SGD total for three cats and carriers. Once you’ve paid the excess baggage fee you’ll receive your boarding pass and your cats will be wheeled away on a trolley. They won’t be placed on the conveyor belts.
After this, it’s a typical flight.
NAIA
When you get to NAIA, you’ll probably rush off the plane like we did to catch up to your cats. We got through immigration and customs pretty quickly, but they were already waiting for us at the baggage claim area. The paperwork process at NAIA is extremely painless. They even came out to the claim area to take our paperwork and payment from us. Our cats were never put in a quarantine area and they didn’t make us cart them over to the desk. Everyone seemed really amused to see them.
We paid our 650 PHP and then all 5 of us walked out into the bright Filipino sunshine to start the next chapter in our lives as residents of the Philippines!
Conclusion
Exporting your cat(s) from Singapore to the Philippines can be a long, complicated and very expensive process but it’s also very rewarding. I think we spent upwards of 1200 SGD (including vaccination fees). I encourage anyone who has pets to take them with you when you leave Singapore. Cats aren’t emotionless beasts that should be tossed out on the street after you’re done ‘using’ them. After two years of cat ownership I know that each one of my cats has a very different personality and that each one reacts differently to different situations. If we’re gone for a while, they show that they missed us when we come back. A cat will ‘feel’ it if you abandon it in the street, the same way any other member of the family would. Love them, protect them, and definitely take them with you and they’ll be your faithful companions for many years.
In the Philippines, most sizeable towns have a wet market, which is known locally as a palengke. When you want to go to the market, you can tell the driver of your transportation of choice that you simply want to go to the palengke and they’ll know what you’re talking about.
The wet market in Antipolo is pretty big. It actually has two floors, but the second floor is mostly dry goods and household items. The real wet market is on the lower level. It reminded me of the wet market in Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia except bigger. We saw plenty of sea food, from shrimp to huge fish, as well as pork, chicken, and veggies.
The prices at the wet market are usually the best you can find in town. We got a kilo of pork for what would be about 4 USD. I guess it’s because there’s very little mark-up for land rental and employee compensation. The sanitary conditions are a bit questionable by my American standards, but if all the people I saw in the market are any indication, no one dies eating food they bought there. Or at least, not any more than at any other place.
If you plan on living in the Philippines for any length of time and you’re interested in getting good deals on food, you should make it a point to visit the wet markets. I don’t know if there are any in Manila, but I assume there would be.
Here are some photos of the place so you can get a feel for what to expect if you ever visit a wet market in the Philippines:
(Note: I’m testing a new format for uploading a lot of pictures. Hopefully the watermark doesn’t show up huge on the blown-up image after clicking the thumbnail!)
One of the first things I noticed on my first trip to the Philippines was two goats tied to the side of a building in downtown Manila, near NAIA. It was so amusing that I took a photo of it through the cab window.
That was back in 2008, but things are still the same. There are goats everywhere in my wife’s neighborhood. They add character to the place. Well, character and goat turds in the road. They look like little black pellets and you have to keep an eye out for them while you’re walking around or you’ll accidentally track that shit into your house.
My brother-in-law has a cafe in the neighborhood across from a vacant lot. This lot typically overgrows with shrubbery and every so often it’s chopped down by some guys with machetes. The clean up crew is composed of one goat. One goat is all it takes. He ate that stuff pretty quickly.
While we’re eating at my brother-in-law’s cafe, the goat typically makes a lot of noise. It’s like he’s singing or having a conversation with someone. So, a few days ago I decided that I wanted to record him making all that noise to post on here. Unfortunately, he was feeling stubborn and wasn’t as vocal as usual, but he did talk back when I started making fun of him at the end of this video.
Today was one of those big bursts of cleaning activity that I mentioned in the last post. We just looked around and decided that we couldn’t stand it anymore, changed into work clothes and then got cracking on taking out the trash and cleaning up the dining room, kitchen, the side and back of the house.
I did the side and back of the house because it required quite a bit of lifting of heavy stuff. There was a huge amount of half rotten wood laying around, most of which looked like broken bits of carpentry and cabinetry. I did find one piece of wood that looked like a gnarled tree branch stripped of bark. I have no idea what that was doing back there. I also found a basket full of torn and shredded clothing that I took out. Everything else was scrap metal, paper boxes, Styrofoam lids, broken broom handles, bottles half full of God only knows what sort of liquids and little plastic bits from broken toys.
So, what to do with all this crap? Well, in this rural neighborhood burning shit is completely legal, so I unleashed my inner pyromaniac and built a massive bonfire out of all of this rubbish, with the exception of the scrap metal which I intend to sell and reinvest into renovations. I heaped on the regular household trash as well as random sticks and yard debris that was in the area. I even through a half-rotten wooden bench into the pile.
I lit it off with burning newspaper and the end result was a big ball of flame that reached at least 8 feet into the air and kept me about 5 feet away from the fire until it burned down quite a bit. Who knew plastic burned so well? The wood burned down into a nice bed of coals that left me with a great place to toss other rubbish as we found it for the remainder of the afternoon.
It turned into quite a spectacle and after about an hour, half of the neighbors on the street were out to watch, including kids who decided to add whatever they could find to the blaze. It was inspirational. Other people decided it was a good time to burn their yard waste as well.
Unfortunately, the idea of taking pictures slipped my mind during the excitement, so I’ll just have to post a picture of the aftermath tomorrow.
I did get a picture of a giant toad I found though. It was hiding under some half-rotten wood on the side of the house. Kinda scared the crap out of me too. I didn’t know what I was looking at for the first few seconds. The toad is about the size of my outstretched hand and would sit comfortably on your average dinner plate. The second photo has my thumb in it for a bit of comparison, but I kept my hand a good distance away. I didn’t know if it would try to bite me or spray poison or something. There are a lot of weird animals out here. I had already dodged two giant brown cane spiders while clearing the back of the house previous to this find.
I also took a picture of the huge box full of scrap metal I collected. That’s not all of it.
The box in the above picture is the same box from yesterday’s post, just so you have some basis for judging it’s size.
By the end of the day I was covered in dirt, ash and grime, but I was feeling pretty good about the progress we made. I wasn’t quite as happy about the black boogers I was blowing out of my nose though.
People smelling horrible in public transportation is something that I, unfortunately, had to get accustomed to in Singapore. I don’t know why, but even with constant running water and plenty of soap being available, some people in Singapore have no clue when it comes to personal hygiene. I’ve heard some people try to use the heat as an excuse, but it’s just as hot in the Philippines and I’ve never felt my nose and eyes burn and water just from the stench in public transportation here. (Yes, I’ve been on the jam-packed Manila trains.)
I took the above photo in an FX, a popular form of transportation for long distances here in the Philippines. The sticker is a handout from a radio station. It serves a dual purpose as both an advertisement and a warning to passengers. The large lettering in black on a yellow backgrounds translates to: “Bad armpit odor not allowed!” Thankfully, I haven’t been in a situation where someone’s body odor was a problem in an FX. It’s about the size of a van, so it would be horrendous if someone stinky got onboard.
I do think they should put up signs like this in Singapore though. There’s a campaign for everything else, so why not a ‘No Foul Body Odor’ campaign?
Slowly but surely we’re making minor improvements to our living arrangements. It’s something of an uphill battle and I’ve been trying to clean and organize as I go, with short dedicated periods of cleaning up every day. Parts of the house seem to have not been used in months or years. That was the case with the room we cleaned up during our first visit.
I haven’t gotten back to organizing the bookshelves on the second floor. There are still books all over the place as well as files and random bits of paper that will probably wind up as tinder for the fire I plan on making to burn quite a bit of this junk. I really want to get back to that, but other things keep popping up.
The day after we got here, the first box we shipped from Singapore arrived.
After the welcoming committee finished using the outside of the box as a scratching board, we started to unpack it and bring everything upstairs.
It was a pretty happy occasion for all of us, since there were things in it we could put to immediate use, like the cats’ gym, some cables I was looking for, clothes, and the tool that you have to use to remove a SIM card from an iPhone.
We’ve been doing a lot of shopping as well. Living here is temporary, but it’s just not going to work if there’s no furniture, which there wasn’t. Luckily, furniture is cheap in the Philippines, if you know where to go and shop around for good deals. The problem we’re facing now is overcrowding, and we haven’t even received the 2nd and 3rd boxes we sent from Singapore yet, so we’ve been buying plastic boxes to organize everything. We’ll put them on top of the dresser and under the bed. That should help us utilize the space effectively. When we move to Manila, pretty much all of this stuff will go with us and we’ll have more room for it. For now we’re staying in my wife’s old room, so it’s understandable that there’s not much space.
One lucky break is that I keep finding scrap metal everywhere. I’m going to make quite a hefty sum when I sell all of it, which I can then reinvest into further renovations around the house. I swear there are half a dozen unfinished projects in here and for every unfinished one I see, there are that many more that I’d like to start on. I’m not willing to make that large of an investment here, but we’ll do what we can while we’re here.
The last thing we had to eat before leaving Singapore was at Swensen’s, which is an odd circumstance since I vowed never to eat there again about a month after reaching Singapore. Well, it was Swenson’s at Tampines, but you get the idea. We’d received some horrible service with our dishes showing up more than 20 minutes apart from each other and the waiter never returning to take our drink order.
Unfortunately, there’s not a whole lot open at 2:30 AM at Changi, so our choices were pretty limited. When we saw the sign saying that Swensen’s was on the lower level and was open 24 hours a day, we resigned ourselves to another potentially disastrous experience for the sake of filling our bellies.
I wasn’t disappointed with the meal this time, though it was nothing to get excited about either.
I was a little surprised when this showed up at the table. I’d ordered a chocolate soda, but I didn’t think it would come with a big ball of chocolate ice cream on top. In the US there’s a fast food place called Sonic’s (I think that’s the one) where you can order flavored Cokes. Just out of curiosity I ordered a chocolate Coke one day and it wasn’t bad, but it was just Coke with chocolate syrup mixed in. I had expected the same thing here.
Mee goreng is something I came to love about Singapore’s food scene. That and nasi goreng. Well, I gained an appreciation for a lot of foods that come from the Muslim and Indian Muslim food stalls. Swensen’s version of mee goreng isn’t too bad. The beef was very tender, the tomatoes were flavorful, but overall the dish seemed to be lacking something. Maybe they add a lot of MSG at the hawker stalls?
My wife went with the seafood kway teow. She said it was a good choice. The soup was thicker, tastier and more filling than the usual hawker fare. I kinda wish I’d ordered one of these too.
So, Swensen’s managed to redeem themselves, literally at the last minute.
Earlier this month my wife and I were looking for a place to eat in Galleria and I saw something that looked like it would definitely hit the spot, The Pancake House. They had some interesting looking ads in the window and the one that caught my eye was a fried chicken tenders and waffle dish. It claimed to be ‘Southern’ style chicken, as in Southern US style chicken. Fried chicken is popular in the South, but from what I know (from a movie) the idea of waffles and chicken is something from Los Angeles. Well, I could be wrong.
The service standard at the restaurant was great. We were greeted at the door and quickly shown to a seat. The service from the waiter was prompt and friendly. The place is clean and it has a nice theme. My dish seemed a little pricey, but it was still reasonable, especially since it was in the mall.
This is the Southern chicken and waffle. There was also a small bit of salad that was pretty good. I loved the black olives. The dish also came with three sauces: syrup for the waffle, a gravy for the chicken, and a light, tangy dressing for the salad.
My wife ordered a traditional Filipino dish that’s usually called crispy liempo. The menu had a fancy name for it, but I can’t remember what it is. The meat is deep-fried pork belly and the rice is garnished with fried garlic.
<
p align=”left”>We didn’t try anything else from the menu, but after the great meal we had, I’m willing to go back for more.
We had that litterbox for two years. I’m sad to see it go because it’s really nice looking and you can’t find litterboxes like that in the Philippines. Or at least, we couldn’t find one.
Our last day in Singapore was a pretty exciting one. We went downtown, saw menstrual blood splattered all over a train seat, met the guy that runs the @Trattoriasg Twitter account (who is a part-owner of Trattoria in Somerset), did a little shopping, transferred money from our Singapore accounts to the Philippines, celebrated a birthday, and then went home late to finish clearing out our place and packing our bags for the flight. We finally got out the door around 2 AM.
This seat was really reserved, by menstrual blood.
Changi was a lot quieter than I expected. The place is usually bustling with people, but I guess even an international airport can empty out in the early morning. Did you know that between 2:30 AM and 5 AM the Skytrain doesn’t even run? You have to take a free shuttle instead, which we wound up using because we went to another terminal to find a place to eat at.
Our check-in was incident free, but the flight was probably the most uncomfortable I’ve had. It was through no fault of the airline though. I expected to have a quiet, stress free flight this time, because we didn’t have our cats with us. Unfortunately, three Filipina prostitutes were in the row behind us.
Let me ask you guys something? Could you sit in a plane and speak loudly about how many guys you’d fucked over the past two weeks? How about for 3 and a half hours straight?
Well, these hookers could. They kept ordering alcohol too which just made them even more obnoxious. By the time we landed in Manila, everyone for three rows in every direction around them was pissed off and giving them disgusted looks.
They didn’t care. They were ugly though, so maybe that was the only way they could get attention?
After getting out of the airport we went directly to the taxi. As usual, the fare wasn’t right. Even though it was a metered taxi, he suddenly wasn’t willing to use his meter for the area I wanted to go to. He said it was too far away. He wanted 1,180 PHP to go to Antipolo. That’s 380 PHP more than what we paid when we used the same taxi service on the 6th of last month. So, instead we told the guy to keep his meter on and just drop us off at a place called Junction. The meter was at 470 PHP. We jumped into an FX (another form of privately owned public transportation like a van) and paid 40 PHP to get to Antipolo and then paid 70 PHP to ride a tricycle to my wife’s neighborhood. So, 580 instead of 1,180. If we’d taken the taxi to the nearest mall and then taken an FX from there, the total bill would have likely only been around 260 PHP.
Anyhow, flight and travel drama aside, the real battle for the house begins now. Our earlier visit was like a scouting mission with minor skirmishes. Now I have an idea of what needs to be done and, after getting the furniture tomorrow that we didn’t get today, I can pick up where I left off and get this place into tip-top shape. Well, as good as it’s going to get anyway. I’m not going to sink our entire savings into fixing up this place. It’s just not practical.
Yesterday we rested. I was up for 25 hours straight and my wife only got about an hour’s worth of restless sleep on the plane. Today we snored until 1 PM, had lunch and then went to the town to drop off laundry we’d left here for washing and then we hit the grocery store. I don’t know where the time went but by the time we got home it was 10:30 PM. Then, we spent about an hour and a half cleaning the kitchen and giving the fridge a thorough scrubbing / defrosting before putting anything in it.
I’m tempted to just hire a dozen domestic helpers and handymen for a few days, but I haven’t given up yet.
Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog 