Philippines – Page 3 – Bradley's Old Fashioned Weblog

Voting Day in the Philippines for 2010 Elections

May 10, 2010 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Today was voting day for the 2010 elections. We got here just in time to witness the madness. In the US, campaigning can get pretty wild and out of hand, especially when the target audience is a bunch of radicals or ultra-rightwing conservatives, but in the Philippines they step it up a notch.

First off, the campaigning is in-your-face. You really can’t miss the fact that there are elections going on because almost every available inch of wall, post, and overhang is used to display posters of the candidates. Some campaigning parties will even run strings across roadways (as seen in the image above) and have hundreds of the same poster hung up. It gives the whole thing a sort of festive feel. I also saw a lot of private vehicles and transportation vehicles (like taxis and tricycles) covered in campaign posters (pictured below). Every last one has a profile photo of the candidate, presumably at their best.

The other interesting thing about campaigning in the Philippines is that trucks will drive around, or position themselves, with music blaring to draw attention to a particular candidate. They’ll use the music (minus the vocals) of a popular song and overlay it with a slogan or a song about the candidate. For example, we heard one playing the music from Lady GaGa’s Poker Face.

Today was the actual day for voting. We hadn’t intended to leave the house, for safety reasons, but wound up going to a restaurant called Max’s with my father-in-law, brother-in-law and brother-in-law’s wife. It was a delicious meal! The only sign we saw of the voting process was a long line of tricycles and a crowd of people gathered at one point along the road, outside an elementary school where the voting was being done. Other than that it was traffic and business as usual. I suppose the real drama might come when the results are announced, if they haven’t been already.

I believe this year was the first year that the Philippines used an electronic voting system, rather than manually counted ballots. The idea is that it’s supposed to inspire confidence in the citizens and allay fears of corruption and cheating. It may work in some areas. Some parts of the Philippines are so poor that a shiny computer screen is almost like magic, but most educated voters will probably realize that computer results can easily be manipulated, the same way that manual votes can easily be forged or disposed of.

If you’re not familiar with the government in the Philippines, it’s so consumed with corruption that it’s surprising it hasn’t fallen apart yet. The current president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, is recognized as one of the most corrupt leaders to ever hold office anywhere.

I doubt that the election will be any more fair this year than it’s ever been, but hopefully whoever gains office will be more fair than the outgoing president.

Singapore Airlines vs Philippine Airlines

May 8, 2010April 9, 2023 Bradley Farless11 Comments

In 2008 I had the opportunity to fly on Singapore Airlines and earlier this week I flew on Philippine Airlines. I spent two years living in Singapore and am moving on to the Philippines, so I figured it’d be in keeping with this blog to do a comparison of the services offered by both airlines. I’ll also be reposting this on my Philippines blog, Everything But Balot.

Singapore Airlines:

When I first flew to Singapore in June of 2008, I had some choices to make. One was which airline I was going to take. I made that decision the simplest way. I took the one that was cheapest. When you’re flying from the US to Singapore, the cost of the ticket can be pretty steep, especially if you’re flying during the summer, so the price point was my major choosing point.

Somehow, Singapore Airlines wound up being the best priced fare at roughly 1400 USD for a one way ticket from New York City, with one layover in Frankfurt, Germany. I have no idea how this happened, but I’m glad it did.

To put it simply, Singapore Airlines is the best flight experience I’ve EVER had. I think it completely enhanced the experience that I got onboard with absolutely no expectations or any knowledge of the airline. With it being the cheapest ticket, I’d assumed it was some sort of low class airline that would get me where I wanted to go, but not necessarily in style.

I was wrong. Singapore Airlines is all about comfort and relaxation while in flight, even if you’re in the economy section. I had a good seat too. I’d booked early and chosen my seat, so I wound up on the aisle. Someone begged me to switch with them, so they could sit next to their spouse, but I declined. Their seat was dead center of the plain, with two seats on either side. I have long legs, so I need the extra space, especially on a 22 hour flight.

Shortly after getting on the plane I was handed a package by a stewardess. I don’t remember if it was prior to take-off or just after the plane leveled out, but it doesn’t really matter. I got it right away and it was a fantastic goodie bag! It had slippers, a toothbrush, toothpaste, and I think some soap in it. Right about then I knew I’d lucked up and gotten a good deal, but it only got better.

A little while later, a stewardess came down the aisle and asked me if I’d like to have a glass of champagne. Of course I accepted her offer and then got lost in the menus on the touch-screen TV on the back of the chair in front of me. Oh, and I’d put on my comfy slippers by then too. The TV on the back of the chair was loaded with on-demand movies, TV shows, music and even a few basic games. It kept me thoroughly entertained for the duration of the flight.

The meals I was served were top notch. It was better than some of the things I’d eaten in restaurants. The one meal that still stands out in my mind is the steak dinner I was served. The meat was tender and it was real, rather than being some chopped and reformed meat patty. The vegetables were still crisp.

Between meals there was a steady flow of drinks and snacks, and most importantly, the stewardesses were very prompt and kept their eyes on the passengers to make sure everyone was as comfortable as possible. I could really tell that I was a valued customer, even if I wasn’t in first class.

If I ever make a long-haul flight from Asia to Europe, or back to the US, it will definitely be with Singapore Airlines.

Philippine Airlines

My trip on Philippine Airlines left a lot to be desired. I flew from Singapore to Manila, in the Philippines. It’s a pretty short flight, but even so I expected there to be a level of service offered in exchange for the premium price we paid to fly with their airline over Jetstar, or an even lower priced budget airline. That wasn’t the case, at all. I won’t go into the disaster with my cats here, but do take the time to read it, as that may have affected my opinion. I’ll try to stick to specific examples here.

When we first approached the boarding area, I was expecting to see a large, shiny plane waiting for us. Instead, the plane looked a bit small and old. I kept my hopes up for the interior, but was let down on boarding. The seats were a bit cramped, there was no TV in the back of the chairs, and everything looked really old and worn down. If it weren’t for the uniforms the stewardesses were wearing, it could’ve been a Tiger Airways plane. Not that I have anything against Tiger Airways. I’m just saying that you get what you pay for, and I paid for more than that.

I want to talk specifically about the entertainment services offered. The TVs weren’t in the backs of the chairs, with each person having their own individual screen to suit their taste, but there were drop-down TVs. Each one was set to serve about 3 rows. The screens were small, but they were ok. The movie selection wasn’t bad either. They picked The Tooth Fairy, which I really enjoyed watching the first time around. I got excited and plugged in the complimentary headphones provided by a stewardess. I then found out that I couldn’t change the channel or the value through my armrest. Also, each headphone was playing something from a different channel. I had crappy music in one ear and even crappier music in the other ear. So, I took off the headphones and just looked at the screen for a while.

When the movie started, the stewardesses were distributing meals from their cart. The food was actually pretty good. I had a chicken dish that actually hit the spot, especially since it was accompanied by a Red Ribbon brownie. Red Ribbon is a baking chain in the Philippines that really does it right. I love getting cakes and other goodies from them.

Unfortunately, that’s as far as I can go with the compliments.

After the meal, I think we sat there for about 40 minutes with our empty trays, waiting for a stewardess to come by to collect them. My wife had to use the restroom and couldn’t wait any longer, so we wound up stacking everything together into one tray that I could hold so she could climb out. In the process, we spilled ice water in her lap and on her chair. About 10 minutes later a stewardess finally came by to take the trays, and instead of offering me service, she told me I needed to put everything back on the individual trays before she would take it. Then she moved on and I had to yell at her to get her to come back and take the damn trays I’d put back in order. She should’ve taken the trays and done the work herself. If she’d been more timely in her job it wouldn’t have been necessary to put them like that in the first place.

Also, during the entire flight the cabin felt stuffy and warm. I’m not sure if the air conditioning wasn’t working right, or if they just weren’t running it as often to save on fuel, but it was disappointing. You know how you always think you’ll need a blanket on an airplane because it’s nice and cold? I was wearing flip-flops, shorts and a t-shirt and I was still warm.

I spent the rest of the flight furiously updating and arranging my e-book library on my laptop, looking forward to getting off the plane. Instead of being a great experience like Singapore Airlines was, Philippine Airlines made the trip feel like a chore. I don’t understand why I paid more for their tickets. I get better service on Jetstar and the rates are a lot cheaper.

To top it off, when the plane landed it almost veered off the runway. Not sure what that was about, but it seemed a fitting end to an uncomfortable flight.

Conclusion:

I suppose I already said it above, but from now on it’ll be Singapore Airlines only for long-haul flights, if my budget permits of course! Other than that, I’d rather take Jetstar than Philippine Airlines again.

Giant Billboards

May 8, 2010 Bradley Farless1 Comment

One of the first things you’ll notice as you leave NAIA (Ninoy Aquino International Airport), besides the hellish traffic, are the gigantic billboards. Ya, giant really isn’t even enough to describe these things.

Billboards aren’t anything new to me. They’re all over the place in the US, especially along highways, but Manila takes it to a whole new level. These things are about four times the size of the average billboard in the US. They’re so big, in fact, that they pose a safety hazard during bad weather. My wife was telling me that a few years ago there was a hurricane that caused a lot of the billboards to fall over. They fell onto the highways, which had cars on them, and killed a few people.

I think they’re pretty interesting to look at, but only because of how big they are!

Cat Export Preparations Update #7

May 5, 2010 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Monday night the AVA health certification was approved, so I immediately got online and made my payment. I didn’t want to run into any hang-ups with my card not working properly in some scanner at a government office. I didn’t have time to take chances.

I did have time to sleep in a bit though. Not intentionally of course, but I’ve been so exhausted from running around preparing for this move and from stress that I just slept for about 12 hours straight that night. When I finally got out of the house it was around 2 PM already. I went directly to Tanjong Pagar to pick up the certification.

I was expecting it to be pretty hard to find. I actually had my iPhone out with the Maps application running. It was kind of ridiculous though because there I was, walking down the street with my face glued to my phone, trying to figure out when I’d be close to the Ministry of National Development building. The thing wasn’t reading quite right because when I looked up, there it was right in front of me.

It’s a pretty massive building that’s hard to miss. I could’ve seen it from the MRT station if I wasn’t so busy trying to use my iPhone’s Maps.

The process of picking up the health certification was painless. I was in and out of the office in about 10 minutes.

It took a little more effort to find the Philippines Airlines office at Parklane Mall. You have to show them your documents at least two days before your flight so they can fax them to the terminal office and, presumably, have proper arrangements made on the aircraft.

I’d never been to, or even heard of, Parklane Mall before so I had looked it up on Google Maps before leaving the house and, once again, I was walking with my face glued to my iPhone screen. And… once again, I was standing there looking at that screen, trying to figure out where I was in relation to the mall when I looked up and was staring at the entrance. In my defense, the entrance to Parklane Mall is kind of hard to pick out from the rest of the storefronts in that area.

The entrance is between the DBS and McDonald’s signs in this picture. Hardly the average mall entrance in Singapore.

Anyhow, I wasn’t quite prepared for what all the agent wanted to know at the office there. He wanted to know the dimensions of the carrier, if it was IATA approved, its weight and the weight of my cats. He wanted to see the credit card I’d used and of course he wanted to see the documentation. He made copies of the export permit, import permit, and AVA health certification.

I wound up leaving their office at 5 minutes to 5 PM, which is when they close, so I made it, but barely.

If I could go back in time and reschedule this all, I would set it up so that my flight was on a Sunday. Having that weekend, a holiday weekend no less, in the middle of the 7 days leading up to our flight, cramped our available time for getting things done for the cats. Everything has to be done within a certain amount of time leading up to the flight. Some of the documents are only good for 7 or 10 days.

Anyway, I’m glad that stress is over. Now we just need to show up at the airport with them in the morning.

The next post you see on this blog will be published from the Philippines. Hopefully I’ll have a happy tale to tell about our cats’ first trip on an airplane. By then I’ll have all the information I need to complete my step-by-step guide on importing cats to the Philippines from Singapore as well. I’ll be publishing that on my ‘Philippines’ blog. You can find the link to it at the bottom of the sidebar. I got it going but haven’t posted much to it yet.

Take care, and see you on the other side!

Cat Export Preparations Update #6

May 2, 2010 Bradley Farless7 Comments

Things are going right on schedule. We had kind of a hang-up on Saturday with taking the cats to the vet because it was a public holiday. I didn’t even realize it! The vet was closed. Someone let me know on Friday night. Coincidentally, it was the person that recognized me from my blog at Teadot. She noticed the blog post and contacted me on Twitter. Apparently, we’d chatted a bit on Plurk before I stopped actively using the service. I guess social media paid off for me this weekend, because it saved me a wasted trip to a closed vet.

Thanks @_rasyidah!

It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The vet we were going to take the cats to wanted 104 per cat for the rabies shot and health certificate, but when we called around we wound up finding a vet that would perform the same service, including an application of Frontline to meet the “treated for external parasites” requirement for import to the Philippines, for only 84 dollars per cat. That’s 60 bucks in savings. Plus, the clinic was closer so we saved on taxi fare too.

I’ll list the places we went in my “roll-up” post on how to import cats to the Philippines from Singapore later, on my Philippines blog.

We really had to get the cats to the vet over the weekend to fit our timeline. Immediately after returning home from the vet, I filled out the online form with AVA to have the certificates converted to AVA certified versions. That included scanning them and uploading them along with the application.

So, after this I still have to go pick up the certificates from the AVA, which will hopefully be available by tomorrow afternoon, and then take them to the Philippines Airlines office to present to the customer service officers there. They require that you show them the paperwork before they allow you to board their planes with pets. I suppose it’s a good policy, but it adds a bit more stress. The health certificates have to be obtained within 7 days of arrival at your destination and you have to show it to the PAL office no later than two days before the flight. It creates a sort of time-crunch that we’ll hopefully get over without issue.

As for the cats themselves, this trip was a little less traumatizing for them I think. On their last trip to the vet we were in a much noisier area, with a lot of traffic and then to cap things off we got caught in one of Singapore’s flash rainstorms that left us pretty drenched. They did panic a bit when a dog the size of Marmaduke came into the vet, but I don’t blame them. That thing kinda worried me too. I’m sure it outweighed me by about 30 pounds. It was HUGE.

So, that’s it for now!

Total damages so far: 1075 SGD

Total to go (approx.): 260 SGD

Cat Export Preparations Update #5

April 30, 2010 Bradley Farless2 Comments

It’s almost time to go and rather than winding down, things are winding up, especially our stress level. There are only a few things left to do, in regards to the cats, but it’s still troublesome.

On the 28th, the carriers showed up as scheduled, which was a relief. It’d be time consuming to try to get a refund and then go elsewhere. The cats don’t seem to mind them. In fact, as soon as I put them in the room, they wanted to investigate. I read that it’s best to let your cats get comfortable with the carriers so they’re more at ease during the trip.

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So, what’s left? Tomorrow I have to take the cats to get their rabies shots and health certificates. Immediately afterwards I need to file those health certificates along with an application to have them converted to AVA health certificates. Those should be ready to pick up on Monday. Immediately after picking them up I have to go to the Philippines Airlines office and present the documentation to them. They won’t let the cats on the plane without me performing that step first. They want to verify the documents and make sure everything’s legal.

My stack of paperwork involving the flight and these cats is growing…

Stay tuned for more updates tomorrow!

Why The Philippines?

April 29, 2010 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

This is a question my wife has asked me on more than one occasion. It seems to boggle her mind that I would really look forward to moving there. The Philippines is a ‘poor’ country and many Filipinos strive to find ways to leave and find what they consider a better life abroad. There’s something of a joke that the primary export of the Philippines is human beings, as a labor force. With so many of her countrymen trying to get out of the Philippines she finds it curious and a bit odd that I’m so excited about moving there.

Just to clarify, I’m not going there with some wealthy expat package lined up. I’m moving there for other reasons, which I’ll get into later in this post. But, for all intents and purposes, when I move to the Philippines I’ll be living pretty much as the average Filipino does. That will have both its ups and downs, but I look at this as a great opportunity rather than a disadvantage. The easy answer is that I’m moving to Manila to go to college, but there’s more to it than that.

I spent the first part of my life in the US Army. I was actually enlisted in the US Army Reserves before I even finished high school and shortly after I applied for and was accepted to active duty. During that time I had a few odd jobs on the side, but my service in the Army was the only ‘real’ job I’ve held. I wouldn’t call service in the Army a waste of time, but it can seriously set you back if you don’t intend to see it all the way through, or if you later decide that you’ve had enough and don’t want to do 20 years for a retirement. I didn’t completely gimp myself. During the last year and a half I was in, I realized I wasn’t going to make a career of it after all and managed to squeeze in almost 2 years worth the college credit hours through CLEP tests, sit down courses and online courses through Park University and the University of Maryland UC. Those college credits paid off by giving me enough points to get promoted to Sergeant before getting out, and by giving me a leg up on getting a degree. I earned a scholarship while in the Army that will pay 100% of my tuition. There’s a time limit on it, and it’s hard to go to school full time and still make it financially, but I’m in a position to make it happen now and I want to take advantage of this opportunity, because it may never come again.

In the US, it’s possible to get a decent job based on military service alone, but outside of the US that’s nearly impossible. I’ve found that out the hard way. Having a degree on top of my military service would make me look real good though, both to peers and to potential employers. It’s a nice thing to be able to say you have a tertiary education and a piece of paper to prove it. I want that. I am by no means an idiot, but just saying you’re smart or good at something isn’t going to win you a job interview or a high paying executive position. People want proof. They want evidence that you’ll be a good, solid investment. Even if your degree isn’t necessarily applicable, it will show that you’re at least smart enough to learn.

Eventually I’ll make my way back to the US, and I think that having lived abroad for a number of years and having a degree from a foreign, but US accredited university, will give me an advantage. The work climate in the US right now seems to be focused on finding people that can interact in multiracial groups of people from diverse backgrounds, and having lived abroad and having gone to school abroad would be a clear indicator that I at least have experience with getting along with people who are different than I am. That’s also something you learn in the Army, though to a lesser degree.

The time I spend in the Philippines will also be an opportunity for me to enrich myself on a personal level by gaining a greater understanding of the world around me. The Philippines is a place rich with history and culture in a way the US can’t quite match, now or in hundreds of more years. The US is a melting pot of cultures and while that has its advantages, it causes the US to lack any sort of distinctiveness, politics and war aside. So, it’s a very thrilling prospect for me to live in a country that has so much history behind it, to learn about the people living there and to experience it all first hand.

It’s also an opportunity to connect with my wife’s family in a way that a short visit just can’t accommodate. My wife is from the Philippines and we’ve visited a few times but the visits are brief and while we try to mix in sight-seeing with visiting time with her folks, the whole thing always feels rushed. Living there will give me more time to hang out with them and get to know them. It’ll also give my wife an opportunity to reconnect with her family before we move on to other things and other places. I’m also hoping she’ll be able to finish her second degree, a master’s degree, or medical school while we’re there.

So, moving to Manila and going to college will provide me with a lot of advantages in terms of future employment when I return to the US, as well as being personally enriching for both my wife and I. I think both reasons have equal value because living life isn’t just about the job you hold or your income; it’s about family, experiencing the world, learning, progressing, understanding and eventually contributing to society. This move will be a win-win situation all around.

The focus of this blog will be whether or not we achieve these goals, how we make it happen or how we fail, and the adventures we encounter along the way.

Cat Export Preparations Update #4

April 26, 2010 Bradley FarlessLeave a comment

Another piece of the puzzle has fallen into place. I was having an issue getting the export permit from Singapore because I couldn’t get the AVA’s site to work. It was a mix of problems that started with the site being horrible in terms of navigation and ease of use. It was harder than it should’ve been to find the information I needed and then to find the form.

The form itself was the next problem. The AVA has sacrificed ease of use for practicality and merged the export and import permit for both personal and business use into one form. To further complicate matters, many items that don’t pertain to people looking to export personal pets are marked with a red asterisk, inviting you to try to fill in the box with some sort of data since you assume it’s required. Then, when the data is erroneous, you’re not allowed to proceed. It took me a few phone calls and some waiting to get past that hang-up.

Once I knew what was going on it was no problem to get the form filled out and submitted. That was Friday. Today I checked the form status and saw that it was approved so I was then able to make payment through the AVA’s site. Once I did that the download link was unlocked for me. I downloaded the export permit in pdf form and then printed it out.

So now we have the import permit, export permit, tickets for Philippine Airlines, and the cats have had their first round of vaccinations. Next up is a return to the vet sometime between the 29th and the 3rd for rabies vaccinations and the health certificate. I may get them the 1 month boosters while we’re there as well to save hassle later. I don’t know if that’s possible though because I’m not sure if there might be a reaction between all the vaccines. Guess I’ll ask the expert when I get there.

I’ll also have to give them all a dip in flea & tick treatment shampoo and get my wife to cram a dewormer pill down their throats. She’s much better at it than I am. They always spit it out when I try to do it, but they don’t give her any trouble.

We’re still waiting on the replacement cages to show up on the 28th as well.

Relocating pets is a serious pain in the butt and requires a lot of double-checking to make sure things are done, but it’ll be worth it when they’re all sitting at the window staring out at the Philippine and enjoying the space and privileges they’ll have in their new home.

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Total cost for export license

: 50 SGD! Yay!

Total damages so far: 820 SGD

Total to go: approximately 500 SGD (I realize that’s higher than before, but I must have miscounted somewhere. 300ish for rabies & health certificates and about 200 for airline shipping, rough guesses.)

Cat Export Preparations Update #3

April 21, 2010 Bradley Farless5 Comments

Well, we’ve encountered two hang-ups. One isn’t so bad and one is making me want to claw my face off from frustration.

I received the airline certified cat carriers this afternoon but there was a problem. They were smaller than what I’d thought when I originally bought them. They looked roomy and more than adequate when I was in the store, but when I put one down and stuck Dapper in it, it was obvious that it was not going to be appropriate, or even acceptable by the airline. Dapper could barely fit inside, couldn’t turn around and couldn’t even stand up. Maybe it’s because she’s so fat, but regardless, I had to jump in the shower and take them back to the store for an exchange to the next bigger size.

When I went up there I was a little worried about how the whole thing would go. I’d never tried to exchange anything in Singapore before and while it would be an easy swap process in the US, you never know when it comes to Singapore retailers. Thankfully, this standard of exchange is in use here in Singapore as well. I just had to show that the carriers were still in new condition, with the packaging on them, and present the receipt and it was a quick process to request a “top-up” to the next size.

So, I was able to bring home one carrier in the next higher size and I’ll have to wait until next week to get the other two. I imagine it’ll take 7 days again, which means I’ll get them on the 28th, just in time to take them to the vet on the 29th for their rabies shots and health certificates. I’m glad I bought those other cages when I did, leaving myself room for fixing this sort of mistake. I’m also glad that the people at PetLover’s were pleasant and quick to help me out with the exchange!

That was the easy fix problem. The next problem is the one that has me banging my head against my desk. Well, not literally, but I want to.

Part of the process of getting my cats out of Singapore is requesting an export permit from the AVA. Getting an import permit from the Philippines BAI was as simple as sending an e-mail with the details of the cats, the shipping method and date of arrival. There was a slight hang-up due to technical issues but once we contacted them we had it back on the same day by e-mail. The AVA is proving to be much, much more difficult.

When you go to their site there are clear links for export permits for personal pets, and it indicates that you can fill out a form online for two day processing of your request. The problem here is that all of the links point to an online form that seems to be geared towards businesses. There is no personal form that I can find. The form we keep getting directed to requests some business identification number and another number I don’t recall right now, but either way, you can’t progress past the first page of the request form without filling those in. We obviously don’t have them, and the average person wouldn’t have them either. I keep getting the feeling that I’m looking at the wrong form, but no matter how many links I click I always wind up on that one. My wife tried with the same results.

So, tomorrow I’m going to have to call up the AVA and figure out what the deal is. I hope they don’t tell me something that’s going to make me throw my phone through the wall. This process has already been stressful enough, both on my wife and I, and on my wallet.

This whole process has been a real lesson in how difficult an international move really is. Before this, any time I’d ever moved I’d had it all arranged by the military. Well, except for my coming to Singapore in the first place, but when I did that I gave away my furniture, electronics, and anything I couldn’t immediately use to my family, packed a few suitcases and hopped on a plane. I suppose this wouldn’t be too much different, except for there being two of us now, if not for our cats, but we aren’t about to abandon them either.

Anyhow, the “top-up” on the carriers wasn’t free, so here’s the update:

Total damages so far: 770 SGD (approximately)

Total to go: 380 SGD (approximately)

Cat Export Preparations Update #2

April 20, 2010 Bradley Farless6 Comments

We are well under way!

Last week I went to the pet store in White Sands and found IATA certified Ferstar travel carriers that will meet our needs. They were a bit pricey at 75 bucks apiece, but since they’re airline certified I know we’ll be able to use them multiple times in the future, since the Philippines isn’t a destination so much as another stopping point to learn and enjoy life. I opted for home delivery both because it was free and because they didn’t have 3 carriers on hand. They had to order them from their warehouse. A few days later I got a call saying that the carriers would take a bit longer to come in because they had to be ordered from overseas. That’s a little troubling, since I don’t have a lot of time to play around with anymore. They’re supposed to arrive tomorrow, so here’s hoping it pans out alright. When we get them in, I’ll be sure to throw up some photos of the carriers and point out some of the details.

Beyond that, I called up Philippine Airlines to discuss having the cats transported along with us. The procedures are fairly simple. You book your tickets and then within two days prior to the flight you have to go down to their office to provide them with a copy of the export permit, import permit and health certificate.

If you’re wondering, cats (and other pets) can’t ride on the budget carriers. You have to take one of the full fledged airlines and the only two offering the service between the Singapore and the Philippines are Singapore Airlines and Philippine Airlines. The difference in ticket prices between SIA and PAL was about 400 SGD, so we went with the cheaper option.

Total cost of the carriers: 213 SGD (after PetLovers members discount of 5%)

Total difference in cost between premium airline tickets and budget tickets: roughly 400 SGD

Total ‘Damages’ So Far: 713 SGD (approximately)

Total to go: 380 SGD (approximately)

Stay tuned for more updates! Also, I’ll later be compiling all of the details into a more refined post for a good walk through on how to bring cats from Singapore to the Philippines.