back from the PI

[piglett]

i just got back home after being away 12 days
i have a bunch of pics & a better understanding of the PI which i'll share very soon but for now i need some sleep , those 11 hour layovers a really tough
 
 
see ya soon
pig

[braziliangirl]

Welcome back, Piggie! Hope you had a good time. Can't wait to hear how it went.

[robert angel]

Heya Piglett,
 
So your back from the trip and the flight made you toast, So rest up well, have pics and report and your 'Pigness' we'll roast!
 
Welcome back!

[piglett]

well i guess I'll have a go at writing the 1st half of my trip report.
i headed to the airport on July 3rd, I caught a flight out of Boston heading to Detroit. Once there i changed planes & then headed off to Japan & then Manila. all of this went smooth as i had already flown the same basic route on my last trip.
 
infact the only problem that i encountered in the early stage of my trip was that my Verizon phone wouldn't work at all in Japan , which i thought strange because it worked fine last time. I had intended to text my wife saying that i would arrive in Manila in about 4 hours , but the silly phone would have none of it.
 
so after running through immigration , customs & retrieving my bags i headed to exchange $100 into pesos so i would have taxi fare.
the rate .....about p43 to 1 which i could live with.
 
oh i learned something from my last trip....if you have a plain looking black roll around suitcase you are going to have a real tough time because there are 50 others that have a bag that looks also exactly the same. so what i did was to get a roll of bright red duct tape from walmart & put a long red stripe on all sides of my checked bags. it held up through the entire trip to the other side of the planet & back & it made spotting my bags ez.
 
so after heading out the double doors i started asking anyone who looked to know something where the outside waiting area was. last time i flew a different carrier & happened to exit rite across the street from where i needed to meet my soon to be wife. this time i need to do a little walking & use a small tunnel that carries foot traffic to the waiting masses , in my case there must have been 300 people standing there so i text my wife & then i spotted her & one of her brothers. we walked away from the arrival area & the waiting over priced taxis there & headed over to the departure area which was close by. last time i got ripped off to the tune of $40 this time the guy only wanted p800 which is still high but i just figure it is a form of "airport tax"
 
we dropped off my brother in-law so he could head back home (i think he went by jeepney but I'm not 100% sure ) & even thought my hotel was only 5km away from the airport the taxi driver had a tough time finding the rite road (next time I'll print up a map from mapquest) 
 
so we arrive at the Hotel & i hand the taxi driver a p20 tip & he wasn't really digging it but he took it & my wife & i checked into our room which had air/con & hot water ( i was happy to find both of these working well when i arrived)
 
OK back to bed for me guys & gals
I'll try to add more after i get home from work tonight.
 
 
pig

[thekfc]

The pigster is back in one piece........I think   

Did you have a compatible 3G phone? Did you use the same phone as last time?
Jeff S & Bob S can give you a better answer s to why your cell didn't work in Japan.

[piglett]

The pigster is back in one piece........I think   

Did you have a compatible 3G phone? Did you use the same phone as last time?
Jeff S & Bob S can give you a better answer s to why your cell didn't work in Japan.

yup same phone , not sure how many G's it has though

[michaelb]

Still alive, I see, and back home too. So when are you going to bring the wife back? Still waiting for the visa, I guess. Hope you had a good trip. When you get rested up write the rest of your trip report. 

[piglett]

OK here i go with some more of my report.
 
the name of our hotel was Isabelle Garden Hotel & Suites
 
i has already booked the 1st 2 nights there on-line through cheepoair.com, the price after a $15 discount that they offered me
$67.50 which sounded good to me. the room was very clean & had a fridge small kitchen table, kitchen sink (no stove) the only gripe i have about the room i was given was the air/con was mounted low in the wall & blew right on my bare bottom if i didn't keep the sheet in place. I'm not sure if all the rooms are the same though.
 
Marily & i spent our 1st full day together looking for a 12 volt battery & a charger. i found a charger that would get the job done at Ace hardware however they don't offer batteries like i needed. without a phone book we spent the next 4 hours running all over hell & back looking for a good sized battery that would be normally used in a motorcycle. & once we did find a place i was not too happy about the asking price (p9000) about $200. after checking the next couple places i found a small 12 volt car battery for p2900. we left the battery to Marilys small apartment which was close by & we then headed back to Ace in the SM mall to get the charger & few other things i thought i mite need. we then returned to Marily's place & then took the battery over to her uncles place which was in walking distance. i then went in search of a 1" thick board so i could build a box that the battery could spend the rest of it's life in. i know battery's can get damaged easily so i thought a wooden box would protect it some. i scored a 1 x 10 x 6' for p450 & also some screws for a few pesos more. between marily's brother & i we made quick work of constructing the needed box. i thought the wood mite split so i pre drilled all the holes with an old egg beater style drill that i brought with me to leave with Marily's farther. i also gave him the following , a claw hammer, a hand saw, 1 slotted & 1 philips screw drivers, a pry bar about 28"s long, a 30' tape measure,an old style bit brace & a handfull of bits.
 
the next day we wanted to stay closer to the bus depot  so we changed hotels & headed south a ways to the Dangay suites in Quezon city. we only stayed 1 night & even thought the room was large it didn't offer hot water & the place was somewhat run down.
only 2 stars in my book & I'll pass on staying there again unless they do some work to the place. the price $55.55 with tax again i booked it on-line through cheepoair.com.
 
 
well kids it's after midnight so tune in next time & i tell about my boat trips & how 1 of them left us standing on the dock while it headed out to sea.
 
 
pig   

[piglett]

Still alive, I see, and back home too. So when are you going to bring the wife back? Still waiting for the visa, I guess. Hope you had a good trip. When you get rested up write the rest of your trip report.

I'll get to all of that but not quite yet, & I'll tell all about the wasted trip to the embassy & them giving us a different form than we asked for.
 
 
pig

[thekfc]

Piggy you paid way too much for these hotels - you should have let the wife book them for you. Isabelle Garden was one of the hotels my wife wanted to stay in before she came (she wanted to stay near the airport since she had an early morning flight & wanted to avoid a few neighbors when she left). She was quoted a price of 1250 pesos which comes out to about $29+ (plus free transport to/from the airport).......but the main thing is that you went, spent time with your wife and got to do things that you couldn't on your first visit.

Waiting for the rest of the report. 



 

[Jaystone]

Great report so far, Piggy!
 
I look forward to seeing the rest of your report as well.  Maybe I can learn somethiing!   I will be going back there myself next month! Bring on those pics!
 
Jaystone

[piglett]

Piggy you paid way too much for these hotels - you should have let the wife book them for you. Isabelle Garden was one of the hotels my wife wanted to stay in before she came (she wanted to stay near the airport since she had an early morning flight & wanted to avoid a few neighbors when she left). She was quoted a price of 1250 pesos which comes out to about $29+ (plus free transport to/from the airport).......but the main thing is that you went, spent time with your wife and got to do things that you couldn't on your first visit.

Waiting for the rest of the report. 

what they don't tell you is the hotel room tax can be as much or more than the nightly room rate. my wife was quoted p1600 a night ....PLUS TAX
however in the province i don't recall seeing the room tax so maybe it's just a city thing ??

[piglett]

OK guys & gals I'm back to fill in some more of the blanks for ya.
 
the next day we grabbed a cab so we could board a bus bound for Batangas which is the port south of Manila. most of the taxi drivers on this trip were asking for the meter plus p50 which i thought was fine, after all i figured i could spare the $1.20 tip for the poor taxi driver. so once on the bus with our 6 yes i said 6 bags loaded up we started heading south. at one stop on the way to the port i was told that i should quickly exit the bus to make sure my bags were not snatched. i did & all was well. once at the port we headed to the terminal to wait for the ship that would take us to Romblon the province capital there we would board a smaller vessel that would arrive in Sibuyan 3 to 4 hours later. even thought i had 6 bags i
N E V E R  let any of the porters or "kind volunteers" get their mitts on my bags. i grabbed the battery which was about 40 lbs, my suitcase with wheels (43 lbs) & my large duffel bag (another 40 lbs) & headed on up stairs to the terminal & even thought i had a tough time no one got their grubby mitts on my bags. my wife had it ez she had my small carry on bag with a few items in it & a small soft sided cooler that was just big enough for 6 cans of coke & 2 med. sized bottles of water. & i think she might have has some other small thing because i remember counting 6 bags but at this point i don't recall what the last bag was.
 
who here feels good when some unknown porter heads off with your bags to who knows where (hopefully where they are supposed to go)
i just can't do it, i can't trust anyone that i have not met with my stuff & that is all there is to it.
 
so we board the 1st ship after a 3 or 4 hour wait
the wait was long but we didn't want to have a long delay on the 2 to 3 hour bus ride & then end up missing our ship so we arrived good & early.
 
once on the ship i was glad to see a couple of TVs that were set up for the guests. i spent the next few hours watching whatever DVD movies they decided to play & Marily went to take a nap. ( i swear she can sleep anytime day or night) once it cooled down enough on the ship i went to sleep & i don't even recall waking up at our 1st stop. the next morning i was up at about 6am & by 7am we were ready to exit & move our bags to the next ship.
as soon as we had our bags deposited we headed around the corner to grab a quick bite to eat knowing that those Philippine ship captains love to sit in port for at least an hour or 2 so we had plenty of time before we had to re board. ....................well guess what there happens to be 1 captain that likes to leave the port 10 min.after arriving & he must have been at the helm that day because we heard a horn blow & figured it was some kind of 1/2 hour or maybe 15 min. warning we were more a little shocked when we headed back around the corner & the dam old boat had left us standing there. just my luck to find the one captain in all of the Philippines that actually likes to stay on schedule.
 
 
tune in next time boys & girls for more about the stranded piglett & his bride.
 
 
pig    

[robert angel]

Wow Pig,
 

Maybe things are changing there, as hard as that is to believe. A few days back, I commented that in terms of time, schedules and punctuality, the only things that 'run as scheduled' over there are: daytime, nighttime and Christmas time.     Kind of like how they view the the weather: it's either hot or cold, raining or dry. How many people live in your Barangay? -> "Not too many". I finally, after ten years, found some PI census figures that told me, 658 people. In the 'big scheme' of things, 'numbers' like that don't matter to them, but the importance of knowing someone's birthdate is extremely important.
 
 
Time, time, time--boy, was I ever pissed when my wife, after I told her several times to get to the airport as early as humanly possible, so that she and her brother could get thru Manila traffic and catch a jet from Manila to Mindanao, which being some 7000 islands south of Manila/Luzon, is about as far apart as you can get and still stay in the same country.
 
Well, she did get there early, according to 'her understanding', but she read the flight itinerary I had printed three copies of WRONG. She thought leaving at  '1400 hours' meant 'Four o clock'. I guess her bro, who's a merchant mariner and I would 'hope' would have known that 1400 hours is 2:00--if he had been shown the paper woud;ve caught on, buthe  likely never looked at it, so couldn't help--I didn't ask.
 
So not only did I lose every cent for both their fares, but also the extra money we paid in advance to allow for some extra luggage weight.
 
To add insult to injury, she and her bro actually did get there about half an hour before the flight was 'really' scheduled to leave, but the airline said they could not board, as--it was 'too late', So they booked the next jet out and we paid twice over and then some.
 
Don't mean to 'derail' your great thread here, but when you started writing about 'time' and missing the boat--it immediately hit me, square upside the noggin again.
 
Hope your next chapter doesn't indicate that they 'put the screws' to you too!

[piglett]

Wow Pig,
 
 
Don't mean to 'derail' your great thread here, but when you started writing about 'time' and missing the boat--it immediately hit me, square upside the noggin again.
 
Hope your next chapter doesn't indicate that they 'put the screws' to you too!

nope not at all infact it all ended up working out well  Marily & i were able to use the unexpected down time to drag out all of the sh*t that has happened since i was last in the PI 13 months ago. we had some very long talks about cultural differences & also of our expectations of each other. by the time we were able to catch the next boat everything was "ship shape" so to speak.
 
ok just popped in , i'll return later in the day , time for work
my phone has been ringing day & night since i returned which i think is a good thing.
 
pig

[thekfc]

those 11 hour layovers a really tough

Next time plan accordingly so you do not have to deal with those killer leftover - unless you are going into town.
Folks,  I have just heard it through the bamboo vine that the pigster did get roasted. A family member is now impersonating piggie pretending to be him.   

Great report so far Marily, oops sorry I mean piggy. 

[piglett]

Next time plan accordingly so you do not have to deal with those killer leftover - unless you are going into town.
Folks,  I have just heard it through the bamboo vine that the pigster did get roasted. A family member is now impersonating piggie pretending to be him.   

Great report so far Marily, oops sorry I mean piggy. 

well K i did plan , i planned on saving $400 on my ticket by having a layover in Japan , but that's not to say that i enjoyed it though. i think next time i head over there i will have Marily with me so we mite just make a stop in Hawaii & visit with Marily's uncle who lives there.that would probably keep us out of japan all together.
 
 
pig

[piglett]

OK so when i was that  silly boat heading out without us on board i thought "oh sh*t what do we do now " well after asking around at a couple of places we found a large clean room with nice cold air/con for p1000. they had smaller rooms for p800 but i didn't even look at them. we had only the clothes on our backs & due to the fact that it was lightly raining i had damp feet that only got wetter as the day went on. we found a place that had flip flops cheep ( i think p200) & also a got 2 pair of new socks too. after that we found tooth brushes & a few other small things that we thought we would need to hold up there until the next day. the only gripe about the room , no fridge  but except for that it was a nice room with a big bed (mite have been queen size). so we head back to the room & start to talk about everything that had happened in the last 13 months. by the end of the day we had it all ironed out & decided to go get some dinner. we found a small place the food was mostly local type of food (fish & rice) but they did offer hamburgers. they were small so i ordered 2 & even thought they were not up to my normal standards they were not all that bad, just not what i would call good. so better than 1/2 way through our meal i see something run into the kitchen . i figure it to be a cat.......but it didn't have a cat's tail. i got brave so i asked the owner if he had a cat.........
"he said oh no that was R A T !!!" 
now i have seen rats big ones but but this thing was 3 times that size, good thing i already had my small burgers. so we headed back to the room & slept well. the next day we got up early & boarded the boat that had left us behind.
 
3 hours later we arrived we went to pick up our bags
marily had called her sister Rose  who lives in the town were the boat docks. she hired a trike & moved our bags to her house.
he had a small meal there with her & then hired another trike to take us to where Marily's unknowing family waited. we had wanted to just show up in the province so that is exactly what we did.
 
1st off 32km in a trike it hard on the botton. about 2/3rds through the trip t had to climb out & hang off the side. lucky for me there is a little step about 4 inches wide & i held me just fine. my legs & botton were hurting bad so i had to do something & by standing my legs were able to absorb much of the rough dirt roads punishment. marilys mom was rather shocked when we just walked up to her vegtable stand which is on the way to the family home. we stayed & chatted for a few min. & then after buying a 50 kilo sack or rice from a near by vendor we headed to were we would spend the night.
 
Marilys dad we out fishing so we aproaprated the motor bike & headed off to do a few errans in town. i had agreed to make a donation to the church the last time i was in town. but due to the fact that Marilys dad got sick (the kano has to pay) the wedding money ran short fast so i had burnt through the rest of my cash so the wedding could continue. in the end it all worked out but i had to explain my situation to the priest. he said he understood & i told him that the next time i was in town i would have his cash.
 
i gave him p3000 in a sealed envelope & told him i would have some more the next time i visited there. he was happy & we headed off to the mayors house to deliver some new hampshire maple syrup. as it turned out he was in manila but the maid said she would take it & tell him we had stopped by. the next stop was unplanned, i happened to see a rooms for rent sign & due to the fact that i have an aunt & uncle interested in maybe wintering in the PI i figured i would take them a few pics of the rooms & get a price quote.
the price was way high........ i mean p3000 a month wow that is almost $70 a month electric included. the room had a bedroom about 14' square, a small but clean comfort room, a kitchen with a better than average sized fridge a 1 compartment sink & a small kitchen table. i didn't see a living room so i would have to add a couple of comfy chairs to the bedroom & probably a counter top stove. there was no air/con but it is much cooler there than say Manila, so a couple of good fans & you would probably make it just fine if really cheep living was what you were after there.
 
after that we went to see Marilys aunt who helped with the wedding & she was shocked when we pulled up. 
 
her & Marily talked & i couldn't understand any of it but i didn't really care, unlike some latins they talked soft so i didn't find it annoying
after 20 or 30 min there we started to head back towards my in-laws house. on the was we stopped to talk with the long time German resident who married a local lady some 14 years ago. i also brought some maple syrup with me for him. we probably talked with him & his wife for 30 or more min. one thing they said was at first they did have real problems with relatives just showing up unannounced & they wouldn't leave until all the beer & food was consumed.
in time the said they had to lay down some ground rules
"after 2 weeks all guests must go home!!!"
the old German who is 76 & his 30 something year old wife now have little or no problems with long term guests.
as we were walking to our borrowed motorbike Marily said to me "wow if we ever have a place in the PI we had better make sure it is a ways away from my family here"
 
so we headed back to the house & Marily's dad "papa" as i started to call him was back with his boat. we headed into the house & as we was entering the front porch i handed him the fishfinder. wow was he some happy to see that. i then showed him the charger & the battery. we then headed down to the beach to see if we could install it & then get it to work. he was very nervous about me drilling any holed in his boat & wanted to install that fishfinder himself, but the direction were in english not tagalog. so i told him everything i wanted to do before i did it, he would say OK through Marily & then i would proceed. the only tricky thing was the sonar mount. there was no real place for it , the boat had no transom so were do i put the silly thing ? we decided on an temporary adjustable mount which was a long bamboo pole. we took the boat out into the water I got  the thing to pick up some dots in the water (probably fish)but it still needed fine tuning in & i think the sonar part of the fishfinder needed to be further back (it was about 4' ahead of the back end of the boat)
once we returned to sure i found out that one of Marily's uncles there on the island had a fishfinder in the past before it got damaged & he was willing to help fine tune this one & he could also read english (probably from his college days) i was happy to step aside & let this unknown uncle sort this little problem out the next day. i figured that way if things go badly it's not on me
 
OK I'll try to pick up tomorrow where i am leaving off
 
bed time for me
pig   
 
         

[michaelb]

Sounds pretty good so far.....just call the missed ship an "adventure"....but the other stuff sounds really great.

[thekfc]

well K i did plan , i planned on saving $400 on my ticket by having a layover in Japan

Did you go into the city?


Piggy, I may be busting your chops but I (we) plan on doing the same think you did - visit unannounced.

[piglett]

Did you go into the city?


Piggy, I may be busting your chops but I (we) plan on doing the same think you did - visit unannounced.

K i just got on the bus & headed to the next airport
i know i should have looked around but it was getting late & i was getting tired so i didn't really feel like messing around & end up getting lost & missing my flight home.
japan is ok but i really like the Philippines much better
i find the PI to be sort of like some parts of Mexico
except more people speek good english
but they are friendly like Mexico in the mid 90' when i was there.
also when i have to exchange $3 to get enough change to buy 1 can of coke i know i am in the wrong country 
 
 
your porkness
 
 

[thekfc]

also when i have to exchange $3 to get enough change to buy 1 can of coke i know i am in the wrong country 

A few days ago I had to chew out a friend of mine who just came back after spending  a week each in Macau, Pusan, HK. I asked him how was the food & he told me that he mostly had Burger King & McDonalds.


That guy love Asian food & we were (with some friends) at the time sitting in a Korean restaurant  eating.  I told him you went halfway around the world and end up eating f**king Burger King & McDonalds when you could have had "real" Asian food.   

[piglett]

OK let me jump back in here & see if i can finish my trip report for all of ya. so after getting the fishfinder to work "sort of" we headed back to the house which is just across the street.
Marilys mom had fixed up a good sized meal including .....you guessed it rice & fish : )
i had some of both of those along with some home made french fries
& some sliced cucumbers in vinegar that had a little black pepper on them. there was also some kind of bread but due to the fact that there was no sigh of any butter i just moved the slices around when just Marily & i were in the kitchen to make it look like i had eaten one. I had already had some bread in the province on my last trip & it's rather bland tasting IMHO.
so after eating Marily asked if i wanted to do a little swimming & due to the fact that the rest of the family hadn't eaten yet (they eat in shifts guests,mother & farther, then brothers, then sisters)
so guys if you see a lady who has in her profile 
"i like to eat, i like to eat, i like to eat, i like to eat", that doesn't mean she is some big fat @ss that means she has to wait till the rest of the family has eaten & if there is little or nothing left then she doesn't get to eat much that day.
 
so we went swimming for about 15 min. just enough to cool off & then we both took a quick bath to get the sea salt off of the 2 of us.
by this time the rest of the family was finished eating & after hanging out in the livingroom for a while i asked Marily's adopted sister Mia who was just finishing the dishes if she wanted to play UNO.
i already knew the answer due to the fact that i left her a pack of uno cards last year when i was there. we started with just 3 players & then marily' sister Rose joined in after getting her young daughter to bed. then a couple of neighborhood kids showed up (probably cousins)
and Marily's sister in-law Jovee wanted in on the action too.
we probably finished the last hand at around 11pm or later & due to all the traveling i was tired so we headed off to bed. come to find out the foam mattress that i paid for last year was rolled up & not being used.
i asked why & Marily said "oh they feel it is cooler to sleep on a mat rite on the FLOOR" guess what they have this new thing called a F A N & i like them really well but hey to each his own.    
 
the next day we got up early (6:30am) & boarded a jeepney 
it took us to the port & we got on the smaller ship for a 3.5 hour ride to Romblon the province capital. once there the larger ship was waiting for us & i didn't waste any time transferring us & our bags which were fewer than before. the next morning we arrived in Batangas & after finding a bus that still had some seats left we headed north. the trip was quick & within 3 hours we were back in Manila. the taxi driver wanted p250 to take us to marilys uncles house which is a bit of a drive so we agreed & loaded our bags in the trunk. we had made a deal with marilys uncle who lives in Hawaii that we would buy a 50 kilo sack of rice for the house & in exchange we could use the 1 bedroom upstairs that had air/con. the rice only cane to p1450 (p400 cheaper than in the province) but before the end of the day the requests for money started. 1st off the fridge was empty & unplugged. marily brother asked for p200 to go get some pork. i said OK & Marily handed it on over to him. we had some shopping to do so i think we also picked up a few needed things for the house while we were out. Marily only had 2 pair of jeans which was way too few for new hampshire in the winter so we stopped by a discount mall & scored 5 pair . they wanted between p199 & p300  for the ones my wife wanted (good thing she has cheep tastes)
i let her pick the ones she liked & i payed for them.
 
oh that brings up 1 thing that i would like to include
my wife informed me that in the province the wife holds all or most of the money. if not people will thing her husband doesn't trust her.
i gave Marily 1/2 of all the cash i had & just let her pay for everything while were were on Sibuyan island.However before spending 1 peso she would always come & ask me.
 
OK now that i have laid that little bit of info out I'll see if i can continue. the 2nd to last day we figured it would be good to round up the rest of the forms that we needed for Marily's visa.
she didn't get her packet because she had moved & you can't do a change of address on-line due to the fact that that particular page only had drop down menus & you can't just type in what is needed.
the silly thing wants the state name & there is no place for the country name.
anyhow we needed forms & i hadn't been able to find them all on-line. we headed over to the US embassy by the way of 2 jeepneys
(i think i said my wife was cheep ....rite?)
then there was a short walk & there we were
i had a printed list of what we needed & they said one form needed to be printed & we needed to go on-line to do it but they did give us the address. then they handed what i thought was the other form that we asked for ......WRONG it was the ds203 part 1 & 2 that we already had, what a bunch of bone heads. so we headed to the nearest cafe to again try our luck. somehow we were able to find the needed forms & after filling out all we could rite there we had 5 copies of each printed. we then headed to Chow King which is Marily's favorite place to eat. i think i took her there once a day every day i was in Manila & she never complained. the chicken is really good & once you dump the little cup of sauce on your rice you are good to go.
after that we returned to Samploc the area of Manila in which marily & her brothers live. marilys land lady had asked for an p500 advance payment before we left so we headed over there to hand over the dough. Marilys rent is only p2000 a month & she normally pays 1/2 of that on the 15th & the rest on the 30th.
we spent our last full day together at the Manila zoo
& except for 1 very skinny tiger it looked good for a 3rd world zoo.
marily enjoyed it as i don't think anyone has ever taken her any places.  (I'll see if i can change that )
that last night i figured i should have a few drinks with marily's brothers,cousins, & 2 uncles that live in the house where we were staying. i asked how much some local beer was & they said they normally spend p640. for that we got 12 yes i said TWELVE lager bottles of Red Horse. it was ice cold so as soon as we got back to the house we started rite in. the timing couldn't have been better because the cock fights were just starting on TV. once we cracked open the 7th bottle i figured i would finish my last drink & then head off to bed. come to find out the remaining relatives finished off all the beer & then headed out to do some shots!!!! I'm glad i was sound asleep next to my wife those boys can drink!!!
 
the next morning at 10:00am Marily & i boarded a cab that one of her brothers went & found, the fare to the airport p300 plus p50 tip
i said no problem & off we went. about 45 min. later we were & i gave my wife a good long hug & kiss & entered the airport
i was about 45 min. early so they ticket agents were not yet taking checked bags. after waiting till they got set up i handed over my bag & i headed to the correct gate to wait another 3 hours for my flight.
it took me to Japan & after my layover & airport change i landed in new york. after all of that the 40 min. flight up to Boston was a pleasure & so was the ride home.
 
I'll have some more thoughts on this trip soon but this give all a fairly good idea of what i had going on there in the PI IMHO
 
 
pig     
     

[thekfc]

 

she didn't get her packet because she had moved & you can't do a change of address on-line due to the fact that that particular page only had drop down menus & you can't just type in what is needed.
the silly thing wants the state name & there is no place for the country name.
anyhow we needed forms & i hadn't been able to find them all on-line. we headed over to the US embassy by the way of 2 jeepneys
(i think i said my wife was cheep ....rite?)
then there was a short walk & there we were
i had a printed list of what we needed & they said one form needed to be printed & we needed to go on-line to do it but they did give us the address. then they handed what i thought was the other form that we asked for ......WRONG it was the ds203 part 1 & 2 that we already had, what a bunch of bone heads.

It looks like someone wasn't being proactive and getting familiarize with the process. 

You have already receive the NOA2 & did not have to wait for any package to arrive.

These were my steps:
1. Call NVC to get case #
2. DS-3032 Choice of Agent was emailed by wife via her email account.
3.I paid the AOS Bill
4. After bill payment is cleared - printed cover sheet & payment receipt
5. After DS-3032 is entered into system & IV bill is generated  - I paid it.
6. After bill payment is cleared - I printed again
7. DS-230 is generated - But I was being proactive and already had DS-230 completed & all supporting documents in hand.
8. Send in I-864 package & DS-230 package.

I was in & out of NVC and case was completed in under a month (plus I did delay  for a few days with the IV). I also knew that our case was completed before receiving the email as I did call them to find out after receiving the SIF.

We both received package 4 via email.

All "communication" was done via email - the only snail mail we waited for were NOA 1 & 2.

that last night i figured i should have a few drinks with marily's brothers,cousins, & 2 uncles that live in the house where we were staying. i asked how much some local beer was & they said they normally spend p640. for that we got 12 yes i said TWELVE lager bottles of Red Horse. it was ice cold so as soon as we got back to the house we started rite in. the timing couldn't have been better because the cock fights were just starting on TV. once we cracked open the 7th bottle i figured i would finish my last drink & then head off to bed. come to find out the remaining relatives finished off all the beer & then headed out to do some shots!!!! I'm glad i was sound asleep next to my wife those boys can drink!!!
 

[piglett]

It looks like someone wasn't being proactive and getting familiarize with the process. 

no truth be told due to the fact that Marily hadn't even taken her nursing test i saw no reason for her to be sitting on  visa that couldn't be used for months. with my luck there would be a snag there & she would end up with an expired visa. that would really suck.
 
However that is no longer going to hold water because she has already taken the test. so i guess I'll have to get on the phone & see if i can find a mammal at the processing center in Portsmouth new hampshire & see what in the hell they want next from me.
 
thanks
pig

[thekfc]

no truth be told due to the fact that Marily hadn't even taken her nursing test i saw no reason for her to be sitting on  visa that couldn't be used for months. with my luck there would be a snag there & she would end up with an expired visa. that would really suck.
 
However that is no longer going to hold water because she has already taken the test. so i guess I'll have to get on the phone & see if i can find a mammal at the processing center in Portsmouth new hampshire & see what in the hell they want next from me.
 
thanks
pig

2 key words I said before:
1. Getting familiarize - finding out what documents are needed & what the steps are.
2. Being proactive - getting case number, collecting required documents, paying the required fees.

The above can (and should) be done without sending any documents to NVC.  The process will be in "paused" mode until they receive the documents (I-864/DS-230 packages).

so i guess I'll have to get on the phone & see if i can find a mammal at the processing center in Portsmouth new hampshire & see what in the hell they want next from me.

Have you done the following?

Get your case #
Wife email DS-3032 - choice of agent
Pay AOS Bill
Pay IV bill
Collect required documents from your wife (for DS-230) & for the I-864.