Old white man with young small Filipino girl. A common sight.
With only two days left until my visa expires, I needed to go to the Immigration office in Batangas today. Batangas is an hour boat ride north of Puerto Galera plus I had to figure out where the Immigration office was. Grace decided to come along with me and hang out at the SM mall in Batangas. We left on the 9:15 AM boat.
When we arrived in Batangas, I coordinated with Grace to meet at the Starbucks at 12:30 PM at the SM mall. I gave myself about an hour and a half to get my visa extended. The first tricycle driver offered to drive me for 150 pesos to the Immigration office; I knew this was too much and told him to take me for 40 pesos. He left. A friendly jeepney driver I was talking to at the time found me a driver to take me for 50 pesos. I agreed.
Immigration Office, not the Veterinary School!
My tricycle driver had no clue where or what he was taking me to. First he took me to a veterinary school and then to a garden. Finally he asked someone and that guy pointed us in the right direction. I brought my cell phone charger and charged my phone at the Immigration office because I knew Caroline wanted to call me and meet up with us later.
At Immigration, I had to pay six pesos for them to photocopy my documents. Twenty minutes later when I got my bill for my visa, they charged me 1,000 pesos extra for “express” service. The lady said that without express service, I wouldn’t necessarily get my visa today. It only takes them 30 minutes total to process my visa, how could it take more than a day? I can’t see how they can take longer than a day unless they just put it off until the next day. There was only one other person waiting in front of me.
It turns out I was 400 pesos ($10) short of the total bill. I had to go out, find a bank and get money. I needed to get money regardless, but was going to get it at the mall. They had a guy accompany me because I was clueless as to where to go. He was nice because he found transportation and showed me exactly where to go.
When we got back to the Immigration office I was ready to pay but then the lady helping me told me I should go out and eat lunch and come back to pay because it was lunch time. It was 12:05 PM and the entire office closes at 12 noon until 1 PM for lunch. I told her I couldn’t, and needed to meet a friend at 12:30 PM. Not only that, but I didn’t want to find a place to eat! She said she’ll process it, but she was “very hungry”. She processed my visa by 12:10 PM.
I had 20 minutes to meet up with Grace at a mall that was supposedly far away. I tried hiring a tricycle but he wouldn’t drive me for less than 100 pesos. I felt that was too expensive so I went to a jeepney. The driver in the jeepney realized I looked lost and said for me to sit in the front. He drove me to a town center where he pointed me to a tricycle and said it should only cost 50 pesos. He didn’t charge me at all for the ride.
I made it to SM mall and met Grace at the Starbucks slightly after 12:30 PM. She was sipping on a tea in the heat outside. I was extremely thirsty and insisted that we go eat somewhere. We decided to eat at a Japanese fast food place. My tonkastu was good and drinking a large Coke was refreshing.
After lunch we just walked around the nice air conditioned mall. It was quite large, and as modern as the malls in the US. I dropped by a pharmacy to get contact solution and 30 pieces of 100 mg Aspirin for Warren; they gave me 100 pieces of 100 mg Aspirin instead. Indiana Jones was showing at the theater in the mall and I really wanted to see it but we wouldn’t have enough time to meet up with Caroline. I bought a can opener I’ve needed for a month to eat my corned beef at home.
Tricycle ride with Grace.
Venders along Batangas pier.
Grace and I quickly got bored of the mall and decided to go back to the pier to meet up with Caroline and catch the 3:30 PM ferry back to Sabang. We waited at the pier for 15 minutes looking for Caroline. She never texted me back after saying she was on the boat out to Batangas. Eventually we met up with her and I later found out she couldn’t respond to my texts because she was out of cell phone minutes. It was good to see her even though it was only for 15 minutes. I was sad to see her go off to Manila and then to Japan.
My first attempt at chop suey.
Back in Sabang I went to the market to get some food and then went home to make some chop suey. After dinner, Maziar wanted to meet up for drinks at the Point bar but I accidentally fell asleep watching TV.
- jason
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