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philippines

Taal volcano lake Batangas panorama

Philippines: Taal Lake Volcano and Peoples Park, Tagaytay

Date: 18th May 2013

Today, I began my sight-seeing in Philippines. Janet, my host, suggested going to Tagaytay, largely to see Taal Lake (which is actually in Batangas).

Manila highway
We set off on some highway that passed by Manila Bay
Manila highway to Tagaytay
We passed through a few other towns along the way

The journey to Tagaytay took nearly an hour and cost ₱105 each (one way). I took out my DSLR once we reached a bus terminal at Tagaytay. From here, Janet negotiated with a tricycle taxi to take us down to the shore town of Talisay.

Trike taxi Tagaytay Philippines
It was a downhill ride
Taal lake Tagaytay Philippines
The trike would stop at certain turns to give me a chance to photograph Taal lake
Birds on road Tagaytay
These colourful birds were at every corner of this stretch
Taal lake boats Batangas Philippines
The many, many boats on Taal lake. One of which we would be taking to get to the volcano island.

Once down, the tricycle dropped us at a restaurant-slash-tourism center. There we negotiated the price for taking a boat to Taal volcano island, horse rides to the top and back. We finally settled for ₱3000 (Rs. 4300/$68/€51) for two persons.

Taal lake boat ride Batangas Philippines
Ladies first

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Philippines Consulate emblem Chennai

The crap I went through to get my Philippines tourist visa this time

I’ve been itching to write this post since I got my Philippines visa stamped back in early May. I was very upset and stressed over the entire ordeal. But let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

I first visited Philippines in 2011. It ended up becoming my greatest trip till date. The photos I took, the places I visited, and the experiences I had made for a series of blog posts that became very popular — especially among Filipinos! So popular that Philippines is now the third highest country driving traffic to my website. I’ve gotten hundreds of comments, e-mails and messages on Facebook from Filipinos thanking me and praising me for giving Philippines a visit.

Philippines traffic to Mithunonthe.net
You will find this stat box on the right column under the ‘Live Traffic Feed’ widget

When I left Philippines in 2011, I knew I wanted to go back and thought about finally doing it earlier this year. The initial plan was to visit Philippines first and then go to South Korea from Manila. I even got a great deal on a Cathay Pacific flight going from Bangalore → Hong Kong → Manila and the return from Incheon → Hong Kong → Bangalore for around Rs. 32k. Unfortunately in April, some idiot in North Korea decided to issue a bunch of threats to their wealthier neighbour and bragged about dropping bombs there and starting a war. Of course, the situation was made worse by Western media, who made a bigger deal out of it than the South Korean media did.

Still, I kept thinking “what if…” and I was considering cancelling the South Korea portion of my journey. I ended up doing so when I began my visa processing work and found out that Philippines has since opened up a consulate in Chennai, and my passport would have to go there first and then go to New Delhi for my South Korean tourist visa. With under three weeks left before my departure date, I called up Goibibo and sadly cancelled the South Korea portion of my flight. I had to shuffle dates, make fresh bookings to Manila and all-in-all I lost around Rs. 5000.

But my misery wasn’t over. In 2011, I got my Philippines visa done through Thomas Cook, who after charging Rs. 1000 as their service fee, got my passport stamped and sent back from New Delhi in just a week’s time. I went to the same Thomas Cook branch in Koramangala, only to be told that all visa applications are now done at the MG Road office. But just to be sure, they called up the Thomas Cook office in Chennai. Then the guy tells me: “Thomas Cook can’t do Philippines visa”. I’m like, “what?!”. I went back home annoyed and decided to visit the MG Road branch of Thomas Cook the next day for better clarification.

When I went to the MG Road branch with all my documents (as specified on the Philippines Embassy website), the Thomas Cook staff told me I may have to provide an additional document. Annoyed that I had to come back again the next day, I asked her if she was sure Thomas Cook could handle the Philippines visa processing. She assured me “of course,” but when I told her what the guy at the Koramangala branch told me, she decided to call up the Chennai office to confirm. She herself was shocked to hear that the Chennai office said they no longer handle Philippines visa applications.

When I asked her what was the reason, she told me they wouldn’t say but it was a blanket “no, we don’t do that anymore” and that the applicant (me) will have to go in person to the Chennai consulate and apply. Which was ridiculous to me, because I didn’t have to deal with all this the last time! Instead, she suggested sending my passport to the Philippines Embassy in New Delhi. When I asked her how long that would take, she told me 7-10 working days. Which was too risky for me because I saw the number of passports the MG Road branch sends to New Delhi every day — it’s in the hundreds, and to various embassies! Add to that, now the service fee for sending it to New Delhi had gone up to Rs. 1700.

I told her I need to think about this because for that kind of money, I can go to Chennai myself and get it done in a day. When I got back home, I felt frustrated over the days lost and all the running back & forth. I called up the Chennai Philippines consulate to check if I needed to apply in person and I was rudely interrupted by a lady who worked there to be told “of course I could use agents like Thomas Cook!” and there was no need for me to come.

But I didn’t feel like wasting any more time, so I packed up my bag, carried copies of every document, carried extra photographs, and decided to go to Chennai by bus that very night.

I reached Chennai at dawn and called up my cousin brother Nitesh, who offered to pick me up and take me to his place to rest before going to the Philippines Consulate on Mount Road. I didn’t want to bother him, but given I barely slept in the bus (due to the nervousness), I accepted his offer. After breakfast, Nitesh dropped me at the consulate and was nice enough to wait for me, thinking that all I had to do was just drop all my documents and come back later to collect my stamped passport.

Philippines Consulate Chennai office
It begins

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‘It’s more fun in the Philippines’ – I just had to do it too!

Last week, the Philippines Department of Tourism unveiled its latest campaign. While we have ‘Incredible India!,’ Malaysia has ‘Truly Asia’ and Philippines had ‘WOW! Philippines,’ the new campaign is called ‘It’s more fun in the Philippines‘. It may not have sounded great instantly, but I quickly began to like it as I saw more of the campaign’s visuals. It’s a very effective campaign in getting the youth of Philippines to play their part in getting creative with their own submissions and sharing them with their friends. It’s trendy, very current… and absolutely freakin’ perfect as a meme generator!

The brains behind this campaign surely knew people were going to have fun with the tagline and it’s many, many possible variations. Even though the Department of Tourism won’t appreciate the negative variations, being the Philippines, it just can’t be helped. As they say: “There is no such thing as bad publicity

So here are my creations:

Dog stretching Palawan more fun in Philippines (Above photo was taken on a bus ride from Puerto Princesa to El Nido)

Hide and seek Batad children It's more fun in Philippines(Photo was clicked while undertaking the arduous trek to Batad village in Banaue)

Angeles City street women more fun in Philippines(The above happened to me in Angeles City)

Pretending to be Roman Its more fun in the Philippines

Good friday cross its more fun in philippines meme(The above two photo photographs were from the Good Friday celebrations in Pampanga)

Cock ring dancing more fun in Philippines(These kids were having a ball in El Nido)

Coconut water It's more fun in the Philippines
I also considered "You'll get sick of drinking it in the Philippines" (Boku = coconut)

(This was taken on Seven Commandos beach)

Metallica disco It's more fun in Philippines
(If you don't get the Lars Ulrich reference, then you don't know much about Metallica's episode with Napster and copyright laws)

And finally…

NAIA sorry its more fun in PhilippinesUpdate (10/01/2012):

Dog on trike roof It's more fun in the Philippines
(Took this shot on my phone while leaving El Nido)

Update (17/01/2012): Got some more! 🙂

Tarsiers Dobby It's More Fun in the Philippines
For those who don't know, that character is Dobby from the Harry Potter films

(The tarsiers are famous residents of Bohol)

Skinny dipping Its more fun in the Philippines
I'm glad that little naked boy came out blurred as he jumped from that coconut tree

(Again, another photo I clicked when I toured Bohol)

Chocolate Hills It's more fun in the Philippines

Witches broomstick It's more fun in the Philippines

(Both taken from Bohol’s most famous Chocolate Hills)

—-

Now, if there are any sensitive Filipinos that land up on this page and thinks the above is a mockery of your country by an Indian — please don’t. I’m not insulting the Philippines at all. I’m sure Filipinos can do that way better than I can. In fact, here’s what I think about your country. Trust me, I would love to visit Philippines again! I just did this for fun, like the many who have turned this campaign into an internet meme.

As soon as this new slogan was announced, some Filipinos lambasted it saying it’s a rip-off of a Swiss tourism ad from 1951. Who cares! ‘It’s more fun in the Philippines‘ works better for a country that has a lot more to offer than the snow-capped nation of banks with illicit money. I just hope the campaign is well promoted and sees a return on its investment.

P.S: I’ll update this post with some more pics as and when I come up with new ones 🙂 Oh, and if you want to create your own version using software such as Photoshop (what I used), download the Harabara Bold font from here, the slogan .eps file and you can refer to this website for some tips.

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