Philippine Embassy Invitation Letter

My in-laws are coming over here again for their annual vacation during my daughter's birthday. This time my sister in law's best friend is going with them but problem is there has been incidents when random Filipino tourist visiting Singapore are being held at the Philippine Immigration at the airport. When held, the traveling Filipino will not be allowed to board and forfeit his airline reservation.

According to the Philippine embassy website "The Bureau of Immigration in the Philippines inspects all international-bound passengers. This is in line with the Bureau’s mandate under the Anti-Human Trafficking Law of 2003 (R.A. 9233) and the Amended Migrant Workers’ Act of 2004 (R.A. 10022), to stop human trafficking and illegal recruitment."

Personally I don't think this rule or law is very convenient. What the PH immigration does is randomly selects individual interrogate / interview them the purpose of their visit to Singapore, would ask the tourist if they are currently working in some company in the PH, how long would they stay in SG, if they are planning to go back home after few days, etc etc. If they feel you are an eligible tourist, they will allow you to else, you go back home. My sister in law during her first visit here almost didnt make it to the plane. It was her worst experience in traveling.

Until we knew about the Invitation Letter that can be requested from the Philippine Embassy. Still being primitive in a high technology country, the Philippine Embassy doesn't have an option to request this online. You really have to personally go to Nasim Road and process this yourself. What worst is you can't get this right away, you will be ask to go back after a few days when it is ready. Spell hassle. The Philippines has never failed on this part since.

At  the airport’s immigration counter, a Filipino tourist bound for Singapore may be asked by the immigration officer to produce an “invitation letter”. This refers to a letter made by a Filipino based in Singapore, inviting a Filipino relative (the passenger) to Singapore for a visit. The inviting Filipino and the invited Filipino must be relatives up the fourth degree of consanguinity (his/her immediate relatives, up to first cousins) or affinity (which is by marriage, up to the first cousins of the spouse). http://www.philippine-embassy.org.sg/consular/invitation-letter/

And this costs around $45. Spell business. Worst, profiting from their own Citizens.

So with the limitation of the invitation letter, we cannot process this for our friend. She's booked to stay for 9 days, planning to stay 3 nights in a hotel and the remaining days in our house but I'm not sure what's the plan now.

Good luck, Marie.


Blessings ♥

Share |

Summer in Bintan Indonesia - Singapore getaways

I've been dying to dip myself into the waters of a 'real beach', so 3 weeks ago was a dream come true after so many years. I am was a beach bum. I was browsing my Multiply page the other day and was surprise about the fact that almost every 2 months we were on the beach - when I was still single. Deym. I want that again.

We had an overnight summer excursion last  Apr 30-May 1 2012. Thank God some of our beach buddies are already working here in Singapore, so friends Rocky and Karlo went with us to Nirwana Gardens Resort in Bintan Indonesia. It was our first time to visit the place.

photo courtesy - Nirwana website

Bintan is a 55 minute ferry ride from Singapore. Its quiet near so Bintan has been a common beach destination for residents of Singapore. When taking the Public Transport: Take the MRT to Tanah Merah MRT (for our case we took the cab going to TM as we are meeting our friends there), board bus 35 and take it to the last stop at Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal (12 mins).  Although it was raining when we left Singapore but Mr Sun met us as soon as we arrived Bintan. Thank you.

That's my daughter and I, lower left is a welcome signage upon arriving to Bintan, lower right is a photo of our ferry

The Gang! Manang Jiji took the photo

   We were actually welcomed by local dancers. I luv it. :D Our rooms were not yet ready when we arrived so we decided to use our freebies while waiting.

Archery

 The boys, Marv and Karl went for an air dive. :D neah, flying fox.

Daddy! Weeeee!

We didnt know what to do and where to go after these activities. It was very hot as well so we thought of going back to the hotel to take a rest. There was only one room available at the moment so we invited the couple to join us for a while. We had a nap.

Too bad I wasn't able to get photos of our room. We were all tired and wanted to just doze off.

And then of course, when we woke up, we had our chance to enjoy the beach.

and spend overtime in the pool.

It was fun! See you again beaches friends. :D


Blessings ♥

Share |

SEOUL trip : Story behind Arrival

I went over my blog and I didn't see posts regarding our HK new year celebration 2010. Shame, I could have shared a great and blessed moments to everyone but, I am not going to miss sharing another blessing when we went to Seoul for Christmas 2011.

We left Singapore Dec 22 at 10 AM via China Eastern (CE). Aside from using the terminal 3 at the Changi airport, there is really nothing special with CE. Actually, we won't be taking the same airlines next time, although the food and service are okay, but the transfer is a hassle and the planes are small. When you have small planes, turbulence became part of your flight - you wouldn't like it.

So we arrived in Seoul around 9 PM - that is 8 PM SG/HK/PH time. We landed safe and thank God not too tired but we were confuse how to go to the baggage claim counter - quiet challenging. We didn't see any useful signage so we just went with the crowd until one local with a friendly smile affirmed that we are going the right way. We took the train from the arrival hall going to where our luggage are. While on transit, this local was even helpful to ask us if we already know what bus to take from the airport. We have our cheat sheet, my copy of what/where/how on the itinerary but we were still open to her suggestions.

Everything was going good until we arrived at the baggage claim area and knew about the sad truth that we can't find our bags. I thought they were just joking, that all of a sudden someone will come running to us saying that, "Hey, dont worry now, your luggage are here!" But NO. The Aseana team spoke to us and told us our bags were left in Singapore and will be in Seoul tomorrow afternoon. And I dont know what to do. I spoke to CE customer support and they were not even apologetic of what happened. They say they are giving us 50USD for the hassle. Wow, thank you but I  need our bags! *cry*

We were just thankful because I have my daughter's small bag with extra clothes and milk but her vitamins and emergency medicines are all in her luggage. Also grateful that we decided to bring all our winter jackets with us because we thought we will be transiting via China which was on 1 deg cel coldness - so we have to tag along our jackets with us. Buti na lang talaga because when we went outside, it was freezing cold.

 We took bus 6103 going to Gangnam and from there our host came to fetch us.  Into her WV convertible car then off to her posh pad.

To be continued...



Blessings ♥

Share |

Re-planning

I pray the Lord will allow us to, please please please Lord. Thanks in advance. Your gift to us this Christmas, pretty please?

Kimchi, anyone?

Blessings ♥

Share |

Not soon, Not yet

I thought I could see you this year, actually next month but the Lord said "no", not too soon, not yet. I am a little sad but His will be done. We will wait for the right time, He makes all things beautiful in His time anyway. Looking forward to that.

Proverbs 19:21 ²¹ Many are the plans in a person’s heart,
   but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.

=)


Blessings ♥

Share |

Still hoping

We already have our personal documents ready but we're still waiting for the invitation letter from them. I checked the airline ticket this morning and the airfare is higher as our travel date is nearing. I only have allotted budget  for this trip and if it goes beyond it we are not joining them anymore. It will only be my husband who's traveling to one of our dream vacation destinations.

Still, I hope to see you soon!


Blessings ♥

Share |

Cathay Pacific : SIN-HK-SIN Dec 2010

Our much awaited Hong Kong vacation came to pass - we were there December 27 2010 - Jan 01 2011. Yes, we celebrated New Year out of the country. It was different. I was such a great experience.

Instead of staying on a hotel, I  canceled our booking and stayed at my husband's relatives in Mong Kok. Thanks to them, we had free accommodation for 5 days.

I will write about our 5 day trip to HK, discuss all I can on every post and share it with you but for now I would like to sort of review our airlines.

We flew via Cathay Pacific and had no regrets. No delayed flights, crews are polite, good customer service, the food is great, the flight wasn't bumpy at all, they also have freebies for kids - my only complain is the seat arm rest plus the tray are unclean, we have to clean them with baby wipes nevertheless, still, I didn't report it to the crew anymore, they were tolerable because the services are great. In short we had a pleasant flight and will surely consider them again.

These are my daughter's pictures during the flight. Those are her meal, she loved it. We were given special meals by the way, I requested for it when I book our tickets online. Unlimited drinks, they serve wine and tea, bread, peanuts, etc. The freebies for kids are nice. Although Stitch is not H's favorite but the goodies entertained her during the flight. Cathay Air is kid friendly indeed and it was important for us, we want our travel to be comfortable and enjoyable especially to our little one.

They got few channels on board to choose from as well. On our way home, I was able to catch Eat, Pray, Love. I didn't have the chance to finish watching this at home, it was cool to have it during our flight.

We had a great experience at Cathay really. See you again.


Blessings ♥

Share |

New Year celebration at Disneyland

source: Internet

Whew! So just a few minutes ago, I finally confirmed our hotel booking for our trip to HK this December. We are flying via Cathay Air on Dec 28 to HK and spend our New Year at Disneyland. How nice is that? I have prayed for this trip a year ago and asked God to let us experience new year celebration the Disneyland way and in about 2 months time my faithful God has approved it and we will be able to experience it now. We will be residing at MetroPark Kowloon hotel for 4 night. Now I can start working on our itenirary. My friend Jennifer gave me their last year's family HK trip itenirary, so I will just be basing ours from hers. :) Such a copycat! hehe.

I am happy and excited yes but if I think about the figures I have paid, airfare+accomodation, I already want to cry. waaah! I didnt expect it would cost this much. I wish Cebu Pacific sale seats are available here but what the heck, I've booked and paid for them already. So let me just see the other side of the coin now, to look forward for a happy new year! We also hope to meet my MIL there. She will be coming from the Philippines.

source: Internet

Hershey is already excited. She is excited to see Snowhite in person, she's just so inlove with her! She said she would kiss and hug Snowhite when she sees her. I really hope she wont get scared. She has 2 PINK winter jackets, boots from New Zealand (a pasalubong from her godmother) and new pram! She just needs few more shirts and I am getting ready too as it is colder in HK during this time, we will have to prepare few layers of clothes to warm us up. This is a major vacation for our family.

We will have our Christmas celebration in Singapore then off to Hongkong for the New Year! So, what's your plan this holidays? Advance happy Christmas and let's all have a blessed new year! :)

Thanks Jesus as usuall for making this possible.

Share |