Originally posted by Pauldo@Sep 8 2005, 01:26 PM
You're so right.
Just collecting the wifes visa was another conflict. We rolled up at 8am, as instructed, took our turn in the queue, got served straight away, and were told to go sit down and we'd be called. Well, three hours later, 11am, and we're sat there still waiting, with the daughter, getting a bit cold and bored now as the air con was set to cryogenic. So, I went up and asked how much longer it would be?
"Oh, you have to come back at 3 o'clock to collect it"

WHAT?????

I asked her if she had actually intended we sit there for seven hours or whether she might have used her pea brain to summon the grain of intelligence necessary to tell us we could leave, then come back at 3 o'clock. The arrogant bitch still argued the toss until a white girl heard the commotion and came across, and I explained to her what had happened, and that we had our year old daughter with us, (with no pram due to security guard monkeys over diligence that we may use it as a weapon&#33.

Almost identical to what happened to us; and in fact it obviously happens so often to so many people you would almost tihnk they do it deliberately! We were told be there to collect it at 8am, we arrive at 8am to be looked at incredulously and told "why on earth would you come this early, you fool, you can't get it before 11am". So we stagger off, already bleary eyed and knackered (an 8am arrival time at the Embassy meant a 6am wake up time to make sure nothing goes wrong), headache now starting to pound through lack of sleep combined with the oppressive heat, return at 11am to be told "no, you should have come at 8am, like you were told, you've missed it now, you hae to come back at 3pm". Teeth now being ground almost to dust in my mouth, we actually went off to the cinema, went into some japanese horror flick (used to watch a lot of those when we were there) and basically had a couple of hours kip, returned at 3pm (having now spent 7 solid hours just waiting for the day to pass because of the Embassy), returned at 3pm, expecting to walk in, have the visa and passport handed over and walk out, and get told "yes, you just need to wait in there", along with all the normal 3pm people waiting for their visa INTERVIEW, and then have to wait a full 2 hours more, until we are finally called in, LAST, not for an interview, but just for the passport to be handed over. Couldn't they have given it to us first??? They knew we didn't need an interview, it was just a case of returning the passport, what the f@ck were the playing at?

The veins in my temple almost throbbed out of my head and exploded by the end when, at just after 5pm, 9 HOURS AFTER WE HAD BEEN TOLD TO COLLECT THE VISA, we were finally given the passport back in a process which took all of 2 minutes to confirm name, date of birth, and, oh yes, you actually match the photo in there, it must be you.


We often day dream about going back and living in the PI, but things like this always pop up to remind us that every occasion, every operation, will so often turn into a $hit fight against ignorance and apathy.
Exactly the same here. For every dreamy, lazy moment I remember lounging around Greenbelt, just enjoying doing nothing, I remember the million times a corrupt traffic **** pulled me over for no reason at all and extorted money from me. I remember queuing for hours in the SM because, despite having 500 tills, they only open about 3 during the busiest periods. I remember being manhandled by security guards pressing my shirt against my sweaty back to check I'm not carrying a gun(&#33 and forcing me to hand over shopping bags to a check in counter in the SM, in whom I wouldn't entrust the security of a beach pebble. I remember the bill payment counter, after we'd queued for half an hour, refusing to accept the CASH payment for the PLDT/Meralco/Sky Cable bill because the crappy postal system didn't bother delivering it until after the due date, meaning we had to make a pointless trip to the PLDT/Meralco/SkyCable main office just to pay a bloody bill. I remember the simplest job, or the simplest journey, taking up almost a whole day because the infrastructure is so poor and the people/processes so lazy. I could basically sort out a whole months business in the Uk over the internet in half a day, and yet it took longer than that just to pay one telephone bill in the same city in which we were living.

I also remember the sheer and utter panic when my daughter got a cold - you don't just get the sniffles over there, you get a full blown tropical fever which lasts for days and you never know if this is going to be the one with dengue, or malaria or any other of the tropical nightmares which simple aren't an issue in a clean, healthier country of the West. The absolute morons who drive with their lights off down small streets in the middle of the night, the idiot coach drivers who reduce a 5 lane road to two and a half lanes whilst they stop in the middle lane and wait for new passengers to embark from the pavement, two lanes away. The infuriating and regular confrontations with taxi drivers (like the Embassy, you know every experience will involve a battle and a pressure raising fight for just a basic service). The same type of infuriating battle when 9 out of 10 of your brand new household goods breaks down but the appliance centre refuses to exchange/refund it wthout a 2 hour argument. The depressing knowledge that, whatever you buy, it won't last because the quality will be so poor. The DSL cutting out at least once a week, for extended periods at a time, normally when you really needed to use the internet, mainly cos all the phone lines, electricity lines are strewn across the streets in a huge jumble of disorganised crap which looks like it was connected together by a blind 3 year old. The roads which look like they were never repaired since 1944 when they had the crap bombed out of them, and the filipinos, on gaining independence, just left them like they were.

But then you remember the over abundance of fit filipinas, hopelessly over staffed, squeezed in 4 to a till, all in little mini skirts, taking it in turns to press a digit each on the calculator whilst they double checked their ability for the 6th time to correctly add up three items you are purchasing. The fact you can't walk more than 2 minutes without seeing at least one stunning head turner. The fact that you never need to worry about a babysitter. The fact that all the films there come out earlier than in the UK.

Sadly, the bad outnumbers the good, and when it's bad, it's f@cking awful. And most of it is of the Philippine's own making, and they're too damn ignorant/stupid/lazy to make it better, but just expect someone else to. It's certainly no place for a child to grow up, and that is the biggest reason we won't go back, not for at least 18 years!