The 2009 HK GiMiK - Part 3 (Hongkong Disneyland)

The 2009 HK GiMiK - Victoria's Peak, Tram & Ferry Rides (Part 2)

The 2009 HK GiMiK - Braving the H1N1 Threat (Part 1)

Know Your Customers

As it is the end of the month, I'm going to get a breather from posting long blogs.

I remember the comment made by Abou of Basta in 3 Roses and A Baby "...ang haba whew. di ko natapos.." Well, this one's for you and all those who wants to have a light and funny post from the desert.

Here's a funny anecdote given to me this afternoon by my friend Vilas:

A disappointed salesman of Coca Cola returns from his Middle East assignment.

A friend asked, "Why weren't you successful with the Arabs?"
The salesman explained "When I got posted in the Middle East,

I was very confident that I would make a good sales pitch

as Coca Cola is virtually unknown there.
But, I had a problem I didn't know to speak Arabic.
So, I planned to convey the message through three posters... "

First poster:
A man lying in the hot desert sand...totally exhausted and fainting.

Second poster:
The man is drinking our Cola.

Third poster:
Our man is now totally refreshed.

And then these posters were pasted all over the place.
"Then that should have worked!" said the friend.
"The hell it should have!? said the salesman.
"I didn't realize that Arabs read from right to left"

DISCLAIMER: All characters, names and places used in this blog are fictitious and are used herein for the purposes of comment, appreciation, criticism, parody, and for any other purposes not mentioned herein. Any similarity to real people, without parodic purpose, is a matter of coincidence. All trade names, product names and trademarks of third parties, including any trademarked characters, used in the blog are without the authorized and expressed will of those third parties, and are used only for the purpose of parody and identification. No sponsorship, endorsement or affiliation by or with those third parties exists or is implied.(hehehe)

MRP (Machine Readable Passports)... Ano Ba Talaga Kuya?

Kuya is Secretary Alberto Romulo of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Last week I received a forwarded email from a friend which was forwarded by another friend, forwarded by a boss... by a colleague... by another friend... by a brother, or a sister, or a spouse, etcetera, etcetera. That email purportedly claimed that the advisory came from the DFA informing that the green colored Philippine Passport will only be valid until January 2010 afterwhich, it will no longer be accepted even if its expiration date is beyond the deadline set by the DFA. Being a good friend, brother, husband, kabayan, etcetera, etcetera... i also forwarded it for information to all kapwa Pinoys I know.

Here's the text of that e-mail:

Department of Foreign Affairs

Dear Friends,
Please take note of this advisory and disseminate this to your loved ones, relatives, colleagues, friends.....
For your information and guidance.

ADVISORY
Department of Foreign Affairs Travel Agency Section. Please be advised that effective January 2010 ,
the green colored Philippine Passport will no longer be accepted even if it is still valid . Below are the list of new requirement for the application and renewal of Philippine Passport.

FOR RENEWAL MINOR AND ADULT REQUIREMENTS:
- OLD PASSPORT
- 3 PASSPORT SIZED PICTURES W/ROYAL BLUE BACKGROUND WEARING DARK COLORED POLO/BLOUSE
- PROPERLY ACCOMPLISHED APPLICATION FORM
IF 18YRS OLD & BELOW, SUBMIT PHOTOCOPY OF BIRTH CERTIFICATE AND ORIG. PASSPORT OF MOTHER (TO BE SIGNED AND THUMBMARKED BY MOTHER ON THE APPLICATION FORM AND UNDERTAKING) PROCESSING TIME: 12WORKING DAYS

FOR NEW PASSPORT (ADULT) REQUIREMENTS:
1. AUTHENTICATED BIRTH CERTIFICATE, IF LATE REGISTRATION SUBMIT 2 OLD DOCUMENTS(EG.BAPTISMAL WITH DRY SEAL, FORM 137, VOTER'S AFFIDAVIT)
2. IF MARRIED WOMAN, AUTHENTICATED MARRIAGE CONTRACT
3. 3 PASSPORT SIZED PICTURES W/ROYAL BLUE BACKGROUND WEARING DARK COLORED POLO/BLOUSE
4. ORIGINAL I.D. (COMPANY, SSS, VOTER'S, DRIVER'S)
5. FILLED UP APPLICATION FORM WITH SIGNATURE IN UNDERTAKING (2ND PAGE OF APPLICATION FORM). PLS. DON'T SIGN AND DON'T AFFIX THUMBMARK ON GREEN APPLICATION FORM

FOR NEW PASSPORT/MINOR BELOW 18 YEARS OLD
1. AUTHENTICATED BIRTH CERTIFICATE
2. AUTHENTICATED MARRIAGE CONTRACT OF PARENTS IF MARRIED. IF NOT PARENTS ARE NOT MARRIED, AFFIDAVIT OF ILLEGITIMACY
3. 3 COPIES PASSSPORT SIZED PICTURE W/ROYAL BLUE BACKGROUND WEARING DARK COLORED POLO/BLOUSE
4. DULY FILLED UP APPLICATION FORM, IF 8YRS OLD & ABOVE DON'T SIGN AND DON'T AFFIXTHUMBMARK. BUT IF 7 YRS & BELOW, FORM SHOULD BE SIGNED AND THUMBMARKED BY MOTHER
5. ORIGINAL VALID PASSPORT OF MOTHER
6. PHOTOCOPY OF SCHOOL I.D. IF STUDENT
7. IF TRAVELLING WITHOUT PARENTS NEED DSWD CLEARANCE AND ORIGINAL PASSPORT OF TRAVELLING COMPANION

NOTE:
FOR MINORS BELOW 8 YRS OLD NEW AND RENEWAL, MOTHER IS FOR PERSONAL APPEARANCE AT DFA FOR 8-17 YRS OLD NEW AND RENEWAL, APPLICANT AND MOTHER ARE FOR PERSONAL APPEARANCE AT DFA FOR 18-64 YRS OLD NEW AND RENEWAL, PERSONAL APPEARANCE IS A MUST. ONLY 65 YEARS OLD & ABOVE ARE EXEMPTED FROM PERSONAL APPEARANCE
PROCESSING TIME: 12-WORKING DAYS AFTER PERSONAL APPEARANCE (?)

Well, after a few days, I got again another forwarded e-mail with the subject: [Balitang_Middle_East] FALSE ADVISORY on PASSPORT Circulating in the FILIPINO Community with the following attachments.

Well, what can I say now? I'm confused as the press release in the attachment was dated September 2008 which is already old and so I had to check the DFA website and here's some of the pages which might be helpful to you

For more references on the MRP, check these out:
Philippine Embassy USA , Wikipedia , Philippine Embassy in Germany .

If you want to apply, here's the DFA MRP Application Form

So, which one should we believe in and what do we do? DFA's announcement saying that the green passport will still be honored beyond January 2010 should settle the issue. However, if cost is not a constraint to an individual (especially for those who travel frequently to "strict" countries, I would rather have the green passport converted to MRP.

I wouldn't want to be delayed and held up for further investigations with the suspicion that my Arabic-sounding family name is linked to the Al Qaeda or Abu Sayyaf just like what happened to me in Heathrow London and Charles de Gaulle Paris last 2007 and repeated again in Caracas, Venezuela last three months ago.

POST SCRIPT:

After posting this blog earlier today, my ever well-informed friend cum Desert Aquaforce-appointed extraordinaire "Researcher" Dads Torrico sent me this confirmation - DFA: Not true green passports valid only until end 2009 ABS-CBN News Online Beta.

Thanks Dads, this is what I should call now as responsible blogging!

The Beautiful Taif_One Weekend in June 2005

GO Office, NPC Al Laith, 02 June 2005

It was just another ordinary Thursday noon when the idea of spending the weekend at the malls in Jeddah was not the best thing to do. I was more than year in KSA at that time and my weekends were spent in Al Balad, the Corniche, fishing at a lagoon near the Red Sea, watch my pelican-friends fish near my room, or hop at some friends' quarters to feast on their Pinoy lunch and the "lauriat" would sometimes end until dinner. I enjoyed very much those weekends but there was just something unusual that day. I saw my friend Mario, kind of busy doing some sort of things at his office table. Al whispered to me that Mario was trying to figure out a concoction of activities for the weekend. Toink...toink... though his feet were concealed by his table and covered by his sandal shoe with socks, I could see through very clearly, with my magnifying eyes that his feet were beginning to "itch". (Yes at that time my vision was still 20/20 until age took its toll). He started talking about how beautiful the countryside is... I agreed. There was no doubt about it.

We were unanimous in agreeing that going to Jeddah or staying at the company site will be one of those monotonous and boring weekends (at that time!). Well, he didn't have to convince me more. Little did he know that he only need nil persuasion power in order for me to change the course of my weekend schedule. (Btw, when i was about a month here in KSA, I told my friends that I'll never go out of the project site so I can save, except only when I need to remit my earnings to my family. I dunno where I got those thoughts then...maybe it's in my northern Philippines blood connection).

Power of 2. 

They say that "two" will send thousands to flight... The two of us tossed into the sand-dusty laden air the idea of travelling to another place...something new and at least somewhere near. Right after those words landed into the ears of those near enough to hear us, all reservation seats for the tour were all taken. Cell phones were ringing - calling their best buddies of the chance to be in a new place.

Seat Reservations 

In just probably a split of second all seats in my car were fully reserved and taken. If only I am an entrepreneur, I could probably have made a fortune that noon. If I opened my car, it could have been full of bags and other personal effects to signify that the seats are taken (just like what we see in PUBs and PUJs awaiting for schedule to depart...whew). Naturally, Mario was in as he was the "master mind". So that leaves 3 vacant seats in my Mazda 5.

I would opt for someone who knows the place or least someone who can communicate with the locals. Voila... Basha is it and his cousin Ali Yaseen. They are Saudis. Basha is one of my Saudi staff who became very close to me... he was like a son, a chauffeur, a butler, an all-around assistant and was great help to me while he was at NPC (To this day, he is not at NPC anymore but still stayed as a very close friend). Completing the confirmed passengers list was Alfred, an IT Hardware engineer who is also a very good friend of mine.

The confirmed passengers to the Tour de Taif:

Mazda 5: Basha steered us safely all the way up, Desert Aquaforce, Mario, Ali Yaseen & Alfred.

V-165: Al, Larry, Melvin, Ian, Ranilo

That weekend is now history... the first out of town trip I had... and soon many unstoppable out of town trips followed.

Need I say more? Scroll down through the pics and see the wide-grin mouths we had proving that indeed it was a weekend worth remembering.

This was a stop-over dinner at an Arabic Resto outside Makkah. The guys had their first taste of "mandhi" (roasted goat/sheep - tastes really good). I kidded them that it was a Thursday and not a Monday (LoL).

When we reached Taif, we didn't know where to go. Basha And Ali Yaseen convinced us to go first to a park and have some "ceremonial tea"...Welcome to Taif...

Not contented with the tea, the coffee drinkers had to drop by a coffee shop to keep those eyes open for some more minutes.

This was the breakfast setting the next day...kuboos, cheese, milk, tea, coffee and some Arabic dips (forgot what it's called) Every one is enjoying...but there was this phone call to Al from Sunny...3B01

A pose at the facade of our accommodation for the night...

Another pose at a facade of an antique house.

Good morning Basha!

Fruits, fruits, and more fruits... Contemplating whether or not it's fattening.

More fruits...wild apples, mishmish, bukarah, habhab...

This was the guy who did not pay 5 riyal to the owner of the camel.
We didn't know that anyone who poses in his camel has to pay...

Bridge over a dam (not really a big body of water...just some faucet-like trickle)...
may be better to say A Bridge Over No Water

I really forgot how this shot was taken. Obviously it was Mario who took this shot...how? i already forgot.

A bridge too far? 

A shot from a different angle

With my Saudi friends...

Mario and his lens...It was supposed to be a mirror image effect

This is what we get for being bachelors. We cannot ride in the cable cars because admission is open only for those with families... We had to stand outside to have an orphan effect...maybe they'll take pity and let us ride.

A pose in front of the cable car station...just a memento even if we were not able to ride.

Heavy lunch provided by Yayah... bought food from the resto..looked for a place...
spread a carpet/mat and had a delicious Arabic lunch.
(Apologies for the blurry shot...it's the only one I got)

Darwin's theory of evolution is proven wrong...it stopped here!

The trip to Taif was so short yet everyone enjoyed (except for that DO problem in 3B01). That was my first trip outside my "comfortable zone". That opened up to my travel world in KSA. It was never the same again...

Photography: Mario Acuesta Aguado & Desert Aquaforce