Upcoming Phils trip update

[Aeson]

49.2

(That was weird.)

[Lancer]

Wha?

[Lancer]

It will be 70 by the time I'm done with breakfast, by noon I'm a miliionaire!

[Aeson]

It went from 49.39, to 47.1, back to 49.2... and some of yahoo's quotes are still saying 47.1 temporarily /shrug

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=USDPHP=X

[Aeson]

Originally posted by Lancer
It will be 70 by the time I'm done with breakfast, by noon I'm a miliionaire!

[Lancer]

I can't imagine what's going on. Maybe its 'Pick Your Exchange Rate' day.

[Aeson]

most likely scenario...

Wall Street CEO just bought a Philippine island... then after buying an insurance policy (or two) on it, hired a volcano to blow it up... took one insurance policy and converted back to dollars, the other went to pay off the volcano.

[Lancer]

It wasn't me, I owned that island before we built the volcano.

[Zkribbler]

Lancer

Am I correctly remembering that the bank you use and recommend is Bank of the Philippine Islands?

[Lancer]

Yes that's correct Zkrib. BPI- Bank of the Philippine Islands

It has the office in the BQ mall which makes things a bit easier. That's the mall where the girl was singing.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Lancer
It has the office in the BQ mall which makes things a bit easier. That's the mall where the girl was singing.

That's nearly the BBQ Mall. (Thanx)

[Lancer]

YW. They now have a Gerry's Grill on the 4th floor overlooking the Tagbilaran Bay, good stuff.

[Slaughtermeyer]

Originally posted by Lancer
It wasn't me, I owned that island before we built the volcano.

I heard that there is direct ferry service from Jagna to Camiguin now. IIRC the last time the volcano on Camiguin erupted was circa 1953. Maybe I'll go there on my next trip, haven't been there yet.

[Lancer]

Great news Slaughtermeyer! I've been wanting to go there for ages but it was too much hassle to go to Cagayan.

[Lancer]

Regarding banking over there... Dolores and I have an account at BPI. We write checks there against our bank acct in the US and they take 3 weeks to a month to clear. The good news is no fees. You can open a dollar acct which allows you to get the better black market rate. We used to have to go out for that but now the banker just calls the black market guy and he comes to the bank.

So my advice is when you are ready to stay for a while, as Aeson is now, bring some cash and enough checks to get you through the duration of your planned trip. If you have a source of regular income and can have it auto deposited to your US bank, you can write checks against it as I mentioned.

Bring all the picture ID you have, plus a credit card if you have one. I don't recall exactly the requirements for opening an acct there, but Dolores might if you have any questions.