tenPesos » Baguio City

customer disservice

Brian McKay — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:32:09 +0000

Filipino experts in poor customer service in 2008 and 2009:

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Ace Hardware in SM City mall in Baguio City

Air 21 in SM City mall in Baguio City

2Go in Patria de Baguio building in Baguio City

C. A. Optical beside Mabini Street in Baguio City

Columbia Digital Sales Corporation

Curamed pharmacy – west side of Session Road in Baguio City

Dagupan bus line

The Flying Gecko – 53 Session Road in Baguio City

Gigahertz Marketing in SM City mall in Baguio City

Hot Shots café – west side of Session Road in Baguio City

Jollibee restaurant in Prime Hotel building, Calderon Street, Baguio City

Mail and More in SM City mall in Baguio City

McDonald’s restaurant in SM City mall in Baguio City

Mercury Drug store in Porta Vaga Building beside Session Road in Baguio City

Mountain Studio Photo beside Session Road in Baguio City

National Book Store in Abanao mall in Baguio City

National Statistics Office in Baguio City and Manila

Philippine Postal Corporation – “PhilPost”

P.L.D.T. (Philippine Long Distance Telephone) in Baguio City

Session Supermart grocery store in Porta Vaga Building in Baguio City

SM appliances and electronics store in Baguio City

SM cinema in SM City mall, Baguio City

SM department store in SM City mall, Baguio City

SM grocery store in SM City mall, Baguio City

Tiong San Harrison cell phone department in Baguio City

Tiong San Harrison “Tech Service” electronics repair booth in Baguio City

U-Need grocery store beside Perfecto Street in Baguio City

United States Department of Veterans Affairs in Pasay City, Philippines

Victory Liner bus transportation

Xyon Systems and Services in Quezon City

going downhill

Brian McKay — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 11:44:50 +0000

Between the presidential mansion and Mines View Barangay, I found kids sliding down streets on plastic scraps, including a broken personal computer case, a broken computer monitor case, and a cash-register drawer tray. I made some photos of the gleeful street-sledding kids then joined them in sledding three times.

That’s me on cardboard and a cash-register drawer tray

They go faster than is apparent – especially the guy on two wheels behind

He’s not so big; I made this photo at ground level

my turn to ride ~ pretending to steer

pretending to steer …

skewing sideways

Chinese New Year

Brian McKay — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:34:43 +0000

China welcomed a new calendar year at 3:56 p.m. GMT+8. This afternoon, boy scouts, girls scouts, and elementary school bands in Baguio City paraded down Session Road to celebrate China’s new year. I don’t know why. China has never ruled the Philippines. Filipinos aren’t descended from Chinese. Baguio City isn’t in a Chinese colony.

Eco-trail garbage

Brian McKay — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:16:06 +0000

Rather than watch a pathetic parade in Baguio, I walked from downtown to Camp John Hay’s Eco-trail then past the Country Club, past The Mansion and into Itogon to home, as I’ve done about twenty times. On the Eco-trail I saw more trash than ever, people sleeping (camping?), Korean tourists lounging and snacking …

books delivery

Brian McKay — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:58:38 +0000

Today I spent $162 donated from some parishioners of Saint Dominic Parish to buy reference books and story books for Baguio Gold Elementary School in Tuding, Itogon. The principal, Nestor Asiong had written a wish list, and the librarian had phoned me to come to the school to get the list.

I thank my mother for donating $100 on behalf of her siblings for the purchase of books for Baguio Gold Elementary School’s library. I thank JoAnn Porter and Lisa Edwards for donating $40 for purchase of books. And I thank Shannon Fairlie for donating $25 for books for Baguio Gold Elementary School’s library. That total is $165, but I only spent $162. But I gave a 500 peso ($10+) donation to the head of the parent-teacher association for the preschool feeding program for impoverished kids.

Two bookstores in the big Baguio mall sell used books.

I bought How Things Work,

Jag’s New Friend (story by LeAnn Rimes),

The Ugly Duckling,

and Clap Your Hands by Lorinda Bryan Cauley.

I also bought Professor Potts Meets The Animals,

Dr. Seuss’s I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!,

Miss Spider’s Tea Party by David Kirk,

and Things That Go.

Bureau of Immigration

Brian McKay — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 05:30:48 +0000

If you need to go to the Bureau of Immigration field office in Baguio City, Philippines, note that it has relocated to 38 Military Cutoff Road, south of Panagbenga Park and Camp John Hay. The building in which the Bureau of Immigration rents space bears no Bureau of Immigration sign, of course. The building does not show the number 38, either. Welcome to the Philippines.On the east side of Military Cutoff Road, iIf you see the old, vinyl “Let’s BI vigilant” banner picturing the B.I. Commissioner Mr. Libanan, you’ve reached the parking lot. Go into the “Greenwood School Alex and Jenny, Inc.” building. Straight ahead, across the lobby, is the bureau’s field office.

click to enlarge

Of course no office hours are posted. And no notice of holiday closure was posted, either. Day after day in December, Dominic and I wondered when the unlabeled office might reopen. No one posted a notice reading something like, “closed Dec. 24 – Jan. 4.” Phone calls to the bureau weren’t answered, either. Welcome to the Philippines.

Today we returned to the bureau and heard that our applications for visa renewals (and all other foreigners’ requests) could not be processed because “our computer is not working.” So we have the privilege of returning tomorrow. Welcome to the Philippines.

UPDATE: On Tuesday we returned and heard that “the computer” still isn’t working, so we’ll return to the office tomorrow or Thursday or Friday…

UPDATE: after four visits to the chaotic office and paying P3140 each (includes two annual fees of P300+10), we retrieved our passports with tourist visa stamps dated March 2, 2009. We don’t want to extend our tourist visas beyond that. We want to leave this ineptitude behind.

walking man

Brian McKay — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 15:24:28 +0000

Yesterday I walked from Vizco’s to, then up Mount Santo Tomas, Kubayao, Tuba, Benguet. I spent two hours, fifty minutes to reach the top, as I knew exactly how to get there, unlike the first time, and I wanted to arrive before nightfall. I saw the city lights this time, as darkness fell while I admired the view from the summit. I didn’t take a camera, though.

This afternoon I walked miles in Tuding and Baguio City, including a tour of Mines View. Baguio City is jam-packed with tens of thousand of visitors. The population total -residents and tourists- may have reached 200,000. I’d intended to note on the weblog that the city has been so crowded, as we’d been warned that it would be, and that traffic going into the city has been very slow at times. I ride jeepneys into the city then later walk to home. We don’t have motor-tricycles here. Yesterday, after descending the mountain and returning on Marcos highway to downtown, I did ride a Tuding Express jeepney toward home rather than walk any further. Mines View Park and Good Shepherd Convent’s public compound were packed. Vehicular traffic from Leonard Wood Road to Mines View was at a standstill. I walked home past a long, long line of nearly motionless vehicles idling, burning fuels to pollute the air and coat the city with soot. I was amazed that tourists would sit in their cars and hired taxis for half an hour to travel the last 1000 meters to the Mines View overlook. One can’t park a car there; all spaces were occupied by then.

I wondered why taxi riders didn’t disembark and walk the remaining 1000 meters to their destination. Why pay money to sit in motionless taxis for half an hour, so close to the objective?

What can one do in Mines View Park, anyway? Browse the hundred stalls of handicrafts and junk, buy corn cobs, buy strawberries, ube jam, peanut butter, try to elbow one’s way to the ‘scenic overlook’ of a non-descript valley of rusting shacks, garbage and distant mineshafts, shop for a straw broom, look at mass-manufactured fake handicrafts, have wallets, cell phones and cameras stolen in the midst of the thick mobs, buy carved wood key fobs, buy oranges … The place was crowded, elbow-to-elbow with slow-moving tourists (and probably pickpockets). I just walked past everything and everyone on the way to home in Tuding.