archive for the “money/prices” category
The first day I owned my cheap, 100cc Malaysian motorbike, I discovered a deflated rear tire a while after I had brought it home and parked it. A too-small inner tube had been fitted before I rode the bike home from the dealer. I had been pleased that the bike shop had replaced the oil and had installed a new battery and two new tires. I didn’t know that not all the tires here are tubeless. And I certainly didn’t know that a slightly too-narrow one was in the 17″ rear tire (which is wider than the 17″ front tire). »→
At 6 p.m. our Airbus was pushed back to taxi on Clark airfield. Soon thereafter we departed Philippines soil to fly to Malaysia. We had an uneventful, brief flight, arriving at Kota Kinabalu International Airport at 7:55 p.m. I walked briskly from the airstairs to the terminal then breezed through the ‘Imigresen’ checkpoint. Then I waited and waited and waited for Dominic, who had left row 8 of the airplane ahead of me. I got our luggage from a carousel before he ambled away from an immigration booth!
Baguio City is rife with thievery, according to the newspapers I read and the news on the internet. On Tuesday morning, after Holy Mass, though Our Lady of the Atonement Cathedral was ‘surrounded’ by Baguio City policemen, it was robbed. Someone (or more than one) stole 50,000 pesos (US $1087) which had been collected at Mass from the church’s office across the driveway. Supposedly someone observed the money being transferred to the office after Mass, and somehow got the tithes. I guess that it wasn’t in a safe. Maybe it was an ‘inside job,’ like many other thefts in the Philippines.
Well, I learned immediately after my last weblog post about the dollar-to-peso exchange rate that the Philippine Central Bank won’t allow the U.S. dollar to break the 50-peso mark in currency exchange. Reminds me of a rev-limiter on a car engine, because each day we see the peso-to-dollar exchange rate ‘bounce off the limiter,’ never exceeding 50 pesos per buck. »→
While silver is selling for $10.50, and gold’s selling for $800-$830, this is a prime time to buy precious metals. Dominic assures us that the prices will skyrocket in the next few years. You could get a ten-fold return on an investment in silver. I recommend GoldMoney.com. Check it today. Precious metals are a safe haven and a wise investment.
When we arrived in Manila in March, we got 40.25 pesos per dollar over the counter. Since then, the United States dollar has been grossly devalued by the wanton printing of funny money by the Treasury Department. Nonetheless, I have observed weekly in the newspapers an increasingly favorable (for me) dollar-to-peso exchange rate. The past several days we have seen an interbank exchange rate of 49.7 -49.9 pesos per dollar. Today a dollar buys 50 pesos.
My purchasing power has increased, and ten percent of the Philippines’ economy is U.S. dollars sent from Filipino expatriates back to the homeland. These days, the dollars transmitted from foreign lands to relatives back in the Philippines can buy one-fifth more pesos than they could in March! »→
$4.09 per gallon for diesel fuel
$4.229 per gallon for Caltex Silver unleaded gasoline
$4.289 per gallon for Caltex Gold unleaded gasoline
$4.08 for Caltex Regular unleaded gasoline
$4.369 for kerosene »→
July 5 fuel prices in Baguio City converted to U.S. dollars (45.405 Pesos per dollar) »→
Dominic and I rode a jeepney from Tuding to Mabini Street in Baguio City then walked most of a mile past City Hall to a Bureau of Immigration field office. We went to renew our tourist visas for two months. A light ‘sunshine shower,’ followed by misting rain, fell while we hiked uphill. But we haven’t had a ‘rainy season’ shower until now.
Since my sister inquired, I’ll tell you:
Precious Jewels Learning Center in Tuding (Kindergarten – Grade 3) charges 12,500 pesos for the 2008-2009 school year;
PhP 10,000 tuition ($234.57) plus 2,500 pesos for miscellaneous fees ($58.64)
That’s 41% of annual college tuition here, for Kindergarten, from 8 to 11 a.m. »→
At 43.891 Philippine pesos per U.S. dollar on June 4, some fuel prices in Baguio City are:
$4.06 per gallon of diesel fuel
$4.71 per gallon for ‘Silver’ Caltex petrol
$4.78 per gallon ‘Gold’ Caltex petrol
$4.56 for lowest-octane petrol
At 43.699 Philippine pesos per U.S. dollar on June 3, here are a few Baguio City fuel prices: »→
(Dominic) I promised the kids that I would take them to the mall (SM City Baguio). Of course the entire place is full of overpriced crap and full of people stupid enough to pay, including me.
After giving the kids a lecture that they should not shop in places like this, we started shopping. Actually, we went to eat in Pizza Hut. What a joke. I spent 20 bucks feeding a teenager, two little kids and myself!
This morning I walked beside Magsaysay Avenue, past Baguio City Market, toward Sacred Heart Pharmacy to get vitamins for the family in Baguio Gold. I saw so many hand-scribbled signs reading “buy dollars,” “dollars change here” and the like.
Several merchants in stalls and perched on stools along the sidewalk asked me for dollars, assuming that I’m a vacationer. »→
I have a splitting headache. For days I have had sickening headaches that I suspect come after breathing smog and cigarette smoke. I have felt miserable at times for a few days. It’s somewhat like car sickness. Mack said that he felt sick and dizzy yesterday, so we went to a pharmacy for medicine to alleviate nausea and headache and he took aspirin. He has said that he’s adversely affected by breathing vehicle exhaust when he travels into the city by jeepney. »→
Reportedly Pat went to Mangga this morning to consult with his previous teacher or get a document. He was supposed to meet me and his brother Mack here in the flat afterward. We would go to town together to meet requirements for registering Pat as a high school freshman. We waited a long time for him, did not get a phone call nor text from him, so I decided that Mack and I should leave without him to go do errands in the city.
Baguio City fuel prices before Tropical Storm Halong / Cosme :
Diesel fuel: $3.936 / gallon
unleaded 93-octane petrol: $4.618 / gallon
unleaded 95-octane petrol: $4.694 / gallon
unleaded 97-octane petrol: $4.77 / gallon
kerosene: $4.276 / gallon »→
In the first weeks that we were here, rather than carry alot of cash, Dominic and I frequented ATMs, and a couple of times I used Banco de Oro ATMs. One time was in SM City mall downtown. I typed on the ATM keypad a request to withdraw from Wachovia too many pesos -I think 25,000, which is to say $609. Oops. I’m not a human calculator like Dominic. I can mentally convert only small sums from pesos to dollars and multiples of forty, as if 40 pesos are worth a dollar. »→
