PASSPORT BOOGIE A MANILA ADVENTURE

Moored Position 13' 30.322 N 120' 57.224 E
Puerto Galera, Mindoro

We have just returned to Puerto Galera after a short trip to Manila for the "Passport Boogie". Back in 2007 we received our current passports while in the Marshall Islands. They are good for ten years and contain twenty pages for visa stamps. On checking in here in the Philippines last October we had only two blank pages remaining and were told by immigration that we needed to get more pages. Luckily for US citizens this can be done through an embassy. Going online with the embassy in Manila we were able to download the proper form, make only one phone call to clarify the directions and then able to begin the process.
The forms were completed and then along with our passports sent to the embassy in Manila. We used a courier service for this. Five days later we received an email to come to the embassy to pay for the page additions and have our passports returned. Next came the organizing of our jouney.

Now as the crow flies Manila is not to distant.  Due to the need to be at the embassy to pay our fee at between 9 and 10 in the morning and then pickup the passports at 3 that afternoon and the fact that our travel time from Puerto Galera to Manila via ferry and bus was going to be five hours we needed to spend a couple of nights in Manila.

We checked with John of the "Rusty Anchor Bar" how to best accomplish our trip. The reccommendation was the Si-Kat service thru the Father Son line ferry service. This included our Banka, a local boat, to Batangas then bus to Manila being dropped off at the hotel we would stay at just a short walk from the U S embassy.

OUR BANKA WAITING AT THE DOCK

NOTICE THE CUSTOM CAPTAINS CHAIR

A LITTLE ADDED BALAST TO THE AUKU

HOISTING THE STERN ANCHOR

As we make the fifteen mile channel crossing the captain has very limited visibility so his lookout occupies another custom chair perched on the boarding gangway.

ENJOYING THE RIDE

The  banka's are also referred to as pumpboats. Here a crewman is busy pumping the bilge. this is a very familier sight on all the bankas as we observe them making their way around the Philippines.




A BUSY MANILA STREET



THE ALLEYS ARE AS BUSY AS THE STREETS



FRESH FRUIT

TRAFFIC EVERYWHERE

Manila is a very busy city with terrible traffic and lots of different sights and sounds. We had a fairly nice hotel for $60 US a night within an easy walk to the embassy, a HUGE shopping mall and all the restaurants and bars one could desire. At the mall we managed to replace our recently dead DVD player,  buy a new mixer valve for our shower along with some other things.

We enjoyed our short trip to the big city but were very happy to return to the quiet of Puerto Galera.