General Info

[QUOTE=Simmer;2209592]Anybody had an ATM refuse to dispense cash but your bank claims it did? I feel I'm in a no-win situation sadly.

So I needed cash in a small city in the Visayas. Each of three ATMs attached to banks said words along the lines of "cannot withdraw from this machine" - not terribly unusual for PI ATMS, though less common these days. The fourth stated "you have exceeded your daily limit". Sure enough, go online to my bank and one of the earlier 3 machines had told my bank it dispensed cash. I was with somebody at the time and he noticed no cash either, nor did I hear any of the clicking you normally hear as it counts the notes before dispensing them.[/QUOTE]Yes, that has happened to me several times over the past 30 years. But I always got a refund. Twice in Costa Rica, once in Colombia, and a few times in the Philippines.

What happened to me is that the ATM gets the acceptance from your bank to dispense the cash. Then it has an internal error in which it cannot dispense the cash. Citibank ATM in Philippine gave me the refund immediately after the error. The Banco Colombia ATM gave me a refund one day afterwards. The Philippine bank ATMs did nothing until I notified my bank.

[QUOTE=Simmer;2209592]I raised a dispute with the bank. Wells Fargo. But the lady didn't give good vibes about the success of appealing. My word against a foreign ATM.[/QUOTE]My Service Rep (from Schwab) assured me that the Visa/debit payment system has checks and balances to insure system integrity. I always got a refund. It's logical. No smart large company is going to trust corruptible third world people with their money. You have pictures, and internal money counts (that can't be hacked), etc.

Most of my problems were investigated and closed in my favor. But I had one incident with PS Bank ATM on Fields Road in which the PS Bank did not reply to my bank's request for an investigation. Then my Schwab bank notified me that they would refund my money since their time requirement for investigation expired. I wouldn't trust third world Philippines. But the Visa debit payment system (not from the Philippines) is trustworthy.

[QUOTE=Datiao;2209529]Have you been in a situation when you need to proof to validate your claims? Recording the incident is the best evidence.[/QUOTE]Sure that holds true in a first world country, but for a foreinger in a 3rd world country that means squat. My buddy in Thailand got into an accident. Luckily he had his trusty dash cam running and was able to show the cops that the other guy was at fault. The cops didn't care about that shit. He wasted his damn money on that cam!

I was in a car accident in Nicaragua when me and my girlfriend were going to a lake. My girl stopped to turn left and an [url=http://isgprohibitedwords.info?CodeWord=CodeWord902][CodeWord902][/url], unlicensed driver with her father in the car hit us square in the ass. Open and shut case right? WRONG! Because the girl's father paid off the judge first, so my girlfriend was responsible for fixing her own car. She got mad and broke up with me. She thought that I should have been the one to pay for it, because if I wouldn't have been visiting her, then she wouldn't have been going to the lake so the accident would not have happened.

[QUOTE=Datiao;2209529]Have you been in a situation when you need to proof to validate your claims? Recording the incident is the best evidence. Filipinos are cowards, they won't confront you face to face but good at doing things behind your back without you knowing like in a crowd.

Whats so exciting at the bar that you may want to record?[/QUOTE]Sigh. It would have been easier to simply run a Google search as always. Note to self. You can't wake up a man who is pretending to sleep.

[URL]https://www.ebay.com/bhp/spy-watch[/URL]

[QUOTE=GreenBud;2209611]Yes, that has happened to me several times over the past 30 years. But I always got a refund. Twice in Costa Rica, once in Colombia, and a few times in the Philippines.

What happened to me is that the ATM gets the acceptance from your bank to dispense the cash. Then it has an internal error in which it cannot dispense the cash. Citibank ATM in Philippine gave me the refund immediately after the error. The Banco Colombia ATM gave me a refund one day afterwards. The Philippine bank ATMs did nothing until I notified my bank.

My Service Rep (from Schwab) assured me that the Visa/debit payment system has checks and balances to insure system integrity. I always got a refund. It's logical. No smart large company is going to trust corruptible third world people with their money. You have pictures, and internal money counts (that can't be hacked), etc.

Most of my problems were investigated and closed in my favor. But I had one incident with PS Bank ATM on Fields Road in which the PS Bank did not reply to my bank's request for an investigation. Then my Schwab bank notified me that they would refund my money since their time requirement for investigation expired. I wouldn't trust third world Philippines. But the Visa debit payment system (not from the Philippines) is trustworthy.[/QUOTE]Thanks, GreenBud. I hope that the records do show a failure to give cash. I was only reminded to ask about this as I got a notification from the bank that I'd been temporarily credited (10 days). I believe they have another 20 days to conclude the matter one way or another.

[QUOTE=WestCoast1;2209488]"Ket cat bor if you can, my son love American chocolate". [/QUOTE]I want to commend your remarkably accurate recreation of pidgin Taglish. You've always done this well in field reports, especially considering that many of your interactions are in areas where Bisaya is spoken rather than Tagalog. Seems like there are two steps to it. First, you have to recall (or perhaps you record) the words and word order from the native; second, you have to work through the English word construction to capture a reasonably proximal phonetic spelling of the original. Joking aside, your inserted pidgin adds authenticity to the forum. I appreciate it.

[QUOTE=WestCoast1;2209488]Chocolate. "Ket cat bor if you can, my son love American chocolate" Party on Ket-cat-bor.[/QUOTE]Hahaha Ket Cat Bor: that's a good one! LMAO! Especially when you know that KIT KAT is from Nestle, Switzerland.

Always looking for the combo of good swimming beach and nightlife.

Ok Phuket I have been to. Sabang Phil have been to. Look like unfort Sihanoukville is getting wrecked by Chinese development. Still viable or many reports say forget! Ko Samui & Boracay know of. Pattaya. But wouldn't swim there. Any swim able places close to Patts?

Know of the Nang, Nha Trang, Vung Tau in Viet but mongering in Viet is such a hassle. Didn't like Bali, well it was Kuta / Seminyak really.

So anyone got any new / recently developed places where combo of beach and girls can be found in SEA?

Anywhere in Thai / Phil / Indon to fit the bill. Prefer enough WG to give me choice. Yeah I know I want it all!

Where is your go to beach & bunny location?

Appreciate.

NI.

[QUOTE=NewImage;2209795]Pattaya. But wouldn't swim there. Any swim able places close to Patts?
[/QUOTE]Simple. Just take the boat to Koh Larn (Coral Island) from Pattaya (Bali Hai Pier, end of Walking Street). 45 minutes. 30 baht.

[QUOTE=NewImage;2209795]Where is your go to beach & bunny location?[/QUOTE]Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Sosua, Dominican Republic. Cartagena, Colombia.

[QUOTE=SoapySmith;2209640]I want to commend your remarkably accurate recreation of pidgin Taglish. [/QUOTE]Thanks. Have just taken clues as to where the words are placed in a sentence, and which syllable is accented. And she really did spell it ket cat bor several times. Pinoy spell words how they sound. Is that called phonetic? Example: Trabajo (spanish for 'work') becomes Trabaho. A girl once contacted me in FB saying that her mom was in the hospital and the doctor said that mom needed a 'city scan'. Do you mean a CT scan?

Example of language: Always put the word 'only' at the end of a sentence. Listen to the girl at JolliBee: "Will you like large drink sir? Its 79 pesos ONLY". You might think that she would say: "Its only 79 pesos sir", or "Its only 6 pesos more sir". But no.

And 'would' becomes 'will': "Will you like to go to the store with me?"

[QUOTE=Blanquiceleste;2209635]Sigh. It would have been easier to simply run a Google search as always. Note to self. You can't wake up a man who is pretending to sleep.

[URL]https://www.ebay.com/bhp/spy-watch[/URL][/QUOTE]So ebay free shipping from US but I need to pay shipping costs to return if defective.

I would rather pay more to buy at physical shops in manila, test it on site and use immediately to avoid the delivery time and defective possibilities.
And i m just a tourist a week in manila

[QUOTE=MrEnternational;2209629]She got mad and broke up with me. She thought that I should have been the one to pay for it, because if I wouldn't have been visiting her, then she wouldn't have been going to the lake so the accident would not have happened.[/QUOTE]Sure you can not fight that logic, can you?

The Filipino communication technique that always amuses me is the way they point with their mouths / lips. If there isn't a word for such a thing, there should be. How about Labium Guidance?

[QUOTE=WestCoast1;2209830]Thanks. Have just taken clues as to where the words are placed in a sentence, and which syllable is accented. And she really did spell it ket cat bor several times. Pinoy spell words how they sound. Is that called phonetic? Example: Trabajo (spanish for 'work') becomes Trabaho. A girl once contacted me in FB saying that her mom was in the hospital and the doctor said that mom needed a 'city scan'. Do you mean a CT scan?

Example of language: Always put the word 'only' at the end of a sentence. Listen to the girl at JolliBee: "Will you like large drink sir? Its 79 pesos ONLY". You might think that she would say: "Its only 79 pesos sir", or "Its only 6 pesos more sir". But no.

And 'would' becomes 'will': "Will you like to go to the store with me?"[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=WestCoast1;2209830]Thanks. Have just taken clues as to where the words are placed in a sentence, and which syllable is accented. And she really did spell it ket cat bor several times.
(snip)
Listen to the girl at JolliBee: "Will you like large drink sir? Its 79 pesos ONLY". [/QUOTE]I have assumed that word order for less well-educated Pinoys / Pinays simply follows the word order construction for their own language. My own Filipino is too limited to be sure, but I assume "only," as an adverb, is placed at the end of the sentence because many Filipino sentences place the adverb at the end. For example, a Taglish expression I hear is "wait lang," told to an impatient child. It translates literally as "wait just," in reverse order of how we say it in English ("just wait"). I assume that any of us who developed a Filipino lexicon of a few hundred words would find ourselves attempting to convey ideas by assembling words in the sentence structures typical in our own languages.

A more typical JolliBee conversation for me is my asking for something on the posted menu, then hearing "not abailabul, sir."

I notice a more refined Taglish among better-educated Filipinos, who simply intermingle Tagalog and English in the same sentence, and usually in approximately correct word order. I've asked why they do it and been told that some expressions can be delivered in fewer words in one language rather than the other, and some ideas can really only be expressed in one language or the other. My hunch is that these sentences are not necessarily deliberately parsed, but sort of flow out intuitively. Only people who are truly fluent can do this; it implies the ability to think in both languages without having to consciously translate.

The expressions you often offer are probably closer to pidgin than Taglish, since they're trying to give you all English.

[QUOTE=XMan;2209951]The Filipino communication technique that always amuses me is the way they point with their mouths / lips. [/QUOTE]First time I observed this was from a young Filipina behind the counter of a little Korean restaurant on the UP campus. I had been in country less than two weeks, and, since I'd just entered the restaurant, I thought she was blowing me a kiss. There were several other folks around, and, because I was a little embarrassed, I just stepped up to the counter, placed my order with her, and said nothing. I described the situation later to a Filipino friend, who then mimicked the lip-pointing gesture, laughed at my interpretation, and explained it was just a common way that Filipinos point at things.

[QUOTE=SoapySmith;2209996]I notice a more refined Taglish among better-educated Filipinos, who simply intermingle Tagalog and English in the same sentence, and usually in approximately correct word order. I've asked why they do it and been told that some expressions can be delivered in fewer words in one language rather than the other, and some ideas can really only be expressed in one language or the other. My hunch is that these sentences are not necessarily deliberately parsed, but sort of flow out intuitively. Only people who are truly fluent can do this; it implies the ability to think in both languages without having to consciously translate.[/QUOTE]Wifey speaks English, Tagalog, Visayan (aka Cebuano and others), and Ilonggo / Hiligaynon and interchangeably switches between at least English and one of the Filipino languages in one sentence. For me trying to learn it's a nightmare. Tagalog is a little easier as often the stress is on the second syllable, whereas with Cebuano it's all over the place. First, last, penultimate. Then there are words that mean very different things in Tagalog and Cebuano. My driver is "malibog" means my driver is confused in Cebuano, while meaning my driver is a pervert in Tagalog. Ilonggo is usually obvious when spoken as it's quite harsh on the ears. Sounds like people are having an argument when they're actually just shooting the breeze.

I've also learned that Cebuano simply doesn't have English or even Tagalog equivalents for some phrases. There just isn't an obvious translation. I don't have any examples of that right now. It's not even formalised how you write some words so you can see more than one spelling for a word and neither is particularly wrong.

All that said, the languages ought to be easier to learn than, for example, English with its myriad idiosyncrasies and "it's always X, unless it's Y" kind of rules.

[QUOTE=MrEnternational;2209819]Simple. Just take the boat to Koh Larn (Coral Island) from Pattaya (Bali Hai Pier, end of Walking Street). 45 minutes. 30 baht.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Sosua, Dominican Republic. Cartagena, Colombia.[/QUOTE]What about the other way stay in Koh Larn. Boat to Patts? Late night boat??Much to do / play with in KL. Have been to Patts so know what's on offer there.

Your indulgence Mr. E if you would please.