Mabuhay….Finally set foot in Pilipinas

My trip to Philippines was to visit Kath, after she was transferred there for work….aaanndd also to take a short break from work la. Took Air Asia flight to Manila early Friday morning and landed in Clark Fields which is about 2 hours drive from Manila City.

I spent 6 days here and visited couple of places such a Tagathay Volcanos, Villa Escudero ,The American Cemetary and the Manila memorial park.

Tagaytay (Taal Volcano) is located about 70 km south of Manila.The volcano is one of the smallest and most dangerous in the world. It was soo small and not impressive as i had imagined, after visiting the Kintamani Volcano in Bali.

Lake Taal  is a huge volcanic crater that has filled up with water and has become a lake. Within the lake, other eruptions have occurred producing more craters and micro-lakes.

 

The Manila  Memorial Park is where the Aquinos (Curazon and Ninoy) are laid to rest. Its a very simple mausoleum compared to the others built surrounding it. It definitely looks like a park instead of just as a memorial park. There’s lot of open spaces, gardens and greenery, as well as ponds and fountains. It seems like quite a serene place actually. The best time to visit this place is in the daytime so that you can appreciate the different styles of Mausoleums, tombs and other forms of burial place. We were there after the recent typhoon, the place looked a little like a disaster scene out of a movie, huge trees has uprooted all around the park.

I spent the rest of the days, touring Manila city and boosting Manila’s economy by doing what a girl knows best ….shopping shopping and shopping..hehhe. I visited the SM Mall of Asia is the 2nd largest mall in the Philippines and the 4th (Ref. Forbes' World's 10 Largest Shopping Malls) largest shopping mall in the world!!! This is mall has just about anything you can do for the rest of day..IMAX, discovery centers, foods, ice skating rink, Cinemas, Music Halls…soooo happening. Well Ladies, if you are in Manila, this is certainly a must visit mall!

Overall i observed couple things during my stay here, the Ladies here are very fashion consious, most girls can be seen wearing oversized sunglasses and well dressed. The guys too!

Service culture is apparent. The employees of malls and any tourist areas here are well trained to attend to customer needs.

Besides that, anywhere you go, the public toilets are extremely clean, impressive. Although the city seems a little polluted, the roads are kept clean. The life in Manila seems very shopping mall oriented. They even have chapels in malls! How cool is that?

Bogus scam

A couple of months ago, I have advertised my apartment which i wanted to sell on a local property website.  3 weeks ago, I received an e-mail from a person known as "Captain Allen Smith" which goes as below...

 Contact telephone:- +447045760722
 Message:- Dear Friend,

 My name is Captain Allen Smith, I saw your property at thinkproperty.com.my and I am

interested in buying it. Please get back to me so I can make an offer on it. My email is

estccoms@hotmail.com. Phone: +44 7045760722

Take care,
Capt Smith


Welllll.... seems a little weird that a foreigner wants to buy a 10 year old property without even viewing or asking for details. I went on to reply it to know his exact intentions, and then he replied as follows.........

Dear Rageni

 Thank you for your email response, I intend to be in Malaysia on or before the end of next week to enable me inspect the said property. Like I told you in my previous email message, I am looking for a partner, colleague and a friend whom I can rely on and trust as I expect to purchase your property and other subsequent properties and duly invest in your country with your assistance as a captain with the United Nations Troop in Iraq on war against Terrorism.

Based on the United States legislative and executive decision to withdraw troops from Iraq this year, I have been deployed to come and work in your country’s military base, to help beef up security in Targeted Airports, Train-Stations, Tourist venues mostly in the United States and the European Union. For the duration of this mission, I should be staying in the property which I intend purchasing from you.

The funds which I intend using to purchase the said property was realized from an oil deal/transaction here in Iraq which I happen to be a part of, as a top ranking officer, I played some roles in some oil transactions since the US troops has been here in Iraq mainly because of the benefits derived from oil rich Iraq but as a top Military officer who is affiliated with the Government, I am not allowed to have such funds in my possession

Hence the reason why I contacted you to be my partner, friend and colleague to receive the said sum of $16.2M(Sixteen Million Two Hundred Thousand Dollars) as the SOLE BENEFICIARY AND OWNER. Once the funds duly gets to your custody, the property purchased will be paid through your account to the owner as I am not allowed to have the funds in my name. Once that is done and other properties obtained, the same processes will be employed after which you will assist me open an investment which I will then use to set up an account in my name then transfer my remaining share to the said account.

I worked so hard to acquire the said sum and will want you to handle this with all sincerity and secrecy until the transaction is finally concluded.

All the necessary paper works will be duly provided to you for your perusal including the verifiable payment confirmation slip which you can verify with your bank. I was able to move the funds to Malaysia via diplomatic means with the assistance of the Red Cross Agency. Upon your confirmation to act as the sole beneficiary to the funds, the contact details of the agent who assisted me move the funds to Malaysia will be given to you to enable you finalize arrangements on how the package will be received then you can deposit it into your account.

 You will keep 30% of the total sum for your assistance while the remaining will be for me as I plan purchasing your property with part and investing the rest with your due supervision as I do not have much experience in investment. I can send you a copy of my picture taken with the funds to enable you know that this is not a child’s play. Most importantly, the agent was not informed of the contents of the package as I told them they were family jewels intended for you as the beneficiary.

I intend meeting you in Malaysia for a face to face meeting and signing of the necessary paper works, once the funds is claimed with your assistance so I can make my arrangements to meet with you by next Friday.

We have no further time left to delay as we are expected to conclude this within 7 bank working days.

 I will be glad to receive your positive response towards the proposal in question by sending 

YOUR FULL NAME.........
YOUR FULL ADDRESS....................
YOUR DIRECT TELEPHONE NUMBER.........
 

Capt. Allen Smith

And yeahhhh, then I realised i am being scammed!!!!!!!!!!!!! I stopped all further correspondence with this person. Then last week, was really suprised to read the headline on The Sun newspaper.... A reporter of a local news agency has received a similar e-mail to mine and made a report with the police about the e-mail. They went on further on a plan to capture this criminal and succeeded. It was also mentioned that a lady lost RM 1.2 Mil to this scam as well. 

So people, beware when someone writes to you and says you have to pay some money as handling fee and in return you will be given a Millions of bucks!! Its a scam!!

Pit stop at Mamak

We were at the rodent infested food stall called Williams (named after the owner). Sat down to the smell of garbage in the air…wasn’t that appertizing indeed! I have no ideas why people fill up this place like flies….errr. The seating arrangement were kind of dangerous as the table are arranged by the side of a busy road.

The food portion were large, and pricey, above standard of a typical mamak stall. I guess the specialty seems to be that Williams puts Itallian dishes on its menu, which you cant find in other roadside stalls. It was my first ever time here and probably its my last!! Sorry Alan, don’t seems to like it as much as you do.:-(

 

The nite we sang our hearts out….

 
It was a very “long awaited” karoake session that was planned months ago…finally we made it on 3rd June 2010. I must say Karoake session brings out the unknown, the hidden personality of a person. Dean sang preety well, although was gaping for “fuel” at times, Alan – was very dramatic and emotional , a trait i have not seen before! and Benson Oh Benson, loves to hum ooohs and ahhhhs, but sang “Ich Bin Schnappi” extremely well!!:-p hahah
Well certainly was fun going out for this K session, a prefect entertainment for stress release!