My Trip/Requirements and Rant

Definitely not a rant and pertinent questions that deserve definitive answers rather than assumptions which are no good to you.

A good point of reference would be a recent blog update of a few days ago by Paul in Dumaguete ‘Old dog new tricks’ on his return from LAX in Los Angeles to the Philippines. Its informative and VERY amusing. 

As a fellow Brit I would be interested to know what you paid for your ticket. No doubt you are flying KLM via Amsterdam to Bangkok. You will use a different carrier from Bangkok into Manila? I take my hat off to you for doing a 2 stop flight - you will be knackered on arrival at Ninoy Aquino but will sleep well at the airport hotel! My neighbour has a villa in Dauin, Dumaguete and he always gets the very cheapest flight available (usually China Eastern Airlines) with a 15 hour layover (yeah right) in Beijing. I have given him the nickname ‘The Layover King’

Cebu Pacific is my domestic airline of choice now rather than Philippine Airlines and have improved markedly over the past few years. Terminal 3 (after a 10 year hiatus in opening) is without doubt the best of the terminal buildings and given that you won’t be taking food at the layover airport hotel there are some good restaurants on the elevated food court area along with a couple of excellent value for money foot massage salons that will relax you after the stress of the journey not to mention all the paperwork - make sure you have your NHS vaccination card as well as the digital NHS pass.

Enjoy your trip and do keep us all updated!

With regard to your question about whether Filipinos tend to "pay attention to detail"? In my experience, not so much. At least not in the same way that westerners do. In my experience, those in the province, especially, have simpler less detailed lives to begin with. Fewer things on their plate, and less complexity in every day life. Not really trying to generalize here, or demean anyone, but most of us still living in the west have complicated lives, filled with a myriad of complexity - schedules, various rules, requirements, and so on. So we are used to keeping a lot of that detailed information in the background. Your average Filipino not so much, unless they are fully immersed in city life and a professional job.

Although my girlfriend is more attentive to detail than most, I still have to remind her that I need her to consider the ramifications of her decision, before giving me an answer.  What else will be required if we choose path A or B? There may be multiple factors to consider and one particular choice may lead to other secondary requirements or impacts down the line.  This does not come naturally to them in my experience, especially those with a lower level of education or who live in the province. So in my experience, planning, in particular, does not seem to be a strong suit for many Filipinos.  They tend to live more in the moment, which is not necessarily a bad thing, and there are of course, always exceptions to the rule.

@Lotus Eater 

When I was booking the trip I used Skyscanner and Kayak to search for flights and eventually found reasonably priced flights through Skyscanner. However when I clicked on the prices of the first 2 suggestions which were priced around the £770 mark, I found when I was redirected to their website, the flights did not include checked baggage so I eventually looked at another price which had come up which did include baggage and this cost me £880. My outward flights are with KLM, so Leeds/Bradford - Amsterdam - Bangkok - Manila, departing Leeds/Bradford at 17.20 on Wednesday 4 May. I only have short connection times between flights in Amsterdam and Bangkok so the total journey time I think is about 18 hours.

My flight from Cebu to Ho Chi Minh City on 27 May departs Cebu at 08.25 and my arrival time is 14.30. I have 2 hours 50 minutes between flights in Manila and my flights both arrive and depart from Terminal 2. These flights are with Philippine Airlines.

Coming back is the longest part, 31 hours I think from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok, then to Paris then onto Amsterdam and Leeds/Bradford and I do have about 11 and a half hours in Amsterdam, so not so good especially as this is between 21.25 and 9.15 the next day. Flights with Air France.

Does anybody know about the other requirements for visiting Cagayan De Oro, I believe I may need a letter of acceptance?  And one thing I am really struggling to find is suitable Travel Insurance that covers covid and clearly states is does and also that covers travel to Cagayan De Oro. There is a Foreign Office warning against travelling to that part of Mindanao and any standard insurance policy is invalid if travelling against Foreign Office advise. I have found a specialist company that will insure for going there and there are more but it is getting the covid cover included that I am struggling with.

@Cherryann01 

With many of these flight booking sites the devil is in the detail and you have to watch the baggage allowances given. Most inter- continental airlines will have 20kg as standard. Watch out for your domestic leg flights in the Philippines which always have a lower limit. Its often cheaper to buy the extra baggage allowance online with the selected carrier before you fly otherwise you will have a nasty surprise on check in. What I like about the middle eastern super carriers (Etihad, Emirates,Qatar) is they have a standard 23kg allowance. With my frequent flyer membership with Etihad its 30kg. 

The outward flight considering the stopovers is very quick. Coming back not do but hey 'you pays your money and take your choice'. On the insurance front I would go to a specialist travel insurance broker who can sort this for you. Its possible that your bank may include travel insurance bundled with your current account - my HSBC Premier account includes covid cover and gives me a £10,000,000 limit. Yes no misprint. Perhaps approach your home insurance company who will give you a more competitive travel insurance package given that you are an incumbent customer.

Regarding the Mindanao travel requirements there are many expat members on this site who reside in CDO and will be better qualified than me to advise you in this area.

To add a little more to the 'rant'  part about why some of the provincial/less educated locals were unable to look carefully at details/ramifications of some of the daily decisions they make was exactly how I felt. Infact it was even at times depressing and I wondered why my better half for the last 9yrs was unable to see things the way I did & so I took it upon myself reluctantly to do all the planning for us....so there were no more ifs nor buts left to worry about

Its only when a crisis hit like what exactly happened to us (super typhoon odette) that I started to realize how VERY resilient these same provincial locals can be (which still amazes me till today)....Infact my gf/family were amazing at how focused/quick they went about clearing/sorting/repairing the mess that remained in our home after the castastrophic damage that the super typhoon brought upon us. 

Oh well, I live and learn. 😆