To New Immigrants-What to do After Landing

Before we came to Canada I researched on the internet about what we would be doing soon after landing. Here are some of the things a new immigrant should do

First of all, some of the important things:

• If you don’t have somewhere already, find a place to live! In our case, I have my sister Bambi who generously opened her home to us;
• You should apply for your Social Insurance Number as soon as possible. The legalities of asking for the SIN seem to be a grey area, but banks will demand your SIN to open a bank account.
• You will also need a Medicare card to take advantage of the Canadian health care system.Be sure you have proof of address in Canada like a bank statement before applying for this card
• Open a bank account. This is the most important thing since if you dont open an account you will have a hard time getting credit. You can also try getting a line of credit, to start a Canadian credit history which is needed if you apply for home mortgage; In our case we have stumbled into a miracle, we got a good housing agent who was able to get a mortgage for us even though we didnt have a credit history in Canada.
• Get a driver’s licence. 
• Look for your childrens school;If you enroll your children in a catholic school you will have to attend an orientation and your children will be asked to attend an English as a Second language course;
• And some more other things:

• Take some time to settle in and enjoy your new environment. Don’t jump straight into work, unless you really can’t afford not to.
• Explore whatever city you are in, get to know the public transportation system and start learning your way around. 
• Do some sight-seeing, and some of the touristy things. You will probably have family and friends visiting at some point, so it’s good to know where to take them.Specially know where to get free tourist attractions visits.

Some people have reported PIDS (Post-Immigration Depression Syndrome), but we can’t say we ever felt that. I expect if you’re emigrating on your own , it could be a bit depressing. My family and my sisters family are like having a reunion of sorts thats why my kids are enjoying our new life in Canada. 

Canadian Life

We have been in Canada for almost two months now, so far we have completed almost everything we need to do:

1) Apply for our SIN(Security Information Number)

2) Look for housing and be approved for mortgage, we are moving to our new home by first week of AUgust

3) Find a school for our two boys

We are still on vacation mode(since I am not working) but hubby will be travelling to Asia by next week for his work and on August 9, we will be going to Quebec with him for a work assignment. 

Toronto is our new home

Talagang lagalag ang mga Pinoy katulad namin. We have filed our immigration papers about 4 years ago and after a year of saving up for this move we are finally here in Canada.

Toronto is our new home now. July 1st is Canada Day and to all Canadians, Happy Canada Day 

A Neglected Blog

I have been remiss in my blogging on this site. There are several reasons for this:

 One, I am maintaining two blogs (Turistangbarat- my travel blog) and (Febeth- my personal blog) as well as a facebook and a multiply account ,and

Secondly, I am a bit busy with our move from Singapore to Canada.We have finally migrated to Canada on the 7th of June 2010. My husband and two kids have so far been pretty settled.There seems to be no loneliness(yet) in our family. No homesickness (we have been away from the Philippines for 10 yrs) since sanay na kami sa buhay overseas.

But its a bit surprising that most of my enquiries or visitors actually come from this blog and most of them manage to locate me at my facebook account.

I hope to resurrect this blog soon after we have fully settled in our new home.   

Beijing Come True

Its a dream come true, visiting Beijing, eating Peking Duck,seeing Tianenmen Square and the Great Wall of China and most of all buying fake goods from the source(bought Uggs, Crocs,Burberry) the same products but much cheaper,evidently factory over runs from Chinese factories.

I cant use facebook and blogger and even multiply nor can I upload photos to my site.Terrible..its like being stranded.

Planning for a Trip To Beijing

The Great Wall of China is one of the places(not necessarily Beijing) that is in my wish iists of places to visit.

So when I saw this offering for initial budget trips to mark  the launch of Air Asia’s maiden trip to Tianjin(Beijing), I grabbed on the opportunity to book two tickets for hubby and myself.

Since I will be flying to Tianjing,I will still be riding on one of the worlds fastest bullet train, the Tianjing-Beijing  train which cuts down the travel time from these two cities from the normal 70 minutes to a record 30 minutes.

The two tickets which was flying out from Kuala Lumpur only costs RM760 for two which is about S$330 or (S$165@). How can you get lower than that for a trip to Beijing.Normally tickets to Beijing would costs somewhere between S$500-700.

The only hassle however was that I still have to fly to KL and stay overnight which means that I have to look at the prospect of sleeping again at the cold cement floors of the LCCT(Low Cost Terminal of Air Asia) or staying in Tune hotel for RM158 or getting into the Premier Lounge at RM106 for 5 hours or just sipping several cups of coffee at the LCCT McDonalds store.

At least this time I have 4 options, last year in February while going to Macau we had to sleep at the terminal while waiting for our morning connecting flight.

I really cannot cancel this trip since ,

1) I cant rebook and would totally lose my Beijing trip booking

2) I have already booked two nights at Courtyard Marriot Beijing using our Marriot card

3) I dont think I will be able to plan another trip to China now that we are moving to Toronto by June 7

Our budget for airfare and hotel

Airfare- Singapore to KL            S$80.00 (I bought another ticket going to KL)

              KL -Johor                             58.50 (RM136)

     KL-Tianjin to KL                         330.00 (RM 760) 

TOTAL AIRFARES                       S$  468.50  (S234.25 per person)

HOTELS (3 nights)                      Free courtesy of Marriot Vacation Club

allowance for 1 night hotel (KL)         54.00

TOTAL                                             S$     522.50 

Take a Look at Sentosa SIngapore’s New Hotels

Can You Beat this Low Plane Fares?

Singapore has a definite advantage in low cost airline travel since two of the regions low cost carriers are based in Singapore (Tiger Airways and Jetstar Asia) while another low cost carrier Air Asia is based in nearby Kualu Lumpur:

Here are the lowest airplane tickets from SIngapore and Kuala Lumpur :.

Flights with less than 3 hours duration:

Singapore to Kuala Lumpur                S$25 roundtrip    April 2010          Air Asia

 Singapore to Bali ,Indonesia              S$40 roundtrip    Dec 2009         Air Asia

Singapore to Yogyakarta,Indonesia   S$42 roundtrip   May 3-5,2010    Air Asia

Singapore to Phuket,Thailand             S$63 round trip  Mar 16-18,2010  Air Asia

 Singapore to Ho CHi Min,Vietnam     S$76 roundtrip     Nov 2009         Tiger Airways

Flights over 5 hours in duration:

Singapore to Perth                                S$117.3 rndtrip     Sept 2009         Jetstar

Kuala Lumpur to Tianjin(Beijing)       S$157.5 rndtrip   April 2010         Air Asia

As a rule of thumb for me, I find fares low if they fall below S$100 for flights for less than

3 hours and for less than S$200 for flights for destinations 3-6 hours duration.

The next time you book, let these rates serve as a benchmark whether you are buying real cheap tickets

Tips for 2010

ITCHY FEET

My lola(grandmother) used to say that if you have a mole(nunal) near your mouth you would be a glib talker, and if you have a mole down your nosetrils you will lead a good life. I dont have a mole in my feet which would denote I have either an itchy feet or a knack for travelling but thats how I had become because of these cheap airline bargain trips.

Next week four of us(without hubby who is in Taiwan) me, my two boys Nygel and Niles and our ever faithful alalay Nette will be off to our Bali holiday. I had long dreamt of Bali and it was only 6 months ago when I was finally able to get that bargain ticket of $40 for a round trip ticket to this Indonesian Island Resort.

I am also excited of course to go home this December and we will be visiting Coron ,Palawan. The seat sale of Zest Airlines was incredibly tempting at P400 but when I finally decided to book our tickets the price already went up by a 1000 bucks but it was still worth going there.

Hubby doesnt know yet but by next year, I had planned our return to Phuket in March for the kids school holidays. Just the two of us ,we will be in Beijing in April(to finally see the Great Wall) and in Borobodur,Indonesia in May. In between , Singapore’s Universal Studio might already be open and hopefully we can visit before we live and settle in Canada.

From Canada onwards, it will be penny pinching time for us….but hopefuflly not the end of my Itchy Feet saga. 

2009 A Busy Travel Year

Thanks to the different budget airlines in Asia, 2009 marked a busy travel year for me. and my family. 

Beijing is in my List of Places to Visit in 2010

Except for my US trip financed by hubby all the rest of our family trips materialized due to numerous online sales of budget airlines namely Air Asia, Jetstar and  Tiger Airways.

Here is my busy travel schedule this year:

JANUARY-FEBRUARY- Los Angeles,San Diego,Sta Barbara and Carlsbad California USA

MARCH- Macau, China

APRIL- Penang,Malaysia

JUNE-Bintan Island,Indonesia

SEPTEMBER-Perth, Australia

OCTOBER- Siem Reap,Cambodia

NOVEMBER, Saigon,Vietnam

DECEMBER- Bali, Indonesia

                         Palawan and Manila ,Philippines   

My wish list next year(2010) is to visit these places:

MARCH-Phuket again

APRIL- Beijing to see the Great Wall of China

MAY -  Yogyakarta,Indonesiato visit the Borobodur temple

JUNE- Settle in Ontario,Canada 

Being in Singapore is an advantage since most budget airlines have their base here.This is the reason why most fares are cheap coming from Singapore.

Saigon Bound

    We are travelling to Vietnam particularly in Ho Chi Minh(Saigon) by Tuesday next week. Last week in Phnom Penh we met a US couple who didnt like Saigon very much because they said the War Memorial brought back memories that they didnt want to be reminded again (Vietnam War).

I heard that the Vietnamese are very happy people. Maybe much like Pinoys. We also forgave the Japanese about the atrocities they have committed during the Japanese War.  

We dont expect to see awesome structures like Angkor Wat in Ho Chi Minch but as we were told Vietnam is a gastronomic adventure.

Saigon here we come/

BUDGET PLANNING FOR OUR SIEM REAP TRIP

There is this wrong notion that only rich people travel Although that maybe true in the past nowadays, anyone can travel.

With the numerous budget airlines and price wars and sale programs going on….one cant resist the offers of travelling at the least costs.

 Our trip tomorrow in Siem Reap,Cambodia is an example.

Out tickets costs  S$220 for two($110 each). We had booked at Golden Temple in Siem Reap where our room is US$22/day. for our 3 days 2 nights trip we estimate that we will spend about $50-$100 for food. Our entrance to the Angkor Wat Temple is US$20 and our departure tax is US$25.

Estimated costs for the entire trip(without shopping) is therefore about  US$500-US$800 for two persons.

Memories Through Facebook

hi! my maiden name i carmelita “milette” baring. i was wondering if you and i were classmates in st. joseph’s college qc?

 Hi Betty,
Are you Apha Delta from UP?

Cost of Migrating to Canada

This is to document the activities and expenses one has to go through and spend when you are planning to migrate to Canada.

First of all these expenses that I am going to list down are expenses without the cost of any consultant or legal attorneys that some would engage to apply for them.

These are the expenses for going to Canada in Singapore dollars

1) Application fee-                                                                          S$2,051.8

2) Cost of medical fees (xray etc for 2 adults and 2 children)  -S$599.8          

3) Cost of NBI /Police Clearance and Photos                              S$180.00

4)  Cost of Issuing Visa for 2 adults at $599@                         S1,200.00

5) Other Miscellaneous costs(transpo,xerox etc)                          100.00

ESTIMATED /ACTUAL TOTAL EXPENSES                          S$4,131.00 or about P137,500

In our case, we received our notice to do ou medical examination a 1st step for issuance of our permanency visas exactly 3 years

after we submitted our application.

We still have to spend for our air tickets and our relocation which will amount to probably around S$10,000-20,000 or about P500,000.

Its not a joke to migrate to Canada. 

Unbelievably Cheap Air Tickets

   With the advent of budget carriers in Asia,nowadays you dont need to be rich to be a jetsetter.

Look at the bargain air tickets that I was able to snap for my family:

 Jetstar Perth Airtickets two way- S$469 for 4 or about S$117 (P 3,904)/person. This is for our Sept 6-11 trip.

Jetstar Siem Reap tickets - S$110 or P3,670 /person for our October 20-22 trip.

Tiger AIrways Airtickets for Saigon S$76 or P2,536/person. This for our November 3-5 trip to Ho Chi Minh City.

Air Asia airtickets for Bali (the cheapest) at S$40 or P 1335 each.This is for our Dec 1-3 trip

It pays to monitor prices of air tickets once in a while specially if you are planning for vacations.You can enroll in Message Alerts from these budget airlines so that they will notify you when they have special promotions.

Touring Austral Asia

 Now that we are about to embark on a transfer to Canada (sometime next year), Asia will be a far off continent that would be too expensive to make a trip to.

Some of my friends and relatives who have moved to the US and Canada have not been outside the US and Canada and taking a vacation is an expensive indulgence .

So now that we are still here, I have lined up trips for my family to visit till end of the year.These are not expensive trips since there are a lot of budget airlines in Singapore:

Sept 6-11,2009    PERTH AUSTRALIA- we will spend our 15th years anniversary,Niles Bday which falls in September and the one week school holidays of the kids here.This is our first time to Australia

 October 20-22  SIEM REAP,CAMBODIA -me and hubby will visit the ancient Angkor Wat temple, a once in a lifetime trip that might not repeat itself. So while we are still 2 hrs away from Cambodia and still in Singapore,might as well visit one of the Ancient Wonders of the World.

November 3-5 HO CHI MINH,VIETNAM - This is the first time that we will be using our Marriot Timeshare plan, we will be staying gratis at amore at the Renaissance Marriot hotel just infront of the Mekong Delta River in Saigon(Ho CHi Minh City)

December 1-3 BALI  -This will be a dream for me to see Bali and we are staying at the Ritz Carlton Bali (Marriot). AT last I will visit this place that I have heard so much of.

Except for our Australia and Siem Reap trips, our hotels in Bali and Vietnam will be through Marriot Vacation Club.

At least pag nasa Canada na kami, we have already toured the exciting places in Asia

Sino Sya?

SIno Sya, was my first reaction ng bigla na lang nagsolo etong mukhang instik na e2. Biro mo bida siya agad

When the all-star Michael Jackson memorial ceremony in Los Angeles came to an end today, millions of fans watching the event became curious about the woman who sang lead on Jackson’s “Heal the World.” The mystery singer was Judith Hill, a Pasadena, California-based vocalist who was recruited to be one of the backup singers for Jackson’s This Is It! concerts at London’s O2 Arena. Hill wowed the crowd and the millions watching around the world with her rendition of the Dangerous song, but her identity had most viewers baffled — the “We Are the world” and “Heal the world” performers weren’t identified in the handouts at the Staples Center or on any other documents distributed to the press.

According to the bio on Hill’s official Website, “Judith was born in Los Angeles and raised in a family of musicians. Her mother is an immigrant from Japan who met her father in a funk band in the 1970s.” Hill is described as discovering her love of music at an early age while growing up in a deeply religious household, which led her to attend the Christian university Biola University in Southern California

Its Back to School in Singapore

  Unlike in the Philippines were schools are extended, in Singapore, the schools are now monitoring the travel of all their students. If the child has travelled to any of the H1A1 affected areas, they will be given a Leave of Absence for 7 days from the date of their travel till school opening which is on June 29,Monday.

This morning I received a  call from Niles teacher and he was advised to stay home till June 30 since we arrived from Bintan Indonesia only on June 24.

These efforts to contain the spread of the flu epidemic is laudable but I dont think it would really be  so much effective since as proven in the Philippines it has affected children who had never even travelled overseas and has spread to the community at a rapid phase.

Happy Fathers Day

Adam Lambert-The Next American Idol

With the exception of Carrie Underwood, there has never been a time except now that there emerges early in the contest a sure winner.

This year Adam Lambert will surely win.I am willing to bet on it.

The top two will be Danny Gokey and Adam Lambert

FLIGHT BARGAINS

Lately there had been a lot of airticket bargains online. It seems that airlines are just trying to fill up their capacity to survive.

Jetstarasia has launched noontime bargains(11-2pm).Just by logging on during these hours, fantastic bargains on airtickets are  at stake.

Airasia has launched also zero fares for trips to Indonesia. I bought our plane tickets for Bali at an unbelievable S$40 roundtrip.Just imagine that. It is even cheaper than going to Malaysia by bus.

Travel to and around Asia is getting cheaper but still nobody is travelling now adays.

Now is the time to travel , just surf for your cheap tickets online.

Bali here we come!!(this December) 

Boracay is one of the 44 Must Visit Places in 2009

The New York Times has come out with a compelling list of 44 Places where one should go in 2009 and Boracay Islands is one of them. However it is a bit annoying that the write up said that Boracay might be the next Phuket?

Please go to this website and click on the recommend button for Boracay so that we can promote our very own

Nygel School’s Open House

We are back in Singapore after two weeks in Manila. We terriby enjoyed our Boracay trip and now I can make a judgement that Boracay is much much better than Phuket.

Today January 10, was Nygels schools’ Open House. Assumption English school located in Upper Bukit Timah is the nearest Catholic school from our residence and it was Nygels choice for his secondary school.

We met all his teachers ,the Principal and all faculty heads. In addition we were given a report of each childs learning profile(meaning an assessment of his study habits and style).

It is such an active  and dynamic school that after the briefing we were recruited to be members of the Parent Support group. I met a lot of Filipino parents and also other foreigners whose childrern are studying in the school.

The principal also informed the parents that the new website of the school http://www.assumptionenglish.moe.edu.sg has just been launched.

Nygel will be spending four years of his adult life in this school and I am happy he has chosen this school.He is in good hands. 

Phuket versus Boracay

I should not be comparing these two resort places since I am Pinoy and therefore I should favor Boracay over Phuket. But I would like to compare these two popular beach destination for the very purpose of knowing which one is really a better destination.

We are set to go to Phuket by November 28 and to Boracay on Dec 21. But let me tell you off the bat what  I have noticed when searching for hotels in these two places:

Hotel rooms in Phuket are much much cheaper than those in Boracay.

We are staying in Sugar Palm Karon Resort  in Phuket.

A two night stay costs me only S$142 in this hotel

In comparison, at Boracay it costs me S$172 for the two nights accomodation we have secured fromAlta Vista de Boracay(this price is soft opening price) 

Sugar Palm Karon Pool

Alta Vista De Boracay Infinity Pool

I shall get back to you about comparison in food, entertainment and cleanliness factors after our visit to these places.

How Hotel Reviews Help

If are visiting a plAce for the first time it helps to get the opinion of other travellers who have visited it. In termsof choosing hotels I have always relied on websites like Yahoo Travel and Trip Advisor since they carry reviews of actual travellers like me.

The HK Hollywood hotel is one of the best family hotels we have stayed in

If you want my unbaised opinion of hotels I have stayed in, click on this link,  I dont get paid for doing the reviews. I just want to help fellow travellers to get a good idea of what they are paying for.

Staying in 3 of the Worlds Largest Hotels

   I have stayed in 3 of the Worlds Top 15 Largest Hotels namely: FIrst World Hotel(1st) in Genting,Malaysia and two Vegas hotels: Excalibur ( 7th) and  Monte Carlo(14th) and I can assure you that being big doesnt necessarily mean the best service.

 First World Hotel: We have stayed in this hotel thrice of the 5 times we have visited Genting.The rooms are small and dont have airconditioning since it is quite cold in Genting. The bathrooms are small and it always takes us 2-3 hours to check in specially on school holidays and week ends. The check out however is facilitated by key drop boxes. The lobby is big and quite impressive. The lifts are fast and plenty for each floor.

The breakfast however is very basic but the place is an all in one theme park,shopping, entertainment and hotel complex.

Excalibur Hotel:Hubby and I stayed in this hotel in 2005 and since we booked via internet our check in was very fast. I think most Vegas hotels have fast check in and check out services.

The breakfast and dinner buffets in this hotel is very extensive and we were wondering what they usually do with so much food left overs every night.

The lobby of this hotel is a little bit dark since its supposed to be a castle., I am not particularly fond of the interior though but its good waking up to a good view of a Disneyland like castle. 

MontecarloVegas. I stayed in this hotel in APril 2008 together with my 2 best friends and our check in and check out is quite fast. However during our visit there was a lot of construction going on around this hotel and there is a very noisy club at the corner of the hotel.

These are the top 15 largest hotels in the world (2007 list)

1. First World Hotel, Malaysia - 6,118 rooms
2. MGM Grand, Las Vegas - 5,690 rooms
3. Ambassador City Jomtlen - 4,631 room
4. Luxor, Las Vegas - 4,408 rooms
5. Mandalay Bay (Inc. The Hotel), Las Vegas - 4,341 rooms
6. The Venetian, Las Vegas - 4,027 rooms
7. Excalibur, Las Vegas - 4,008 rooms
8. Bellagio, Las Vegas - 3,993 rooms
9. Circus Circus, Las Vegas - 3,774 rooms
10. Flamingo, Las Vegas - 3,565 rooms
11. Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu - 3,386 rooms
12. Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas - 3,349 rooms
13. Mirage, Las Vegas - 3,044 rooms
14. Monte Carlo, Las Vegas - 3,002 rooms
15. Las Vegas Hilton, Las Vegas – 2,956 rooms

AIR ASIA CANCELS OUR JB-MACAU FLIGHT

When I opened my email last Friday, I had to think for awhile since the message was about “Macau Flight Cancelled”. At first I  thought that Air Asia decided not to fly to Macau anymore but when I opened the email, it said…..

My only complaint about this message is that they gave me a Malaysian number which was very hard to reach. Since I am very familiar with online reservation I searched for their Singapore number.

After being placed on hold for about 15 minutes I was lucky enough to get hold of their representative who immediately gave me an option of flying to KL and taking our connecting flight to Macau from there.

The same will be true on our return trip.We fly to KL and connect to JB. The only problem is that there is only one flight going to Johor Bahru(JB) from KL and it leaves KL at 7:50 in the morning . This meant that we had to stay overnight in KL.

Now my only problem is getting our hotel for the overnight stay in KL. We are landing at and departing from  the KLIA-LCC and not the KLIA(KL International AIrport) 

Any suggestions?

A Spunky VP Candidate Palin

The VP Presidential campaign in the US has shifted from Obama/Mc Cain to its Vice Presidents.

Just because a VP former beauty queen Palin is in the limelight everyone has their eyes on her.

She reminds me of Punky Brewster (the 70s small kid actress in her own TV show) 

See that wink?

and this!

The hell where did Mc Cain get this woman…choosing a VP is hard enough…why choose her?

WE ARE GOING TO PHUKET

I had a last minute decision to buy our tickets to Phuket. Tiger Airways was offering flights at 0.04 cents (exclusive of taxes). The sale is only till  midnight tonight and I purchased our tickets at 11.15.

The cost of our tickets(4 of us) is like the cost of our tickets from Manila to Boracay which is rather cheap. Phuket is only 1 hour and 30 minutes away from Singapore and we will just spend the week end there during the kids school holidays.

Good timing since November is Loy Krathong month in Thailand. Maybe we will have a chance to see the Krathongs and lanterns being lit in the skies of Phuket.