I’m giving away a ticket to Philippine Fashion Week Holiday 2012! Pls scroll down or go to my post here.

Do any of you guys have Pinterest? Oh I can hear you guys grumbling “Not another social network, AGAIN.” Actually it does seem like Tumblr but in a more organized manner. Pinterest is somewhat like a corkboard and shelf all rolled into one. For example, you were looking for a particular style to redecorate your home but there are so many. So what you do is you “pin” it on a particularly board in Pinterest and then you’ll be able to review them all at a later time. What I love about is it’s graphical user interface and it’s just so easy on the eyes. It’s bookmarking WITH STYLE. I’ve already made 12 boards and I’ve also indicated my dream camera there too, just so I won’t forget it or anything. I will get a DSLR someday and after hours of research, I do know what camera and lens to get. I just need… you know, moolah. So if you’re on Pinterest already, ADD MEE! Or if you want an invite (you can easily log in using twitter or facebook), I can easily give ya one. Just comment away

One of my favorite boards there is of course, that dream house “Welcome to My Abode” board. Ever since I was young and had to move away from my grandparents, I knew I wanted my own room just like what other “normal” people had. Why am I still sleeping in the same room with my parents EVEN up to now? Why can’t I tear down these walls and decorate to my own liking? Well of course money money money is the problem and the fact that we’re just renting our house. So if ever the owners decided to boot us out, I’ll be homeless. So I don’t really have a permanent home, this is why I love the phrase, “Home is where the heart is” because I can make ANY PLACE my home. And thus the dreamer in me continues to dream. I’ve grown out of my pre-teen and teenage phase so unfortunately I can’t decorate my room like one anymore (well WHO SAYS SO… I still can! haha) but I have a vision of what my dream house would be like. It’s got to be big, and spacious! Check out my dream house board.

Seems though I LOVE to incorporate nature and books in my future home.

Maybe live inside a mountain or a hill

Or float around in my lazy river inside the house

Or yeah again in a cave

But then something revolutionary happened last week that threatened me to jump off my dream precipice. I watched a documentary on Youtube called “We The Tiny House People” and it featured the tumbleweed houses and various other people who were able to build extraordinary homes in such a limited space. It wasn’t actually my first time to see this particular house

which looked like a cabin compartment on wheels more than anything else. Somehow it wasn’t able to change my perception of my dream house but after watching this documentary and to find out how living less doesn’t always mean living more, but it doesn’t mean that LESS CANNOT BE MORE. Why can’t it? A lot would disagree with that statement at how having less things mean more things. But I believe that we can make it more. You got to work to achieve and if you check out my favorites in the documentary, such as this amazing 400-square feet boat home by Heather Wilcoxon who ditched the Hollywood glamour to live on a boat.(no I am not a hippie or bohemian-ish really… i would change the interior design but the concept is amazing)

My favorite apartment though has got to be Christian Schallert’s apartment in Barcelona. They call it the “lego-style apartment” because of how everything is connected and hidden. It’s perfectly functional too.

This space-saving idea is so practical and wonderful but might be turned off by those with kids. Of course you can’t raise kids in these kinds of quarters but it doesn’t have to be such a big difference right? People who have built tiny homes state that one of the reasons why they love building these is because of “being lazy” and “no dusting required” statement. Actually that’s a perk but I think the reason goes beyond that. Less cleaning is always helpful but let’s not forget that it’s great for sanitation purposes, it helps with countries’ density problem. Building these kinds of tiny houses is more economical and cheaper they say because of lower rent rates and of course less land needed and I do agree.

I look at the problems here in the big city of Metro Manila and look at the squatters and shanties around and I can’t help feel a nudge somewhere… that this might be a solution to their problem. I don’t know how it’s going to be implemented or not but applying these kinds of concepts could help with the environmental waste problem and also the squatter situation. I want to pitch this idea to somebody but I feel like I lack the needed knowledge (i am not an interior designer or an architect) but this is an important idea that must be shared. What do you think?

Please take the time to watch this documentary, it might be long (1 hour and a half) but it’s really worth it. You don’t have to watch it all now but it would be great if you take the time to watch this too. This has affected me so much that wherever I turn to in my home, I’d see “WASTED SPACE!!!” and say “TOO MUCH SPACE FOR 3 PEOPLE!!” and I want to take out everything. But it’s not yet my home… wait till I get my own. Nature will definitely be a part of my future home though.

If you just want to watch the trailer, you could do so here It’s only 10 minutes I think?

Check out the Tumbleweed blog or Faircompanies for videos and photos of more tiny houses. They also give you tips on how to “save space” from your homes.

Jay Shafer is also the founder and owner and architect and… well he built the first “tiny house” like this. Check out his tour. Thought that I should mention him here because he’s kind of the “pioneer” in the States.

Updates when I update!

I’ve always wondered what the Earth has seen through her lifetime. As the opening song of The Big Bang Theory goes

“Our whole universe was in a hot dense state,
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started. Wait…”

If the Earth really were 14 billion years old (CORRECTION 4 BILLION YEARS AGO, thanks Chiui!), then man, she must have seen a LOT of things. And she’s probably made a lot of things too. Whenever I just walk around along the streets of anywhere, any country, I always wonder, what lies under the ground beneath my feet? I’m sure there’s dirt, crust, bones, and who knows what living things. The Earth has risen I think as we pile concrete or other materials on top of the Earth, we tend to bury a lot of things. And yeah, maybe we can find things inside mountains and volcanoes too.

And who knows what you might find.

Probably a gold mine, maybe Atlantis, maybe your lost sock.

Or maybe…
MAYBE WHAT? ▼

You Realize there’s a cockroach-like bug in your car. On the seat beside you…

Or when a humongous spider lands on the wall IN FRONT OF YOU inside YOUR ROOM…

Or when a flying cockroach suddenly whizzes past by you and a FLYING CAT follows and flies by you to…

WHAT DO YOU DO?

Well do what I do and choose among these options a) Run like a sissy girl or boy b) Whack and miss it c) Whack and kill it d) Scream and panic

So I kinda did d for the first one, b and c for the 2nd one (I had to wait for the next night to find it still inside the room, I woke up with a bite mark…) and a for the third one. Well I didn’t exactly run like a sissy girl, maybe run with dignity but I was more surprised with Kitty flying past me chasing the flying cockroach rather than anything else. And I thought it was my chance to escape too! And for the bug inside the car, it disappeared once I got out of the car :/

So that’s how I open my post after a month. LOL! haha and I was hoping that it was going to be a dramatic post about graduation or job hunting, but no guys, I think bugs following me everywhere must be top news!

Haha hello again guys! But seriously I was planning a post-graduation story. I had it all figured out, I was going to make a playlist of my graduation songs and explain that but then immediately after graduation, I went to Hong Kong (after 6 years my friends!) with my blockmates and then went to the beach, Boracay (international friends, you seriously have to COME TO THE PHILIPPINES AND GO TO OUR BEACHES! PLEASE!!! especially THIS ONE!!) with my groupie and then I was all over for job applications that… I almost forgot I had a blog. Holy crap I wish I could be more concentrated on this. I’ll still go ahead and give you a recap of everything though as soon as I can! But also trying to keep my posts less than a thousand words, really I have to learn how to write less :/

It’s been amazing, the 4 year adventures in Ateneo. I felt like I died, was reborn and changed in so many ways. It’s a bit dramatic if you would say, actually maybe some who meet me would have told me I didn’t change at all. But there’s this new perspective you gain when compared to your high school self or 14 year old self. There’s definitely a change in the pattern and way of life. Problem is just living my dreams now. Finding them for that matter.

My Hong Kong and Boracay adventures will have to be written sometime this week! This is basically just an update telling you guys I’m still alive, being chased around by bugs. Also, I’m on a reading streak! On to my 12th book now! Wish me luck on reaching 50 again!

Some picture teasers:

Making the Rents Proud (ooohh medal!)

Hanging out at Ocean Park, Hong Kong

Fooling around Boracay, Philippines

and Satisfaction Brought It Back.

So which do you believe? The first phrase or the whole sentence? I kinda believe both and context is always important!

So when Discovery Channel started its Curiosity series, I was intrigued. Heck and they keep on showing the commerial for its episode on female orgasm and what it’s for narrated by maggie gylenhall. But what really interested me was their segment for….WAIT FOR IT….

WHAT IF U COULD LIVE FOREVER?

Yeah what would you do? Would u avail these medical treatments if it were possible? Andrew Sage (guy from myth busters) tries to explore this world and yep, freakily (is there such a word?) the technology we have today seems to be telling us that it is possible in the near 50 or so years. THEORY OF SINGULARITY GUYS! (try googling what it is. XD) I really liked the segment except for a few farfetched parts (a flying brain… Seriously? but…) anyway i’ll stop yapping and you can check it out now. Thank you Youtube for full videos and movies!

FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY ▼

So it’s the New Year tomorrow. Besides asking a lot of questions, I do want 2012 to be a fresh start. So many thins will change and i am optimistic at saying that 2012 be an awesome year for me. I swear that today will be the last day of procrastination. I have to fix my life and find le reason! LE REASON! I even thought of a new tradition of writing down this year’s failures and achievements and burning it afterwards. Or maybe i should only burn the failures… Maybe oh dear i only have a few hours to decide xD.

So before I say goodbye and welcome the new year, a little plugging for my offline friends’ new spaces in the cyberworld!

1. Randz’ Randzomeness! I swear he has a knack for blogging and of course mixing and matching clothes! He even did a stint at Topman! So go scurry ahead please

2. Mariel’s Indeemand dot com! She’s a very curious girl who likes to snap pics at everything and anything! Also if she’s bored, she does these.

3. Nicole’s Fashion Blog! She’s an investigative journalist and writes well and is addicted to lashes, pink and SHOES! Man you should see this girl! Please head over to her blog!

4. JV’s Sociologist Chemist Chinese Blog! hahaha I hosted JV before but he’s on his own now with a new perspective in life especially shifting to BS Sociology. Go for what you want guys! But he’s still a Chemist at heart methinks!

5. Chair’s dreams and realities! One of my best friends and she has a lot of stuff to talk about especially gaming! She just recently returned to blogging (like me!) so please show her some lve. She also featured Inotia 3, A SUPER ADDICTIVE ANDROID AND IPHONE RPG GAME! I slept at 3 and 4am for this. And in 3 days am now a level 47 archmage. So yeah, TODAY IS MY LAST DAY OF PROCRASTINATION!

6. GEORGIE’S FREE WORDPRESS THEMES! Hahah I haven’t really met Georgina personally but I loved her themes so much and have been a follower of her blog for YEARS now, I think that it’s just right to promote it. PLEASE DO CHECK HER FREE THEMES OUT

7. Oh this is just shameless plugging but do visit my Europe photoblog and instagram blog! Currently updating them. Can’t believe I left it alone for months now. Again 2012 WILL BE A NEW YEAR.

LOTS OF LOVE!

Thank you so much for the new visitors of my blog! Hallo and hope you guys don’t get bored here Sorry if I annoy some people but heck, you’re still here hahaha

I WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY FANTASTIC AND YES NOT THE LAST HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012 (UNLESS YOU BELIEVE ANOTHER THEORY LIKE ALIENS– CHECKTHISVIDEOSERIES :alien: :alien: ) TO YOU!!!
(stop 9gagging! XD)

Lol I forgot to put the…
Questions:
1. So would you want to live forever if you could?
2. Please visit one of my friend’s blogs and tell me what you think
3. 2012 will be… I will…

Sorry if this post came out so late! I actually have a new issue in the works but I’ll go ahead and post this first. It’s most likely that you’re here because you’ve been waiting for the second installment of my experience with the most stressful travel agency I’ve encountered (please read this first if you haven’t). Well surprisingly… they were able to book everything except again, I have some complaints.

Photo credits to Mich and Chair! THANKSS!!

Us!

Airphil’s Airbus

Puerto Prinsesa Airport. It’s a really small terminal

It wasn’t written in the deal but the airline that they got us was Airphil Express and it was my first time to ride with them. I was really nervous because the only domestic flights I trusted were Philippine Airlines (even if they’re always late, they are established) and Cebu Pacific so I was really apprehensive. And to think I watched this feature on National Geographic about this air-crash investigation before boarding haha! Good thing though nothing bad happened except for a few delays of a few minutes. I was asleep for most of the 1 hour and 10 minute-ride there so didn’t experience any strong turbulence unlike the one I experienced with Cebu Pacific going to Shanghai. Man THAT WAS THE WORST FLIGHT EXPERIENCE -__-. This flight didn’t me migraines at all and I commend them for that. So don’t be afraid of Airphil express Their terminal by the way is located at NAIA terminal 3. If your flight is at 7:30am, don’t be deceived that there will be a “short” line. There’ll actually be a long line when you arrive at around 5:30am but this is manageable as the long line is actually for Cebu Pacific flights. GOOD LUCK TO THEM! By 6:15am we were actually waiting at the gate and had enough time to kill. Oh and for those who booked with Ensemble, you only need the photocopy of the credit card of Joey Regis or whoever PAID Airphil thing. You don’t need their valid IDs but don’t forget to bring your valid ID too and the travel docket!

This photo of Kookaburra Travel Lodge is courtesy of TripAdvisor

This photo of Kookaburra Travel Lodge is courtesy of TripAdvisor

This photo of Kookaburra Travel Lodge is courtesy of TripAdvisor

We stayed in Kookaburra Lodge finally after demanding Ensemble that this hotel was the one written on the deal so I really wanted to transfer here. It was a good decision even if the location was 10 minutes away from the main city because the people there were really so friendly and SERVICE-ORIENTED (unlike some people *COUGH COUGH*). I was texting one of the staff before we arrived because I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to attend the Underground River Tour that we booked with them (instead of Ensemble, GOOD THINKING. it’s 1,500 pesos though but I think you can get a cheaper deal if you book early) because our flight was scheduled to arrive in Puerto Prinsesa at 8:40am and the tour was at 9am. Of course I feared for the worse like our flight getting delayed and true enough it was delayed for 10 minutes. Surprise surprise when we arrived, Kookaburra arranged to have a separate van to transfer our things to the hotel and the Underground Tour van was already there waiting for us. Good thing we were able to dress properly and we immediately got on! Our tour guide Tita Nids was so nice and was very motherly to us. We were with other tourists from another hotel and Kookaburra. Oh a tip, book your tours in advance with the hotel because they need to secure permits for the Underground River tour.

I kinda forgot how many hours exactly it took from Puerto Prinsesa City to Sabang where the Underground River was (it was 8 kilometers long under a mountain! we were able to travel only 1.2km though as the rest of the river can only be traveled when you’re a researcher). I think it was around 2-3 hours of a joyous ride because of the remnants of the “Abortion Road” (when the road to Sabang wasn’t developed and when pregnant women can’t travel there XD). Because there were foreign tourists, conversation was very lively and interesting as we got to know that they were traveling around the world and Tita Nids was also sharing her stories and explaining the different cities in Palawan. My friends and I bought sun hats too which were perfect for the occasion as it was really so hot and sunny that day! We then had lunch at this coastal restaurants where Badjaos (people native there) were selling their handmade accessories. They were really cheap too but DON’T FORGET to bargain! haha! And be careful because usually a swarm of sellers will surround you O_O You have to be assertive when you don’t want to buy at all. I was able to buy some though WARNING TO FOREIGNERS, please make sure that they are selling you the right price.

Food that comes with the package

Boat ride to the Underground River

Entrance to Underground River.

Tips: PLEASE WEAR JACKET OR PUT PLASTIC AROUND YER BAGS Droplets of water and maybe some guano (aka batpoo) will fall on top of you. Helmets are provided so don’t worry about your crown. Also spray INSECT-REPELLENT coz there are little insects buzzing around. If you’re lucky, you might get a glimpse of a swimming monitor lizard, LOVED IT! We were able to see one at the entrance of the cave. Also if you want to hold the spotlight (it’s POSITIVELY DARK INSIDE THE UNDERGROUND RIVER), sit up front but again, you will attract lotsa little critters. The bats I found out are SUPER CUTE! They’re not vicious at all but tiny little darlings Also get RENE as your boat guide. One of the corniest/funniest man I’ve ever heard/met. Seriously he’s really funny.

Overall, the Underground River was a lovely 40 minute experience. Those afraid of the dark though, this experience would be quite scary…

Us by the beach

TIME TO PARTEY HAVE DINNER! One of the best Filipino restaurants I’ve been to!

So here’s evidence of our pigging out. OH and we ate WOODWORMS. WORMS.

Fish Chips

Rice

Gising Gising (my fave! veggies, shrimp, etc!)

Buttered Prawns OMG YUM

Beef steak (Filipino style!)

Crispy Pata (Pig’s thigh feet) OMG SO HEAVENLY BUT OH SO CHOLESTEROL-Y

THE CARNAGE! Our moms taught us well to not leave anything behind

Oh yeah, did I mention THE WORMS??

Day 2 begins! Now I was really worried about our tour that came with Ensemble, the Honday Bay Island Hopping tour. I was reassured a bit when Joey Regis, their ACCLAIMED CEO (I was wondering though, WHY THE HELL IS THE CEO THE ONE UPDATING OUR TOURS? WTF?), suddenly called me and reminded me of our tour at 9am. It said though in their travel docket that we were supposed to be picked up at 730am. I wondered what the hell happened but I told him okay. I also asked for the contact number of our guide and got it anyway. I asked Kookaburra’s staff about our tour and they honestly can’t give me any answers coz Ensemble really is the only one who knows about it. SO PLEASE, WHOEVER GOT ENSEMBLE’S DEALS, PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK WITH THEM ALL THE TIME COZ YOUR HOTEL WON’T KNOW EITHER. And I actually asked Tita Nids about Ensemble and they have been hearing horrible things too especially this story about Ensemble ruining a couple’s honeymoon because they booked them at wrong times and they could only go on the City tour which they had to book themselves. Really frustrated couple. SHEESH. Ensemble MUST LEARN.

So we got up and had breakfast at 8am and surprisingly, the guide arrived before 9am and we were able to go with a couple of people who also booked with Ensemble (again we shared our own experiences with them, ALL NEGATIVE). It was cool that we met Mich’s long lost relative there and also met a very nice couple. They got Cebu Pacific’s flight though. It turns out that Ensemble ONLY provided a tour handler, NOT EXACTLY a tour guide so he wasn’t like Tita Nids who talked about Palawan. So I absolutely didn’t learn anything about the islands. We didn’t have a snorkeling instructor or guide too (I saw that other groups had someone go snorkeling with them) which was a pity coz they could have taught us the proper way to snorkel. I knew how to swim but I didn’t exactly know how to dive. I did see the pretty fishes and got to feed them! Oh by the way, we rented out beach shoes and snorkeling gear and had some free fish food There’s a stop on the way to the port. We were able to hop to Snake Island (my fave coz of the LOADS of fishes) and Pandan Island (LOTS OF ALGEA! Some starfishes and fishes but not as many, you could ride on banana boats, jetski and other activities though) only because our guide said that they were doing some renovations or what on Starfish Island. SO THEY SAY. So Ensemble again FAILS in this department because our tour wasn’t really equipped with a guide. WTF really. To those who have arranged Honday Bay Island hopping with other travel agencies, did you have a “real” guide? So I’ll let the pics do the talking

On da boat!!

DELICIOUS LUNCH THOUGH!! Our tour handler was a great cook! Now that’s a good thing

Snake Island!

Next stop was DINNER AGAIN! haha boy we loved our dinners! Oh by the way, Kookaburra can arrange tricycle rides to the main city BUT it’s really MORE EXPENSIVE! 20 pesos per person though the tricycle was indeed better than Manila’s trikes, i still think 20php is STEEP. So when going back from your location, you can either get another trike offering a cheaper price or contact Kookaburra again to pick you up So we had ours in Kalui’s! They were fullybooked by that time and it’s a good thing we reserved a place. I LOVED the ambiance of the place and we had to go barefoot inside the restaurant. The sounds and lighting were perfect. Except I actually loved the food at Kinabuch’s better though. Kalui’s seemed lacking something… hahah!

Front of Kalui’s. Yeah Lui owns this restaurant

No slippers or shoes please

We kinda pigged out again except we had more fishes and vegetables Kinda too lazy to put everything. I’ll only put if someone requests the 7 dishes we 4 girls ate

Dropped by Puerto Prinsesa’s Bay walk area!

BEAR CAT! SO FLUFFY!

Baker’s Hill!

DELICIOUS HALO HALO!

Basically I LOVED my Palawan trip except for some minor flaws (Ensemble -__-). Our island hopping day could have been better. I sure wish we stayed here for more than 3 days. It just isn’t enough. And now I’m wishing I could go back. But definitely not booking with Ensemble anymore (unless they hire me and I’ll fix their booking system, HA! XD)

So toodles all!

UPDATE!

Woah! I never knew that this post was reaching the top of google search, well almost in some terms. I realized then that I must update this post of mine as I haven’t researched on anything new on Ensemble lately and I may give out the wrong information to people.

A commenter has gladly told me that finally, after all our complaints, ABS-CBN featured it and after a search on DZMM website, they featured this feature (it’s in Filipino) and said that the office of Ensemble IS NO LONGER IN CEBU (say what??), JOEY REGIS THE HEAD WILL ANSWER TO ALL DEMANDS (say what??) and HE ADMITTED TO NOT ANSWERING THE CALLS (SAY AGAIN WHAT THE F—???!!!). The article says that Sydney Gonzales (who is she??) revoked the permit of Ensemble to stop operation LAST SEPTEMBER 2011 (SAY WHAT EFF CRPAHFIDBGIKEBHGFKIHFDKHFD OUR FREAKING DEAL WAS MADE AFTER SEPTEMBER, WHAT THE FU–?!!!).

I need more updates. These revelations just infuriate me more. I just hope that THESE ISSUES WERE/WILL BE RESOLVED. It’s just insane. Now the expletives and cursings are against these revelations. Actually I have no idea now if Ensemble is operating at all or not. If anybody knows, PLEASE UPDATE ME.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Please Ensemble, if you every changed your names to another travel agency and are still operating somewhere, PLEASE PLEASE IMPROVE YOUR MANAGEMENT AND SERVICES. And also don’t leave unsettled stones unturned. Wait I think I said that incorrectly…

********SECOND UPDATE**********

A kind commenter has given tips for those who want to get their money back or who want to complain the hell out of Ensemble or other travel agencies.

1. Document everything and report to DTI. The email address is dtincrlegal@yahoo.com and attach all needed evidences.
2. Go directly to their office. It’s just at the Enterprise Building 27Flr Tower 2 : Regus Office (leased). Don’t waste time in calling them, either no one is answering or their phone lines are f**ked up. Ask for the supervisor (Ruby) and show all needed evidences. Demand for a refund.
3. Follow up daily. They say refund takes 4-6 weeks but mine is now at the 4th week and validation is still ongoing (so much for customer service). Metrodeal has admitted that they themselves are having problems contacting Ensemble but this is not a reason to allow them to just wait for Ensemble to reply back.
Metrodeal has confirmed that payment is not endorsed to the merchant unless the voucher has been used already. I’ve been to their office several times asking for follow up and believe me every visit comes with an escalated tone. Our money is still with Metrodeal, and they just need to get validation from Ensemble that we did not really used the voucher in order to process the refund. That process unfortunately takes millions of years thus make sure to do the visits and the legal reports to DTI.
I also think it helps if people go in groups in their office. I think that would really turn their office upside down and hopefully they would expedite our demand for refunds.

His suggestions are valid and I believe that going directly to Metrodeal INSTEAD of calling them up (which I tried) and going by groups is also great. There are people in forums out there who share the same pain as you do.

So here’s my original post.

*NOTE THIS IS NOT TO DEGRADE any of the coupon site or the travel agency. This is just a recap and opinion and FEELINGS of MY EXPERIENCE which I think can help a lot of people who had/have undergone (or ARE undergoing) this experience with the said sites. I was able to book my flights, accommodations, tours and everything in the end and I will fly on October17-19. I will make a separate blog post for POST-vacation to see if everything really has gone smoothly. I am not telling you to bash or boycott these people, just BE WARY AND TAKE LOTS OF CAUTION*

In case you wanna skip the whole post, here are the RELIABLE CONTACT NUMBERS

*With updated Metrodeal new hotline number*
ENSEMBLE E-TRAVEL AGENCY
DARYL (for PALAWAN DEALS)
E-mail: ppsdeal2@gmail.com
Celphone: +63 9174886388
Landline: 5469083
OTHER Person people have been able to contact
Joey Regis +639174246558
+639174886386

BANTAYAN DEALS
E-mail: bantayandeal2@gmail.com

METRODEAL
Landline: 8858848
MetroDeal Inc.
27F (Regus) Tower 2 The Enterprise Centre
6766 Ayala Avenue cor. Paseo De Roxas
Makati City

I feel so STRESSED AND HURT the past weeks.

Okay sorry how very callous of me to start my post with these kinds of words. But I haven’t endured this kind of stress and axiety with any other TRAVEL AGENCIES in my whole years of…. almost adulthood. My parents have been the ones arranging flights for me but I am sure that they have never encountered such horrendous service in their entire life. And we thought travel agencies were service-oriented. We didn’t demand leopard skins or a red carpet treatment, we just wanted BASIC customer service. Listen to the customer, reply to the customer ASAP, respect the customer and be a cheery dude.

Okay so let’s go into detail about this.

Am sure that everyone must be acquainted with coupon sites already which I think is an ingenious thing. The stores, establishments and agencies put up this limited offer and people would react impulsively to this because they would all think, “if i don’t buy this now, I may never get the chance!”. These services are also PRE-PAID so they immediately earn money without even doing anything. Smart eh? I mean look at this travel deal we bought, it’s worth almost 10 thousand pesos and around 3 thousand bought the coupons. Do the math and they’ve instantly hit GOLD! Such was the case of our deal in Metrodeal and Ensemble E-travel.

Metrodeal is an established coupon site here in the Philippine as one of the first few coupon sites. My friend recommended it to me because of its great deals on food and services. When the offer for 2 people to go to Puerto Prinsesa for 3 days 2 nights including airfare, accommodations, tours and breakfasta for only 10 thousad pesos, my friends and I jumped at the chance and boight the great deal. It’s my dream to go to Palawan coz I believed that it was better than Boracay because there was less people. I researched the hotel, Kookaburra Lodge and it rained with GREAT reciews so I told my friends, all systems go! Let’s do this thing!

This happened last July 2011. Here’s a screenshot of the offer.

Note the terms and conditions, it said that they would immediately call you after the deal has ended. Note again that it did say subject to availability on SOME DATES but does not mention that you can actually go to only if you pay an additional fee so we all assumed that all flights WHEN AVAILABLE ONLY (meaning if it isn’t available on October20, then there aren’t flights at all) would have the same price. NOTHING SAID DEPENDS ON PROMO PRICE. It’s vague and discreet. Why didn’t we notice this? So guys always READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS VERY CAREFULLY. If you feel like there’s something wrong, don’t push through with it and find another deal.

Note also that I actually didn’t check on the travel agency. BIG MISTAKE. I assumed that all travel agencies would function well since booking a flight actually takes less time now especially local flights since you don’t even need passport details. Again DON’T ASSUME. ALWAYS MAKE SURE OF EVERY DETAIL. It was a mistake to assume that Metrodeal and Ensemble actually had GOOD COMMUNICATION. I was only alarmed after 2 weeks when my friend kept on wondering why hasn’t Ensemble contact us yet. So I did my part and emailed them our voucher details.

Tik tok tik tok… a day has passed… two… three… four… (hey did they really get my email?)… five… six… seven…

HOW DOES A TRAVEL AGENCY TAKE 7 DAYS TO RESPOND?

I got scared thinking maybe Metrodeal or Ensemble scammed us. I looked again at Metrodeal making sure it was a legit site (well of course it was, they had HUNDREDS of deals!) and then I searched for Ensemble’s site. Their site didn’t look professional and actually shady and they had TONS of numbers which I tried to call to NO AVAIL. No one was answering and one number was even WRONG. I then googled and did my own research about the company and I saw SCAMS, COMPLAINTS, ANGRY WORDS written all over the forums. I called up Kookaburra Lodge just to ask if Ensemble really did make reservations with them before and if they were legit, I finally got their cel number from them and the landline number from a blog I found. I tried that but again NOBODY WAS RESPONDING. I emailed Metrodeal and they replied back an email that only told Ensemble to please handle our matters immediately. Knowing that I couldn’t actually just depend on an email that might be left unanswered once again. I kept on calling and trying Ensemble directly. I NEEDED to speak to someone. I tried for 50 FRIGGING MINUTES CALLING THEIR DARN PHONES and gave up so I just sent them TWENTY texts inquiring our situation. By the good grace of the Lord, THEY FINALLY REPLIED (via text) and then I replied FOUR TIMES AGAIN just so that I can get a reply. What are they thinking? Are they not getting our texts? The good thing was I got a reply from the e-mail afterwards. After feeling harassed, stressed and frazzled. I knew that we had to call them immediately because flights were probably running out and we had to really book in advance.

His excuse was that they lacked manpower and the phone lines kept crashing because of the number of calls. They were going to add more people and more lines. Well THIS ISN’T MY PROBLEM. They should have expected this to happen when they put up that good deal/voucher on Metrodeal. They should have anticipated and added more lines to their communication. They should have REVIEWED OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT (and to think i’m not a business major but I do know that CONTINGENCY PLANS MUST BE MET) and fixed this problem BEFORE SERVING TO THE CUSTOMER. I know that no company is perfect, heck nobody is. But to not look like they prepared at all? YOU BE THE JUDGE.

Um…. where did all the other information go in their original voucher? This is the email one they sent us.

What contained in their e-mail frustrated me even more because the dates that I asked weeks before WAS NOT APPLICABLE but we could go if we add a thousand pesos to it. Promo wasn’t applicable on those days but we can still go. Now wait a minute, nothing was said about promo fares or anything. My friend whose brother was a lawyer was even encouraging us to file a lawsuit against them because of misinformation and lack of legitimacy (im not sure if Ensemble is listed in the Department of Tourism) because of their service (I read also from blogs that some actually have tried to file, I am not sure what happened to these). I emailed Ensemble about this concern and they mentioned that it was MISCOMMUNICATION WITH METRODEAL, Metrodeal didn’t put that fine print there in the promo. But AGAIN this shouldn’t have been our problem, this should have been theirs.

My benefit of the doubt and my desire to see Palawan at all costs made me lose heart in arguing over this so we just made a compromise and settled for October 17-19. I have to give it to the one that I was talking to though because he was able to settle our flight in one night (which made me wonder, WHY COULDN’T THEY HAVE DONE THIS FRIGGING SOONER?). He told us that he will e-mail us our itinerary, flight details, accommodation details (travel docket in short) by September. One month after. I felt more at ease now because I was able to talk to a real person this time and he seemed efficient anyway. This is DARYL (not sure if Darryl) from Ensemble and he sounded nice.

So there… one week passed… two… three… four… FIVE… SIX…

It was already October 2 and since our flight’s on October 17, I started panicking a little and decided to call them again. Same problem. My friend told me that she saw new deals that they were servicing (THEY EVEN TOOK MORE JOBS, CAN THEY HANDLE IT?) and saw that they added more cel phone numbers. So they did fulfill their promise of adding more lines. GOOD JOB. But were they answering? UH… NO. Even Daryl wasn’t replying to my calls or texts. I was also using two other cell phones and trying out ALL the available cell phone numbers they had. FINALLY I got in using their landline. I asked to speak to Daryl because he knew our problems unfortunately he wasn’t there. I can’t remember what the guy said but he transferred me to a guy named Kurt/Kirt. Now this is where I blew my fuse because when I inquired about my problem, KURT/KIRT seemed like he had absolutely NO IDEA what I was talking about. He just kept on telling me that he will email me this week (it was a Wednesday when I called I think) and if I don’t hear from them this week, I should call next week (next week meaning, uh just 7 days away from our flight, OH GREAT) again. He didn’t sound ACCOMMODATING OR FRIENDLY AT ALL. I can see him shrugging his shoulders in the phone, not even caring for the customer, didn’t even sound like he was making an effort to view our package or emailing us, it’s as if his shift was done and I was just a liability. I was HURT AND EXTREMELY FRUSTRATED AT THIS but I kept calm. I waited again but of course to no reply and I tried Daryl once more the next day and THANKFULLY HE PICKED UP. Now he was appalled and confused as to why our travel docket wasn’t made yet so he told me that he would finish it tonight (AGAIN, it is not my problem that the people in the agency didn’t seem to know about my deal with my the agency. How was I supposed that only one guy knew about my problem????). He was able to make it even though it was around 9pm already (bless his soul for staying up late), but when I saw the travel document that the agency sent,

“As we are the only e-Travel Company in the Philippines available 24 HOURS and who derives 100% of its business from the travel market industry, you are important to us. ”

I almost spat my drink out and almost wanted to cry uncontrollably. 24 hours, me being important to them. I can’t help but laugh at the irony of it all.

There were some curious things though, they changed our accommodations when a big part of why I wanted the deal in the first place was a good hotel and also they had lots of typos and mistakes in their travel docket. I emailed Daryl about this and he obliged and found a way to comply with my requests. He was really nice and everything. The only problem I had was with the optional Underground river tour which I wanted to cancel (we didn’t pay the fees yet so I thought we could cancel it ahead of time) but he texted that there would be cancellation fees. I was… WE HAVEN’T PAID YET, HOW COULD THERE BE CANCELLATION FEES? Well i again gave the benefit of the doubt and maybe he thought I was talking about canceling the whole trip which wasn’t what I meant. Good thing in the end it was all sorted out 5 days before our departure.

So my friends, would you have been stressed if you were in my place? Maybe. I know I certainly was stressed from all the confusion, the extremely HARD-TO-CONTACT agency but we were able to pull through. If Ensemble had more people like Daryl and can be contacted easily, I wouldn’t have no problem at all. If they had more Kurt/Kirts, then I’d really be fuming! I just want to tell the people who availed of vouchers by Ensemble that

THEY ARE NOT A SCAM AGENCY. THEY REPLY. JUST FRIGGING TRY AND TRY AGAIN. DON’T LOSE HOPE! CONTACT THEM UNTIL THEY REPLY!

It’s just so frustrating that Metrodeal also doesn’t answer on their landlines. And frustrating that Ensemble’s offices are in Cebu. I suggest going to the office directly would be the most efficient way but it’s in Cebu… aww man…

Here are the contact numbers that I was able to reach through. I’m not sure with the others. I also got this number from another blog site. If you have any problems with contacting them, I would contact Daryl and tell him about it.

*With updated Metrodeal new hotline number*
ENSEMBLE E-TRAVEL AGENCY
DARYL (for PALAWAN DEALS)
E-mail: ppsdeal2@gmail.com
Celphone: +63 9174886388
Landline: 5469083
OTHER Person people have been able to contact
Joey Regis +639174246558
+639174886386

BANTAYAN DEALS
E-mail: bantayandeal2@gmail.com

METRODEAL
Landline: 8858848
MetroDeal Inc.
27F (Regus) Tower 2 The Enterprise Centre
6766 Ayala Avenue cor. Paseo De Roxas
Makati City

If you have any other difficulties, please contact me or them. PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS. A GOOD DEAL DOESN’T MEAN IT’S AN EFFICIENT DEAL. AND ALSO GOOD LUCK!!!! Pls spread!

The picture is in no way related to the video below. Okay maybe it does. Sort of. It relates to the emotions that I felt when watching this video. I didn’t know whether I should laugh, cry, shout, scream, or do all so I’m as confuzzled as this sign here. This is a real clip taken from an actual Indian sci-fi movie called Enthiran which features an android that has the powers of Robocop and magnets and…. loads of magnets! Maybe magnemite even… you guys have just got to watch this to believe it. I swear that you’ll either hate me or love me for wasting your 9 minutes Enjoy

I will actually be updating something on my life in the next post and also…. POTTERMORE ACCOUNT GIVEAWAY!!

Hi guuyyss!! Anybody here who registered early for Pottermore? It’s already the 4th day but the clue has yet to come out!

I’m SilverWitch31 and DreamWolf205

It’s Holy Week everybody! Hope that you guys are doing well. This isn’t an official post yet because that would contain a lot! Been out for the past few days having fun and working. haha! Just want to share this for now. Do you Mikey Bustos? He’s a Filipino living in Canada right now and he also got in Canadian Idol. He’s got some SUPER FUNNY videos showing lots of Filipino “tutorials”. You HAVE TO WATCH IT! Especially my foreign friends!