Tag: Philippines

How to buy and reload Beep cards in LRT stations
You’re on this page probably because you want to know how you can avail Beep cards at LRT stations. Or maybe for the first time, your Beep card is about to run out of load. Maybe you don’t take LRT trains but just a little curious. 🙂

The Beep card ticketing system was first tried at LRT-2, and just a few days ago, it was also launched at LRT-1 but limited to Southbound trips at the moment. You can read about my LRT-1 Beep card system experience.

The Beep card’s ticket vending machine does not give change, so you may only insert the exact amount you want to load into your card. Maybe the tellers at the LRT ticket booths can give you a change.

Here’s how you can buy and re-load a Beep card:

How to buy Beep card from Ticket Vending Machines
1. Choose “Stored Value Card” option on the ticket vending machine screen
2. Insert bills or coins into the machine’s slot.
3. Take your Beep card when the ticket vending machine dispenses it.
How to re-load your Beep card
1. Place your Beep card on the “Stored Value Card” reader of the ticket vending machine. Leave it there while you reload your Beep card.
2. Choose the “Add Value” option on the machine’s screen.
3. Insert exact amount of money into the machine. The ticket vending machines DO NOT give change. The amount you insert will be the amount loaded into your Beep card.
4. Wait for the message “Transaction Successful” to show in the screen. Do not remove your Beep card yet!
5. The screen will show you the updated amount of load in your Stored Value Beep card
August 19, 2015
LRT Beep card: my experience with the new ticketing system

Tap-and-go na ang ticketing system LRT-1, Southbound man o Northbound! This is thanks to the LRT Beep cards. Hopefully, the next upgrade in our train system would be for the improvement of train availability.

As I write this in late September, I can’t say that I feel any improvement in my daily and nightly commute via LRT-1 during rush hour after the implementation of the LRT Beep card system. Maybe it’s just me, but have the lines for turnstiles when exiting train station gotten worse since we started using LRT Beep cards? I really hope that this is just because people are still adjusting in this new system.

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August 17, 2015
Yamazaki, Little Tokyo (Makati) – review

Friends and I wanted to catch up over dinner after work. Most of us were Japanese food fans, and we decided to eat at Yamazaki in Little Tokyo.

I would definitely come back again for their delicious fried gyoza and would try the Yamazaki ramen, hoping there will be someone to share a bowl of it with. 😀

Yamazaki Ramen

Three of my friends ordered the Yamazaki Ramen. They were all surprised by the huge bowl of ramen. I told them, maybe the bowl is just full of soup but not so much noodles in it. But I was wrong. They’re boys (I think it’s usual for men to be able to eat more than women), but the bowls of ramen were still too much for them.

So, I would recommend that you split Yamazaki Ramen into two bowls if you’re not a heavy eater. That’s 218 pesos for a huge bowl of Yamazaki Ramen.

Steamed Gyoza

Gyoza is a dumpling filled with vegetables and ground meat.

I had a heavy lunch that day so I wanted something light for dinner, and gyoza was what I thought would fit the bill.

First bite and I was like, Saraaap!!! The exterior had a crunch to it, as the bottom of this dumpling was fried, and the interior was moist and very flavorful. I think that the gyoza at Yamazaki is perfect! 😀

Yasai Itame (Vegetable Stir-Fry)

Aside from the “perfect” gyoza, I also ordered yasai itame to complement my meal.

The yasai itame was very tasty and had that “grilled meat” flavor. Try it as a side dish! One plate of Yamazaki’s yasai itame is 106 pesos and can be served as side dish for about 4 people.

Update: more Yamazaki food items

This page shall be updated whenever I try something new at Yamazaki. 🙂

Fried Gyoza

The gyoza in the above photo is the “fried gyoza”. I thought that the gyoza I previously had was the fried one. Well, only the bottom part was actually fried and the waitress called that kind “steam fried gyoza”. I liked the steamed one better, since it’s juicier and tastier.

Chicken Karaage set meal

And the set meal you see above is Yamazaki’s chicken karaage set meal. The karaage set meal included picked vegetable, meat stew with potatoes and carrots, miso soup, a generous bowl of rice, and on the karaage plate there was shredded cabbage, spaghetti with mayo, tomato, and garnish of parsley.

You might be wondering what the spaghetti with mayo is. Imagine macaroni salad that uses spaghetti instead of macaroni. 🙂 I think it tastes fine but some of the friends I brought along at Yamazaki didn’t like it.

The shredded cabbage didn’t have mayonnaise or any dressing! We asked for mayo for the cabbage, but the waitress said there’s additional charge of 25 pesos, and that the dressing provided for it was the tonkatsu sauce. Meh.

However, the chicken karaage was delicious! I had boneless chicken on my plate that were very tasty and juicy. Yamazaki’s chicken karaage is perfect for me. 🙂

Menu from Yamazaki Little Tokyo

Not the best quality for a food menu’s photo. If I ever take a better shot, I’ll update the photos here.

Yamazaki, Little Tokyo, Makati – Contact

Yamazaki Address: 2277 Fernando St. cor. Pasong Tamo Street, Makati City, 1231, Metro Manila, Philippines

Yamazaki Phone Number: 02 8932163

August 11, 2015
SONA 2015 PNoy: Watch Online live stream, replay video, transcripts

It’s that day of the year again, when our president delivers a speech on the state of the nation. Today, July 27, 2015 at 4:00 pm, President Benigno Aquino III, also known as Noynoy and PNoy, will deliver SONA 2015 before Congress at the House of Representatives in Quezon City.

Scroll down for the replay video.

SONA 2015 PNoy Replay Video

SONA 2015 PNoy Original Tagalog Transcript

SONA 2015 PNoy Tagalog Transcript (unknown, 741 hits)

SONA 2015 PNoy English Transcript (Translated)

SONA 2015 PNoy English Transcript (unknown, 734 hits)

SONA 2015 PNoy Live Stream

The SONA has been delivered. Please watch the Replay Video above instead. 🙂

July 27, 2015
Transfer funds from Citibank to other banks

I asked Citibank how much they would charge if I would do electronic funds transfer from them to a BPI account.

According to them, we can transfer funds from Citibank to other banks for free if it’s electronic funds transfer. 🙂 I’m starting to like Citibank. Withdrawal from any ATM machine using my Citibank card is free, unlike for example, when I withdraw with my BPI ATM card from a BDO machine, I get charged transaction fee… about 12 or 15 pesos if I’m remembering correctly.

Quoting Citibank’s response regarding funds transfer to other banks:

We wish to inform you that the funds transfer using Citibank Online is
free of charge. However, we suggest that you check the applicable fees
that BPI may charge.

Then I asked BPI if there would be a charge when I transfer funds from Citibank to my BPI account, and they told me there’s a fixed fee of 150 PhP per received funds from another bank.

Quoting BPI’s response to me:

We understand you would
like to know the fees when you send funds from your other local bank to
your BPI Direct account. Please note that the fee is Php 150 regardless of
amount transferred.

June 14, 2015
Mobile Prefixes in the Philippines (Sun, Smart, Talk ‘N Text, Globe, TM)

When someone texts us and we need to reply, or when we need to call someone, but we’re not sure if they are using the same mobile network provider, we hesitate to do so. Possibly because of charges or higher charges.

Use the tool below to lookup the mobile network provider of a mobile prefix. You can type “0922” or “Sun” to search for data.

I made the tool using HTML and JavaScript. Pretty simple.

Quick Prefix Search: Reset

Mobile Network Provider Mobile Prefixes in the Philippines

Loading…

I’ll try to update the “mobile prefixes in the Philippines” list when I can. 🙂

November 19, 2014
Sample computation of interest – Time Deposit Rate from BPI Direct Savings Bank

Today I emailed BPI Direct, asking if the interest rates in the following table taken from their website is monthly rate.

The table of BPI’s time deposit rates above may have changed already as you read this blog entry, so please verify in this page: BPI Direct – Time Deposit Rates.

This was the response I got: (more…)

September 23, 2014
Baguio Trip via Victory Liner First Class (Deluxe) Bus – With Schedules

*in Manila, Sunday is usually the day of the week when there’s least traffic but I think traffic is heaviest in Baguio on Sundays.

In August, we went to Baguio for vacation. Walking up and down the slopes was tiring, but the hefty servings of delicious restaurant foods in the city provided us more than enough energy for that. :3 The places we went to were limited because we didn’t have a car, but that’s okay. We just wanted to relax.

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September 14, 2014
Review: Dalampasigan Beach & Pool Resort in Guis-guis, Quezon, near Sariaya

I didn’t care for beaches… or so I thought.

In March this year, developers and designers in our company set an overnight outing at Marine Base Beach Resort (a.k.a Boracay de Cavite, or Katungkulan Resort). I didn’t want to come because I don’t like swimming and other personal reasons. After some persuasion from a few colleagues, I decided to go. And I’m glad I did.

I remember that evening when we arrived at the beach. The sound of the waves… it’s as if the waves were beckoning me. It was a beautiful evening – the wind was cool, and when I looked up, there was the lovely full moon, surrounded and partially hidden my clouds. And on the next day, the day for swimming at the beach, I really had so much fun. I realized that I actually like being in the beach. I thought, “I need to go to the beach again soon, with close friends and my boyfriend”.

And so I did. 🙂 Our last-minute search for a beach resort that could accommodate us led us to Dalampasigan Beach and Pool Resort.

Dalampasigan Beach and Pool Resort is located in Quezon, and I must say that if you just ignore the swimming pools, it’s a nice place but understaffed, and the food in the restaurant is expensive. The adult pool was dirty, with a weird taste (can’t avoid tasting pool water sometimes), according to a friend, and had spits floating (yuck!) while we were there. The kiddie pool looked worse – the water looked more yellow than blue! You can guess why.

The place is nice – the combination of many trees, flowers and huts made the surroundings look really relaxing. The beach doesn’t have white sand but we didn’t encounter jellyfish and that’s a really good thing. There were lots of black jellyfish in the Marine Base Resort, by the way. xD

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September 4, 2014
SSS UMID application at SSS Makati, Ayala Avenue

I really didn’t plan to apply for an SSS UMID (Unified Multi-Purpose ID). One day I heard some office mates were about to apply for such ID and I decided to tag along. 😀

On January 7, Tuesday, we left the office at 12:15 PM for SSS Makati branch in Ayala Avenue, and finished the process at 2:15 PM.

First thing we did at the SSS Makati office was fill out the UMID Card Application Form.

SSS UMID Card Application Form (unknown, 905 hits)

Then we fell in line, to the lane they called “fast lane”, if I remember correctly. We provided valid IDs during the processing. They also took photo of us for the SSS UMID card.
My SSS UMID was delivered at home on February 7. So, it took 1 month for the delivery of SSS UMID. My mom received the item for me and the delivery person didn’t ask her for an ID or authorization letter.

Sample SSS UMID:

September 4, 2014