UnionBank extends promo for remittances from UAE

Remittances don't stop when the Christmas season ends. Many OFWs send money regularly. In fact, UnionBank has a promo for remittances from UAE through UAExchange Money Transfer Operators running until March 31, 2013.

If you're based in UAE, or if you have relatives sending funds from UAE, Visa Money Transfer Fast Funds is a payment and remittance service from Visa which allows immediate cross-country crediting to any Visa card. So your monthly remittances can be made through the Visa Money Transfer Service. And it's a real time payment and remittance service that is safe, fast and convenient.

The program is open to all UnionBank Visa Debit Cardholders who are beneficiaries of OFWs and receive their remittance through the Visa Money Transfer Service from any branch of UAE Exchange in the United Arab Emirates.

Qualified UnionBank Visa Debit Cardholders are entitled to get an additional Php500 cash credit from every remittance of any amount they receive from any branch of UAExchange through their UnionBank Visa Debit Account from October 25, 2012 to March 31, 2013. The additional Cash Credits of P500.00 will be credited to the account of qualified cardholders within three banking days from date of receipt.

So if you’re looking for a quick and efficient was of sending remittances, you might want to consider UnionBank’s service. For more information, click here. 

Looking back at 2012

Happy New Year to all! It's already 2013, but I got to revisit my trips for 2012 only now since I was traveling up until the last day of the year. In fact, I have passport stamps for the first and last day of the year, and arrived home at exactly 12 midnight with no second to spare!

While 2011 remains the benchmark year for international trips, last year was not far behind. I spent a week in South Korea with UP AIT at the start of the year for Woosong University's Winter Culture Camp (Daejeon, Seoul and Muju). In March, I stayed in Singapore for a week, exploring many new attractions. 

Summer saw me back in Europe with a three week trip to the United Kingdom, which took me through many cities in England (London, Oxford, York, Lake District, Liverpool, Manchester, Stratford-upon-Avon, Cotswolds, Bath and Stonehenge), Scotland (Edinburgh, Highland Region, Isle of Skye, Glasgow) and Wales (Cardiff). 

The afternoon I got back, I switched terminals to fly to Malaysia and catch the Mount Kinabalu Expedition 2012 in Sabah. We also joined EVA Air's trip to Taiwan (Taipei and Hualien) in May.

A weekend trip to Thailand, a week in Myanmar (Yangon, Mandalay, Inle Lake and Bagan) and four days in Sri Lanka (Dambulla, Sigiriya, Polonnaruwa, Kandy, Colombo and Negombo), plus transit in Malaysia all happened in July. I had to beg off from international travel from the rest of July to November as we prepared for the very well-attended ICOMOS International Cultural Tourism Conference in Vigan. And the effort was all worth it.

Pleasant surprises followed with back-to-back long-haul trips to Canada as part of the maiden flight of Philippine Airlines to Toronto, and ten days in Southern Italy (Alberobello, Matera, Naples, Pompei, Sorrento and Capri), Sicily (Taormina, Agrigento, Palermo and Cefalu), Rome and the Vatican City for Christmas until the New Year. 

Local destinations were exciting too! I realized I revisited many of our country's major tourism destination (Bicol, Bohol, Boracay, Cebu, Davao, Ifugao, Vigan, Palawan and Puerto Galera among many others), returning to some of them twice or even thrice this year. 

Here's my Travel Year 2012 album. I'm definitely looking forward to 2013!

Quezon City: Bagoong Club's Noche Buena Menu

You a have a few days left to catch the Noche Buena Menu of Bagoong Club! We got to try this menu last week and definitely enjoyed it. There are seven dishes in the special Christmas menu. Here they are:

I particularly liked the Mula sa Puso which is puso ng saging (banana blossom) sisig. It's a healthy twist to the popular Kapampangan dish.

Puso de Coco is banana blossom wrapped in gabi leaves and cooked in coconut milk.

Tinapambutido is crispy-fried smoked fish patties topped with laing.

Then there's Bagoong Club's Christmas twist to the staple lechon: Liemponillo. It's Filipino style cuchinillo pork liempo with asado sauce and whole scallions.

Krismanok is grilled glazed chicken rolled with ham and cheese, cooked in pineapple sauce.

Balut Adobo is deep-fried balut cooked the adobo way with a generous serving of garlic.

Finally, there's Sisig Paella. That's flavorful paella infused with delectable Pampanga pork sisig.

You have until the end of the month to catch this special menu at Bagoong Club!

Bagoong Club
122 Scout Dr. Lazcano
Sacred Heart, Quezon City
(02) 929-0544