They didn’t have a balikbayan box till Friday, and would not pick-up door to door from our apartment because they said there’s no parking around here.
I loaded our stuff into the maleta.
Last Saturday, we took a cab to Johhnny Air Cargo’s office in 214 Avenue A, Between 13th and 14th Street. We paid $15 taxi.
Their office is on the basement of a Filipino grocery. It’s not a customer friendly place because:
1) The door is too narrow.
2) You have to drag your maleta or boxes in between the grocery shelves, baka mabangga mo.
3) No elevator. You have to carry your load down the narrow and steep stairs.
4) They don’t sell packaging tapes.
5) The receptionist is not very friendly.
We had to buy a box first. Oyen suggested that since we’re shipping it, we would just pay it altogether. But no, she wanted us to pay the $6 outright, so I did.
She said they didn’t have a tape we had to buy from the dollar store outside. Oyen went and came back with a gray duct tape.
We started packing our stuff into the box and taped it using the duck tape.
After we’ve finished, she told us that we should use a plastic tape instead, because duct tapes would melt in extreme heat. “Sigurado sira-sira yan pagdating sa Manila”. Alam pala nya eh bakit ngayon lang nya sinabi.
We were exhausted, Oyen had to go out again to buy a clear packaging tape, when another Johnny Air guy came. He looked at our box and smiled at me. He seemed friendly. I went up to the counter and requested the girl to give me the forms so I could fill them up, while I was waiting for Oyen. She said “mamaya na”. The guy heard me, she told the girl to give me the form, so she did. Then the guy asked the girl, “Di ba meron tyaong tape?”, but the girl gave him a disapproving look. He then got their roll of clear tape and helped me tape our box again. Meron palang silang tape, pinahirapan pa kami.
After a while, the girl stood up and helped us tape the box. Bumait na sya.
She and some other Filipinos were watching teleserye, baka kasi naaabala naming kaya wala sa mood.
Hay, finally. We paid $59 for the shipping, $6 box. It would take daw 45-60 days. More plates coming…..
