Letters
from the Philippines take at least five days to reach other countries by air, sometimes significantly longer. For incoming mail, major post offices in Manila have a counter for
poste restante
.
The country's
telephone
system has improved dramatically in recent years, although outside urban centres it can still be temperamental. Public
payphones
are not common, but can be found in many malls (where there are often long queues to use them) and hotel lobbies. They take P1 and P5 coins. Many payphones take only Philippine Long Distance Telephone (PLDT) cards only, known as
Fonkards
. These are available in P100, P200, P300 and P500 denominations and can be bought from convenience stores such as 7-11 and hotels.
Long-distance domestic calls
are known as NDD (National Direct Dialling).
Regional codes
are given throughout the section; you'll need to dial the "0" before all long-distance national calls within the Philippines. To check a phone code, dial 112. Manila to Baguio costs P5 a minute, or P4 during the off-peak hours of 7pm-7am and all day Sunday. For local directory assistance call 114.
Rates for
international IDD calls
are fixed and charged in US dollars by the "pulse". A pulse is equivalent to six seconds. To Australia the first ten pulses (60 seconds) cost 19 cents and every additional pulse cost 15 cents. For the UK it's 19 cents then 16 cents. Calls are cheaper 9pm-8am and all day Sunday. To
call abroad
from the Philippines, dial 00 + IDD country code + area code (minus the first 0) + number. The international operator is tel 108. PLDT also has a service for making
overseas collect calls
. If you dial 105 plus the country access code you will be connected to the operator of the country you are calling. These calls can be billed to your credit card.
Internet cafés
are springing up all over Manila and an increasing number of the more popular resorts and dive centres have email facilities you might be able to use for a small charge.
