Pizza party in the Philippines? Get ready to sell a kidney!
Filed under: Debt, Food, Travel
Historically, the Philippines has been known for its beautiful beaches, World War II history, extremely friendly citizens (they celebrate the Fourth of July under the guise of "Filipino/American Friendship Day), and Imelda Marcos' extensive shoe collection. Recently, however, it gained a new distinction: it is now home to the most expensive pizzas in the world. The Heigh family, of Alberta, Canada, was instrumental in helping the Philippines reach this achievement. While traveling there in late August, the Heighs became homesick for good, old American cuisine and decided to visit Pizza Hut. Over the course of two visits, they bought a pair of pizzas, enjoyed their cheese and greasy dough fix, and gave the leftovers to beggars. Unfortunately, their restaurant processed the transaction in dollars, not Filipino pesos, which means that the two pizzas came to a total of over $2,500. MasterCard immediately froze their account and began investigating the charges.
Now, three weeks after the original transaction, the Heighs still haven't been able to get one of the charges reversed. This exchange has cost them a great deal of time and forced them to cancel a side trip that they had planned on making. As Shannon Heigh notes in her blog, when traveling abroad, make sure that stores accept "international credit cards." If you don't, you just might get your pizza with a big side order of misery!
Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. He swears that he will never complain about Totonno's $20 pies again.



Reader Comments (Page 1 of 19)
9-17-2008 @ 8:56PM
Sir said...
Shame on Pizza Hut.
And shame on those crooked asian rats.
They knew they were cheating people.
Reply
9-17-2008 @ 9:25PM
Me said...
Wow, talk about racist.
9-17-2008 @ 10:19PM
david said...
i have bought pizza in philippines at pizza hut in cebu no problem other than not the samr quality as home in the usa.
9-17-2008 @ 11:29PM
toriano said...
How good is your Kung-Fu! HAHAHAA..I will avenge my bother!
9-18-2008 @ 1:21AM
Dave said...
Pizza was not invented by the Pizono's, but actually by the Chinese
9-18-2008 @ 1:33AM
eva said...
What up with this racial coments for your information the owner of pizza hut is an american retiree . so befor you open your racial ignorant mouth why don't you investigate first
9-18-2008 @ 1:46AM
Melissa Quintans said...
wow, you must be a real "crooked rat".. If my memory serves me right, "it does take one to know one". Actually, you're what we like to call "racist"...=) Don't be mad, just because you got screwed.
Grow up...!
9-18-2008 @ 3:55AM
Adrian said...
you are one racist F***ER!
it is obvious that it was an honest mistake
ohhh... i forgot to say that you're also STUPID!
9-18-2008 @ 2:14PM
Vic M. Cunanan said...
Calling Asians "rats" are, at best, uncharitable and, at worst, it is a blatant 'racist' comment. If the writer has some modicum of education, he/she should have known that "Pizza Hut" is a U.S. company operating in the Philippines. Not all Asians are bad and, by the same token, not all white people are 'good'. The world will be a better world to live in, if tolerance is practiced more in everyday life.
9-18-2008 @ 3:24PM
arto said...
originaly, the idea of the "pizza" was invented by the Chinese.
merchants and traders brought back the idea of edible plates to the Mediterranean region soon, as it was literally the bread basket of the world.
for the most part, Europeans have considered the tomato as poisonous. and in Italy, poor people from the South ate pizza without expensive cheese that was made in the North.
it wasn't until the media savvy U.S. created and bastardized the pizza as their own did it gain world wide popularity.
by the way, Filipinos are not Asian; they are Pacific Islanders. many would consider the people from India, China, Iran and even Russia as Asian first before considering Filipinos Asians. the Philippines is a concentration of islands off the coast of Asia in the Pacific ocean. Since it is off the coast of Asia it highly influenced by the Chinese, Arabs etc....
also, pizza from Pizza Hut, no matter what country it's made in will always taste like poo.
9-18-2008 @ 7:36PM
rogerfed said...
uhm im asian. im not a rat u dirty prick.
10-06-2008 @ 1:24AM
alex said...
Asians are not rats? u fattass pig lets slaughter u with a knife and make bacon of u!
10-14-2008 @ 5:47PM
anabangbang said...
Filipinos are not Asian but they're still hot.
9-17-2008 @ 8:58PM
margarita said...
that was done on purpose....the pizza shop should have known well enough when they have reg customers or visiting customers from other country, they just got greedy!!!!.........bet their pizza, still tasted liked crap!!!!
Reply
9-22-2008 @ 2:20PM
hawk said...
yep!
10-05-2008 @ 10:11AM
JBG said...
I agree with you, the establishment should have known the difference when charging the credit card. then again...I think it's ironic that they used a credit card to pay for a pizza. If you're going to get fast food in another country, then the best thing to do is use their money to purchase small and simple items, such as food or trinkets. It's safer and less problems. Use the credit card for the larger purchases, like the hotel bill, car rentals and or airfare. Be smart, not foolish. You'll make those points either way.
9-17-2008 @ 9:01PM
farah said...
Hmmm,... thats wierd, 'the Heighs became homesick for good, old American cuisine.' I believe that the article mentioned that they are Canadian. Yes, Canada has pizza, then why did they mention American cuisine and homesick in the same sentance?
Reply
9-17-2008 @ 10:07PM
Bruce Watson said...
Farah-
That was a joke, as was the fact that I referred to Pizza as "American cuisine." Glad that somebody picked up on it.
9-17-2008 @ 10:12PM
David Adler said...
Canada is part of North American. They are as much Americans as US residents.
9-17-2008 @ 10:20PM
Joseph said...
Canada is in America, North America. So is the United States. Is is common to refer to citizens of the USA as Americans but this is really a misnomer. Canadians are Americans also.