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Pizza party in the Philippines? Get ready to sell a kidney!

Bruce Watson
Sep 17th 2008 at 4:00PM
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.
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