My Philippines blog!!!

[camchennai]

Well, after reading @praful blog I wanted to post something similar to it, however I din't right opportunity or time to post a live blog!! Kudos to @praful for managing to post it live Before my trip my plan was to start something similar but due to prolonged travel and other pleasure activities I was unable to make it as a live blog, however I will try and post information frequently so that it comes near to it Also internet connection is very slow!!

Note - This is a business trip and not a leisure trip

Last Friday night I boarded Cathay Pacific flight to Manila with a transit of 5 hours in Hong Kong airport, there are no direct flights to Manila from Chennai, we have 4 options if we need to fly to Manila, we can choose the following routes.

• Chennai >> Singapore >> Manila
• Chennai >> Malaysia >> Manila
• Chennai >> Thailand >> Manila
• Chennai >> Hong Kong >> Manila

I chose to fly Hong Kong route, since I was told crowd would be better so is the service and Hong Kong international airport is a huge airport which one should not miss. I opted out of other routes due to the crowd and most of it being a travel destination so in flight service will not be that great. And I asked my travel team to specifically to book in Cathay Pacific as its the best airline in this Asia Pacific sector.

So reached on time in Chennai airport and after waiting in queue for long time got my tickets and immigration cleared. While I was waiting in the lounge, dude next to me was drinking Tiger beer and after seeing him I got a craving to drink So asked him about the place where he got and he said in duty free shop there is some offer in Tiger beer and he asked me to get it. So with mouth full of smile I went to duty free shop without wasting any time. Upon reaching there I found the offer board there and picked up 3 beers and gave my credit card, that bugger in the billing counter refused to take my credit card and said he will accept credit card only when the bill is above $10, 3 beer costed $2. Got frustrated and gave him $100 USD which he refused to take stating he doesn't has any change. He finally said give me 120 I will give you the beer, unfortunately i only 100 and there were no ATM in the lounge, I din't carry any as it cannot be used any where. So all my beer plan went in to drains

With sad face I returned to the lounge and was waiting to board the flight. At 2.00 am there was announcement for boarding and went to the gate to see a huge queue, waiting for 20 mins and boarded the flight. My first impression about the cabin crew was very good, all were looking pretty good and all were yellow race people, seats were comfortable and they had good amount of in flight entertainment. It was a Boeing aircraft.

After take-off, flight steward came up with refreshments and promptly had 2 Heineken beers and their food menu was pretty good. They offered both vegetarian and non-vegetarian, I chose to have vegetarian as I was not sure how the taste would be NV food. Vegetarian menu was Kanchivaram upma, Sambar idly, Mysore Masala Dosa, Yogurt, Bun, Butter and some sweet. Fortunately food was filling and after have 2 beers, food tasted so delicious

So after food I chose to sleep for sometime as I was very tired and don't want to spoil Saturday night party in Manila

Reached Hong Kong airport on time and the following post will talk about it

[camchennai]

Hong Kong international airport

Hong Kong International Airport is the main airport in Hong Kong. It is colloquially known as Chek Lap Kok Airport, being built on the island of Chek Lap Kok by land reclamation, and also to distinguish it from its predecessor, the closed Kai Tak Airport.

The airport opened for commercial operations in 1998, replacing Kai Tak, and is an important regional trans-shipment centre, passenger hub and gateway for destinations in Mainland China (with over 40 destinations) and the rest of Asia.

HKIA also operates one of the world's largest passenger terminal buildings (the largest when opened in 1998) and operates 24 hours a day. The airport is operated by the Airport Authority Hong Kong and is the primary hub for Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, Hong Kong Airlines, Hong Kong Express Airways and Air Hong Kong (cargo). The airport is also one of the Asian-Pacific cargo hubs for UPS Airlines.

HKIA is an important contributor to the Hong Kong economy, employing approximately 60,000 people. About 90 airlines operate flights from the airport to over 150 cities across the globe. In 2011 HKIA handled 53,314,213 passengers, making it the 10th busiest airport worldwide by passenger traffic.It also surpassed Memphis International Airport to become the world's busiest airport by cargo traffic.

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I was stunned to see Hong Kong airport, its so very huge and neatly maintained, everywhere you can find a sign board written in English with clear instruction also you can information center at every 50 meters, people were very helpful and they ensure you reach your destination safely.

Airport located in a scenic location, one side of the airport will be full of mountains and other side of the airport will be sea, not sure how the pilots are able to land and take off safely as sea wind will be very high as its in proximity distance and more over wind get hit in the mountains and will form a reverse effect.

Airport is equipped with walkators and elevators every where so that you don't feel a pain of going through the huge airport. Airport walls are made of glass and the view is outstanding, roof is made of a translucent material so that it passes on enough natural light to the airport, I notices there were no lighting in the main terminal, only the shops and signboards had lighting.

Arrivals are handled in the ground floor and departures are from the first floor and there are more than 100 gates in the air port. It has a huge customer waiting lounge next to every gate with a restroom and a smoking lounge . After seeing more and more smoking lounges I got a big craving for a smoke, so went to a duty shop to buy a pack for Marlboro, however I was told only carton will be old and not a single pack, it din't make any sense for me to buy a carton of cigarette just to smoke one and moreover price was on the higher side so my smoking craving got extinguished

There are more than 50 restaurants in each corner and you get all variety of foods there and almost everything is open 24 hours, it also houses many duty free shops and couple of other expensive brands. Most of the shops accept USD and HKD and you will find a forex near every shop.

Most of the ground vans are either Nissan or Toyota and I spotted couple of Hyundai and Mitsubishi. Majority of the vans used by the ground staff were Nissan. There were also couple Nissan Leaf operating in the ground. Other than this I saw some Kia and Hyundai vehicles. Trucks were MAN and Isuzu, there was too many advertisement about Infinity inside the airport I guess this has got something to do with the recent movement of Infinity head quarters to Hong Kong. There were also battery operated cars inside the terminals which would shuttle passengers from one gate to another, not sure whether its complementary or a charged one.

Airport security is upto the brim and they check each and everything, if the spot something in the x-ray scanning then they open the baggage and check it thoroughly.

Hong Kong airport also provides a complimentary wi-fi service and its super fast.

There were too many Japanese, Chinese, Korean restaurant serving some weird food following their culture, I did not spot any Indian restaurant though. There was Mcdonalds in there which serves very good burgers which are unavailable in India. I spotted 2 folks from Bangalore who are on their way to China, we were having chat for more than an hour. Those 2 poor souls are vegetarians and they din't have anything to eat even in McD, McD doesn't has any vegetarian burger in their menu, poor chaps were eating corn. I don't know how they are going to survive in China

Every 45 seconds a flight lands in the airport and all ground staffs were busy most of the time.

[camchennai]

Couple of images from the Hong Kong airport

[KRRaj]

Looks like an interesting Tlog in the making .

With sad face I returned to the lounge

Vegetarian menu was Kanchivaram upma, Sambar idly, Mysore Masala Dosa, Yogurt, Bun, Butter and some sweet

When I went to SFO, I went the same route, Cathay Pacific to HongKong and then SFO. The Veg menu was the exact same even then, almost a year back

[Guru]

Ah, cammy starts a TL finally.

What are the big black box like structures on the airport?

[raama]

Fantastic TL in the making? Good start mate, Bring on the rest.

[WildWeasel]

Nice trip cammy. Bring on the rest. Are you back in India?

[lazybrain]

In the past also i enjoyed your Ooty Tlog which you posted and now this Tlog I enjoyed even more - The humorous way of writing you have developed. Keep it up and bring it on

After seeing more and more smoking lounges I got a big craving for a smoke

Good for you they didn't sell you cigarette by pack else all your quit smoking efforts would have gone to dogs and made you start the entire painful process of quitting all over again.

[camchennai]

What are the big black box like structures on the airport?

Are you talking about the black boxes in the stair way?? If yes then they are mini shops where they serve coffee, snacks and other refreshments.

Are you back in India?

ah no, don't want to come back

[jase]

Those 2 poor souls are vegetarians and they din't have anything to eat even in McD, McD doesn't has any vegetarian burger in their menu, poor chaps were eating corn

I lol at this comment. I could already picture them in my head. Are you going to post more pictures and describe about your adventures in Manila? Awaiting eagerly.