 |
|
 |

 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 i've just booked a couple of flights with cebu pacific online, and on its page is an update of its on-time performance. the percentage for january is dismal: 68.7% (it was worse in december: 62.7% -- thankfully it did not affect my singapore flight). there used to be a time when cebupac (or which i sometimes refer to as 5J) crowed about its 98% on-time flights. i was part of the 32.3% of flights that got delayed. when i went to cebu over 2 weeks ago, they made us wait more than 2 hours before we could fly. and after the announcement of our delayed flight, a very calm and low woman's voice announced more delayed flights: to iloilo, bacolod, davao, zamboanga... imagine if this happened at the old domestic airport... i shudder at the thought. although i have to say they used to give free meals for delayed flights there. this time around, they just made us wait. so with all the free time i had, i figured: why not explore NAIA T3's domestic wing? and so i did, and here's a service to anyone flying 5J or air philippines (2P) or PAL express (PR -- yes, they're here in T3, and not at the centennial terminal) anytime soon: a low-down on the facilities at the not-so-newly-minted, but recently-opened, terminal 3. departure hall when you're dropped off at the departure ramp of the terminal, taxis should take the left lane while private cars take the right. there are pushcarts available there. currently, only 3 of the 5 gates are open, and each one already has a baggage x-ray machine and a metal detector. a pat-down will also be done, although there is as yet no need to remove footwear. but be sure to put in keys and cellphones along with your bags as they pass through the x-ray machine. a tip: they don't check for tickets here yet, so well-wishers can actually go inside the departure hall, unlike in the domestic terminal, T1, and T2. fortunately, there are seats on the right side of the terminal for those who are seeing off friends and family.
tickets will only be inspected once you attempt to enter the area with the check-in counters. 5J has an area designated for international flights, and 3 rows of counters for domestic flights. airphil and PAL express also have their own rows of counters. zestair (6K) and seair (DG) still operate from the old domestic terminal. the capacity of T3 is huge: it can accommodate a passenger volume of 13 million passengers per year. but with the delay in the arbitration in singapore, international carriers are hesitant to make the move, and currently several check-in counters are not utilized. based on my count, there are 14 counters per row, and there are a total of 12 rows. some of the counters are being used by the DOT for payment of travel tax, and others by the DOLE (for OFWs), and also by the DENR. over 50 check-in counters are still idle.
the shopping mall of T3 has yet to open, and there doesn't seem to be any construction on-going. but for hungry well-wishers and passengers who have some time to spend before they proceed to the boarding areas, the departure hall's second level has a number of food concessionaires to silence grieving stomachs. there's mister donut, jollibee, and kopi roti.
boarding area
after you've checked in, you can now proceed to the boarding area. first, pay the dometic terminal fee of P200. it's P700 for international flights, which i find utterly stupid because the terminal fee you're paying is supposed to be commensurate to the cost of using the terminal, and it's the same terminal! anyway, after that, you pass the immigration counters (T3 was designed to be an international terminal), which are used to collect the tickets for the terminal fee, and then proceed to have the final x-ray. this time, you need to take off your shoes. and to be fair, airport personnel will require you to remove your footwear, even if you're wearing thongs. by the way, they're also rather ruthless with hand-carried items. they will confiscate anything from empty water bottles, unopened bottles of wine and spirits, all sorts of liquid or gel exceeding 100ml each, masking tape, toy guns, umbrellas, balloons, etc. i asked someone what they do with the confiscated items, and they said they would be destroyed. yeah right!
the boarding area has two levels as well. airphils and PAL express don't use airbridges so you'd have to go down to gates 131 to 134 where a lorry ferries you to your plane. gates 116 to 120 service 5J. at the boarding area, you'd find the following food concessionaires whose menus are usually 20% more expensive than outside the airport (reason: higher rent. again: yeah right!):- chaikofi - serves coffee (ranging from P75 for espresso solo to P139 for kofi spikes), hot tea (P79 and P95), fruteas (13 flavors ranging from P75 for lemon mint green tea to P95 for apple & cinnamon tea infusions), salads (P175 for a crab & mango salad and caesar salad), pasta (P175 for carbonara, pomodoro, pesto, fruitti de mare), rice meals (P165 for beef chai rice and chaidobo, P195 for dutch chicken, and P155 for zwart sauce pork chop and sate babe/ayam), sandwiches (P185 for chaikofi melt and pastrami, P155 for verdure). they also have a whole chicken pt roast at P439 and desserts.
- dèlifrance - has a more limited menu compared to its branches outside the terminal. serves hot beverages (P75 for a petit cup of brewed coffee, P90 for a double espresso, and P80 for hot tea or hot chocolate), classic sandwiches (P125 for an egg mayo, P175 for chichen mayo and tuna onion, and P200 for crabstick celery), clubhouse (P230 for the premiere and P240 for the seafood deluxe), pasta (P160 for the baked rigatoni and P175 for a beef lasagna), and pizza baguette (P125 for hawaiian and P130 for the vegetarian and four cheese). you'll find their stall immediately after you're done with the final check at the aisle.
- go nuts, donuts - a donut retails for P35 a piece. a box of 12 costs P330. also serves beverages. located conveniently behind dèlifrance.
- cinnabon - a sinful serving of dulce de leche retails at P105, while there are packages ranging from P500 to P1000. hot out of the oven buns range from P110 (for the tuna croissant, minichocopecanbon, ham and cheese croissant), P140 (for the classic) and P165 (for the pecanbon). a cooled and ready-to-go cinnapack ranges from P120 (for 8 stix), P385 (for 4 pieces of the classic bun), to P625 (for 9 pieces of the triple combo). they also serve coffee (P80 for a 12oz brewed and P110 for a café mocha), tea (P80 for black and lemon tea), and specialty drinks (P160 each for a 12oz chillattas or iced mocha). it's found along with a row of food concessionaires on your left side coming from the last pat-down.
- hen lin - serves dimsum (hen lin siopao at P41, special siopao P50, hong kong style siopao P50, and siomai at P46). a bit further off, it's right along gates 118 and 120.
- stop & fly café - situated at the boarding area's smoking lounge, it serves coffee and sells a variety of imported and local snacks (chips ahoy, oreo, mallows, etc.) and instant noodles (bowl noodles soup, lucky me, etc.). found across gate 119.
-
art's cream gallery - serves hot coffee (P50 for brewed coffee and P95 for a 12oz café mocha), cold coffee (from P85 for an iced latte to P100 for a caramel chill), gelato (P75 for a giant belgian cone, P100 for a cup, P170 for a waffle cone, P180 for a split second, P200 for gelato on plate, and P160 for a sundae of your choice), and affogato (a coffee-based beverage or dessert at P120 for each of the 8 flavors). they also have pan de sal spreads, hot tea, and ensaymada. located just before hen lin and stop and fly.
- mrs. field's cookies - serves cookies, but was still closed when i dropped by. currently at the runway level gates, they're about to open a bigger area right beside gate 116.
- de original jamaican pattie shop - each freshly baked pattie (original beef, beef pinatubo, cheezy beef, beefy mushroom, beef express, special chicken stew) costs between P60 and P70. it's along the same row as cinnabon, in the terminal's unfinished area, with their aluminum foil-wrapped aircon vents and bare concrete walls.
- german sausages - beside the jamaican pattie shop, it's easy to miss. but it serves a wienerli for P50, and special hotdogs for P80. a beef hotdog is P70.
- nescafé booth - found at the runway-level gates (131-134), it of course serves coffee.
- chinese food - unfortunately, i didn't catch the name of this one (didn't ring a bell), but they serve noodles (beef, chicken and wanton mami at P140), dimsum (pork, shark's fin, spare ribs, and siopao ranging from P60 to P90), rice toppings (white chicken, asado and spare ribs with taosi at P160), among others (congee at P140). also serves beverages.
- unnamed sari-sari store - selling instant noodles, bottled beverages, light snacks, and magazines, this is across gate 116 towards the toilets
there also are non-food establishments there, namely:- national bookstore - everyone's favorite bookstore carries magazines and books, with slightly jacked-up prices. it's just between cinnabon and the future mrs. field's.
- island souvenirs - the brand's flagship boutique where you can buy souvenir shirts from all over: boracay, cebu, palawan, bohol, subic, and now, even camsur. no need to be there to get the shirt. through the years, i've collected many of their shirts, until they downsized in 2007 and maintained shop in cebu and boracay. now they're back. white shirts cost anywhere between P120 to P299. colored shirts go up to P350. they also carry crocs, golla, ipanema, electronic accessories, laptop bags, and strangely, a few toilet necessities, like shampoo and soap. located just across of cinnabon and go nuts donuts.
arrival hall
the strange thing i've noticed about the airport is that the arrival hallways appear like dead-end areas of a mall. once you've stepped out of the airbridge, you're accosted by a narrow alley with locked doors. the design may have been lacking here, and they could have made it a bit more pleasing. of course, the boarding gates and arrival gates share the same hall, but the design could have been more aesthetic. nevertheless, this is just a short hall, and pretty soon, you walk into a long, empty hall with a low ceiling (it's the space detween the boarding area and the runway-level gates and the arrival hall with the baggage carousels). it's a long walk, actually, but it has the longest walkalator in the terminal (there are 2 in the domestic wing, and one here). finally, you walk past unmanned immigration counters, and go down to the baggage claim area.
there are i think 3 large baggage carousels. the international wing is separated by a blue tarp, and after you've picked up your luggage, you walk out onto the waiting hall, which has a high ceiling. there are ATM machines in the area, and the departure hall is easily accessible via adjoining escalators. so if the queue up there is too long, it's actually possible to enter through the departure area. i'm just assuming this of course. you walk out of the arrival hall, and can conveniently proceed to the yellow metered airport taxis (flag down is P70, and every 300 meters is P4). a trip to makati cost me no more than P270. i prefer this over the other airport taxi service with a fixed cost, where makati is P440. but when the traffic is bad, the latter might end up being cheaper.   since december, i've used T3 a total of 6 times (coming and going), and it's massive and pretty impressive. like i just said, it's still pretty much under-utilized, and there are these ugly stickers proclaiming ownership of every single wall or chair scattered all over the place. the toilets are all functioning well (i didn't check if they had toilet paper though), and it has a sombre, post-modern feel to it. i appreciate that the triangular roofs may be interpreted as breathing a bit of filipino design, although it's less industrial looking than some airports i've been to (such as the ceiling of subharnavumi which resembles a construction site) and also, a lot less impersonal. i do hope that by the end of 2009 all international carriers would have already moved to T3, so first-time international visitors can at least have a lasting good impression of the philippines: that it's clean, efficient, orderly... not that T1 is so bad. the design for me is still a masterpiece (no less than national artist locsin laid down the plans), it's just overcapacity. so here's looking to making this entry obsolete in the near future, in the sense that T3 would have been completed, the shopping mall opened, and the concessionaires occupying less unfinished spaces. Tags: airline: cebu pacific, airport
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |

 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
and i immediately went to bed with jay.
but i'm getting too far ahead of myself. since i'm here for work, i've apportioned my weekends for fun with friends. i have quite a few thai friends whom i met when i lived in singapore way back in 1997, and with whom i continue to keep in touch. but serendipitously, i received a facebook message from jay, whom i know from high school. i always knew he was half-thai but i had no idea where he was until i received that message, just shortly before i learned that i would be going to thailand. so i sent him a message asking if he'd be willing to host me for a day when i'm not checked into my hotel. and he very willingly said yes. his last message to me before i flew to the city of angels was: be ready to party.
 my jansport messenger bag fits nicely into my TNF sidetrack's wide ambidextrous handle

 i don't know why people complain about our airports; NAIA2 is small, but it's pretty so i hurriedly bought a red TNF sidetrack luggage. i have a lot of bags, but they're suited for adventures and backpacking trips, but definitely not for business when i also need to pay extra attention not to wrinkle my clothes. i arrived at the NAIA 2 terminal at around 8am and had my very new bag cocooned in plastic wrap. there is a new service available only in some australian airports and in manila that wraps your bag in several layers of plastic, much like the one used to cover food. for anyone with expensive luggage, this is a must. when i got there, i almost did not realize that the centennial terminal actually has duty free. my last international flight using PAL -- in november last year for SG -- was far too early in the morning, and i must have been a little groggy that i didn't notice.
 duty free standards
i got into my philippine airlines flight and when i turned off my phone, i suddenly realized that the information i had given jay was wrong -- i was scheduled to arrive about 3 and a half hours after my 10:30am flight, but i hadn't accounted for the time difference. so when we flew into BKK's showcase terminal -- the suvarnabhumi (pronounced soo*bahr*nah*poohm) airport -- i lounged around the duty free area to look at face products for men. haha. besides, i was just so amazed at the airport. from the air, it looked like a featureless interconnection of tubes that formed an odd 'h', but upon closer inspection, it was an industrial masterwork with high ceilings, clever scaffolding interiors, concrete, metal, and glass. it had a sombre, impersonal feeling, due probably to its hue and its size. all of a sudden, i took one look at the immigration and it was jam-packed! like seriously full of queuing foreigners, one might think the lines at NAIA 1 were not unreasonable! i gasped at the sight and then i noticed that the diplomatic lane had less than 6 people lining up at 2 immigration officers. so i flashed my EC ID and i was out to claim my luggage in 5 minutes. and jay was already there to meet me! he has a special airport pass which can get him into the arrival concourse! is that cool or what?
german designed suvarnabhumi airport
i haven't seen jay since graduation day in 1993, but when i saw him, i immediately recognized him. he did not change, not a single bit, and i suppose he also recognized me immediately, since the only change i had was a goatee. he picked me up along with his mom (they both work for the UN system) and we drove through elevated highways to robinson mall not away from the airport to have lunch at zen -- a japanese concept restaurant. afterwards we went to their house, which is in the outskirts of the city, in a very quiet, upscale neighborhood surrounded by inundated rice paddies and a small golf course. it had just rained when we went home, and much like manila, there are also flash floods in BKK. so i am not too far from home, and i blend in pretty well: the locals speak to me in thai, until i reply with my ersatz american accent, and they smile profusely and courteously, sometimes with a slight bow.
 my first meal in bangkok
 pop expressway quiz: which one is bangkok, which one is manila?
jay's instructions were for me to get some rest because he'd planned to party the whole night. i didn't get an extra wink, instead, eagerly awaited what would transpire on our first night. he just said: dapat gwapo tayo. i immediately became self-conscious. so anyway, we left at around 8pm for sukhumvit road, passing through another elevated highway, where bangkok's skyline glimmered and sparkled. at ground level, this major artery is roofed by a mesh of concrete: stretches of 4-lane flyovers and the spans of the bangkok skytrain, it almost feels cloistered and stunted. after fetching jay's filipino friend raquel, we sped for la rueda, a latin-themed space with a bar for an hour of salsa. when we arrived, a beginner's class was ongoing, and after a while, the place was throbbing with salsa enthusiasts: locals and farangs, moving their bodies to the latin rhythms. and although many of the dancers were pretty good, i pitched in some time to dance: i have this habit of getting wild in places where no one knows me. and it always happens that when i begin to believe my anonymity, that the world in fact is smaller than a classroom globe. on my way out the door to buy a phone card, someone tapped my hand and said: alman. it was emerlynne gil, who was 2 years ahead of me in law school, and whose barops i was also a part of. of all the places where em and i would see each other again, it had to be a hole-in-the-wall, in bangkok, the city of angels, thailand.
 salsa nights a shade after 11pm, we decided to do another kind of dancing. so we all went to bed, also along one of the sois in sukhumvit road (to explain, in BKK, a soi is a narrow minor street which branches out of a main road). bed supper club (yes, supper, noun, an evening meal, typically a light or informal one, and not super, adjective, very good or pleasant; excellent) is one of bangkok's chic and ritzy places, where one parties to see, and naturally, be seen. as a result, there are always eye candies. jay has a VIP card, and he can bring in 2 more friends for free; and he's also quite well-known. but we got there to find the club in darkness: power was tripped somewhere and it suffered a brief outage. when the music and the lights went back up, we filed in and located a space inside the white room, across from the bar (bed supper club is divided into two spaces which on most days offer different kinds of music), where there are actual beds. as the area suggests, it is painted an immaculate white, has a second level, and features a european guy doing spinning duties. the white ceiling is accented by crawling black tubes with lights at their ends -- i can't say they serve any other purpose.


 come to bed with me? jay proceeded to get a bottle of absolut raspberi vodka, and the evening finally began. bed is filled with farangs/falangs, and bangkok, despite the high language barrier, has more of them than english-speaking manila. we claimed a corner near the stairs to the second level. and the party promptly started. i'm not much of a party animal, and i wouldn't even be able to draw distinctions between bed BKK and embassy MNL as my friend did because i haven't even been to the latter. one thing i'd say though is that unlike manila, bangkok doesn't seem too overly concerned about exclusivity, and there was no area for VIPs only. no ugly, burly bouncers who guard a small space behind a velvet rope. in fact, the bouncers look like normal people, puny compared to the ex-police, ex-army types back home.
nonetheless, it was a night of light boozing and a lot of dancing. there were some caucasians in costume up on the ledge (ledge was a generic term we used for the elevated portion, although it really was just a small stage in the middle), and ji said they must have missed the halloween party. we danced the night away, toasting to beautiful bangkok and its beautiful people. and i don't know why "bed" is so popular a name for a bar (aside from bangkok, there's one in malate, in makati, in kota kinabalu, and there's even a bedroom in baguio city) but i quickly discovered why the white room has actual beds: so drunk people can just sleep where they fall. as i did, despite the loud music.
 in bangkok as well as in manila, and due most likely to the size of my camera, complete strangers ask me to take their pictures and ask: at which website will i see the pictures? what social climbers! then, at 2am, raquel was waking me: the lights had been turned on and the music turned down. just like taguig, the whole of bangkok has a 2am lights up policy. no more party after 2am. the animals in manila would absolutely hate that. but just as we were about to leave for home, we stepped out to find jay's thai-french friend david outside, who dangled an invite to go to tunnel, near lumphini park. the tunnel is sort of an underground bar. it has no sign outside, and an outsider would not know it existed, although there were many many cars parked outside it. it manages to keep open because of some "special arrangements" with the police. it's filled with people wanting to extend the party till the sunrise. the bar itself is pretty dark and swims in smoke. for THB600, i got two vodka red bulls (made with absolut, at least), and more time to keep dancing on the ledge, in front of the DJ who too often played mixes that had to make me stop and wonder what he wanted to achieve.

 playing with lights at the tunnel but it was a lot of fun and i almost got taken advantage of. there was a really tall girl holding a bottle of water who kept telling me "i'm drunk. teach me to dance." and i had to ask my friends: "babae ba to?" there were trannies in the tunnel so i wasn't sure. there was a middle eastern man near me who realized too late that the woman he was locking lips with was in fact a man. at a little past 5am, and having had our fill, with my eyes in tears from the swirling smoke, we decided to leave for home.
and that was my first day in bangkok. right now, i am at the lobby of the very posh conrad hotel (strangely, internet in the room is THB750 for 24 hours. but it's free here at the lobby). the night is falling fast, and i have no plans yet, but i plan to do something interesting. i could take a dip at the pool, or maybe work out at the 24 hour fitness center, or run at lumphini park, or walk around wireless road, or take the sky train.
in less than 24 hours in bangkok, this much has happened. i wonder what the next 6 days have in store for me once work is over? Tags: airport, bangkok, booze, friends, gear: travel, gimik, infrastructure, thailand, travel, wanderlust
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |


 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
my scheduled trip to cotabato city yesterday was canceled due to "security reasons", and this at least gives me some form of respite from having traveled by air in and out of manila for successive weeks. as i've said in an earlier entry, this last fiscal year, ending march 2008, has been my most mobile thus far, at least in so far as flying is concerned. but it does not help of course that you have to leave manila in an airport terminal beset with delays, lack of comfort, and a generally unfortunate vibe about it. last friday, there were not enough seats in the waiting area; the people standing in the picture below are not queuing to board. they have nowhere to rest their bottoms! this is compounded by a less-than-stellar service provided by cebu pacific, who lets every juan fly, but in true budget fashion. and it doesn't help either that the fee is P200, and when you fly out, and about 70 minutes later, find that the airport of destination which charges only P30 (at least until middle of april) is as impressive as this: are there actually plans to upgrade the domestic airport, so i can at least hold on to this fantasy, just as i do about a future world-class DMIA, or if the forces allow, the upcoming opening of T3? something has to be done with our gateways. the NAIA 2 is an impressive little terminal, but its predecessor is in such a sorry state i find it rather embarrassing! but will all these plans matter, or are they bound to end up like london's T5? Tags: airport, iloilo, infrastructure, travel
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |

 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
this might sound like a tall tale, but i actually almost blew up a PAL flight. after 6pm tuesday, nov the 8th, i checked in at the spanking new davao international airport with my huge 50+10 liter deuter act lite backpack, my lowepro S&F rover light backpack, my lowepro off trail 1 belt pack, and at least 3 other bags containing pasalubong, soiled clothes that don’t belong to me, and whatnots. everything went through the x-ray machine, and amid whispers among the security personnel that i was obviously a mountaineer, i proceeded to a corner of the departure area to repack my bag. carabiners, my tent poles, a trowel, my tent pegs, and many other things were hanging outside my pack or tucked into my side pockets, and i wanted to reduce my carry on baggage to only two, so i needed to stuff everything inside the backpack, which was already bursting at the seams. i characteristically opened a tarp where i could place my things, forgetting that the marble tiles at the airport are so much cleaner than the mountain floor. i opened my bag and voila! i discovered 6 unopened containers of lighter fluid just below my topload. i held them in my hands much like an innocent man holds the knife found beside a bleeding and dying person. to avert suspicion, i immediately summoned one of the porters and asked him to dispose of the containers. “bawal yan ah,” the on-duty PNP personnel says and he suddenly took interest in what i was doing. i made an excuse that i had “just” come down from apo and had not the faintest idea what was in my pack. just gone down? haha. i was actually on my 13th day in mindanao! i continued repacking and i again discover that my two MSR fuel bottles still contain the extremely flammable liquid. out i go onto the parking lot and nonchalantly poured the contents onto the pavement. good thing davao has a strict no smoking in public law. i was the last to check in for the delayed flight so i guess security wasn’t as tight as when there was still sunlight. finally i’d reduced my things to one huge pack, a smaller pack, a beltbag, and a plastic bag containing my columbia soldotna hiking boots which won’t fit anywhere. i proceeded to having my bag loaded with instructions that it was fragile, and i walked towards the waiting area. i called my dad to say that i’d be boarding the aircraft i almost blew up in a while. indeed, 13 days away from home is a long time. my legs were still itching from the countless infections i suffered along the slopes of mounts apo and matutum, and i had to fight the urge to scratch them. 13 days ago, the 27th of october, my saga on the southern island began with a trip to NAIAII. i picked up ava along the way, and our first debacle was the delayed flight. along with other AMCI folk flying via PAL, we settled in a corner of the departure area to plug in my altec lansings and listen to music. we sat just beside a trash bin. long after 4pm, we boarded our plane for the hour and half flight. we flew in to davao just as night fell. as the plane maneuvered towards the runway, the dazzling lights that was davao presented itself like an organized, well-planned grid. touch down, and i finally got to experience the new terminal which opened only last year. at the arrival area, the folks who flew via air philippines were already there waiting for the carousel to spit out their baggage. ava and i head on out to the parking lot and decided to go to niel’s house on a cab. first order of business was dinner. niel’s gracious and unassuming lola prepared a sumptuous buffet. sasa’s longest buffet, if you ask me. i worried initially that it would be an all-vegetarian affair, but we were treated to really really good food (which included lots of meat) and lots of durian. it turns out that neil’s family is big time in davao, with a huge trucking business that spans all of mindanao, but as usual, niel appeared to be a bit unsure about just how big time they were. getting to the warehouse would be an ordeal for small cars since there are craters -- or as sir manny put it: lagoons -- on the road, wrought by the daily passage of trucks. it is not a wonder that niel’s lola has SUVs, one a ford expedition and the other a mitsubishi pajero, to deal with the road troubles. from there, we headed off to the guest house to repack, recharge, and review our reasons for wanting to take on a challenge as huge as mount apo. i shared a fold out bed with wency and bojo, and tried -- very vainly -- to drift into sleep. i worried a lot about the next four days, and where it would find me. Tags: airport, davao, terrorism, travel
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |

|
|
 |