Food, people, small town life, city life, more food, and shots from the air.
A sampling:
Thursday, April 26, 2007
New pictures
New pictures on flickr.
Food, people, small town life, city life, more food, and shots from the air.
A sampling:
Food, people, small town life, city life, more food, and shots from the air.
A sampling:
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Back, mostly
We got back late last week - traveling for more than 24 hours from Manila to RDU. While that sounds like a lot, for this kind of trip it isn't bad at all; we had a 90-minute layover at HKG and about 3 hours at JFK. My parents were home when we got back, and we were glad to take advantage of that rare chance to spend a couple of days wth them, without everyday pressures pulling us away.
But the old routine presses in quickly, for good or for ill. (It's both good and ill, of course - we got too used to not having to do chores.) I think we've recovered from most of our jet lag, and we're back at work. Soon, it will be almost as if we'd never left.
There are a few things I'd still like to post about - some thoughts still bouncing around in my head, and some photos I'd still like to talk about. But first: laundry.
But the old routine presses in quickly, for good or for ill. (It's both good and ill, of course - we got too used to not having to do chores.) I think we've recovered from most of our jet lag, and we're back at work. Soon, it will be almost as if we'd never left.
There are a few things I'd still like to post about - some thoughts still bouncing around in my head, and some photos I'd still like to talk about. But first: laundry.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Rushing through Hong Kong
We've arrived at the Hong Kong airport, and as we've sat down to check e-mail, our flight to JFK has just started boarding. Not much time to linger here (though we would like a good bowl of ramen).
Our next challenge, in about sixteen hours: finding a power outlet.
Our next challenge, in about sixteen hours: finding a power outlet.
In Manila
We're in Manila now, but only for a few hours - heading to bed now so we can be up at 3 AM for an early flight.
We spent some time this afternoon in the Baclaran neighborhood of Manila, which was really something else. We'll post more, including photos, later (perhaps after the trip is over).
Next: An hour or two in Hong Kong, and then the long-haul flight to New York.
We spent some time this afternoon in the Baclaran neighborhood of Manila, which was really something else. We'll post more, including photos, later (perhaps after the trip is over).
Next: An hour or two in Hong Kong, and then the long-haul flight to New York.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Leaving Iloilo soon
We will be leaving Iloilo in just a few hours, heading to Manila for a few more hours before our final flight out of the country. I have more I'd like to post, but no time in which to post it. Maybe later. In the meantime, there are some new photos on flickr - click on any of the images below to see the photostream.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
City life
April 9, 2007 10:18:53 PM
City life
We've been in three cities so far this trip: Manila, Calamba, and Iloilo.
Manila
When we visited Los Angeles a few years ago, we said that it was what Manila would be like if only the Manileños had some money.
Metro Manila's about the same size as L. A. - I've heard estimates from 10 to 15 million people - and it shares a lot of the same character.
Traffic and smog like you wouldn't believe (no, really, you wouldn't); a few fantastically wealthy people (and the stores and shops to cater to them) along with countless people simply struggling to make ends meet; people who've moved there from all over the country on a one-way ticket to follow their dreams.
Manila's the home of the Philippine television and movie businesses; it's the biggest city in the country by a long stretch (think New York City vs. Buffalo); and of course, it's the political and economic capital. It dominates the country in a way no American city does or could. I suppose Mexico City is like this in some ways, or London or Paris.
But Manila has grown too big for its own good, and the problems all modern big cities share are overwhelming its ability to cope.
Infrastructure is completely insufficient - the roads are clogged at all hours of the day and night; new roads are going up, but they aren't going up fast enough; the two urban train lines aren't enough to help. The one airport with its three terminals (and a fourth already constructed with its opening promised "any day now") can't comfortably handle the millions and millions of Filipinos streaming overseas to work as nurses and nannies and engineers and physicians - and coming home to visit with their families. Power outages of hours at a time are routine. Sanitation services and air pollution control collapsed a long time ago.
The people are wonderful - but there are just too many of them. Manila is proof that there can be too much of a good thing.
We rarely have a compelling need to spend much time in Manila, and on this trip, we've only been in Manila to visit the airport.
Calamba
Calamba, Laguna is about an hour south of the Manila airport (if the traffic's not too heavy). We have cousins there whom we visit for a few days each time we come.
Calamba's a much more comfortable place than Manila, and in fact serves as a distant bedroom community for Manila workers.
Calamba has about 200,000 people, like Durham, but in a much tighter space. This shot is of a comfortable middle-class neighborhood, with houses of about 1,200 square feet, no space between the houses, and very narrow streets. Mount Makiling, a (mostly) dormant volcano, is on the horizon.
Calamba's claim to fame in the Philippines is that it's the historic home of Jose P. Rizal, the Philippine national hero.
I can't explain Rizal's significance in a few sentences in a way that would capture his image among Filipinos in a way Americans would readily grasp - I'm not sure I understand it myself. You could think of him as a George Washington, a Ben Franklin, and a Thomas Jefferson all rolled into one - though as far as I know, he never held elected office. Highly educated, well respected, born into a wealthy family, Rizal was a world traveler and writer who through his novels and other writings campaigned in favor of the Filipino people in Berlin and Madrid at a time when the Spanish government dismissed the Filipinos as inherently, racially unfit for self-rule.
Agnes says: Dr. Jose Rizal was a well-educated person, with degrees from A to Z, Architect to Zoologist, and everything in between. It seems that all his life, he studied abroad, in Europe. He may not have practiced all his professions before he died. And there's something about being brokenhearted over a Josephine.
In any case, Rizal was executed - Filipinos would say martyred - by the Spanish government, along with other revolutionaries.
Monuments to Dr. Rizal appear all over Calamba; his home is open for tours; his image is on the one-peso coin. He's honored in this country as nobody else is.
In addition to all the Rizal monuments, the character of Calamba is affected by its proximity to Los Baños, just a few miles down the road. Los Baños is a resort community; its name means "the baths" and comes from its volcanic hot springs. Also in Los Baños is a prominent campus of the University of the Philippines.
Los Baños also specializes in buko pie, a fruit pie made with fresh (not dessicated) coconut - more like an apple pie than like the sticky-sweet coconut pies we're used to in the USA.
Iloilo
Manila and Calamba are both on the large island of Luzon in the north of the Philippines; Mindanao is the large island to the south; the Visayas are the chain of mid-sized islands in the center of the country. Iloilo, a 45-minute plane ride from Manila, is the dominant city of Western Visayas.
We've spent more time in the vicinity of Iloilo than anywhere else in the Philippines. This is a city the size of Raleigh or Charlotte - maybe 350,000 people, with a surrounding province of more than a million. More livable than the monster that is Manila, more earthy than Calamba, this is an agricultural and commercial hub - produce and other goods come in from provinces all over Panay, along with seafood from the Strait of Guimaras and beyond. There's heavy industry related to agriculture (producing animal feed, milling rice and sugar) and light industry like the garment weaving the Arevalo and Villa districts are famous for.
Iloilo used to be the capital of the Philippines, so it has great historical importance. And even in Calamba and Manila, there are culinary homages to Iloilo - foods like pancit Molo and La Paz batchoy are known everywhere and are named for districts of Iloilo City; there are restaurants with names like Casa Ilongga and Ilonggo Grill. (I guess this is like New York pizza and Philly cheesesteaks, except you can get pizzas and cheesesteaks in Iloilo but you won't find pancit Molo or La Paz batchoy in the USA. Especially the batchoy.)
Iloilo is a college town, too:
- Central Philippine University
- University of the Philippines - Visayas
- West Visayas State University, Agnes's alma mater
- University of San Agustin
- St. Paul's College
...and others I can't think of right now. This is a city of well-educated and ambitious people - and I mean that in the best sense.
I've heard visitors call Iloilo "gritty"; the downtown area (this is a shot from Calle Real, the old shopping district, and Chinatown) does has that feel. When we're in town we spend a lot of time in the big shopping malls, not just because they're air-conditioned but because they're easier to get to. One could say that we're missing out on "the real Iloilo", but increasingly, these malls are the real Iloilo. But even for Ilonggos, they're an escape, too - an escape from the heat and the smog outside and, yes, from pervasive poverty. In their malls, as in ours, it seems no one is poor and everyone is as happy and beautiful as the billboard models. As I hear many times in this city - "OK; no problem."
There are many more pictures on my flickr photostream.
City life
We've been in three cities so far this trip: Manila, Calamba, and Iloilo.
Manila
When we visited Los Angeles a few years ago, we said that it was what Manila would be like if only the Manileños had some money.
Metro Manila's about the same size as L. A. - I've heard estimates from 10 to 15 million people - and it shares a lot of the same character.
Traffic and smog like you wouldn't believe (no, really, you wouldn't); a few fantastically wealthy people (and the stores and shops to cater to them) along with countless people simply struggling to make ends meet; people who've moved there from all over the country on a one-way ticket to follow their dreams.
Manila's the home of the Philippine television and movie businesses; it's the biggest city in the country by a long stretch (think New York City vs. Buffalo); and of course, it's the political and economic capital. It dominates the country in a way no American city does or could. I suppose Mexico City is like this in some ways, or London or Paris.
But Manila has grown too big for its own good, and the problems all modern big cities share are overwhelming its ability to cope.
Infrastructure is completely insufficient - the roads are clogged at all hours of the day and night; new roads are going up, but they aren't going up fast enough; the two urban train lines aren't enough to help. The one airport with its three terminals (and a fourth already constructed with its opening promised "any day now") can't comfortably handle the millions and millions of Filipinos streaming overseas to work as nurses and nannies and engineers and physicians - and coming home to visit with their families. Power outages of hours at a time are routine. Sanitation services and air pollution control collapsed a long time ago.
The people are wonderful - but there are just too many of them. Manila is proof that there can be too much of a good thing.
We rarely have a compelling need to spend much time in Manila, and on this trip, we've only been in Manila to visit the airport.
Calamba
Calamba, Laguna is about an hour south of the Manila airport (if the traffic's not too heavy). We have cousins there whom we visit for a few days each time we come.
Calamba's a much more comfortable place than Manila, and in fact serves as a distant bedroom community for Manila workers.
Calamba has about 200,000 people, like Durham, but in a much tighter space. This shot is of a comfortable middle-class neighborhood, with houses of about 1,200 square feet, no space between the houses, and very narrow streets. Mount Makiling, a (mostly) dormant volcano, is on the horizon.
Calamba's claim to fame in the Philippines is that it's the historic home of Jose P. Rizal, the Philippine national hero.
I can't explain Rizal's significance in a few sentences in a way that would capture his image among Filipinos in a way Americans would readily grasp - I'm not sure I understand it myself. You could think of him as a George Washington, a Ben Franklin, and a Thomas Jefferson all rolled into one - though as far as I know, he never held elected office. Highly educated, well respected, born into a wealthy family, Rizal was a world traveler and writer who through his novels and other writings campaigned in favor of the Filipino people in Berlin and Madrid at a time when the Spanish government dismissed the Filipinos as inherently, racially unfit for self-rule.
Agnes says: Dr. Jose Rizal was a well-educated person, with degrees from A to Z, Architect to Zoologist, and everything in between. It seems that all his life, he studied abroad, in Europe. He may not have practiced all his professions before he died. And there's something about being brokenhearted over a Josephine.
In any case, Rizal was executed - Filipinos would say martyred - by the Spanish government, along with other revolutionaries.
Monuments to Dr. Rizal appear all over Calamba; his home is open for tours; his image is on the one-peso coin. He's honored in this country as nobody else is.
In addition to all the Rizal monuments, the character of Calamba is affected by its proximity to Los Baños, just a few miles down the road. Los Baños is a resort community; its name means "the baths" and comes from its volcanic hot springs. Also in Los Baños is a prominent campus of the University of the Philippines.
Los Baños also specializes in buko pie, a fruit pie made with fresh (not dessicated) coconut - more like an apple pie than like the sticky-sweet coconut pies we're used to in the USA.
Iloilo
Manila and Calamba are both on the large island of Luzon in the north of the Philippines; Mindanao is the large island to the south; the Visayas are the chain of mid-sized islands in the center of the country. Iloilo, a 45-minute plane ride from Manila, is the dominant city of Western Visayas.
We've spent more time in the vicinity of Iloilo than anywhere else in the Philippines. This is a city the size of Raleigh or Charlotte - maybe 350,000 people, with a surrounding province of more than a million. More livable than the monster that is Manila, more earthy than Calamba, this is an agricultural and commercial hub - produce and other goods come in from provinces all over Panay, along with seafood from the Strait of Guimaras and beyond. There's heavy industry related to agriculture (producing animal feed, milling rice and sugar) and light industry like the garment weaving the Arevalo and Villa districts are famous for.
Iloilo used to be the capital of the Philippines, so it has great historical importance. And even in Calamba and Manila, there are culinary homages to Iloilo - foods like pancit Molo and La Paz batchoy are known everywhere and are named for districts of Iloilo City; there are restaurants with names like Casa Ilongga and Ilonggo Grill. (I guess this is like New York pizza and Philly cheesesteaks, except you can get pizzas and cheesesteaks in Iloilo but you won't find pancit Molo or La Paz batchoy in the USA. Especially the batchoy.)
Iloilo is a college town, too:
- Central Philippine University
- University of the Philippines - Visayas
- West Visayas State University, Agnes's alma mater
- University of San Agustin
- St. Paul's College
...and others I can't think of right now. This is a city of well-educated and ambitious people - and I mean that in the best sense.
I've heard visitors call Iloilo "gritty"; the downtown area (this is a shot from Calle Real, the old shopping district, and Chinatown) does has that feel. When we're in town we spend a lot of time in the big shopping malls, not just because they're air-conditioned but because they're easier to get to. One could say that we're missing out on "the real Iloilo", but increasingly, these malls are the real Iloilo. But even for Ilonggos, they're an escape, too - an escape from the heat and the smog outside and, yes, from pervasive poverty. In their malls, as in ours, it seems no one is poor and everyone is as happy and beautiful as the billboard models. As I hear many times in this city - "OK; no problem."
There are many more pictures on my flickr photostream.
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Happy Easter!
April 8, 2007 7:51:10 AM
Happy Easter!
Going into the city today, so we’ll get a chance to post some entries and photos.
No network access at home.
Happy Easter!
Going into the city today, so we’ll get a chance to post some entries and photos.
No network access at home.
Doing less
April 7, 2007 10:08:45 AM
This morning, up about 5, sitting on the front porch of this farmhouse, reading and listening.
Two or three roosters compete with one another, chanting from different directions, at different distances. One cries out, and another answers. Again and again.
A straw broom swishes on concrete, sweeping leaves from the front driveway.
Two little boys walk along dribbling their basketballs rhythmically, side by side, in sync with one another.
The breeze brushes branches together.
At the road, I see a vehicle drive by with several passengers. I feel no need to join them.
I stay on the front porch until the mosquitoes get the best of me, along with the smoke from the cooking fire next door.
Good Friday was an odd day for us - we could not stay awake. When we weren't eating, we were napping. When we weren't napping, we were eating. Mostly, we napped. We regained some of our lost rest.
Holy Saturday, today, is odd in other ways. This is the one day of the year when, Colin tells me, mass is not held. The lectionaries, for this one day out of the entire year, list no gospel readings.
The family here deliberately does less. We eat eggs, and food from a can, and watermelon. Right now there's no TV, no music. I notice no pressure to rush around, to get things done. Things do get done - breakfast is cooked and eaten and the table cleared, a couple of people have gone to the city or to the town market for groceries, but the pace of life is so much more leisurely than what we live with normally.
The pace of life here has always seemed more leisurely, and that sense is pronounced today.
So often back home, we would tend to do more - on this Saturday I would be mowing the lawn, running errands, cooking and cleaning, trying to pack into this one day everything I couldn't get done the rest of the days in my week.
There can be a great pressure to fill one's time with endless activity, even sometimes pointless activity.
But maybe we need time out.
Spiritual writers talk about the need to be present in the way we deal with our time and our relationships. They speak to, and against, our tendency to divorce body and mind. Our bodies may well be here, at this place, at this moment, but our minds have gone on ahead to other things, other times, worrying about or planning for - or longing for - a place or an event we are not yet really part of. We inhabit two times or places at once and can do neither justice. I spend so much of my time in this condition - talking to someone on one topic but thinking about something else entirely, constantly distracted, and all parties suffer for it. Even at times when I need not be distracted I find myself unconsciously avoiding quiet and solitude. We are not made to be so divided.
There is something very refreshing about this change of pace - removing distractions and the drive to distract oneself. The challenge when we leave will be this: we need to find a way to maintain this sense of presence in our everyday lives.
This morning, up about 5, sitting on the front porch of this farmhouse, reading and listening.
Two or three roosters compete with one another, chanting from different directions, at different distances. One cries out, and another answers. Again and again.
A straw broom swishes on concrete, sweeping leaves from the front driveway.
Two little boys walk along dribbling their basketballs rhythmically, side by side, in sync with one another.
The breeze brushes branches together.
At the road, I see a vehicle drive by with several passengers. I feel no need to join them.
I stay on the front porch until the mosquitoes get the best of me, along with the smoke from the cooking fire next door.
Good Friday was an odd day for us - we could not stay awake. When we weren't eating, we were napping. When we weren't napping, we were eating. Mostly, we napped. We regained some of our lost rest.
Holy Saturday, today, is odd in other ways. This is the one day of the year when, Colin tells me, mass is not held. The lectionaries, for this one day out of the entire year, list no gospel readings.
The family here deliberately does less. We eat eggs, and food from a can, and watermelon. Right now there's no TV, no music. I notice no pressure to rush around, to get things done. Things do get done - breakfast is cooked and eaten and the table cleared, a couple of people have gone to the city or to the town market for groceries, but the pace of life is so much more leisurely than what we live with normally.
The pace of life here has always seemed more leisurely, and that sense is pronounced today.
So often back home, we would tend to do more - on this Saturday I would be mowing the lawn, running errands, cooking and cleaning, trying to pack into this one day everything I couldn't get done the rest of the days in my week.
There can be a great pressure to fill one's time with endless activity, even sometimes pointless activity.
But maybe we need time out.
Spiritual writers talk about the need to be present in the way we deal with our time and our relationships. They speak to, and against, our tendency to divorce body and mind. Our bodies may well be here, at this place, at this moment, but our minds have gone on ahead to other things, other times, worrying about or planning for - or longing for - a place or an event we are not yet really part of. We inhabit two times or places at once and can do neither justice. I spend so much of my time in this condition - talking to someone on one topic but thinking about something else entirely, constantly distracted, and all parties suffer for it. Even at times when I need not be distracted I find myself unconsciously avoiding quiet and solitude. We are not made to be so divided.
There is something very refreshing about this change of pace - removing distractions and the drive to distract oneself. The challenge when we leave will be this: we need to find a way to maintain this sense of presence in our everyday lives.
The rice of life
April 6, 2007 1:28:25 PM
Good Friday!
The Philippines is in many ways a much more Christian nation than the USA is. Signs of religion are everywhere - from the Marian shrine in the departure lounge at the airport to the recorded call to prayer at noon over department store Muzak speakers. All TV shows this afternoon are religiously themed. Stores and offices are closed. Today, on Good Friday, everyone's either home or on vacation somewhere like Boracay or Los Baños.
Culinarily, Good Friday means we don't eat meat. That means we eat everything else.
Lunch today:
- Fried egg with tuna, salt, and garlic - a very good balance between the egg and tuna so it's neither too eggy nor too fishy
- Salad of daikon radish, finely chopped onion, and tomatoes - quite sharp tasting, mostly from the onion, and too thinly sliced to be crunchy
- A tinola of mongo (mung beans), green papaya, kamote tops (sweet potato leaves), and sardines - very good, hearty and healthy
- Fried lumpia (spring roll) with ubod (heart of palm) filling - slightly sweet with a shell that's almost pastry-like, not crunchy
- Philippine mango (mangga) that's just short of being fully ripe - with both the expected sweetness of a good mango and plenty of bite from the acid of unripe fruit
- Watermelon
- RICE.
Rice is at every meal here - if there's no rice, it's likely a merienda, a snack, not a meal at all. A 16-ounce steak with salad on the side wouldn't be a complete meal without some rice.
The Philippine languages have a word for raw, unprocessed rice (palay); a word for processed, uncooked rice (bigas); a word for steamed rice (kanin); a word for fried rice (kalo-kalo or sinangag); and a word for the stuff you eat with your rice (viand or ulam).
Fast food stores here, even those with American roots like McDonalds and KFC, sell rice with their meals. Rice is on the table of every family, from the poorest (who might have only mashed banana or a little dried fish as their ulam) to the wealthiest who can eat whatever they like; somebody in one of the Makati skyscraper complexes is having Russian caviar and Philippine rice as we speak. Rice is what everyone shares in common, a great equalizer. There is no food in American cuisine with corresponding importance; we eat far more bread and potatoes, corn and pasta - more of everything else, in fact. Here, rice is life.
Good Friday!
The Philippines is in many ways a much more Christian nation than the USA is. Signs of religion are everywhere - from the Marian shrine in the departure lounge at the airport to the recorded call to prayer at noon over department store Muzak speakers. All TV shows this afternoon are religiously themed. Stores and offices are closed. Today, on Good Friday, everyone's either home or on vacation somewhere like Boracay or Los Baños.
Culinarily, Good Friday means we don't eat meat. That means we eat everything else.
Lunch today:
- Fried egg with tuna, salt, and garlic - a very good balance between the egg and tuna so it's neither too eggy nor too fishy
- Salad of daikon radish, finely chopped onion, and tomatoes - quite sharp tasting, mostly from the onion, and too thinly sliced to be crunchy
- A tinola of mongo (mung beans), green papaya, kamote tops (sweet potato leaves), and sardines - very good, hearty and healthy
- Fried lumpia (spring roll) with ubod (heart of palm) filling - slightly sweet with a shell that's almost pastry-like, not crunchy
- Philippine mango (mangga) that's just short of being fully ripe - with both the expected sweetness of a good mango and plenty of bite from the acid of unripe fruit
- Watermelon
- RICE.
Rice is at every meal here - if there's no rice, it's likely a merienda, a snack, not a meal at all. A 16-ounce steak with salad on the side wouldn't be a complete meal without some rice.
The Philippine languages have a word for raw, unprocessed rice (palay); a word for processed, uncooked rice (bigas); a word for steamed rice (kanin); a word for fried rice (kalo-kalo or sinangag); and a word for the stuff you eat with your rice (viand or ulam).
Fast food stores here, even those with American roots like McDonalds and KFC, sell rice with their meals. Rice is on the table of every family, from the poorest (who might have only mashed banana or a little dried fish as their ulam) to the wealthiest who can eat whatever they like; somebody in one of the Makati skyscraper complexes is having Russian caviar and Philippine rice as we speak. Rice is what everyone shares in common, a great equalizer. There is no food in American cuisine with corresponding importance; we eat far more bread and potatoes, corn and pasta - more of everything else, in fact. Here, rice is life.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Travel and arrival
April 3, 2007 4:26:54 AM
En route:
We didn't get to bed until 2:30 the morning of our flight out - and then had to be up at 5:30 to catch an early flight.
First leg: American Eagle, RDU -> JFK, about 1h45m, on an Embraer.
We aren't frequent domestic air travelers, and it seems that every time we fly something has changed.
We had been warned to pack our liquids and gels differently, so we were ready for that; we knew that domestic airlines were cutting back food service, so we brought some snacks.
Still, even when you know what to expect, it's all pretty annoying, especially when you're already exhausted and you know it could be different.
That first leg was on a small jet with 1/3 seating. A smooth flight, and an unusually professional 50-ish steward (can I call him that? - "flight attendant" seems wrong for him somehow) who was offering pretzels for sale for $4.00, but with a self-deprecating sense of humor about the absurdity of the whole thing. We appreciated that - there are too many people who work in customer service but only grudgingly, wishing they were doing something else, anything else. One always wonders why they stay in the profession. In our case, it was good to see someone working with people who actually liked working with people - it made the whole experience a lot more pleasant for us.
But given a choice, we'll fly Cathay Pacific any day.
Second leg: Cathay Pacific, JFK -> HKG, about 15h, on an Airbus 340-600.
As I write this we're most of the way through a 15-hour flight from New York over the North Pole to Hong Kong. Last I checked, we had just passed over eastern Mongolia!
Eastern Mongolia!
I think Cathay Pacific must be the closest you'd come today to what you'd imagine air travel used to be like - before four-dollar bags of pretzels and ziploc bags of shampoo, before a million cries from nameless faceless airline shareholders drowned out their customers' whispered whimpers that they'd still rather have quality service that treats them with respect. Cathay staff consistently show that precision professional friendliness that's the stuff of legends now but you want to believe used to be more common - crisp as new money, slightly detached, but always regular and ready . They stand out among all the bedraggled customers - no crumpled shirts or weary faces here, but scarlet uniforms that look as if they had come from the tailor just that morning. Even the food - it's still airline food and you'd find better at a good restaurant, but passengers look forward to the meals not just because they're hungry, but because the food's pretty good and it's tastefully presented - as tastefully presented as any pre-packaged coach-class airline food could be, that is. Coffee and hot green "Chinese tea" after every meal. And you've gotta love that they serve Coke from Hong Kong, made with real cane sugar instead of the sticky high-fructose corn syrup we get here. Yes, even the Coke tastes better!
April 3, 2007 9:01:04 PM (AM Philippine time)
Our last leg had us arriving at Manila about midnight.
Third leg: Cathay Pacific, HKG -> MNL, about 2h, on a Boeing 777.
Not much to elaborate about on this one - maybe I'll post later about the Hong Kong airport. (Pictures follow.)
Our family from Calamba picked us up; between going through immigration and customs, finding our ride, and stopping off for a midnight snack, we got home about 3 AM and to bed about 4. Jet lag isn't the only problem after a trip like this - you really don't, or at least we really don't, get a chance for a full night's sleep, and it didn't help that we didn't get one before we left. Travel itself is tiring, and losing sleep doesn't help. I'm sure we'll have the same problem when we get back.
For now, we're glad to be here. We leave tomorrow for our final destination.
Some pictures follow - click on any of these to see more, from my flickr photostream.
For Peter:
Beauty at the Hong Kong airport:
If you've ever been on a long-haul flight, you'll understand why travelers love the Hong Kong airport.
And for travelers with kids, there's this!
Breakfast in Calamba
Click on the picture to see more food.
En route:
We didn't get to bed until 2:30 the morning of our flight out - and then had to be up at 5:30 to catch an early flight.
First leg: American Eagle, RDU -> JFK, about 1h45m, on an Embraer.
We aren't frequent domestic air travelers, and it seems that every time we fly something has changed.
We had been warned to pack our liquids and gels differently, so we were ready for that; we knew that domestic airlines were cutting back food service, so we brought some snacks.
Still, even when you know what to expect, it's all pretty annoying, especially when you're already exhausted and you know it could be different.
That first leg was on a small jet with 1/3 seating. A smooth flight, and an unusually professional 50-ish steward (can I call him that? - "flight attendant" seems wrong for him somehow) who was offering pretzels for sale for $4.00, but with a self-deprecating sense of humor about the absurdity of the whole thing. We appreciated that - there are too many people who work in customer service but only grudgingly, wishing they were doing something else, anything else. One always wonders why they stay in the profession. In our case, it was good to see someone working with people who actually liked working with people - it made the whole experience a lot more pleasant for us.
But given a choice, we'll fly Cathay Pacific any day.
Second leg: Cathay Pacific, JFK -> HKG, about 15h, on an Airbus 340-600.
As I write this we're most of the way through a 15-hour flight from New York over the North Pole to Hong Kong. Last I checked, we had just passed over eastern Mongolia!
Eastern Mongolia!
I think Cathay Pacific must be the closest you'd come today to what you'd imagine air travel used to be like - before four-dollar bags of pretzels and ziploc bags of shampoo, before a million cries from nameless faceless airline shareholders drowned out their customers' whispered whimpers that they'd still rather have quality service that treats them with respect. Cathay staff consistently show that precision professional friendliness that's the stuff of legends now but you want to believe used to be more common - crisp as new money, slightly detached, but always regular and ready . They stand out among all the bedraggled customers - no crumpled shirts or weary faces here, but scarlet uniforms that look as if they had come from the tailor just that morning. Even the food - it's still airline food and you'd find better at a good restaurant, but passengers look forward to the meals not just because they're hungry, but because the food's pretty good and it's tastefully presented - as tastefully presented as any pre-packaged coach-class airline food could be, that is. Coffee and hot green "Chinese tea" after every meal. And you've gotta love that they serve Coke from Hong Kong, made with real cane sugar instead of the sticky high-fructose corn syrup we get here. Yes, even the Coke tastes better!
April 3, 2007 9:01:04 PM (AM Philippine time)
Our last leg had us arriving at Manila about midnight.
Third leg: Cathay Pacific, HKG -> MNL, about 2h, on a Boeing 777.
Not much to elaborate about on this one - maybe I'll post later about the Hong Kong airport. (Pictures follow.)
Our family from Calamba picked us up; between going through immigration and customs, finding our ride, and stopping off for a midnight snack, we got home about 3 AM and to bed about 4. Jet lag isn't the only problem after a trip like this - you really don't, or at least we really don't, get a chance for a full night's sleep, and it didn't help that we didn't get one before we left. Travel itself is tiring, and losing sleep doesn't help. I'm sure we'll have the same problem when we get back.
For now, we're glad to be here. We leave tomorrow for our final destination.
Some pictures follow - click on any of these to see more, from my flickr photostream.
For Peter:
Beauty at the Hong Kong airport:
If you've ever been on a long-haul flight, you'll understand why travelers love the Hong Kong airport.
And for travelers with kids, there's this!
Breakfast in Calamba
Click on the picture to see more food.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Almost there...
We're safely in Hong Kong, and I write this from the free airport-wide wi-fi. =)
We leave for Manila in just a few minutes - then, once we arrive, an hour to get through immigration & customs, and another hour to where we'll lay our heads.
More later.
EDIT: Any posts you see from this point forward, add 12 hours to their time to get our local time. It's nighttime here in Hong Kong.
We leave for Manila in just a few minutes - then, once we arrive, an hour to get through immigration & customs, and another hour to where we'll lay our heads.
More later.
EDIT: Any posts you see from this point forward, add 12 hours to their time to get our local time. It's nighttime here in Hong Kong.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
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