We had finished our Macau exploration earlier than planned, but because of the miserable weather and the fact that we were at the Ferry Terminal dropping off other people, we decided to head home…and leave Macau, one of our most interesting stops for another time.
Once we boarded to TurboJet Ferry I was able to get these few shots of some points of interest for possible inclusion on our next trip.
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So off we were on our way back to Kowloon.
We arrived safe an sound back at the Kowloon Hotel about an hour and a half later and settled in for an early night before our departure in the morning for home.
A last view of the magnificent skyline the next morning and we headed to the airport.
We checked out and instead of waiting for the airport bus, we hoped a cab and made it to the airport a couple hours before departure.
I was starting to get a little worried, I get that way almost all the time, when I think we are cutting things a little short. But I needn’t have worried because the service at the airport in Hong Kong is simply unbelievable.
They have “Airport Ambassadors” who are multilingual (retired folks) and who are there to help you get oriented.
The PAL staff at the check-in counter in terminal 2 were just superb. You couldn’t ask for better. They pointed us in the direction of the “people mover” to take us to terminal 1 and what a surprise that was…
In a matter of less than a minute or maybe a minute and a half we had arrived in Terminal 1 and were headed to our gate.
To say that NAIA in Manila could learn a few things from these people goes without saying. There were no insane line-ups at the check-in counters as you see every few moments at NAIA. NAIA appears to be in a permanent state of mayhem all the time and it’s damned frustrating and maddening. At least if it were organized chaos, it might be easier to accept and handle. But it isn’t, it’s just Philippines!
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People at the Hong Kong Airport moved through every phase of the process very smoothly and quickly, and even though the place was packed there was never the feeling you get when you’re at NAIA. You just zipped through everything, check-in, inter-terminal transfers, security, immigration – everything it was a real pleasure!
And BONUS! THE PUBLIC WASHROOMS WERE SIMPLY PRISTINE AND THEY EVEN INCLUDED TOILET PAPER, RUNNING WATER, SOAP AND AS I SAID PRISTINE TOILETS (the stalls were as if brand new – they were so clean). I defy you to say that about any of the facilities at NAIA.
We settled in at our gate, after a quick lunch at one of the zillions of restaurants available everything from an unbelievable selection of fast food joints to 5 Star sit down restaurants. With lunch taken care of we set off for our gate and waited for the boarding call.
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The break the boredom I started taking more pictures…
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Before we knew it, we were boarding for the flight to Manila…
The new PAL A340
We got out onto the taxiway and must have been 15th or 20th in line for take off because it took almost an hour before we actually took to the skies. I just took out the camera again and took more pictures.
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We had another, airline lunch and before you know it we were on final approach for Manila.
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Another couple hours of waiting, passing the time doing the usual…
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And before you knew it we were arriving at Good Ole Iloilo International Airport…
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We were picked up by our pals, Nilo and Joemarie and as we were approaching home we were starved. We stopped at Ramboys Restaurant right across from the Molo Plaza for a late dinner. To our surprise the area was jam packed with people and revellers. It turned out that I forgot, July 25 – the night before Fiesta starts on July 26 – a lot of people were definitely having some fun.
After a very nice supper at Ramboy’s – HOME SWEET HOME! We had a successful trip, we saw a lot of new things and met some nice people, but it was sure nice to get home and sleep in our own bed after a week on the road!
The Ranch in Oton
Goodnight John Boy!
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