Philippine Travel Notes

As promised in the previous article , here are sights and scenes as I roamed around this airport. I won't see them all in 3 or 4 visits, but I try my best every time I'm here. Good that my VietJet flight was assigned at Gate B3. A chance to roam Concourse B, even all the way to Concourse C if time permits. Yes, I doubted I had ample time! If I may just say, I like the boarding pass of VietJet, it is still the good old 'cardboard version'. They're slowly vanishing, replaced by the receipt-like version, or none at all! Oh the digital era! It should be good for us to at least have photos of these old stuff. For soon they will become history. Just a "memory of the years past" . It's happening! Entering the Pre-departure Area Ah, also a consistent experience, immigration clearance here is also congested, but way faster than it is down at the arrival area. Oi, going in is similar to the other side ! Call it petty, but I really like this glass and ...

So I arrived at Taoyuan International Airport from Cebu , just passing-by, transiting to Hanoi, on the way to Danang (cities in Vietnam). These are flights 3 & 4 on my map . No rush. I had enough time to "transfer" at this airport, since I planned well, and that flight from CEB arrived ahead of schedule. Plus I already know my way around here. That said, let me caution those who are not too familiar with transit and/or transfer quirks at Taipei's Taoyuan International Airport ( TPE ) that's usually always too busy. This was 10:23AM at the VietJet check-in counters. ETD: 1230H. I wasn't late. But... That means it took about an hour finding my way from arrival to the departure area. And I consider myself already fast, as I now know my way around this airport. Ikaw? In fact, my delivering flight (CEB-TPE on AirAsia) and receiving flight (TPE-HAN on VietJet) both use T1. Yet, it still took me about an hour to: 'retrieve my baggage' , 'do m...

Here is another circuitous trip I had. We can consider this a circle trip, or a series of circle trips. This wasn't only in the country (mainly abroad). Yet, full of fun learnings. My route went like this: TAC ✈ CEB ✈ TPE ✈ HAN ✈ DAD ✈ SGN ✈ PNH ✈ REP ✈ HAN ✈ VTE ✈ DMK ✈ MNL ✈ CEB ✈ TAC. Hahaha, ridiculous? Well it was fun! The little red planes above are international flights, while those in other colors were domestic flights inside their respective countries. Oh okay, let's describe the codes. For easy identification and understanding, I numbered the flight legs - 13 flights! I went from Tacloban to Cebu. Then Cebu to Taipei transiting to Hanoi and Danang. After Danang, I went to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) transiting to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. After Phnom Penh, I flew transiting at Siem Reap (that's still Cambodia) going back to Hanoi, this time to stay a few days. After Hanoi, I departed for Vientiane in Laos. After Vientiane, I jetted to Bangkok's ...

This was one time I wished my flight would be delayed heheh! Well sorry me, it was departing not just on time, but even ahead of its published schedule (I suspected)! How'd I know that? Oh just guessing! At 0932H there it was about to dock at the gate. So I surmised, the airline's manager at Taoyuan would want to dispatch that plane at 1032H because the usual 'parking fee' that they pay is only for an hour! I wasn't sad anyway. I just wished I could stay longer to explore all the boarding gate themes of Taipei Taoyuan International Airport . But I know I'll be coming back many times soon, so I look forward to it. Look, at 10:09AM, the forward section of the aircraft belly was done loading. Nagkukwentuhan na sila! I was seated 1F, I could see the loading operations at the forward underside of the plane. Through the years of frequent traveling I learned that most of the time, when a plane's belly is not going to be full, many of our checked-in luggage a...