Philippine Travel Notes

Go Up to Go In ! That's what we said in the previous story, right? Ah Pinoys are familiar with this kind of airport setup like DVO, ILO, CGY, etc. - where you go up a floor level after check-in. Look, the directional sign says Departure Lobby is up there. So ano itong nasa baba? Abaw, ambot ah! Maybe let's call it Check-in Hall (wala kasi siyang lobby eh) . Pwede! It differs from our airports though, in that, everything so far, is publicly accessible ! Yep, let's clarify that... everything downstairs (check-in counters etc.,) is open to the public. Anyone can go in/out down there , plus the 2 nd floor Departure Lobby up here ! In all these areas, walang blue-guard, white-guard, lady-guard, djagwar, gwardya, chief at kung anu-ano pa! Samantala, ang mga malls natin, ay, me jaguar every entrance! What is/are at this second floor anyway? Aw, restaurants and shops. Parang sa ILO at DVO nga, mas madami lang dito! I even saw stairs going to 3rd level restaurants. ...

Wattay International Airport ; IATA: VTE ; ICAO: VLVT . Let us check-in and fly out! As said in my previous story, I got to this airport after only 16 minutes from city center. How far is this airport? Travel guides, official pages and/or information brochures usually say this airport is 3 kilometers away from the city center and is reachable in 15 to 20 minutes. Quick? I don't know where that 3kms reckons to/with, but as far as my ride was concerned, Ibis Hotel (few steps from KM Zero, Nam Phou Park) is about 6 kms, yet only 12mins ! Na! I ran twice faster than normal? How lucky (well, I usually am anyway hehe) ! Simple, No Frills Entry Entering international terminal's main door, check-in counters are but a few steps. Where I stood to take that picture was probably just 5 or 6 steps from the door. And, like at modern airports, no lining up for an x-ray machine to scan you and everything! That was already the 3 rd pogi point of this small airport! First, ...

Had a wonderful time roaming around T2 of Noi Bai International Airport , especially the plane-spotting thing. What makes Hanoi ideal for the activity is that there aren't so many flights to overwhelm or confuse you. Yet, not that few for you to get bored. First Impressions Anyway... so I was finally aboard Lao Airlines Flight QV312 from Hanoi to Vientiane! Once seated, I felt a bit uneasy moving-as-I-wished hehehe. Eh kasi naman, the first things that caught my sight were not 'da bes'! Kunwari yan, puti ba yan o brown, ha? Anyway, good that I did my plane-spotting thing earlier. I learned that, this aircraft is an Airbus A320-214 delivered direct from the factory to Lao Airlines in 01DEC2011. O di ba? Not very new, but not too old either. Iyan yan sya, on foreground, yung nasa gate, Aircraft Registry RDPL-34199 . We were already boarding when I took that pic! So, medyo relaaak na (ng konti) ang iyong Pinoy Traveler, kesehoda kung para bang nanglilimahid na an...

Our ways and means are a changing, usually for the better, because of technologies that keep getting better by the day. That includes how we watch and witness things. Especially with fascinatedly watching planes at airports, we now don't just see them zooming-by, we also already immediately know their "identities and circumstances"! All thanks to many technologies, we now have a wittier ways of knowing "planes"! Newfangled Plane-Spotting At airports, the more you know something, the more you become curious and want to learn more about matters related to it. Teka, di ba ganyan ang buhay "in general"? So eto, marami tuloy akong mahaba-habang ma-i-ku-kwento. Mga karanasan ba! Example? Here's a Malindo Air Boeing 737-900ER. It was out of the factory in 2013. Bata pa! Yep, 5 years is still young for an airplane in the commercial airline industry! How did I know it's a Malindo airplane, and how did I know the type of aircraft from t...