Philippine Travel Notes

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 ride of only about 5 kilometers, took exactly 26 minutes. Yeah, that long! Ah yes, the world-famous Metro Manila traffic hahaha! Yet, I secretly wished for this ride to crawl a little bit slower! I wanted to see more. This was nostalgia time for me! Resorts World Manila and NAIA Terminal 3 Were Part of Villr Airbase How and why is that? Well, in my younger years, I often passed via this vicinity. This area we were departing-from was part of Villamor Airbase (earlier Nichols Airbase), until a big portion was expropriated in 1995 to become NAIA T3 and Resorts World . I do still remember many things here. For example, diagonally across HIE is PAFAM or the Philippine Air Force Aerospace Museum . It is technically just across the road. But I don't even know now, if one can go there by just crossing the road, as there are now three flyovers leading to, or from, various expressways and urbanities like BGC! Well, if you can cross from HIE (Holiday Inn Express) or ...