Philippine Travel Notes

Hah! The ' tight connection ' from domestic to international terminals may have been "a little bit unsettling" , but here I was, still 'gliding' hahaha! Lucky is my 'middle name'! At 1:37PM, check-in was a breeze! It had to be, counters were to close in 3 minutes! That (check-in counter closure) was the 'crucial moment' I have all along been trying to catch! Had I been 3 minutes slower, this story may have been totally different. Ta! The check-in lady told me to immediately do immigration clearance, and proceed to the gate, as boarding for this flight has already commenced. Gosh, one hour BETD? Well, no time for "pilosopo questions" . She said it's already boarding, so I ordered my royal highness to be at that gate ASAP. This time though, I was calmer and collected ! Calmer as in I was back to my usual inquisitive atrevida self! Like I still had the time (or is that audacity?) to watch that group at right. They were send...

As I said in the previous article , let us continue my travel, this time just transit ing at HCMC to get out of Vietnam, onwards to Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. Note: I keep saying Ho Chi Minh City or HCMC or Saigon, they're one-and-the-same! Saigon is the old name, Ho Chi Minh City is the new name, HCMC is the abbreviation. But the 3-letter IATA airport code did not change. It is still SGN . Anyway... My DAD~SGN flight was a bit late, so transfer activities didn't allow me enough time for my usual chechebureche (shooting pics here-and-there) as I transferred terminals ! Per ticket, ETD DAD was 1125H, but at DAD airport it became 1150H. That's already a 25-minute delay. When you have connecting flights, 25 minutes is already serious. Well, we sometimes just include in our prayers that "sana lang" there would be a tail wind to push the plane faster. I did just that (nagdasal) , for what else can I do, di ba? Ah, the winds-of-change...

Done at Đà Nẵng, Vietnam , it was time to hop to my next destination: Phnom Penh, Cambodia . Oh don't worry about that city name, it's actually very easy to pronounce! How do they say that? Locals pronounce Phnom as Pnom [no vowel sound between 'P' and 'nom' ] dropping any "h" sound. Technique: start saying "nom" with pursed lips - the "p" will come out! To my ears, locals pronounce Penh also without any "h" sound anywhere. And, they utter the 'e' in Pen with a very short and guttural "u" (like in b u rn), not "e" nor even "i". For many children, it's even pronounced like "puyn" with just a very faint "y" sound. Easy di ba? Hahaha! Anyway... How to fly from Danang to Phnom Penh? Except for a daily flight to Siem Reap, there are no direct flights from Da Nang to all of Cambodia, and it did not match my planned route and/or departure/arrival...

As said in the previous story, this was the first time I was using Noi Bai International Airport Terminal 2 (T2), since this wasn't yet up, last time I came into and left Hanoi. But I somehow knew where to go, aided by ample standard signage everywhere. Maybe it naturally follows when you've been to a number of airports in your lifetime. Layouts are generally the same. Hey, I even knew where the smoking area could be! Out the arrival lobby, I crossed the vehicle lane, glanced back, and it looked familiar! Looks like MNL T1 upper arrival lane, right? Ohh, just like in the Philippines, Vietnam vehicles also drive on the right lane. Let's guess, it is probably an 'American Legacy'! In case you did not know yet, five or half of ASEAN countries drive on the right lane; the other half on the left, but there are now 6 of them since Timor Leste was added. Oh, in relation to that, Philippines is not anymore the 'only' Catholic Country in Asia. Oops, this e...