Philippine Travel Notes

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...

All Aboard! Okay boarded. I was last in. Soon as I stepped into this plane, they closed the door! So I settled into my seat and appreciated the earth-toned, kind-of-airy surroundings. Hindi sya 'cheapeepai' tingnan like all budget airlines are - in bold reds or yelllows or oranges or blacks - na para kang nasa kids' play area, tadtad ng advertising stickers na na-aagnas na o di-kaya natutuklap na or both! Ganyan ang budget airlines, di ba? Here, interiors are respectably cool, parang PAL or other Full Service Carriers (FSCs). And look at the bulkhead (front wall), me round mistletoe pang nalalaman. Sosyalin ! Ahehe, Christmas Day kasi kahapon! Yep, all of Vietnam does celebrate Christmas , even if they are non-Christians. And Vietnam Air (VN) joins-in with refined elegance! Uncommon Seat Nomenclature! Let me just call it "uncommon" for it's not "unique", I think. Just a little different from many other airliners, especially ours in the ...

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...

Alright! Let's continue the previous story -- still on my domestic flight from Danang (DAD) to Ho Chi Minh (HCM) aka Saigon (SGN) in Vietnam, with an onward international flight connection [transit or transfer] to Phnom Penh (PNH) in the Kingdom of Cambodia. Taxi To The Airport ! You already know, my notes always start from the very beginning . This time with this: Nothing extraordinary really, I just noted that like many in the world, the dashboards of taxicabs in Vietnam are also now cluttered w/ many tech gadgets like that tablet. In the Philippines, the most common thing is still the smartphone for waze, grabapp or google maps, right? Very small screens! Maybe our drivers (still) have good eyes! Or most probably, walang pambili ng tablet hahaha! Well, for Vinasun taxi, their gadgets even encroach on the front passenger's space: For people with longer limbs like me, who must always sit 'in front' for better comfort , that radio thing [roger roger, ove...