@ Hong Kong International Airport (Chek Lap Kok)

The 2-hour flight from Manila via Cebu Pacific was uneventful and after eating overpriced noodles and chips on the plane, we were fortified for the day ahead. At 9:50 am, we arrived at the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), Chek Lap Kok.

 This airport is one of the busiest in the world but the directions and signage are excellent so just follow the arrows and you wouldn't get lost. HKIA is so huge you would need to hop on a train to get to immigration.

We breezed through immigration here. There were no extra queries like in Manila (even asking for our company ID, ridiculous). The HK immigration officer just checked our arrival cards, looked at our faces, scanned our passports on that reader thingy, stamped it and voila! We have a 14-day permit to enjoy Hong Kong to our hearts' content.

 

The door to the baggage claim area is right behind the immigration counters so we went through that to pick up our bags. You have to remember the baggage carousel number announced by the flight attendants before you disembark, so you'd know where to go--but if you forget--just look it up the digital signage for baggage reclaim information.

We got to explore the airport a bit and it is really impressive how transportation from this airport is so seamless. You can purchase an Octopus card to pay for the MTR and bus fare. It can even be used at 7-Eleven’s and McDonald’s. I hope the “common ticketing system" that DOTC Sec. Mar Roxas is planning would be implemented in the Philippines soon.

There are free maps everywhere, so we grabbed some just in case our travel agent does not show up and we needed to wing it. Luckily, she was waiting for us at bay 9 of the tourist pick-up area of Arrival Hall B. After checking that we were who we said we were, we waited for a few minutes for other people in the tour to show up and we hopped into the comfy tour bus and got ready to rumble.