@ 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. 

NAIA Terminal 3 to Hong Kong

Finally, after rearranging our schedules, my dream of traveling together with my mother and sister to Hong Kong for my birthday is now a reality. Mama needed some persuading since at 72, she’s not up for all the walking and rushing from one place to another but after promising her she would have ample time to rest between all the sight-seeing, she relented. 

The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) has been bashed to high heavens as the worst airport in the world but if you’re flying out of NAIA Terminal 3, you won’t understand the brouhaha. This terminal is clean, spacious and thanks to the bad publicity, they now put undiluted liquid soap in their wash room soap dispensers, which for some reason, makes me ridiculously happy.

One thing that annoys me about leaving the country though is the ₱1620 travel tax one has to pay before you’d be allowed to check-in, add to that the ₱750 terminal fee and you’ve spent ₱2370 before you even pass through Immigration. Anyway, there’s nothing you can do but grumble that that money could have bought you more pasalubong etc.

The travel tax counter is on the right of the NAIA terminal 3 entrance, beside the Cebu Pacific ticketing office. So after paying for the three of us, we immediately proceeded to the Cebu Pacific web check-in counter to drop off our bags. It’s the first time I’ve tried checking in online and it’s really convenient because the line is shorter and you can show up at least 45 minutes before departure time without getting in trouble.

                                      

 Off we went to pay the terminal fee and fill up the departure cards before lining up for Immigration. It makes me sad to see some Pinoys get denied to board their planes just because the officers were not convinced they were leaving just to tour. 

A friend of mine (who is paid more than I do) got offloaded just because she was traveling alone and wasn’t in her best attire. I wish Immigration agents won’t be so arbitrary in denying people’s right to travel. I know there are a lot of human trafficking cases, but not everyone’s a prospective TNT either.

Rant over. We passed through immigration without incident and trooped to gate 109 to wait for our flight. It was raining heavily before we left so we were a bit apprehensive but it cleared up enough for our flight to leave on time. So goodbye for now, Manila.