Dec 082019
 


Woke up feeling a little bit better, and although 9-something seemed like a reasonable time for a flight it meant still getting up earlier than I would have liked. So early, even, that I opened to fortify myself with hotel lounge coffee instead of taking a Grab to Starbucks.

At least it wasn’t a 5 or 6am flight, which would have been miserable now that I was finally almost adjusted to Asia time…just in time to leave!

Philippine Airlines online check-in didn’t work for me, but it was a quick two minute stop by the counter with no queue to get my boarding pass and I was on my way.

Stopped by the lounge which was a bit on the warm and humid side, but did have a reasonable selection of food and drink….and people piling plates several layers deep as if they’d not eaten in weeks. While I suppose that’s possible…

On the plus side, the lounge had huge floor to ceiling windows that spanned both floors so it was super light and almost cheerful inside:

Based on online reviews, I didn’t expect much from Philippine Airlines – it looked like the longhaul product was solid, but lots of reviews of disinterested crews, barely edible food, and shorthaul flights that made domestic US flights look good had me not looking forward. Decided to get to the gate 10 minutes before the boarding time printed on my boarding pass because I expected a scrum, but when I arrived…everyone was already boarded and I was one of the last ones! 45 minutes before departure!

Philippine Airlines flight 592
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (SGN) to Manila, Philippines (MNL)
Depart 09:35, Arrive: 13:20, flight time: 2:45
Airbus A321, Registration RP-C9907, Manufactured 2013, Seat 2A
Miles Flown Year-to-Date: 188,328
Lifetime Miles Flown: 2,880,630

First impressions were quite good. This A321 was very well-maintained, not great seat pitch but with only two empty seats in the cabin one would be next to me, and the seats were overall very comfortable. Especially for such a short flight.

The crew was nothing short of wonderful. Refreshing cool towels on a tray, what tasted like a very sweet tea pre-departure, and a smiling, friendly, and warm-welcoming crew had erased all the negative things I’d been expecting. This had all the foreshadowings of a great flight!

I loved the art on the menus…and the fact there was a menu at all for such a short flight…with three choices!

I love plane-spotting on taxi, but rarely do it since I’ll only take window seats if they come with aisle access. AirBridge Cargo XL oversize!

The three-cup pork for lunch was amazing – if nothing else this trip had fantastic meals on many of my flights. One of the few airline meals that felt both creative, local, and delicious. The champagne was a a nice addition, although sadly the cashews were in a bag. I thought about going all Korean Air, but thought better of it…

Vanilla macadamia ice cream for dessert. Can’t go wrong! I never eat ice cream at home, so it’s always a nice inflight treat for me.

Arrival in Manila was great…until I had to figure out transfers. It had shades of Cairo a week ago written all over it, and I prayed it would not be another two hour experience. Note to self: anything that portends a terminal change in a lesser-developed country is going to be an adventure. Unfortunately, before arriving, I just assumed since it was the same airline it would be the same terminal. Oh how wrong I was…

Eventually I figured out I would need to change terminals. How hard would that be. Surely Philippine Airlines has this down to a science, right?

We had arrived Terminal 2, and when I followed the signs for transfers I eventually ended up at a transfer desk, where the agent had been expecting me as a connecting passenger…and asked me to wait five minutes while he arranged things. Here’s where it began to get interesting.

It was Cairo all over again….he eventually walked me over to immigration…who actually stamped me into the Philippines just as if I was arriving, and the agent kindly escorted me to a waiting room…where I would wait for the bus to Terminal 1.

Terminal 1 is the oldest terminal in Manila, and you would think Philippine Airlines would use the sparkly new Terminal 3 for longhaul flagship routes…but you would be wrong.

Soon, I understood why I’d been stamped into the country: the bus to Terminal 1 was outside immigration and eventually dropped me off….at the front door of the terminal where we had to clear security scans to get into the building, immigration to leave the Philippines again, and eventually security to get into Terminal 1.

All in all, it wasn’t terrible. Maybe 45 minutes to an hour max from the time I got off the plane in Terminal 2 until I was planted in the lounge in Terminal 1. It was a rather sad lounge, used seemingly by most airlines who used the terminal (except Singapore and maybe a couple others?) but it seemed my only choice.

At least they had a cool display of airline models inside…

The food looked a little dicey….so I stuck with a Coke Zero and some sweet rolls. Not glamourous, but I was hoping for a nice long sleep on the next segment…

Went to the gate shortly before boarding, and it was absolutely packed with just about every seat taken. That said, people were being quite orderly with no mad scrum visible, so boarding would hopefully also be nice and orderly.

Soon I was paged to the podium, which is never a good sign when you’re already in the top cabin. Fortunately, they just needed to give me a new printed boarding pass since I had changed my seat in the Philippine Airlines app (to get away from a family with children behaving like wild animals in the lounge….fortunately I saw their boarding passes and where they were sitting so with several empty seats I was able to move as far away from the front of the cabin as possible…. Just a thought…maybe giving your kid coke after coke and multiple ice creams in the lounge prolly doesn’t help with their hyperness.

Philippine Airlines flight 118
Manila, Philippines (MNL) to Toronto, Canada (YYZ)
Depart 16:30, Arrive: 19:00, flight time: 15:50
Airbus A350-900, Registration RP-C3507, Manufactured 2019, Seat 5K
Miles Flown Year-to-Date: 196,549
Lifetime Miles Flown: 2,888,851

With a flight time of 15 hours and 50 minutes, this was going to be a long flight….but fortunately the seats were super comfortable and quite private. This was really all I wanted or expected from the flight, so I was very happy to see it lived up to expectations!

The same gorgeous menus, but this time with four main courses. There were also mid-flight snacks in addition to the arrival meal.

Another friendly and welcoming crew who was chatty without being over the top, and I was looking forward to another great flight. Apparently our plane was known as “The Love Bus” – we’re definitely not on a more “formal” airline like Singapore, but I was loving the Filipino hospitality!

Takeoff….I love the wings of the A350…

Canapés to start were a miss. Bread wasn’t fresh, and the moussey stuff on top made it seem a bit soggy. Made me long for warmed nuts…but hey, champagne makes everything better!

The flight attendant serving my section raved about the french onion soup as a starter, so I had to try it. Unfortunately, it was one step from terrible. No flavour, very few onions, even less cheese, super greasy…and just…blah. Also, first time I think I’ve ever seen bread served in a bowl!

The disappointments up until this point were very quickly forgotten, however. The “gourmet pork sisig” was phenomenal. A wonderful combo of flavours and textures…just a tiny bit spicy, salty, sweet….it was simply outstanding. I actually asked about the possibility of a second serving, but unfortunately it had been very popular.

The cheese was about as expected – reasonable, but not memorable, but dark chocolate ice cream and some red wine….perfect end to a meal that wasn’t anything fancy, but was much better than I had expected.

I was clearly tired – we finished the meal service about 2.5 hours into the flight, and I proceeded to pass out cold…for eight solid hours. By the time I woke up, we were almost entering US airspace. We’d taken a very southern routing today, and I was actually a bit hungry.

I decided to see how the beef burger was, and it was actually reasonably good. Combined with the fruit, it made a rather substantial mid/late flight snack.

Surely, you jest. Good food on Philippine Airlines? I am serious…and don’t call me Shirley.

Just a couple hours later, about 90 minutes out of Toronto, breakfast service started (yes, at around 6pm local time) with a glass of orange juice.

Nice big fruit plate with deliciously-ripe mango.

The omelet was no Air Canada omelet, but reasonably good. I think calling it a Denver Omelet, however, was a bit of a stretch. First time I’ve seen an omelet served with risotto instead of potatoes, however.

Washed down with a Filipino craft beer….was was decidedly average.

You know it’s been a long flight when the sun sets right after takeoff….you eat, sleep, eat some more…and then it sets for a second time in the same flight.

We were just a couple hundred feet off the ground and the engines sprang to life…turns out we had “spacing issues and the aircraft in front hadn’t left the runway yet” – this is my THIRD go-around in Toronto this year (and I’ve only had three go-arounds all year) and sixth or seventh overall. Why is this such a problem in Toronto? Well over half of the go-arounds in my nearly 3 million miles flown have been at Toronto – to the point it can’t just be coincidence.

So summing up, Philippine Airlines exceeded my expectations in just about every way. I’d expected a comfortable seat, but almost nothing more. What I got were warm and friendly crews happy to go the extra mile, good to very good food and an experience that rivals almost any business class out there. I’d be very happy to fly them again – despite the more or less useless (to me) miles.

Next up – overnight in Toronto before heading up to the Arctic!!

Dec 072019
 


After a good night of sleep (I still wasn’t rested I don’t think from all the go-go-go of the past seven+ days and jet lag) I managed to wake up feeling like I’d been hit by a Mack truck. No, make that hit by a Mack truck, and then backed up and run over again.

Based on how I’d felt the past few days it was clear I’d been teetering on the edge of something, and I finally lost the battle. I was very glad I hadn’t booked any of the side trips I’d considered, because my energy levels were such that I could manage 30-60 minutes at a time max.

This continued for two days, unfortunately, so it was mostly just short little dashes around HCMC with lots of little stops to do/see things. Thankfully, whenever I got tired Grab was there to take me back to the hotel if needed. Unfortunately, this meant I wasn’t going to get the in-depth re-explore of HCMC I’d been hoping for, but at least I did get out and manage to see a little bit while recovering.

We’ll start with the view from the Le Meridien executive lounge. It was also raining on and off the entire time I was there, so it as a good thing I didn’t plan for much walking. On the upside, while this meant it was also incredible humid, the temperatures stayed in the reasonable zone.

After a lazy morning on the first day, I felt I had just enough energy go to out and see what real Vietnamese banh mi was like (as opposed to the stuff you get in DC which is delicious, but has too many “perfect” ingredients to feel too authentic.)

One thing about feeling not so hot is that you can spend an hour researching the best banh mi online, and not feel like you’d wasted time. I skipped over the two most popular places, and based on a few reviews that said they were thrilled to have found this little place I headed to Bánh Mì Hồng Hoa. Supposedly this place could have quite a line, but when I got there there was no line at all.

There were english translations on the posted menu, and my meatball banh mi was delicious…and less than one dollar!

I still had a little energy after banh mi, so I took a stroll through the city walking for nearly an hour. Fortunately, once I got tired out I was near East West Brewing where I stopped for a sampler. Still rather impressed by the HCMC craft beer scene!

Still feeling pretty good, I decided maybe I could handle the mile or so walk to my hotel. Despite being overcast, the humidity was impressive, and as you can see when I stopped on the way to take a selfie with Uncle Ho I was already quite a sweaty mess.

After a couple of hours resting and recovering I felt good enough to go out and get some dinner, but really didn’t feel like venturing far. Since I’d had a couple good beers the night before, and their food menu looked good as well, I headed back to Heart of Darkness brewing. They did some super delicious sliders! Who would have expected in Vietnam!

The next day, I was still feeling pretty shaky, but did manage a couple of hour long walks. (Note I’m saving you from any Starbucks pictures…and you better believe I made it to Starbucks – I’d need to be REALLY sick before I skipped that.)

Apparently this bank was having some sort of opening / spirit cleansing / good luck ceremony.

At some point in the afternoon I made it to the Winking Seal Beer company while I was out walking. The tap handles were absolutely amazing with the Vietnamese hats on the seals!

I also made it to the Ben Thanh Market while I was out walking. Back on my previous visit there wasn’t more than a tourist or two in site when I walked through, and haggling was a real chore since there was no English spoken. Now? Crawling with tourists and all the merchants spoke enough limited English to haggle. Amazing how much the city has changed!

I always love looking at the fruit and vegetable sellers in markets – it always looks so fresh compared to the stuff you get in American grocery stores (unless you go to Whole Foods that is…)

One thing definitely hadn’t changed in HCMC in the last 15 years ago – there were still motorbikes everywhere, and you have to be brave to walk out into traffic to weave between them to cross the road. They’re not going to move out of your way!

It was fun still seeing a bit of communist propaganda here and there in the city, but again, way less than there was 15 years prior!

All in all, I was disappointed I wasn’t able to do more, but given how I felt I’m really happy with how much I managed to fit in. My hope was I was over things because going to the Arctic was up next…and I really didn’t want to get stuck up in the Arctic seriously ill!

Up next: off to the Arctic! I might be the only person ever to travel from Ho Chi Minh City to Yellowknife!

Dec 062019
 


Since we had a relatively early flight (well, not really that early, but when you take into account time to get to the airport, etc) we hadn’t planned much for the morning other than a lazy breakfast at the hotel to enjoy one of the better hotel buffets in the world.

No trouble getting a Grab, and since it was the weekend traffic to the airport wasn’t terrible either. We had managed to check-in online, so no need to stop by the desks, and queues for immigration and security were minimal so we had some time to try the Cathay lounge.

Just as on previous visit it was a little difficult to find, and once we did it was unfortunately absolutely packed just like the previous time. I don’t know if this is always the case for this lounge because it has flights to Singapore and Hong Kong at the same time, but it was difficult even finding a place to sit.

A couple of glasses of bubbles later, I didn’t terribly care, and decided to chat up the lounge agent and see about changing my set to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). A couple weeks prior they had swapped in an aircraft with first class seats on this route, however, they were not selling first – getting access to these seats was at the mercy of airport agents since the app wouldn’t permit it.

I totally admit that I might have been a bit flirty back to the lounge agent when they initiated it, and after much back and forth with a supervisor in some mysterious location on the phone, this exchange took place: “I would love to help you, but that seat is reserved for the bassinet.” I made a joke that “it’s ok, I’m pregnant and promise to give birth before Hong Kong” to which they laughed hysterically. First class seat was mine. Hopefully it would hold…

Cathay Pacific flight 750
Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) to Hong Kong (HKG)
Depart 11:40, Arrive: 15:30, flight time: 2:50
Boeing 777-300, Registration B-KQT, Manufactured 2014, Seat 12K
Miles Flown Year-to-Date: 186,401
Lifetime Miles Flown: 2,878,703

Boarding was a bit of a scrum with everyone rushing the gate the minute they started boarding, and my first impression of the seat was pretty good. Reasonably private, lots of space, and I would be happy with this seat on a 10 hour flight, not to mention a regional flight of under three hours! Ian had the seat behind me, and off to Hong Kong we went!

Bubbles and water for a pre-departure beverage…

What’s for lunch today? Can you imagine if US airlines served nice meals like this (complete with a menu!) for mid-con flights?!

In case of evacuation, throw your baby in a rubber sleepsack…

Lunch was served right after takeoff, complete with garlic bread, more champagne, and a nice thai salad.

I went with the Thai pork which was delicious. The perfect combination of savoury and sweet.

Choice of three flavours of ice cream for dessert. Strawberry for me, please!

After lunch was over, I walked past the galley and noticed a sign saying “work quietly, speak softly” – can you imagine this in the galley on US airlines? I’m sure the flight attendant unions would throw a fit! It would interrupt terribly important gripe sessions about their jobs, passengers. On the upside, a quiet environment would improve their concentration for Candy Crush and Suduko.

Arrival in Hong Kong was right on time, and since Hong Kong doesn’t trust Thai security we had to clear again – unfortunately behind what seemed like dozens of inexperienced travellers. We barely had enough time for the connection as it was, and were determined to stop in the AmEx Lounge for at least 10 minutes.

Hong Kong (along with a few other locations like Mexico City and Buenos Aires) is one of the few AmEx Lounges that has a “lounge within a lounge” for Centurion Card holders, which actually makes it a lounge I’ll go out of my way to visit.

As usual, Hong Kong was quite warm and we were a little sweaty by the time we arrived, but the champagne was poured and all was forgotten.

Despite having a very short time we were promised they could get the meals on the menu to us in five minutes or so, so we decided to order the caviar. Definitely a wonderful choice! Caviar and champagne make everything better!

Quick gobble of the goods, and then a bit of a run to the gate…where of course boarding was delayed meaning we could have spent some more time in the lounge. Said goodbye to Ian, and I was off to Ho Chi Minh City for the first time in 15 years!

Cathay Pacific flight 799
Hong Kong (HKG) to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (SGN)
Depart 16:50, Arrive: 18:35, flight time: 2:45
Boeing 777-300, Registration B-KQM, Manufactured 2014, Seat 2K
Miles Flown Year-to-Date: 187,326
Lifetime Miles Flown: 2,879,628

My seat assignment had stuck, and I was shown to seat 2K by the crew. It technically would be business class today, but the crew was still acting like it was first class, apologizing that they would only be able to offer business class champagne today. Could they get me some?

A bit warm from the run to-and-from the lounge, but my kitty fan and some champagne while settling into 2K made everything better.

What’s for dinner tonight? Similar to the lunch menu from Bangkok.

The thai red chicken curry was delicious – I do love the thai dishes that seem to appear frequently in Cathay business – they’re always tasty.

Choice of ice creams once again for dessert. They were out of Tegrity, so I decided to go with cookies and cream…and more champagne…this time around.

It had been fifteen years or more since I’d been in Vietnam, and in that time tourism had taken off and getting a visa had become much easier. No need to go to the consulate or embassy anymore, you can now do a visa on arrival by paying/arranging with an agency online who sends you an approval letter.

The whole process was quite confusing, and there was a waiting area where you had to fill out a form and wait. I asked about a dozen people if I needed to wait there with my letter, and the first several indicated yes, but eventually I just went up to the windows (causing several people to get upset with me) and they told me no, go straight to the arrivals queues.

Well, that would have been great, except with 20+ queues open they were all still 50+ people deep. It was going to be quite a wait. Still better than having to wait for the visa-on-arrival counter where some people said they had been waiting more than four hours!

I eventually found a line for VIP/diplomats/SkyPriority so decided that despite flying Cathay I would stand there since I have SkyPriority through Delta. That line only took about 10 minutes, but I was then berated by the guy at the counter who insisted I show him my boarding pass with SkyPriority on it – not just my card.

Feigning a bit of not understanding him he finally gave up on me and just stamped me into the country. I’m not usually a fan of gaming the system like this, but hey, to save a few hours and be able to at least enjoy the evening? Absolutely.

The other thing that had changed since my previous visit were the hotels. 15 years ago, there was no such thing as chain hotels in Vietnam, and we stayed at the Grande Olde Dame the “Rex Hotel” which was about as good as it got back then.

Now? There’s a half dozen different Bonvoy options, not to mention Hiltons, Hyatts, and everything. Grab worked well to get me to the Le Meridien (which seemed to be the recommended hotel based on online reviews) and I was given a nice room on the executive floor.

I have to wonder, however, as someone afraid of heights, what’s with all these hotels lately with 20+ floor atriums and waist-high railings where I felt I might plunge to my untimely death:

It wasn’t too late, so I figured I would head out for a walk and try and get my bearings for the coming days. The city had changed so much a walk was in order, and there seemed to be a great craft beer place less than a mile away that looked walkable.

I immediately wasn’t a huge fan of the changes in the city, as literally dozens of younger ladies from massage parlours grabbed my arm as I walked by and tried to get me to come inside. Ugh. It reminded me of Bangkok 20 years ago and the seedier side of tourism in Southeast Asia.

I managed to keep going, and was eventually rewarded with a great selection of beers at Heart of Darkness brewing. How amazing to find a Joseph Conrad-themed pub in the middle of Vietnam. While globalization definitely has its downsides in the homogenization of culture, there are some benefits…

After a couple of beers to tire me out, it was back to the hotel to rack out. I had two days to enjoy Vietnam, and wanted to make the most of them!