Hongkong EP16 Pinoys at HK International Airport

We're already there by 4pm, enough for the other family we're with at Shenzhen to make it to their 5pm trip. Ours were still around 10pm so we do have plenty of time, but not exactly enough to know what it is we were doing. I also have 2 goals to do for today which is:

1. Buy my boss the Long Champ bag she wanted (she gave me 700HKD)
2. Meet Mr. Lee for my sister's bag.

First thing we did was find food. Like seriously our stomachs are grumbling for food. We were able to buy a cheap fast food type there (Mcdonalds is under renovation) but I forgot the name though. We spent not more than 500 pesos all in all.

Initially we were at Terminal A waiting on the 2nd floor, right above the agency posts were I'm supposed to meet Mr. Lee. But there is a problem. We could not find were we should get our boarding passes!! First we asked for directions on where to go and the first one we got made us have a really long walk, making my mom furious at where I was taking them. We turned around and was able to meet a Pinoy (who looks like a friendly business guy, reminded me of the pop of one of my old friends) who told us to how to go to Terminal B, the easier way. We took it and not more than 5 minutes we were at the 2nd floor seating in one of their chairs.

Tip: When you find yourself in a similar situation of finding Terminal B, all you need to do is to find the path on the RIGHT MOST part (ground floor) of Terminal A. We initially took the leftmost which is quite a long walk. It meets with the one you will take if you're at the right. 

Finally Terminal B

We finally reached this dreaded Terminal B and were glad to find that Tiger Airways is really here. It's a bit early and boarding passes were not given yet so we are left on our own to roam around. I was also able to meet Mr. Lee (he was a bit late) and get the bag which he said was picked BY someone and took it to Hollywood hotel. Whoever that was noticed their mistake but never bothered telling the guide NOR returning the bag either. Their courtesy extended to JUST LEAVING IT AT THE HOTEL. I could not publish the words I have for whoever did this but I am quite sure that Karma is just around the corner for these types of tourists.

When I was successful in getting the bag, I had my sister check every nook of it to find if it was stashed with drugs. Yes drugs. I am quite aware of how a lot of Pinoys getting tricked by this so we have to take this precaution first hand. She said it was untainted, to everyone's relief.

I didn't get my sister make up (can't find any that's too steep, plus she has hypo allergic skin) so I ended up buying pasalubongs at Mannings. There I met an old woman who knew I was a Pinay just by looking. We chatted, well, most of it was her doing and learned that she lived and settled here for so many years now. She even used her cards to give me as much as 30% discount. Amazing. She also does tours, the unlikely ones mostly to submerge in the actual culture of China and HK. I think it's around 10k for a week long tour and you'd be staying in inns and apartments for the entire duration. This is only open for 20 people so in case you dear reader are interested I will gladly give you her number.

By 8 o clock we were lucky to be the first in line to get the boarding pass, which is to our surprise not on the area where the sign says we go. The entire line actually caters to it, and my mom asking made us get our passes easier. We left another Pinay who was hauling so many bags who are still finding ways how to check in all of it.

Long Champ I found you at last!

Once we got the boarding pass, we proceeded to Immigration. There is only one way after it, and it was the train to pick us up to our gates. But the boarding pass has no gates at all. Luckily we were able to ask one of the guards what to do and he said that this means that we have to wait. What we can do though is to roam around. So we took an elevator and with my handy dandy map, I was able to pinpoint the location of the Long Champ store. As I've said, we weren't able to go to Tsim Hsa Tsui and based on my research, prices here are the same on stores there. My boss had a thing for long handles so I ended up buying it anyway, although much pricier than the short handle one. It was 920 HKD.

We meet again!

When we were just about to get back, we met the woman WHO we met earlier at the boarding pass section and was clearly lost. I don't know what happened but her initial flight was cancelled and she is now on the same flight as ours. She was telling us how she was hauling so many pasalubong she can't take home (check in costs) that she thought of us first, that she's wiling to give us free pasalubongs just so someone can take it. Unfortunately we left her earlier so I think she gave that away to others instead.

Now with her, we went back to catch the train to go the gate as it was announced on the TV. We only have around 10 mins before our flight and it felt like Amazing Race. We rushed to our gates only to find out that our flight was delayed. We were able to roam around a bit, buy a snack and water before the stores closed and waited for the plane to arrive.


The scary pre-boarding stuff #1

So I was going to the cr to relieve myself when I overheard this conversation:

Dad: Tell them, tell them what you are telling me!
Son: (probably 5 or 6, speechless) coughing instead, probably cold.
Dad: (addressing the rest of the family) He was saying how he's going to heaven!!

I immediately relayed this to my sister who recalled Final Destination. We are scaring ourselves with this until I saw something much scarier.


The scary pre-boarding stuff #2

Seating at the back were a police officer and a woman, obviously a Pinay, who was hiding her face behind a handkerchief. She even have a hoodie one time and for some reasons I could not understand (literally, she, the officer and the boarding pass guy were talking in Cantonese) they kept on standing up, going at the area and returning back to the seats again. At one time they sat next to my mom.

Her story was, well, luckily my mom is also an Ilokana, she have never left the airport of HK. The girl could not exactly say the reasons for her demise, and she was firm she have no idea why is being deported. She said that she is going to meet an Auntie here but the story stops there. The woman we were with (the one with so many bags) speculated that the girl in question might have given a different story compared to what her auntie says, causing for her no passage. My mom says also that she got a glimpse of the girl's passport and it looks fake. No one have solved the mystery until the end.  But what she did next surprised me.

I was sitting at the floor, playing with my Ipad when in a quick move, when they passed around my back, I saw her mentioning me to call. The bag woman told me that in my indian seat a paper was thrown my way. It was so scary (CCTV might be anywhere) that at first I hid it in my shoes. I intend to go back to HK and this is something that even though I would like to help, just couldn't do.

In the end, in my own tongue, I said out loud that I don't have any load left. Other than that, I don't want to look like an accomplice, because clearly, the officer didn't want any of us talking to her.

When the plane boarded, she got in first.

Snap back to reality...

After not more than an hour, we have finally reached Clark Airport. It took us a long time to finish immigration (the line is hellish long and primitive). What's more is that the bus that we're supposed to take has already left and the next one to arrive will be around lunch noon. It's just 1 in the morning. With that, we had my father and sister fetch us. When they arrived, I was able to finally sleep, safe and sound on our car.