NAIA I

My Ateng took the last flight in from HKG on CX. She vowed never to fly CX again because the trip took most of a day with a required stop in HKG and because Chep Lap Kok was so so huge. CX from SFO disembarked at Gate 1 then they were told to wait for the MNL leg at Gate 20 then moved later to Gate 3...it was a virtual work-out. She really thanks the inventors of wheeled carry-ons.

While waiting for her at the airport driveway (more on this later), my Mom and I noticed the hordes (literally) of Koreans descending from a late flight from either Seoul or Busan. We ranked as the second biggest destination for Koreans, second only to Hong Kong. What's more significant is that the difference between the two countries was only 5,000 guests -- something like 17 more B-777 or B-747 planeloads in a year. Kudos to Ace Durano.

As for the arrival, we were waiting long at the airport driveway but didn't see Ateng so we drove to the "Customer is King" Caltex station to kill time. Yay called us to say that Ateng had apparently been waiting at the upper lobby and was refusing to come down. Ateng said that we didn't discuss the exact waiting arrangements and in fact, was arguing with the porters about it. We had to talk her down the lower driveway. She hasn't been home too long. Funny.