Today I’m taking my first real trip within Asia since moving to China a year ago. Previously my trips were short weekend/evening adventures in Shanghai or work-related outings. This one is different as it’s all personal and leisure oriented!
This posts is titled appropriately as I’ll be flying out of a new airport (SHA/Shanghai Hongqiao), flying a new airline (Cathay Pacific), sitting on two new plane types (A330, A350), and entering a new country (the Philippines), not to mention this will be my first trip to Manila. Manila will be a short stay as tomorrow morning I’m hopping on another new airline for me (Cebu Pacific) to fly into another new airport (USU/Busuanga) on the way to the final destination: Coron.
Coron will be a few days spent snorkeling, diving, and enjoying some beautiful beaches and – most likely – cleaner air than what I get at home in Suzhou. I’ll post some pictures over the next coming few weeks.
The rest of this post is going to focus on getting to Manila, so if you don’t like reading about China/Asian travel adventures, no need to read any further and check back in a few days for my thoughts on the Philippines!
As I’m meeting some friends from the USA on this trip, booking airfare was a bit tricky as I wanted to arrive around the same time they did. Since I’m a status flyer on United Airlines (1K this year!) I first looked at Star Alliance partners to get me there. Choices were plentiful but only one airline (Taiwan-based EVA Air) had reasonable flight times with minimal connections but was quite pricey. ANA and Asiana wanted to route me through Osaka and Seoul, respectively, which just seemed way out of the way. Likewise Singapore Airlines wanted to route me through Singapore, which just seemed a bit crazy. After doing some searching, my choices came down to Cathay Pacific, Cebu Pacific, and Philippines Airlines. Having heard some great stuff about Cathay and not wanting to trek all the way across Shanghai to get to Pudong where Cebu Pacific flies from, I opted for a non-direct flight on Cathay out of Hongqiao. Why Hongqiao? Easy: it’s a 25 minute high-speed train ride to the airport, more or less. That’s much better than the four hours it takes to from Suzhou to Pudong airport via public transportation and much less costly than the 400rmb a private driver would charge. So Cathay and Hongqiao it is!
Being a Wednesday morning I figured the Suzhou rail station wouldn’t be too busy so I took my time getting ready and felt like I got to the subway station a bit late. It’s easy taking the subway in Suzhou to either the main Suzhou Station or the Suzhou North Station; the Suzhou Industrial Park station is accessible currently by bus and in a few more years it’ll be connected to the subway system. After exiting the subway and walking towards the South entrance where the ticket lines are usually short, my blood pressure went up when I saw the line to get train tickets was about 30 people deep for all the windows. At this point my train was departing in 30 minutes. Ugggh. (Foreigners can book train tickets in advance but need to pick them up from a ticketing agent at the station or an authorized ticket seller. Booking tickets in advance is easy through Trip.com or WeChat.)
With 7 minutes to spare I had my ticket in hand and now it was time to run to the security checkpoint, which fortunately was not backed up more than a couple of people. With 5 minutes to spare, I was inside the rail station and running to my boarding gate. Now really, do you think I’d be writing the calmly if I missed the train? Yep, I didn’t think so either. And if I did miss it, there are trains leaving every 10 minutes to get to Hongqiao so I wasn’t worried that much. But if I did miss it, I’d not likely be able to share with you what a business class seat on one of the trains looks like!
The seat is adequately comfortable in terms of padding but definitely generous with legroom and privacy. With only six seats in this portion of the train and it being located at the front it felt very similar to being in the nose of a 747 or even the upstairs cabin of that plane. The only difference is that apart from a box of prepackaged cookies and some weird lemonade like drink there was no service to speak of – not that I was expecting any service! The business class seat does recline into a nice flatbed position so it could be ideal for taking long trips or even overnight ones, but it’ll likely cost a small fortune. For example, this trip cost 120rmb if I remember correctly, the same price as dinner and a beer at any of the expat restaurants in Suzhou.
Anyway, enough about that seat. The ride was comfortable and since we had a stop in Kunshan South, we never quite made it up to the top speed of 300km/hr. So sad!
Arriving at the Hongqiao rail station I easily found my way walking towards the airport. As there were signs pointing to Terminal 2 I followed them thinking I could walk from there to Terminal 1; no dice! There wasn’t really an airport map and both Google Maps and Baidu Maps were of no help. I found a nice lady at an information booth and asked her “Terminal 1?” to which she replied with only a quizzical look. Could this be the first time in China someone actually expected me to speak Chinese?! Alas, no. Her pause and interestingly furrowed brow was for trying to remember the English word for 地铁: subway, which is one of the words I understand! 我知道地铁！ I thanked her and made my way towards Shanghai Subway Line 10.
Richie’s Travel Tip of the Day #1: Always check which terminal you’re flying out of ahead of time if departing from Shanghai Hongqiao. If it’s T2, you can walk from the rail station no problem. If it’s T1, best hop on the subway at the first possible location. T2 is also accessible via subway if you’re not inclined to burning off a few calories.
T1 is only one stop away so I didn’t lose much time. And fortunately I always have my Shanghai Metro card on me so I didn’t need to queue up and buy a ticket.
Richie’s Travel Tip of the Day #2: Always buy a refillable metro card (for the subway or bus) for various cities when you visit them. You never know when you’ll be back for a visit and why would you want to wait in lines to buy tickets or even carry exact change?! Also keep those cards in a travel wallet. You do have one of those, right? You know, the kind that holds your passport, airline loyalty cards and drink certificates, emergency phone numbers, and city subway cards.
When arriving at the T1 subway stop I quickly learned that Exit #1 is also the exit for accessing T1. Finally, someone was thinking ahead! It also became obvious that T1 is in need of a good modernization upgrade as it felt built and stuck in the 1980s, at least the pre-security section felt that way.
When using airports in China it’s always weird for how many security lines you go through. Even before getting to the check-in counter your bags are x-rayed and sometimes swabbed for various chemicals. At this checkpoint you also get to go through a metal detector. After checking your bags and obtaining your boarding pass you pass through a health/quarantine checkpoint, customs checkpoint, immigration control, and finally another round of bag x-raying and metal detector. Oh, have I forgotten to mention how you’ll get wanded and patted down even if you don’t set off any of the metal detectors? More frequently than not the person who’s wanding and patting you down gets a bit too friendly and personal. It’s one of my favorite parts of the journey! **Eyes rolling**
One really nice thing about the airport security at Hongqiao T1 is the VERY short line I encountered for the immigration processing. There were maybe 5 people ahead of me. I was able to breeze on through in just about 5 minutes. There is E-Channel available but as I just got me resident permit renewed I need to sign up for it again next time I land at Pudong – which will be this coming Sunday.
Before talking about more of my airport experience, I do have to say how nice it was to be handed a paper boarding pass printed on heavy card stock and be given a jacket for the tickets! I’ve not seen those in at least 8 years. The ticket jacket I was handed has on the inside instructions for transiting once landing at Hong Kong International Airport, which I felt was a really nice touch. Well done, Cathay, well done indeed!
With about an hour to spare I made my way to a rather unforgettable business class lounge to grab a bite to eat before boarding. So far my experiences in China with airport lounges is rather … forgettable. There are usually hot and cold dishes available, but everything seems to be the same shade of beige or brown, is heavy on the oily sauces, and generally not terribly tasty. Oh well, it was free so I’m not going to complain *too* much.
I left the lounge a bit early to go and explore T1 a bit, but there wasn’t much to see. Taking a few laps around the terminal hall, I found a seat to sit in for a few minutes before it was time to board.
This being my first flight on Cathay Pacific I wanted to sit in business class to experience the airline at it’s best, and Cathay did not disappoint! My first flight was on an A330 “Cathay Dragon” which, I guess, is a bit of a low-cost airline connected with the main Cathay Pacific airline. But trust me, there was nothing low-cost about this flight! From the cozy angle-flat seat to the full meal service (appetizer, main dish, dessert) to the Tattinger champagne that was served, I was quite happy! Oh, and the flight was just over two hours in length to Hong Kong where I had a connection.
I’ve been to the new Hong Kong airport once before and sad that I never made it to the old airport before it closed in 1994. Why’s that? Well, let’s just say the old airport made for some interesting landings!
The last time I was in the Hong Kong airport it was on a trip from the USA to Singapore. That time I was flying United and quite enjoyed their airport lounge. This time I opted to use one of Cathay’s Lounges called The Pier. Ho-lee-cow was that place nice! Apart from the main food hall there was a barista making espresso drinks, a noodle shop, a tea house, lots of seating everywhere, a full bar, and even showers if needed. This place was huge, well decorated, and definitely lived up to it’s reputation as one of the best airport lounges around. I only had time for a glass of champagne (Mumm this time) and a small helping of Thai green curry chicken before it was time to board my next flight. Next time I find myself in this lounge I’m hitting up that noodle shop! Sadly I didn’t take any pictures, but will try and remember for my connection on the way home.
With my next flight boarding soon I headed out of the lounge and to the gate. Sitting outside was an A350-900, a new-ish plane from AirBus. Never been on this one before so I was excited to try it out. My seat, 16K, was in business class and it was a bit of overkill for a two hour flight, being a completely lay-flat seat and all – but I didn’t mind!
One really neat thing about this plane is that it has two live cameras you can watch throughout the flight, one is on the bottom of the plane and the other on the top.
The service and food we’re top-notch as now expected from Cathay so I won’t bore you with any write-ups about it. And with the quick hop from HKG to MNL we we’re landing before I knew it.
I’ve heard the MNL airport is a zoo, but I didn’t have that experience at all. Disembarking the plane and entering the immigration hall was a breeze, especially as Cathay’s flight attendants held back the economy passengers until the business class ones were off the plane and no one was in the queue to get passports stamped.
On my way to the Hongqiao airport I realized I never checked to see if I needed a travel visa for the Philippines and started to freak out a bit. Fortunately after a quick search online I learned I don’t need one in advance thanks to my citizenship.
Richie’s Travel Tip of the Day #3: Always check visa requirements for your travel when booking your plane or sea travel fares. Even better, do it in advance in case you actually need one!
Now that I’m through customs and immigration, it’s time to head to the hotel, meet my friends, and get some sleep as tomorrow starts another day of firsts as I’m flying on Cebu Pacific to get from MNL to USU (Busuanga) and then hop in a car to my final destination of Coron. And don’t worry, I’m not even attempting to drive here! The drivers are just as crazy as the mainland Chinese drivers I’m used to!