Friday, November 9, 2007
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Travel to Hong Kong
After three years of absence, I am now back in Asia, in the magnificent but very humid and crowded Hong Kong. I left Winnipeg on a nice, sunny perfect day.
This was the view from my airplane window as it taxis into the runway preparing for take off. It was a perfect day for flying, virtually a cloudless day in the prairies.
This is Winnipeg's airport from the my plane. I am thankful they're building a new terminal for Winnipeg's small, derelict and obsolete terminal. We just need one to be more competitive with other Canadian cities!
And off we go for takeoff!
Seeing the prairies in the air is just like seeing a huge jigsaw puzzle. With never-ending fields of wheat and canola, this is how it looks like in the air.
I was also able to see the province's largest lake and boy was it big!
Reaching crusing altitude at nightfall, this is what I saw:
Three hours later, we were descending into the suburbs of greater Vancouver and finally landed into the city.
We then went to a Indo-Malaysian fusion restaurant were I had a treat of their excellent cooking style. I dined with my friend Maro and my adviser. I really liked it! Thanks Maro for suggesting.
I was supposed to take my flight to Hong Kong at 2:00am. But because of some delays in the incoming aircraft (the plane is coming from New York), departure time was moved an hour later. I was soo pissed as I was already sleepy and my biological clock is already on its way to being really screwed.
The flight departed at 4:00am. It is a B-747 plane with a huge wingspan like this:
After 11 hours of flight, the skyscrapers of Hong Kong began to appear, albeit covered in thick haze.
It turns out that the new Hong Kong airport is way way outside the city centre's outskirt. En route to landing, we passed a lot of islands.
Touching done in Hong Kong airport, I noticed that there's a huge haze problem enveloping the city. It might be because of the pollution problem that Hong Kong has or probably brought about by the rise of many industrial factories in southern China.
Hong Kong's airport which opened during the year it was handed over by Britain to China in 1997, is a huge and modern building that could take hours to navigate. It has a characteristic design on its façade which has been used as an identifying feature of the airport's architectural design.
Thanks to moving walkways, passenger navigation of the airport is made easier. The first thing I noticed and indicated to me that I am in Hong Kong is the presence of Cantonese all around as well as the bilingual signs. If we have bilingual English and French in Canada, it is bilingual Cantonese and Chinese in Hong Kong.
They even give free bus rides to hotels, albeit in their minibuses.
And boy was it soo hot! I was sweating all over, legs, torso, head, face everywhere! It is just like a warm blanket being wrapped around you. Finding a vending machine is a relief indeed. It was also a relief to see that prices are moderate if not lower!
And a bottled water only costs HKD 6 or less than a dollar Canadian.
Another thing I noticed is the different set of electronic socket they got that prevents me from using my computer:
This was the view from my airplane window as it taxis into the runway preparing for take off. It was a perfect day for flying, virtually a cloudless day in the prairies.
This is Winnipeg's airport from the my plane. I am thankful they're building a new terminal for Winnipeg's small, derelict and obsolete terminal. We just need one to be more competitive with other Canadian cities!And off we go for takeoff!
Seeing the prairies in the air is just like seeing a huge jigsaw puzzle. With never-ending fields of wheat and canola, this is how it looks like in the air.
I was also able to see the province's largest lake and boy was it big!
Reaching crusing altitude at nightfall, this is what I saw:
Three hours later, we were descending into the suburbs of greater Vancouver and finally landed into the city.
We then went to a Indo-Malaysian fusion restaurant were I had a treat of their excellent cooking style. I dined with my friend Maro and my adviser. I really liked it! Thanks Maro for suggesting.
I was supposed to take my flight to Hong Kong at 2:00am. But because of some delays in the incoming aircraft (the plane is coming from New York), departure time was moved an hour later. I was soo pissed as I was already sleepy and my biological clock is already on its way to being really screwed.
The flight departed at 4:00am. It is a B-747 plane with a huge wingspan like this:
After 11 hours of flight, the skyscrapers of Hong Kong began to appear, albeit covered in thick haze.
It turns out that the new Hong Kong airport is way way outside the city centre's outskirt. En route to landing, we passed a lot of islands.
Touching done in Hong Kong airport, I noticed that there's a huge haze problem enveloping the city. It might be because of the pollution problem that Hong Kong has or probably brought about by the rise of many industrial factories in southern China.
Hong Kong's airport which opened during the year it was handed over by Britain to China in 1997, is a huge and modern building that could take hours to navigate. It has a characteristic design on its façade which has been used as an identifying feature of the airport's architectural design.
Thanks to moving walkways, passenger navigation of the airport is made easier. The first thing I noticed and indicated to me that I am in Hong Kong is the presence of Cantonese all around as well as the bilingual signs. If we have bilingual English and French in Canada, it is bilingual Cantonese and Chinese in Hong Kong.
They even give free bus rides to hotels, albeit in their minibuses.
And boy was it soo hot! I was sweating all over, legs, torso, head, face everywhere! It is just like a warm blanket being wrapped around you. Finding a vending machine is a relief indeed. It was also a relief to see that prices are moderate if not lower!
And a bottled water only costs HKD 6 or less than a dollar Canadian.
Another thing I noticed is the different set of electronic socket they got that prevents me from using my computer:
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Hong Kong
I will be embarking on my first journey to Asia in three years tomorrow, to present a paper in Hong Kong and to visit the Philippines to catch on some vacation. I will surely post impressions of my visit as time and internet availability allows.
Where am I now?
So where am I actually now? I have not updated my blog for quite some time and feel some guilt about it. Because of my non-motivation to write an entry, I cannot actually document the events that happened during my last few days in Europe and in Switzerland. I'll attempt to do a recap of the events I did up to the run-up of my departure.
I actually attempted to visit a relative and see the Eiffel tower in Paris as well. But since I hold a third-world passport, I need to undergo the painstaking process of obtaining a French Schengen visa which requires a lot of strategic planning, with fortitude, patience, and a thick skin built in. Since the Dutch consul at the Netherlands Embassy was not generous and did not trust me enough to grant a multiple entry or at least a double entry visa, I embarked myself on a French visa application at their consulate about 5 tram stops away from my place in Geneva.
Getting into the consulate to apply for a visa was not as easy as walking into a grocery store. You actually need to call a designated premium phone line costing 7.50 CHF/call which apparently only works on landline phones. The stupid me, being naive and unaware of this guideline, ended up loading my mobile with 10 CHF of fresh Swisscom value card to book an appointment. Never did I know that I will be charged liked I think 1.50 CHF/minute and not the regular 7.50/call. The end result, I got my load used up in just under 10 minutes without actually accomplishing what I want and being ripped off my money.
Still having my perseverance, I tried with the best of my abilities to secure an appointment by telephone with the French embassy. Good thing a Russian colleague of mine is there to lend me his cellphone. With that, I was able to book an appointment which unfortunately is scheduled in two weeks time, meaning I will spend a lot of idle periods doing nothing in Geneva.
Two weeks fast forward, I came to the French consulate but was not allowed to get in. Why? I have all of the pertinent papers on hand but one thing is missing. Since my status in Switzerland has already expired as my internship has already ended, that means that I cannot according to them, apply for a visa in their consulate in Geneva and need to do so in Toronto. Of course, I argued my status of being a permanent resident of Canada but unfortunately, because of my poor French language skills and vice versa (their poor English language skills), nothing constructive transpired.
So with that, I went back to my place really disappointed and called my relative to inform them of the unfortunate outcome of my application. I tried to plan my next move, that is to look for other European Schengen consulates whom I could submit my application such as Italy. So I went there and surprisingly enough, they accepted my application but then referred it back to the French consulate in Geneva. At least they did the explanations themselves and I do not need to worry about being able to communicate in French to express the things I wanted to say.
Fast-forward... my application is now being processed by the French consulate, funny isn't it. Before the interview process, I was really scared, uncomfortable and not confident especially with my substandard French language oral expression skills. I went in to the interview, with the full hope that I could be issued a visa right away as I was already issued one by the Dutch authorities and another set of background check is no longer necessary with my name and all the necessary details on their file. I was wrong! Because of my nationality, it was even more complicated as they need to re-run the background check which takes in our nationality's case 2 weeks and then ask for permission from both the Toronto and Manila consulates which I discovered they only did via regular email. That means, French consular offices are still not served by a centralized database wherein they can check if someone is visa shopping in their various diplomatic posts around the globe.
Since I was originally scheduled to depart Switzerland by the 21st Jul, then another thing comes into mind. Counting the number of days of processing, the visa is supposed to be issued the 20th which leaves me less than a day to use the visa and go see visit my relatives in Paris. It was terribly hard to get a flight from Zurich to Toronto re-booked during that time as everyone was already on vacation mode with Swiss people taking their turns to buy tickets and fly to Canada.
So, my next problem was to rebook the flight. Up until the last moment, I have been calling Air Canada to have my flight re-booked and boy was I lucky to get one a day before my scheduled flight. I was all packed and set up actually but was really glad to have my flight adjusted at the last moment.
That being said, with all the drama and highs and lows, I am going to make a shortcut with this blog entry. I might be lucky if you guys are still reading until this portion as I do not expect everyone to be interested with my long overdue story that does not even affect other people but only me. I was able to have a whirlwind journey in Italy where I visited my high school classmate's parents and family. I was surprised by the flourishing number of Filipinos in Italy, they were even able to fill up churches during Sunday masses. I was also able to accomplish my mission of visiting my relatives who I haven't seen for more than 15 years. It was great to see them once again although they requested if I could repeat such visits in the future as the day we have spent together was not even enough for us to even have a barbecue to chat and re-get to know each other.
My last day in Switzerland was actually a hectic but very memorable one. We started the day visiting the rich town of Zug where we got the chance to buy some chocolates for folks back home and be amazed by the architecture of its relatively new train station. The Swiss really invests a lot in their impressive public transit architecture and the station is really futuristic in its design and outlook. Afterwhich, I fulfilled my task of being able to try swimming in a Swiss lake before I leave the country as we spent some time swimming in one of Switzerland's impressive lakes. And finally, before the nightfall, we were able to cross the Rhine to have the last dinner in Germany.
The next day was departure day, I woke up on time and was on the airport just on time. However, because of inefficiencies with check in and lots of documentary requirements to be presented by some passengers, I nearly got panicky with being able to board the plane on time. I was not even able to bid farewell really well to my friend and that was really a pity, a pity indeed. I hope it would not be like that next time around.
I had a great time in Switzerland. Of course, everyday was not always the day I wanted it to be but it is part of getting to know the country. I realized a lot of things which helped me a lot to be somewhat mature. It was hard to get to know Swiss people because of the language barrier as well as my introverted personality but I see it as a part of the process of getting to know the country. It was not that easy but I hope my experiences will serve as a guide to lead me to be a better more matured persons ready to face challenges to come my way.
I actually attempted to visit a relative and see the Eiffel tower in Paris as well. But since I hold a third-world passport, I need to undergo the painstaking process of obtaining a French Schengen visa which requires a lot of strategic planning, with fortitude, patience, and a thick skin built in. Since the Dutch consul at the Netherlands Embassy was not generous and did not trust me enough to grant a multiple entry or at least a double entry visa, I embarked myself on a French visa application at their consulate about 5 tram stops away from my place in Geneva.
Getting into the consulate to apply for a visa was not as easy as walking into a grocery store. You actually need to call a designated premium phone line costing 7.50 CHF/call which apparently only works on landline phones. The stupid me, being naive and unaware of this guideline, ended up loading my mobile with 10 CHF of fresh Swisscom value card to book an appointment. Never did I know that I will be charged liked I think 1.50 CHF/minute and not the regular 7.50/call. The end result, I got my load used up in just under 10 minutes without actually accomplishing what I want and being ripped off my money.
Still having my perseverance, I tried with the best of my abilities to secure an appointment by telephone with the French embassy. Good thing a Russian colleague of mine is there to lend me his cellphone. With that, I was able to book an appointment which unfortunately is scheduled in two weeks time, meaning I will spend a lot of idle periods doing nothing in Geneva.
Two weeks fast forward, I came to the French consulate but was not allowed to get in. Why? I have all of the pertinent papers on hand but one thing is missing. Since my status in Switzerland has already expired as my internship has already ended, that means that I cannot according to them, apply for a visa in their consulate in Geneva and need to do so in Toronto. Of course, I argued my status of being a permanent resident of Canada but unfortunately, because of my poor French language skills and vice versa (their poor English language skills), nothing constructive transpired.
So with that, I went back to my place really disappointed and called my relative to inform them of the unfortunate outcome of my application. I tried to plan my next move, that is to look for other European Schengen consulates whom I could submit my application such as Italy. So I went there and surprisingly enough, they accepted my application but then referred it back to the French consulate in Geneva. At least they did the explanations themselves and I do not need to worry about being able to communicate in French to express the things I wanted to say.
Fast-forward... my application is now being processed by the French consulate, funny isn't it. Before the interview process, I was really scared, uncomfortable and not confident especially with my substandard French language oral expression skills. I went in to the interview, with the full hope that I could be issued a visa right away as I was already issued one by the Dutch authorities and another set of background check is no longer necessary with my name and all the necessary details on their file. I was wrong! Because of my nationality, it was even more complicated as they need to re-run the background check which takes in our nationality's case 2 weeks and then ask for permission from both the Toronto and Manila consulates which I discovered they only did via regular email. That means, French consular offices are still not served by a centralized database wherein they can check if someone is visa shopping in their various diplomatic posts around the globe.
Since I was originally scheduled to depart Switzerland by the 21st Jul, then another thing comes into mind. Counting the number of days of processing, the visa is supposed to be issued the 20th which leaves me less than a day to use the visa and go see visit my relatives in Paris. It was terribly hard to get a flight from Zurich to Toronto re-booked during that time as everyone was already on vacation mode with Swiss people taking their turns to buy tickets and fly to Canada.
So, my next problem was to rebook the flight. Up until the last moment, I have been calling Air Canada to have my flight re-booked and boy was I lucky to get one a day before my scheduled flight. I was all packed and set up actually but was really glad to have my flight adjusted at the last moment.
That being said, with all the drama and highs and lows, I am going to make a shortcut with this blog entry. I might be lucky if you guys are still reading until this portion as I do not expect everyone to be interested with my long overdue story that does not even affect other people but only me. I was able to have a whirlwind journey in Italy where I visited my high school classmate's parents and family. I was surprised by the flourishing number of Filipinos in Italy, they were even able to fill up churches during Sunday masses. I was also able to accomplish my mission of visiting my relatives who I haven't seen for more than 15 years. It was great to see them once again although they requested if I could repeat such visits in the future as the day we have spent together was not even enough for us to even have a barbecue to chat and re-get to know each other.
My last day in Switzerland was actually a hectic but very memorable one. We started the day visiting the rich town of Zug where we got the chance to buy some chocolates for folks back home and be amazed by the architecture of its relatively new train station. The Swiss really invests a lot in their impressive public transit architecture and the station is really futuristic in its design and outlook. Afterwhich, I fulfilled my task of being able to try swimming in a Swiss lake before I leave the country as we spent some time swimming in one of Switzerland's impressive lakes. And finally, before the nightfall, we were able to cross the Rhine to have the last dinner in Germany.
The next day was departure day, I woke up on time and was on the airport just on time. However, because of inefficiencies with check in and lots of documentary requirements to be presented by some passengers, I nearly got panicky with being able to board the plane on time. I was not even able to bid farewell really well to my friend and that was really a pity, a pity indeed. I hope it would not be like that next time around.
I had a great time in Switzerland. Of course, everyday was not always the day I wanted it to be but it is part of getting to know the country. I realized a lot of things which helped me a lot to be somewhat mature. It was hard to get to know Swiss people because of the language barrier as well as my introverted personality but I see it as a part of the process of getting to know the country. It was not that easy but I hope my experiences will serve as a guide to lead me to be a better more matured persons ready to face challenges to come my way.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Monday, June 4, 2007
Destinations where my green passport would go an extra mile
Visa free destinations for Philippine passport holders:
ASEAN-countries
ASEAN-countries
- Brunei
- Cambodia
- Indonesia
- Laos
- Malaysia
- Myanmar
- Singapore
- Thailand
- Vietnam
- Hong Kong
- Macau
- Turkey
- Maldives
- Palau islands
- Fiji
- Israel
- Morrocco
- Seychelles
- Brazil
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Final days at work
As my Swiss clock nearly reaches its alarm, I took the time and effort to have lunch with some people in my place of work. It's the time to dream and be a 'social climber' with your stiff upper lip and pretend to be rich and luxurious for a while while you rub elbows with suit-clad, bulova-sporting, charles jourdan-clothed future diplomats, politicians and civil servants. Table manners is a thing that needs to be watched as people in international organizations are supposed to be 'refined' and 'highly cultured.' Don't get me wrong, they're really nice.
No packed lunch this time for me as it would be very 'un-posh.' Instead, I opted for the vegetarian meal for CHF 8.50.
I actually hate basking in the sun. I do not need to tan as I am already naturally tanned.
We had a picture of the group after the meal.
No packed lunch this time for me as it would be very 'un-posh.' Instead, I opted for the vegetarian meal for CHF 8.50.
I actually hate basking in the sun. I do not need to tan as I am already naturally tanned.
We had a picture of the group after the meal.Looking by the place where we had dinner, I took a shot of the portion of ILO's building which looked like a 1960s communist-style hotel.
It is a common tradition in the ILO to have coffee after lunch. There are no bandiclocks or timers set to guard people of their time. Actually, some people take 2-hr lunches, with most of the time spend sipping coffee and flaunting the latest fashion or telling stories about their wonderful weekend in the Swiss chalet or Monaco, or Cote d'Azur. Being part of the system already, why not have a two-hour lunch for myself as well??? It's just fair isn't it?
After that, it was time to work for my trilingual Russian boss who speaks fluent English, French and Spanish plus his native tongue, Russian. I started teaching him Tagalog as well.
Night-time, I was able to see Genevans.
This is Karim, my foyermate who has spent a year in Vancouver studying English. I helped him in his English interview and application with P&G and was really happy to have got a job with the company. As a result, we are going to fete him a dinner for his success. Prior to that, he worked as a model in a Swiss modelling firm (I'll be dead tomorrow for sure :)).
We went on top of a hill where you could see the entire city-scape. Alas, it was raining cats and dogs with thunder and lightning and was not able to have a good view. Nonetheless, we just took the opportunity to take some pictures on top.
After that, it was time to work for my trilingual Russian boss who speaks fluent English, French and Spanish plus his native tongue, Russian. I started teaching him Tagalog as well.
Night-time, I was able to see Genevans.
This is Karim, my foyermate who has spent a year in Vancouver studying English. I helped him in his English interview and application with P&G and was really happy to have got a job with the company. As a result, we are going to fete him a dinner for his success. Prior to that, he worked as a model in a Swiss modelling firm (I'll be dead tomorrow for sure :)).
We went on top of a hill where you could see the entire city-scape. Alas, it was raining cats and dogs with thunder and lightning and was not able to have a good view. Nonetheless, we just took the opportunity to take some pictures on top.
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