HONG KONG – A side story as exciting as the main headliner of our trip here – the road show of the Clark International Airport Corp. for overseas Filipino workers and a separate one for travel agents and the media – is the adventure of the Philippine Star’s Ding Cervantes.
Last time he was here, Ding reckons, was immediately prior to the hand-over in 1997. Yes, before the Union Jack was lowered from its mast of over a hundred years to signal the final setting of the sun on the British Empire.
“Unfriendly, even hostile to the tourist,” Ding commented upon setting foot at Hong Kong’s spanking but labyrinthine Chep Lap Kok International Airport. Why, even the local tourist guide that welcomed the Clark delegation that included CIAC Chair Nestor Mangio got lost in finding the bus bay where we were supposed to be picked up, our walking to and fro, climbing up and down escalators and elevators, grated as much on Ding’s nerves as on his knees and ankles.
The forty-five-minute drive from the airport to Hotel Jen on the Hong Kong side made Ding pine for old Kai Tak airport: “At least, it was right in the center of the action.” Notwithstanding the degree of difficulty landing and taking off Kai Tak posed on the pilots, having to navigate through and over skyscrapers.
Hotel Jen’s 28th Floor lounge with a fine view of the harbor and welcome drinks and assorted Chinese pica-pica calmed Ding, settling for the night so serenely in our so immaculate executive room on the 20th Floor.
Waking up early Sunday, August 30, religious Ding had to have his fill of the Lord. This, he did with a Mass at the Bayanihan Center in Kennedy Town, some five kilometers from our hotel. A most enriching spiritual experience there in the company of over a hundred Filipina workers in the former crown colony. Their devotion to the Faith was enough to convert an atheist.
Ding was in his element holding tete-a-tete, rather than interviews, with our sisters. I wonder when he will write his feature on this trip.
With the keen sense of discovery of a Boy Scout, Ding prevailed upon us – CIAC’s Arnel San Pedro and Jojo Due, plus me – to walk back to the hotel, reveling in the discovery of both the strange and familiar – a hole-in-the-wall eatery serving mouth-watering fried Peking duck, honeycured pork, and some such other dishes we could only hope to know by taste.
Back to Bayanihan Center after lunch where the road show presided over by CIAC President and CEO Chichos Luciano was mobbed by an SRO-crowd of cheering OFWs. With the help of Cebu Pacific raffling off HK-Clark-HK tickets, complemented by a three-day-two-night stay in Subic, courtesy of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority. Ceb-Pac too flew the Clark delegation for free for this road show, its marketing maven Blessie Cruz…er, marketing well the airline to the OFWs. I guess I have to leave this part to Ding’s news, along with the product presentation before Hong Kong’s travel agents and media at the towering Langham Place Hotel in Mongkok.
Mongkok, ah, sweet Mongkok, where Ding found his slice of Paradise. Notwithstanding the humidity that soaked his long-sleeved shirt in sweat on the first night we were there via MTR, Hong Kong’s very efficient, very clean, very cool metrorail.
A bargain hunter’s own Eden is the Mongkok night market. And Ding could not be restrained, spending what could be a small fortune on just about anything that caught his fancy: shirts and dresses for the nephews and nieces, a remote-controlled toy chopper, fans and shirt for friends, a stylish canvas shoulder bag.
But Ding’s best buy, by his own account, is a black aluminum retractable cane: “Only HK$30, that’s P180+. A poor imitation sells for over a thousand pesos at SM.”
More than the price, it is the image the cane conjures that could have taken Ding in. It made Ding looked not the least infirm in need of a third leg but every bit the caballero, the haciendero, nay, the goberndorcillo of yore. There was some Old World elegance that cane brought about Ding.
And he sensed it too saying to everyone he would have a total image makeover. His once defining accessory of a belt bag – that made him looked more jueteng kubrador than top-notch journalist – giving way to the elegant cane.
And he started getting used to it in all our “walks”, at one time even saving him from harm: he stumbled on a curb trying to help senior journalist Fred Roxas cross a street, his cane restoring his balance.
Ah how that cane made Ding happy, ever snug by his side even while we were feasting on platefuls of scallops in oyster sauce, deep fried bamboo fish in some sauce, local pechay cooked in garlic at the Mongkok food stalls.
“My most prized find, in this trip,” Ding held his cane aloft on the ferry, making like Moses paring the Red Sea with his staff, as we crossed the Hong Kong Harbor from a photo shoot and Giordano shopping in Kowloon.
Ah, how gentlemanly elegance would that cane make of Ding once he got back to his daily excursions at SM City Clark. A total makeover indeed.
All for naught now, alas.
At Chep Lap Kok, by the check-in counter of Cebu Pacific, Ding was frantically searching his bags. Yes, all the pasalubongs were there, neatly packed. All, except for the cane.
“Maybe somebody would find a more utilitarian need for it, other than its being mere accessory to me.” Philosophical went Ding, stuck with his old, reliable, beltbag. Until the next trip to Hong Kong, perhaps.
Last time he was here, Ding reckons, was immediately prior to the hand-over in 1997. Yes, before the Union Jack was lowered from its mast of over a hundred years to signal the final setting of the sun on the British Empire.
“Unfriendly, even hostile to the tourist,” Ding commented upon setting foot at Hong Kong’s spanking but labyrinthine Chep Lap Kok International Airport. Why, even the local tourist guide that welcomed the Clark delegation that included CIAC Chair Nestor Mangio got lost in finding the bus bay where we were supposed to be picked up, our walking to and fro, climbing up and down escalators and elevators, grated as much on Ding’s nerves as on his knees and ankles.
The forty-five-minute drive from the airport to Hotel Jen on the Hong Kong side made Ding pine for old Kai Tak airport: “At least, it was right in the center of the action.” Notwithstanding the degree of difficulty landing and taking off Kai Tak posed on the pilots, having to navigate through and over skyscrapers.
Hotel Jen’s 28th Floor lounge with a fine view of the harbor and welcome drinks and assorted Chinese pica-pica calmed Ding, settling for the night so serenely in our so immaculate executive room on the 20th Floor.
Waking up early Sunday, August 30, religious Ding had to have his fill of the Lord. This, he did with a Mass at the Bayanihan Center in Kennedy Town, some five kilometers from our hotel. A most enriching spiritual experience there in the company of over a hundred Filipina workers in the former crown colony. Their devotion to the Faith was enough to convert an atheist.
Ding was in his element holding tete-a-tete, rather than interviews, with our sisters. I wonder when he will write his feature on this trip.
With the keen sense of discovery of a Boy Scout, Ding prevailed upon us – CIAC’s Arnel San Pedro and Jojo Due, plus me – to walk back to the hotel, reveling in the discovery of both the strange and familiar – a hole-in-the-wall eatery serving mouth-watering fried Peking duck, honeycured pork, and some such other dishes we could only hope to know by taste.
Back to Bayanihan Center after lunch where the road show presided over by CIAC President and CEO Chichos Luciano was mobbed by an SRO-crowd of cheering OFWs. With the help of Cebu Pacific raffling off HK-Clark-HK tickets, complemented by a three-day-two-night stay in Subic, courtesy of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority. Ceb-Pac too flew the Clark delegation for free for this road show, its marketing maven Blessie Cruz…er, marketing well the airline to the OFWs. I guess I have to leave this part to Ding’s news, along with the product presentation before Hong Kong’s travel agents and media at the towering Langham Place Hotel in Mongkok.
Mongkok, ah, sweet Mongkok, where Ding found his slice of Paradise. Notwithstanding the humidity that soaked his long-sleeved shirt in sweat on the first night we were there via MTR, Hong Kong’s very efficient, very clean, very cool metrorail.
A bargain hunter’s own Eden is the Mongkok night market. And Ding could not be restrained, spending what could be a small fortune on just about anything that caught his fancy: shirts and dresses for the nephews and nieces, a remote-controlled toy chopper, fans and shirt for friends, a stylish canvas shoulder bag.
But Ding’s best buy, by his own account, is a black aluminum retractable cane: “Only HK$30, that’s P180+. A poor imitation sells for over a thousand pesos at SM.”
More than the price, it is the image the cane conjures that could have taken Ding in. It made Ding looked not the least infirm in need of a third leg but every bit the caballero, the haciendero, nay, the goberndorcillo of yore. There was some Old World elegance that cane brought about Ding.
And he sensed it too saying to everyone he would have a total image makeover. His once defining accessory of a belt bag – that made him looked more jueteng kubrador than top-notch journalist – giving way to the elegant cane.
And he started getting used to it in all our “walks”, at one time even saving him from harm: he stumbled on a curb trying to help senior journalist Fred Roxas cross a street, his cane restoring his balance.
Ah how that cane made Ding happy, ever snug by his side even while we were feasting on platefuls of scallops in oyster sauce, deep fried bamboo fish in some sauce, local pechay cooked in garlic at the Mongkok food stalls.
“My most prized find, in this trip,” Ding held his cane aloft on the ferry, making like Moses paring the Red Sea with his staff, as we crossed the Hong Kong Harbor from a photo shoot and Giordano shopping in Kowloon.
Ah, how gentlemanly elegance would that cane make of Ding once he got back to his daily excursions at SM City Clark. A total makeover indeed.
All for naught now, alas.
At Chep Lap Kok, by the check-in counter of Cebu Pacific, Ding was frantically searching his bags. Yes, all the pasalubongs were there, neatly packed. All, except for the cane.
“Maybe somebody would find a more utilitarian need for it, other than its being mere accessory to me.” Philosophical went Ding, stuck with his old, reliable, beltbag. Until the next trip to Hong Kong, perhaps.
