Archive for December, 2004
In Heat
The heat’s always the first thing that hits you. As soon as you step off the plane into that brief space of outdoor air between the fuselage and the airconditioned airport bridge, the sensation is not unlike that rush of air from an oven. I often joke that the Philippines’ three seasons (tag-init, tag-lamig, tag-ulan) [...]
Scenes from JFK-DXB-MNL
As some of you may know, I’m a big planefan, so air travel is often as exciting for me as the destination itself. On that note, some photos from my flight: High over the Arabian deserts, a lovely sunset. Dubai Airport mixes modern and traditional Islamic architecture, with an overall futuristikitchy effect. The First Class [...]
In Manila
As soon as I stepped off the plane into Ninoy Aquino International Airport, I was stopped by the crowd milling around an immigration counter which had run out of copies of the standard airport immigration forms. The week before Christmas. Yet another of those “only in the Philippines” moments. I eventually got through immigration, baggage, [...]
Marhaba
That was the longest long-haul flight I’ve ever taken: twelve hours. I occupied a window seat near the back of the plane, beside a large, unkempt man from Ghana with invasive elbows. Passengers were asked to keep their windows closed to the sun through most of the flight, thus denying me any view of Europe [...]
A340-500
There it is: an Airbus A340-500. It’s not evident in this light or at this angle, (not a very good phonecam) but her wingspan is huge. I got a window seat.
Eating at JFK
Eating dinner at JFK now. There’s free wireless streaming out of an airline lounge. What’s this called? Wareating?
Dulles Security Line
Line for security, Dulles Airport. Wah.
Leaving on a Jet Plane
Tonight, I head home to Manila, with two layovers of six hours each in New York and Dubai. I’m flying Emirates, on an Airbus A340-500 for the NY-Dubai leg of the trip, and an A330-200 for the Dubai-Manila leg. (Airliners.net has photos of the plane cabins I’ll be riding in for about 24 hours: A340-500, [...]
Comment Spam Attack
I’ve just been notified that my host had to disable Movable Type comments because a sudden comment spam attack of DDOS proportions was bringing down the server. That’s why the site has been slow lately, and commenters have been getting Server Error messages. I’m wondering what to do right now; this is exactly the wrong [...]
DC Baseball: Field of Reams
Why.I.Hate.DC details the essentials on Baseball in DC. Having the Nationals would be great, but I don’t think any of us in DC (with the exception of “Bowtie”) want it so much that we’ll spend $600M of our taxes on baseball, at no cost to MLB. After last night, MLB will likely pull baseball out [...]