travel lounge, Noi Bai airport, Hanoi

Saint Petersburg (Pulkovo) Airport, Russia

Didn't expect much from the hot trays of this travel lounge, but the chicken drumsticks made me take one more.  Perhaps I have missed for so long what a chicken is supposed to have tasted.  Got some nice pickled too and grab the last chance to try a Borsch.

Watching the street scene, at Terminal 4, Chang I Airport Singapore

That's something very creative in this terminal 4 departure hall.  There are some motion audio visual images on the middle 4 rooms of the top floor and 2nd floors.  Such a good way to show how this city was in the 60's and 70's.

Terminal 4, Chang I Airport, Singapore

Chang I Airport was once left behind to the 2nd or 5th ranking of the Best Airport in the mid '00s to early '00's.  As when they renovated the various terminals and further improved their immigration and luggage facilities, it's not difficult for them to gain back its no. 1 ranking in the recent few years.  Almost every time, I don't need to wait for over 1 minute to clear through the immigration and the luggage delivered to the belt within a few minutes.  This time as I tried their new terminal 4, finally they have separated the departure and arrival areas.  Also, this new terminal has also improved a lot for their higher ceiling and cozy ambience.  When a strong government works without too much unnecessary noise, this is what simply we call efficiency.

Zurich Airport, Switzerland

Serendiva transit hotel, Colombo Airport, Sri Lanka

Witnessed the changes of this airport transit hotel over the past 3 years.  The rooms were quite run down with a very thin bed sheet as a quilt, worn blanket and poor air-conditioning.  Gradually this hotel has been expanding to take over the next door spa and having more newer rooms.  The hotel reception has also become more professional and efficient.  The advantage of staying at this transit hotel is that you don't bother with going in and out of the airport.  That would have cost you 1 to 1.5 hours extra.  So if you pay US$80 for a 7 hour stay.  It's a good alternate choice, and that you can fly in Maldives in early morning around 8-9am.  If you fly in Maldive in night time, you still have to find an overnight hotel stay near Male Airport.  This way you just switch this overnight stay to Colombo airport.

Okadama Airport (丘珠空港), Sapporo, Hokkaido

This domestic airport was good for those who wanna get in the city within 20 minutes.  It's that much even if you take a taxi to downtown, approx. US$20-30.  I quite enjoy flying this smaller propeller airplane.  It takes a very short time for boarding and landing.  

Kushiro Airport, Hokkaido

Just like most remote cities, public transportantion may not be that easy nor in a good connection.  I spent almost 3 hours in this airport so as to catch the connecting coach to Lake Akan.  I thought I could feel bored but it was quite fun to check around this airport.  The photos tell.

Flight detoured to Manila

This year I had some very tough travel schedules.  Flight delay to switch flights ended up arriving at the destination 6-7 hours later.  On this flight from Male to HK, the flight got detoured to Manila due to typhoon strong wind in the airport.  Spent over 13 hours in Manila airport.  The crew was so nice to serve whatever left in the plane in the first 6-7 hours.  Later on, the airport permitted the passengers to leave the plane.  Though there isn't anything to browse in Manila airport, at least we could stretch our body for some walking.

New Phuket international airport terminal

Supposed new things should be better and much improved for the future 10-20 years.  Unfortunately this long awaited new Phuket international terminal doesn't show it.  The terminal is about 3 times bigger than the old one (which is still in use for domestic flights).  The airline counters are more spacious and the air-conditioning is a lot better than SUV.  That's it.

The most important part is the processing time of the passengers clearing thru' the customs and immigration.  It takes almost an hour to get it thru' - twice slower than the old terminal.  Once again, I really don't know why the computer system can be that backward or worse than the 80's.  The airport lounges are even worse.  The lounge is the same size as the old one but serving more than 20 airlines.  I couldn't stand it but found the public area much more spacious and relaxing than the lounge.  I heard some passengers furiously complain to the staff of the lounge by claiming "the worst lounge ever had...etc.".