Ready To Book My Flight

[thekfc]

I will book my flight on Tuesday (or Maybe Monday). I am just waiting for my credit card payment to post.

I will go with Cathay Pacific - $1020 including everything.

China Airlines will give me the cheapest price but there is no flight on the day I want to leave - a Thursday. I will be  working that Wednesday & I do not want to rush to the airport from work & I do not want to be at JFK on a Friday.
 
Continental / Philippines combo is also cheaper but the connection is too tight - less than 1 1/2 hours. Who knows what the weather will be like in late January in NYC - my flight could be delayed & I could miss my connection.

As for the the other cheaper fares, the connection is too long: 10+ hours.

Cathay is the only flight that will give me everything I need - time schedule, good connection time, connection/stopover in HK. Also my return flight to NYC will give me enough time between connection in HK to see my friends.

[Ray]

I was just curious kfc,

If you take a few days or whatever in Hong Kong, before continuing on to your final destination, is there an additional charge for the stopover?

My wife prefers Cathay Pacific to Philippine Airlines.

Ray

[thekfc]

I was just curious kfc,

If you take a few days or whatever in Hong Kong, before continuing on to your final destination, is there an additional charge for the stopover?

My wife prefers Cathay Pacific to Philippine Airlines.

Ray

According to the lady I spoke to at Cathay - no - but I will only be spending a day (maybe 2) in HK.

My return trip leaves Manila on Sunday morning 9am & get to HK at 11am. My connecting flight will not be until Monday at 9:45am ( I am intentionally choosing the longest connecting flight) . That will give me about 15-18 hrs to explore HK. I can also catch a later flight without any penalty.

I also inquire about the Oneworld Asia & All Asia Pass 2010 & she said that I will not need it for this trip.

[Ray]

kfc,

That sounds like a really nice deal with Cathay.

That’s great that you will have a chance to see some of Hong Kong.

I always enjoyed my visits to HK but I wouldn’t want to live there. I was usually ready to move on after just a few days.

Have a safe trip!

Ray

[robert angel]

Kfc,

I am glad that it sounds like you've found a great gal in the RP and hope that everything goes as well as I expect it will. But if you're in HK on a Sunday--just beware that there will be eye candy like you won't believe!

Before I became committed (to a woman, not a mental institution) I always wanted to do the leg to or from the RP--USA that stops in HK and spend a Sunday there.

There are probably a couple hundred thousand single 'domestics'--overseas workers, including a lot of Filipinas, in HK and most of them have Sundays off. After church or whatever, they often go out to a club and 'socialize'. I have heard for a single guy, the pickings don't get much better than then and there!

There's a bunch of web links on line under the likes of 'Things to do in 24 hours in HK' as well as 'Social--bar-club scene in HK on Sunday' etc.

I'd like to walk around the shopping district, get a nice meal and a look at the sky scrapers from the water front--I think that'd be an eyeful alone--seeing one of the world's premier and still rising cities.

[stevjulietb]

KFC...as soon as you catch your flight...the real learning begins...do you have a back-up plan?

steveb

[thekfc]

KFC...as soon as you catch your flight...the real learning begins...do you have a back-up plan?

steveb

My back-up plan is to learn more about the culture, the place & people and to enjoy myself. She is the only lady I am going to see.

[thekfc]

Kfc, I am glad that it sounds like you've found a great gal in the RP and hope that everything goes as well as I expect it will.

I hope so too - everything is pointing in that direction. Her sister & family cannot wait to see me.

But if you're in HK on a Sunday--just beware that there will be eye candy like you won't believe!

One of my friend who live there part of the year told me that. I may not get to walk around HK much as there are 2 site that I really want to visit  - The Giant Buddha & the Walk Of Fame - they may take up most of my time..

Before I became committed (to a woman, not a mental institution)

Oh,  I though that you were talking about Bellevue Hospital. 

[thekfc]

Just a little info on my girl (& family) for those who do not know.

She just turn 30 two months ago - she is the youngest in her family.
She is a teacher - teaching younger kids. Has a BS degree in Education. She is currently not teaching.

She have a good size family:
4 sisters (48, 43, 39 & 37 yrs old) & 2 brother (45 & 30 yrs).
Her mom is 68 & deaf. Her father died when she was a baby - she do not remember him.
10 nephews (5yrs - 26yrs) & 6 nieces ( 5yrs to 23yrs old) - they all call me uncle.
4 of the nephews have kids - 3 of them are married. None of the nieces have children & are all single.
She have a few cousin that I have meet while chatting with her.

Her family (mom) owns 2 farms - the oldest brother is managing them.
All 4 sisters are married as well as the older brother.
The younger brother  is single - he is now working in Bahrain - he want to come back home for a little bit - home sick.
The second sister owns a cafe - my girl is managing it. The 2nd sister went back to college - will graduate this year along with 2 nieces & a nephew.

Almost everyone in the family works.

Yes it is a big family - something I never had before. And it will be a completely new experience for me. But I will not let that deter me, we all know the phrase:
Never take someone for granted, hold every person close to your heart, because you might wake up one day and realize that you've lost a diamond while you were too busy collecting stones

On a side note, is it appropriate to give cologne to guys? I have a few small 0.2 oz cologne at home - I could give them to the older nephews, cousins or sister's husbands.

[Ray]

kfc,

It sounds like you have a solid plan and I think you’re doing everything right.

Give the cologne to the guys with the strongest body odor… 

Ray

[thekfc]

kfc,

It sounds like you have a solid plan and I think you’re doing everything right.

Give the cologne to the guys with the strongest body odor… 

Ray

Thanks Ray.

[robert angel]

Kfc,

On the cologne for the guys, definitely yes. Any sort is really appreciated--I just happened to get some real deals on Stetson and knowing her dad likes that old school "Jovan Musk"., we bought some of that and other assorted scents for my wife's bros, cousins,, etc. I think you meant giving them 'guy' scents, but even if you had gads of just female, the guys would gladly take that to pass along as gifts. Your GF will distribute.

In short, they're pretty crazy about scents there and most can't afford them. Just don't get Au De La Mango' perfume, lol

You know all this, but pack up well--there's a lot of gorillas in baggage handling. They'll cut off any locks to inspect, but thievery isn't near as bad as it used to be. Good thing you're stopping in HK airport--it's a huge, huge place and as Cathay's based there, hopefully you'll have no baggage delays or loss. Even if you did, like we did on Cathay (slim chance) they can send them on to Manila in short order usually. We were at the other end of the nation last time and it was harder. Always put a pair of underwear in your carry on!

In my not so big school district, they hired 46 Filipina teachers a while back--they are highly regarded here. RP college credits usually are accepted w/o trouble here. In some ways, if you took away any language differences, professional certification exams in the RP, whether they're for Teachers, Civil Engineers, Lawyers or what, are harder there than in the USA. The percentage of college graduates there who do not pass these tests is really, really sad.

My wife decided against working in computer engineering (her degree & all credits were accepted here) and is taking her early elementary Teacher Certification exams. With the exception of the writing portion (The language difference makes that hardest) it's been pretty easy--even the content areas for which her engineering degree didn't begin to cover, she's passed.

She doesn't mix with a lot of people, choosing to just keep a few close friends, but I am sure if your gal came over that she'd be happy to talk with her about Teaching here, The difference in the children's behavior takes the most adjustment. Joy's probably better than 99% of lawyers at dealing with adjustment of status and other seemingly challenging USCIS paperwork. Her paper work couldn't have come through any faster. She had her green card in less than 4 months after landing.

Her coming from a big family is a good thing--especially knowing that they're not destitute and you won't be the sole source of support.But expect that she'll want to send some money home--I'd suggest discussing that beforehand.

I think that especially with females, them having grown up with siblings and other family means they have had to 'get along'--to have the inevitable fights and make up--to resolve conflict. My first wife was an orphan and to this day, can't communicate and once mad, stays mad.

I once won 10 million dollars, with the stipulation that she would have to say three words to me to be able to claim it--and then she would get 5 million dollars--split it evenly with me. I told her--"Come on, please--lets get past our differences--just THREE words and we'll be rich!"

She looked at me and with out blinking or smiling, stared me in the eyes and simply said:

"You lose".

Yea, having family, learning to communicate and resolve conflict can be valuable!

Kfc, again, I am excited for you as you prepare for this trip. I feel it's going to be great for you and this lady. But even on my first trip, when it didn't work out with my then GF in Manila, after 5 days in MNLA, I took a short flight to Cebu and saw another area and fell in love with the people, their culture and beauty of all I saw. Manila's interesting to an extent, but as you'll see, there's lot more to the RP than that busy place.

[thekfc]

Hi Robert,
It is mostly men's Colonge.
I have a few female small perfume - VS, Chanel. & Beyonce, etc.

I did talk to her about sending money back home and the likes - everything is fine by both of us.

My girl also do not mix with a lot of people or go out (she do have a lot of contact with people as she runs her sister's cafe). She is also the cook for the family - now her sister who was in Singapore came back have home, that sister is now doing the cooking. That is the sister she say that I will have to ask for permission.

One of the other reason that I choose Cathay is because I do not have to change airlines - just planes. Most of the cheaper fares had me changing airlines in either Japan, S. Korea or HK.

The only thing that I have bought yet is the Chocolate, the liquor (I gave the ones I had away) & my luggage - can buy them all in a day or two.  I have a black suit case but I see a lot of people with that same suitcase, so I will get something different - maybe black & red .  I did look at some hard shell suit case but the ones I saw were well over 10 lbs - that is valuable weight space that I would be giving up.
I will be going to the outlet mall next Saturday - they have an American Tourister/Samsonite store there. I will check to see what they have.

[Bear]

I came from a large family too and so does my wife.  That is kewl to think you would be the youngest of such a large family!!!

When my grandmother died 3 weeks ago I could proudly say my grandkids were the first of her 5th generation. 

When People ask me why I divorced a woman after 25 years and started over I just say "every other word in the Bible is 'family'" and she didn't give me one. 

Plus when I was a bit younger I went to one of these seminars to help you plan for retirement.  The speakers casually said over 95+% of the people who retire retire broke and fail to accomplish their retirement goals.  I ask "what are their retirement goals?",and he said "financial security".  And I said maybe their "goals were wrong" and set my goal to be surrounded by family.

You are going to have a blast.

The Bear Family

[stevjulietb]

My back-up plan is to learn more about the culture, the place & people and to enjoy myself. She is the only lady I am going to see.

Sounds like a plan....

Steveb

[Capstone]

The WorldWide House Shopping Plaza probably has the highest concentration of Filipinas in Hong Kong on Sundays - like Robert has already indicated, Sundays are when all the domestics get their day off and they tend to do their shopping there. Even if you don't find yourself with a lot of extra time while in HK, WorldWide House can easily be reached via the Central MTR stop - one of the exits takes you right to it.

 

[thekfc]

My flight have been booked.

Her sister will help me choosing a hotel.

[Ray]

There are probably a couple hundred thousand single 'domestics'--overseas workers, including a lot of Filipinas, in HK and most of them have Sundays off. After church or whatever, they often go out to a club and 'socialize'.

Hey Dave, does this remind you of anything?

http://www.asiancatfights.com/filipinacatfight1.htm



Note: Jean, the author of the catfight stories, used to post here a long time ago.

Ray

[Cbear]

Hey Dave, does this remind you of anything?

http://www.asiancatfights.com/filipinacatfight1.htm



Note: Jean, the author of the catfight stories, used to post here a long time ago.

Ray

Until you ran her off ?

[stevjulietb]

Cbear,,,you are judging...what does the good book say about that?

Steveb