By this Author: NT01

Flight details CX907 J 747-400 Dep 0750 Arr 0940HKGMNL 702 miles

Finally, I am back in Manila [Manila-travel-guide-885524] after being away for six nights. This was my shortest (in terms of trip length) but longest (in terms of distance) long haul flight.

In the end, the trip was worth delivering the proposal in person. The client signed the contract about a year after our first proposal (kinda late, but better late than never).

Fast forward to today, I know trips like these are highly unlikely to be repeated. For one, email can now easily handle tens of megabytes of file sizes, sometimes even in the gigabytes. Second, not everyone sends a proposal by "personal courier" anymore (usually it is emailed and the discussions are conducted over video-conferencing, phone, and sometimes in person). Third, who would want to spend over $6,000 dollars to risk a proposal which one is not 100% sure of winning? And finally, there might not be as many people like me who are willing to be single day couriers to fly halfway around the world and return as quickly as possible (we are a rare breed).

But in the end, this was one trip that had the least amount of planning, and yet had the most feeling of accomplishment for myself. I won't mind having a few more of such trips :-)

We landed in Kai Tak early in the morning. Kai Tak was my favorite airport back in 1997 as I transited there at least six times that year. The fun part is watching out for the landing because the plane overflies much of the city before making an abrupt banking maneuver to set its course to land on the airport that sticks out of Kowloon [Kowloon-travel-guide-987518].

On the ground, there was time to get a shower as we were connecting within 2 hours to Manila. Also stayed at the lounge while waiting for the flight back. Ah, the pleasures of flying business class!

Flight details: CX881 J A340 Dep 2345 Arr 0215+1YYZANCDep 0335 Arr 0640ANCHKGtotal 7,796 miles

Cathay Pacific had one of the longest non-stop flights back in 1997 - the HKGYYZ sector, which was flown nonstop on an Airbus A340-200. But because returning to Hong Kong involved flying against the jetstream, they have to refuel at Anchorage [Anchorage-travel-guide-4276] (ANC). This was a flight not as pleasant because there was wailing all night from a baby in the front cabin of the economy class section, despite me being in the last row of business class (seat 17K if I recall right). That was one time I remember I was clearly awake, and having difficulty getting sleep. Was it jetlag? Maybe. But definitely the crying baby had something to do with it.

They managed to open the door in Anchorage and I recall peering out into the cold Alaskan darkness in spring. Not much to see in an airport if your plane is parked for refueling. We weren't asked to deplane anymore since we took off within an hour after landing.

Saturday I visited my counterpart's office in Markham. We were working on a project back then for a new reservations system, and these were folks I had met earlier during training in Vancouver [Vancouver-travel-guide-205445] the month before. But since this was a Saturday, no work but more tourist time! We visited downtown Toronto [Toronto-travel-guide-205344] and the side of the lake near Harbourfront. Then my friend brought me to another colleague's place near Markham, where I spent the evening before my flight back to Hong Kong.

Up to now I haven't scanned the few pictures that I have, but I have so many friends based in Toronto that it is just a matter of time when a trip will come and I get to see them again. One thing funny is that I noticed I was wearing a suit most of the time --- oh yeah, I forgot, I didn't bring any warm clothing ;-)

Since I had to pack light for my abrupt trip, I didn't bring any warm clothing. This was because the temperature in Buenos Aires was 26 degrees centigrade when I researched it. Not bad, since I've used to much warmer temperatures here in the Philippines. And I had managed to survive a few degrees above zero going to Calgary [Calgary-travel-guide-201749] the month earlier. So I knew I could handle the weather in Canada, so no thermal underwear for me.

It went well until I deplaned at Toronto Pearson International Airport. The temperature was 2 degrees Centigrade! Plus when the doors would open, a blast of cold air would permeate the surroundings! I quickly hurried to get my cab ride and headed off to the hotel (Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites). Unfortunately I didn't take photos of the hotel, and my video is in Video8 format (analog), which I haven't converted to MP4 yet. But google maps does wonders of refreshing one's memories from 15 years ago, especially with the street view option.

The hotel is a few blocks away from our Markham office, as I chose this hotel particularly for the proximity.