A Return to The Philippines - The Sequel
I can't believe it has been almost five years since I was last in the Philippines but my last trip there was in 2008. The adventure all begins tomorrow, October 25th when I depart for Manila via Tokyo on All Nippon Airways Flt #11.
Personally I had never heard of ANA prior to this trip but after researching the airline it appears to have favorable reviews. The equipment is scheduled to be a Boeing 777-300ER and it looks something like this:
I am excited about the trip and looking forward to working with our team in Manila. At the same time I will be leaving my wife and daughter behind and will be missing them terribly. Hopefully I will have plenty of opportunities to video chat with everybody at home.
One of the things I am most looking forward to is the opportunity to see friends and colleagues who I have not seen in a long time.
The total travel time is crazy - I lose almost two days in the process of going West. I can't wait for the Star Trek transporter technology to become a reality! My flight is scheduled to depart from Chicago on Friday morning @ 10:50am and we don't arrive in Manila until Saturday night @ 8:55 pm. We have a layover of almost 5 hours in Japan and even though I've never been to Japan I'm not sure that just being in the airport really counts.
One of the most fascinating parts of the trip is the flightpath the plan will take (shown below). If I had known that I was going to be skirting past the North Pole I would have prepared my Christmas List and dropped it off with Santa Claus as we pass by.
When we arrive in Manila we'll be staying at The Peninsula Hotel (shown below). I've never stayed there before but Accenture has a fabulous rate for such a world-class hotel. Sunday will be a day to get oriented to the time change before we head into the office on Monday. I'm hopeful of catching up with a few friends Sunday afternoon, sharing some beers and swapping stories.
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