Above is a snapshot of one of the waiting areas in Singapore's Changi Airport. I've been to this airport a handful of times in the last ten years. The place never ceases to amaze me.
So onto the topic of airports, we go. As a Manila resident, I've gotten used to being forced to fly through crappy airport terminals to get to where I need to go. Sounds harsh, but let's be realistic now. You all know it's true. Philippine airports do leave much to be desired. Couple that with a unapologetically chaotic transport system, and what you get is a desire to find the next teleportation machine to a land where urban planning is actually considered a priority.
Airports are, ultimately, the reflection of a nation, in the same way its transport grid is. Airports act as people's first point of contact with a country, and their last point of contact as they say "good riddance" or "I wish I could go back here".
I remember landing in Rome's Fiumicino Airport one late April evening in 2013. It was crazy. Our family's prearranged transportation never arrived. My mom was in a panic. There were taxi fixers milling about (a familiar sight in Manila, too). My mom ended up giving into a 100 Euro offer from one of the cab drivers just so we could get to our hotel in town. The usual fare would have cost half that.
Hong Kong's old Kai Tak airport also rings a memory or two in my head. I was 5, and it was my first time to go on a foreign trip. For a week or so, my mom and I stayed in a friend's posh flat near Victoria peak. Being a kid, I didn't really have a full grasp of the concept of foreign travel. I thought everyone spoke English and Filipino everywhere I went. Instead, locals spoke Chinese, which to me, felt like hearing a language straight out alien characters on Star Trek. I dialed my grandma's Philippine phone number on a Hong Kong landline one night. A Chinese man answered my call. I hung up immediately. It was then that I realized that I wasn't in Kansas anymore.
Our trip came to an end on a Sunday, and mom and I took an HK cab to Kai Tak airport, a facility which has seen become defunct and has been replaced by Hong Kong International Airport on Lantau Island. I recall that mom bought me a red biplane in one of the airport shops- one that resembled the aircraft featured in the Disney series "Ducktales". I loved that little trinket- for all the 3 hours that I had it. Our flight to Manila was delayed. To while away the time, I walked around the airport with mom. By that time, I had already missed home. I had begun to miss dad, lolo (grandpa), lola (grandma), and our old house in Quezon City. It was high time that I returned to more familiar surroundings.
As we boarded our Philippine Airlines Boeing 747 late that afternoon, I breathed a sigh of relief. I was finally going to get to sleep, then wake up in the Philippines. The calm in my head was shattered by the realization that my red biplane had gone missing- lost in Kai Tak for all eternity. I feel like I had left a piece of me in Hong Kong. My mom assured me that it was okay, and that we'd buy another one in Manila. This helped me feel better, but, I continued to feel somewhat at a loss. Maybe this lost biplane incident is the reason behind why I have a strange affinity for Hong Kong. I could go back there 1,000,000 times and not grow tired of the place. I've gone back to Hong Kong around 3-4 times since 1989, and each trip back's been different, been exciting. Each trip back since 1989 has not featured Kai Tak anymore, though, and has not led me to buying a new biplane. Maybe I should get a toy plane next time I fly over.
Then there's Heathrow Airport, and how it underscores my mad love affair with the U.K. To me, Heathrow was my portal to a brave new world, a kaleidoscope of sensory triggers I had once only dreamed of experiencing. Good old Heathrow was also the site of me having to toss some old clothes I had packed up in my suitcase as a bade London farewell in January 2018, and was set to return to my homeland after a year and half as a graduate student. Yes, I hadn't planned the whole "make sure your bag isn't overweight thing"- hence the need to go through the unpacking chicanery. All in all, it was a good reminder that you really can't everything from one phase of your left, to the next (although Filipinos are pretty well-versed with the art of the "Balikbayan Box").
I look forward to passing through many more airports before it's all said and done. I feel utterly peeved that I can't travel now, as in now, but yeah, my boarding call will come sooner rather than later. I can feel it.
MC
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