Saturday June 13, 2009
What a Holiday!
Nowhere to land
In Sept 1998, my American colleague decided to visit the Asia-Pacific region. I was to accompany him and planned the two-week itinerary. We would visit Taiwan, Hong Kong then China.
In Taiwan, we had to attend many business meetings, lunches and dinners. My colleague was really looking forward to some R&R in Hong Kong. What was supposed to be a two-hour flight turned out to be a nightmare.
As the plane was approaching Hong Kong, the captain announced he couldn’t land because it was too misty. He made a second attempt to land but failed. The captain then announced that he would land in Shenzhen airport, China.
Arrangements had been made for passengers to take the two-hour bus ride to Hong Kong. Meanwhile, we were made to wait in the plane for about three hours and everyone was getting edgy and eager to get off.
The captain came back on air and said he had some bad news: as the flight originated from Taiwan and since China had no diplomatic relations with Taiwan, all passengers were not allowed to disembark. The plane would have to return to Taipei or fly to Hong Kong. After another 1½ hours of waiting, the plane finally departed for Hong Kong.
But to our dismay, just as the plane was about to land, the captain announced that due to poor visibility, we would be heading to Manila instead! There were moans and groans.
It was 9pm when we landed in Manila. We were told that we would be staying the night and were only allowed to bring our hand luggage out.
By the time we reached the hotel in Makati, it was already 11pm. The airline staff then told us we had to check out early for our flight to Hong Kong.
I made a call home and my wife nearly fell over backwards when I told her that I was in Manila! She couldn’t stop laughing.
We departed Manila at 9am. The weather in Hong Kong was fine and the sky was bright. The plane finally landed at 12.30pm. There were cheers and clapping from everyone on board. What a relief!
RT
Monkey antics
At a zoo in a small town in India, a group of frolicking monkeys were performing acrobatics and busy collecting coins hurled at them. Every time a monkey handed a coin to its master, it was rewarded with peanuts.
Asha, our youngest, chose to ignore the antics of the monkeys and was busy eating her ice cream.
Suddenly, a baby monkey charged towards her, pulled her closer by her ponytail and grabbed her ice cream!
As Asha fell to the ground crying, the monkey strode proudly back to its master, sat down comfortably and gobbled up the remaining ice cream.
This led to peals of laughter from the audience. This little monkey trick really made our day.
Renuka, Old Klang Road
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o The Concorde Hotel is a four-star business class hotel located along bustling Jalan Sultan Ismail, a mere 10 minutes’ walk to the Petronas Twin Towers. The hotel offers comfortable accommodation and innovative dining options.
A premier room at Concorde Hotel KL. The Premier/Premier Executive rooms and the exclusive Classic Suites are spacious and there is private check-in/out at the Premier Lounge with coffee/tea, refreshments, complimentary all-American breakfast, access to the Premier Fitness Centre and free usage of Internet/WiFi in the guest rooms.
Guests staying three nights or more can enjoy a complimentary Thai foot reflexology/massage at Montien, western dinner at Spices and hairstyling session at Bmic Secret of Beauty.
Concorde Hotel Kuala Lumpur,
Tel: (03) 2144 2200, Fax: (03) 2144 1628,
e-mail: kl@concorde.net or visit
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