About a year ago China Air, 1 of 3 airlines I use in transiting back and forth between the Philippines and other nations (Cathay Pacific being my alternative and when truly desperate the last is Cebu Pacific, a budget airline that makes Soviet Era Aeroflot look like a private jet) quietly announced that it would begin selling internet aboard select routes for 18 US per flight. I was pretty excited about it given that JFK to Manila is 23 hours in the air (plus time refueling in Alaska and switching in Tapei,Taiwan). The JFK to Tapei leg is 19.5 hours of dark flying. The entire time (almost) is at night since you are moving backwards on the clock. Because you fly east from New York, and because my flight leaves (if on time) at 1155PM it is still dark when we touch down in Anchorage, Alaska, and is just after sunrise when touching down in Tapei. It is a bit disorienting for people who don't take the route a lot, especially when they find out that flying east across the Date Line causes you to lose an entire day on the calendar. The 23 hours to Manila is 40 something hours on the calendar. I would imagine most inexperienced flyers freak out when they book their flight and are told that they will depart New York at 1155PM on February 7 and arrive 730PM on February 09 in Manila. Anyway, to my suprise, at Check In the girl asked me whether-or-not I wanted internet and I was soooo happy. It really does get dull watching the movies, etc that they have. When I began the route in the mid-1990s they had only 2 in-flight movies and actually used a pull down screen in the front of the cabin. If you were in a rear seat forget the movie. It is amazing how things changed.
So here I am, sitting next to an elderly Chinese lady with a beard, eating my pork fried rice meal with szechuan style shrimp and using the internet, not bad. Right now we are skirting Siberia though I cannot see it because of course I am in the afore mentioned perpetual darkness.
Check In is always interesting. The Philippine's largest export is its manpower (actually most are women, not sure if "womanpower" is proper English), with literally 60% of Filipino families having a close family member living and working abroad. Known as OFWs (Overseas Foreign Workers) there is even a government ministries to deal with specific trades, merchant seamen, healthcare workers and so on.
Most work in menial positions. For example Saudi Arabia imports Filipinos to work at Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Creme (I don't know why but Saudis love their donuts), etc. The 4 US per hour they make in Saudi Arabia is 2 X what a labourer makes in a whole backbreaking day of work in the Philippines. Going abroad therefore is seen as a status symbol.
Usually they only visit home once every few years and so at Check In you see them all ecstatic about going home. Seeing spouses and children once every 3 to 5 years isn't easy.
In 8 more hours I will be in Taiwan and get the pleasure of putting my carry on on yet another conveyor belt. Interestingly the airport conveyors there have signs warning that methadone is absolutely prohibited. I am not sure why they would do such a thing, as if they have tonnes of methadone smugglers or something. So silly. I always bring the right paperwork with me and pack everything according to Regulations but that sign always irks me.
So here I am, sitting next to an elderly Chinese lady with a beard, eating my pork fried rice meal with szechuan style shrimp and using the internet, not bad. Right now we are skirting Siberia though I cannot see it because of course I am in the afore mentioned perpetual darkness.
Check In is always interesting. The Philippine's largest export is its manpower (actually most are women, not sure if "womanpower" is proper English), with literally 60% of Filipino families having a close family member living and working abroad. Known as OFWs (Overseas Foreign Workers) there is even a government ministries to deal with specific trades, merchant seamen, healthcare workers and so on.
Most work in menial positions. For example Saudi Arabia imports Filipinos to work at Dunkin Donuts and Krispy Creme (I don't know why but Saudis love their donuts), etc. The 4 US per hour they make in Saudi Arabia is 2 X what a labourer makes in a whole backbreaking day of work in the Philippines. Going abroad therefore is seen as a status symbol.
Usually they only visit home once every few years and so at Check In you see them all ecstatic about going home. Seeing spouses and children once every 3 to 5 years isn't easy.
In 8 more hours I will be in Taiwan and get the pleasure of putting my carry on on yet another conveyor belt. Interestingly the airport conveyors there have signs warning that methadone is absolutely prohibited. I am not sure why they would do such a thing, as if they have tonnes of methadone smugglers or something. So silly. I always bring the right paperwork with me and pack everything according to Regulations but that sign always irks me.