Travel time

THE SHORTEST distance between Clark and Hong Kong is a Cebu Pacific Air flight.

Come to think of it, HK-Disneyland is much nearer Clark than that local theme park that seeks to approximate – even if only remotely – the former’s magical splendor. Physical distance these days measured no longer in kilometers and miles but in hours and minutes.  

So, how short does it take to fly from Clark to HK Disney? Minus two hours – 1.5-hr flight time and 25-minute land transport.

On the other hand, how long does it take to drive from Clark to Laguna? Double that time, on a good day at that. On a bad one, it’s nearly triple the trouble. So where’s the fun in wasting so much time on the road, at the expense of enjoying enchanted moments?  
And that is the long and short of it. Sorry, hard to resist the urge to be idiomatic; hoping though that it did not sound idiotic.
Anyways, your local media folk did Hong Kong this weekend past. And sure enough, we had a fast flight both ways. On-time departure of CebPac from Clark was precise. On-time arrival in Chek Lap Kok, though was not. Flight 5J-150 was over 12 minutes ahead of ETA.
The return flight – 5J-149 – was as time-perfect: departure on-time, and arrival 10 minutes less ETA.       
Which, both ways, worked best for us. Having come earlier, we were ahead of the hordes of tourists, and therefore got the best and most of Disney. And home earlier, we melted into our jobs right away. Aye, CebPac gives full meaning here to that saying “it’s not the destination but the journey.” But Hong Kong makes it both.
Been there. Done that.  
Quite a number of times, as a matter of fact, from pre-handover to post-Luneta hostage crisis and beyond. Still, there is something in, and of, Hong Kong that bids one to come back.
That “happiest place on earth” is an ever-refreshing spring of age: everyone from 1 to 92 being the same kid all over again, and again. Yeah, whoever has not loved marching bands and parades? Balloons, rides and choo-choo trains? Mickey, Minnie and Pluto, Goofy and Donald – not the Trump though, Chip and Dale? And then there’s Snow White and her castle, Cinderella and Tinkerbell – all in the flesh. Throw in Woody and Buzz, the Lion King, Lilo and Stitch too. And that magnificent fireworks display to cap a spectacular day! Truly magical!

A rickety tram ride to a different high at Victoria Peak where all Hong Kong lies beneath your feet. The view from the top affords everyone the spectacular sight of the skyscrapers around Victoria Harbor.
Amid that edifice complexity, still stands – let the inner eye find it – the yin and yang of concrete jungle and forest green, of the duality that makes the once British colony whole throughout its history.

Alas, my heart broke at the irretrievable loss of one of my favorite spots – the Avenue of the Stars – in Kowloon overlooking the skyscrapers of Hong Kong Island across Victoria Harbour.

Where I used to sit at Starbucks on the waterfront, shooting the breeze and watching the spectacular light show, is now being built a titanic corporate monolith. Bruce Lee’s statue and those of Run Run Shaw and Anita Mui uprooted and placed on an upper promenade. Along with the handprints of the other stars like Jet Li and Jacky Chan.                        

Why, even the lights seem to lack now their dazzling brilliance of before. Yes, the once most prominent marquee lights of Hitachi are no more. I remembered them well, serving as signposts to where my son lived for over two years before moving to Tokyo.   

Alack, no night marketing at Mongkok or street food-tripping can compensate for my sense of loss for the Avenue of the Stars. Assuaged somewhat though by a visit at Madame Tussauds, with photo-ops galore with the powerful – from Mao and Deng to Gandhi and Obama, the great – from Picasso to Rembrandt to Shakespeare, the famous – in music like Gaga and Madonna, The Beatles and Freddie Mercury; in sports like Ali, Ming, Sharapova and Beckham; in film like Depp and Bogart, local boys Jacky Chan and Bruce Lee, plus Marvel heroes Spiderman, Wolverine and The Hulk.

None can compare though to a make-believe sit-in breakfast at Tiffany’s with the lovely Audrey Hepburn, smitten by her all my life since watching her Sabrina, filmed the year before I was born.    

Then, an even greater emotional high. The rush of tourists has not the least diminished the meaning to my every coming to Ngong Ping for the Big Buddha and the Po Lin monastery.

The 25-minute cable car ride over mountain and sea affords the inner self to see the transience of life, the ephemeralness of beauty, amid nature’s majesty. Calm, inner calm, sets in at the very sight of the Buddha, still afar, shrouded in mist over mountains of green.

Hence, no unpleasant distractions but moments of mindfulness then are the cacophony of tongues, the whirr of videocams, the clicks of DSLRs, the flashes of mobiles up the 286 steps to the Buddha.

So did you hear a bird singing in your hear by the concrete incense holders leading to the monastery? Then, the Buddha bids you to come. Om ah om mani padme hum.

Tai O village is not in your usual tourist itinerary – as Tondo can never make it as a Manila tour destination. But it draws its own the droves of tourists. The warren of houses on stilts and wooden draw bridges over a little lagoon draining to the open sea where sightings of China’s white dolphins are recorded, plus its streets lined up with stalls selling fresh and dried sea bounties make the very attraction to this quaint fishing village.

(Maybe, Navotas and Malabon in Metro Manila, as well as Hagonoy in Bulacan and Masantol and Sasmuan in Pampanga can pick it up from there.) 

And going back by ferry to Tan Chung where commenced the Ngong Ping tour beats a bus ride anytime. An added thrill -- passing between the piers of the 45-kilometer bridge connecting Hong Kong to Macau now under construction.

Now, there’s a tour package in the offing -- Hong Kong drive to Macau.

Which merits yet another comeback.
I heart HK. And CebPac even more. Obvious ba?