It is not all bad here....

I had a very pleasant experience last week, when I went off to Clark to take an Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur. I tell everyone that being a fellow Malaysian, I support Tony Fernandes, and what he is doing. I actually do know Tony personally, and he had accepted an invitation from me to come to Manila to give a talk a few years ago.
But the truth of the matter is…..I am cheap! Well, I would like to say instead that I have a passion for value….
Anyway, when I arrived at the Clark Airport terminal building, I was greeted by 2 well-dressed young ladies, with smiles on their faces, asking to check my passport and ticket. I asked them if there was wi-fi in the terminal building, and they said “yes, Sir”. And when I asked them where I could purchase a prepaid card for that, a beaming smile came back to me “oh, Sir, it is free, all over the terminal building.” Huh?!

Hence the couple of hours wait for my flight went very quickly whilst I tapped away on my laptop, and caught up with my work.

I had to leave home rather early that morning, and I did not manage to do all my “morning things” properly before left. I do hate public toilets in the Philippines, so it took me a while to decide that I should just bite the bullet, as certain things just cannot wait.

As I opened the door to the first cubicle, there was actually a toilet seat on the toilet. “Oh good, I thought.” I was about to start figuring out about toilet paper, when I noticed to my delight that there was ample supply right there in the cubicle! Apart from these rather exceptional things, the toilet was in general as clean as any 5 star hotel toilet that I had seen.

In comparison, the toilet in the Singapore Airline business class lounge at NAIA 1, has been without running water for at least a year. Not to mention the state of the public toilets there.

And it does not end there. When I arrived back this Monday, the security guard on the curbside actually helped me load my luggage into my car. Can you beat that?

And the terminal fees in Clark are lower than at NAIA 1! Whoever it is running that terminal deserves a medal, and a very good salary.