Random thoughts in Hong Kong

My family and I spent the New Year in Hong Kong.

The respite from work was something all of us were looking forward to. It also was our annual bonding moment.

While we were on the PAL flight PR300, I could not help but recall the unfortunate experience on the ground. We were a party of six. The guy that checked us in was nice. My travel agent informed me that we had pre-assigned seats - all seated together. On check-in, my mom and I were given seats at the tail end of the plane! When I asked why this happened, he checked with his supervisor. She just shrugged him off. He apologized and said that I should contact my travel agent for the mess. Which I did. My travel agent was surprised and I gave my phone to him so they could talk. When he approached the supervisor again, she was dismissive. I blew my top at the bitch and told her that I paid for FULL FARE ECONOMY tickets and that these were premium seat fares! Only those flying on highly restricted plane fares are put at the back of the plane. I drew my ire on the ground supervisor and unleashed a volley of remarks that she was rude, unaccommodating and inconsiderate! Her eyes did not leave the computer and she told the guy who was checking us in to just give us the seats. Since the outsourcing of certain services of Philippine Airlines, I have never been happy with this flag carrier. So much for the local aviation industry.

We stayed at the Excelsior Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong island. Three rooms all Harbor Views. For a Mandarin Hotel, this was one of the times that I gave it a thumbs down in terms of attention to the needs of the customers. While the hotel is within striking distance to the shopping malls and the MTR at the heart of Causeway Bay, the service of the staff was sadly lacking. Even if the hotel was full to the brim because of the holiday season, it was no excuse for inefficiency and poor customer service for a Mandarin Hotel.

We took the streets after getting an afternoon nap. Moving around in HK is easy with the MTR. After those "Kodak moments" at the Tiffany Christmas Tree and Carousel, we went around Central. I could not help but "eavesdrop" on our "kababayans" working in HK. Everywhere we traveled there was a Domestic Helper who happened to be Filipino. It was the Christmas and New Year holiday and they were with other families, far from their own. Real life telenovelas. When we went to Disneyland to see the new Toy Story theme park area, I wandered into one of the souvenir shops. I overheard a Chinese woman telling her Filipina maid "I know you have two kids back home. Go get two shirts from the rack and I will pay for them. You just choose which ones you like." The Filipina maid was flabbergasted and she turned around, lugging her two chinese wards and started choosing two shirts for her own kids. She had this smile on her face that I could not help but empathize with. When I stepped out of the store, the parade was on and you could appreciate several Pinoy performers among the crowd. The band that plays in the promenade are actually Filipinos.


The sacrifices our Filipinos go through in order to send home money or bring home gifts was heart wrenching and depressing. But the simple joy in her smile told me that life was not easy back home and that sacrifices had to be made even in the most difficult circumstances. As we crossed Charter House and Alexandra House that evening for dinner, we noticed a Jollibee store near a BDO bank in the side streets. My nephew hurriedly went to the Jollibee restaurant and we noticed that it only had Pinoy customers queuing for the chicken advertised by a bee.

Of course, the rest of our stay was pure shopping - from Tung Chung to Causeway Bay, from the outlet malls to the high-end retail shopping - it was a shop till you drop scenario!

During the midnight revelry to the New Year countdown, we had buffet dinner at the hotel. The revelry items were provided by the hotel. As it approached midnight, we rushed to the room to watch the fireworks display over Victoria Harbor. Since all our rooms were fronting the harbor, the spectacle was a sight to behold. Like most countries, the fireworks display is only for 5 minutes. There is no individual firework show like the Philippines.

We needed to return to Manila on New Years day. The kids and I had regular work. We lugged back to the HKIA for the 115PM flight from Hong Kong to Manila. Our flight and all other Manila bound flights from Hong Kong were severely delayed. The reason? The NAIA airport was shut down in the morning because of the heavy smog of the revelry the night before. I could only sigh. I have probably never understood the logic of having to spend hard earned money for fireworks - only to burn them in a few seconds! In a country as poor as the Philippines, well I guess it really sounds idiotic, so to speak. And so our 115PM flight left at 4PM, with PAL having to foot HKD$75 per passenger (which meant additional expense for the poor flag carrier) and the plane getting diverted to Clark Pampanga (which meant that we could not land and just kept circling Mt. Pinatubo) and arrived sadly around 7PM. It was indeed (according to my mom), the longest flight we ever had from Hong Kong!!! All because some nut job was polluting the Philippine skylines from 11pm to dawn! Sheeshhhh!!!

There were many lessons learned in this trip and hopefully, the year of the water dragon in the Lunar Calendar brings better fortune and brains to all of us! Happy New Year!!!

Mickey and We

First flight out of Manila to Hong Kong on CX904 at 630 am is always a no no! You crowd together with those flying Delta to the US. But off to Disneyland we went.

Alright, so we're all adults (and 1 senior citizen), so who cares if we wanted to meet up with Mickey and his gang again? This was vacation. And we wanted to have fun. It was after all, the longest holiday in the Philippines. And splurge I did (my pocket hurts).

This was a last minute decision, so all flights were booked by the time I got seats on line for Cathay Pacific. Hence the very early morning flight! And I had to call Disneyland long distance for hotel bookings. There were no more rooms available if I were to book on the internet. And unlike in previous years where we stayed at the posh Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, we had to settle for the less classy, yet quaint Hollywood Hotel.

In spite of the lack of sleep, my family and partner, had a lot of bonding. Harried and tired amidst the dreary Hong Kong winter weather, we managed to stay less argumentative and ventured on places we had not seen in Hong Kong, like the Citygate Mall at the Tung Chung exit line where ALL the branded outlets were. The sale there was crazy!!! Imagine getting Lacoste bags at 50% off or a pair of Reebok rubber shoes for only $200 HKD (P1200) or having a quarter kilo of fresh cherries for only $20 HKD (P120) or buying Esprit shirts at $120 HKD a piece (and get 30% off if you buy 3 pieces)!

And the food was all we dreamt of. It was food tripping all the way. From the fancy dinner at the Lotus Restaurant at the Hong Kong Disneyland, where we had the Salt Fried Chicken to the extra large prawns in sweet and sour spicy sauce, to the Peking Duck, to the salted fish fried rice, to the steamed garoupa...the extra baggage of fine food was unforgettable.

We had the Park View room at the Hollywood Hotel, so in spite of the rain, we would huddle off to our rooms, turn on the TV to channel 36 and listen to the music accompanying the fire work display and watch the fire works from our room! How cool was that?

The newest park destination in HK Disneyland is the "It's a Small World" ride. It is the nicest among the "small world" sites of all the Disneyland Theme Parks (probably due to being the newest). Of course, we had to look for the dolls representing the Philippines and had not my niece told me, I didn't even recognize it because the Philippines was represented by a Nipa Hut (now how monkey could you get?) and a supposed tarsier (which actually looked like a Koala bear).

We had a day dedicated to going to the city - and it was a mad rush for more SALE at Causeway Bay. When my mom saw the onslaught of people at Times Square Mall, she was flabbergasted and wanted to go back to the hotel immediately.

Whenever we got back to the hotel, it would be simply heaven, having to rest our tired feet and aching backs and enjoy the warmth of the rooms. Honestly, I guess we all didn't get enough sleep.

We took the 245pm CX 919 flight back to Manila. A little more duty free shopping to even up the last few Hong Kong dollars. A little more duty free shopping for me on the plane to get some bargain toiletries.

And it's back to reality when we landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

This holiday, it was simply family bonding. And of course, there was Mickey and We...

A nation of servants

I am posting this news from the Philippine Star newspaper today.

MANILA, Philippines - A congresswoman yesterday called on a Hong Kong magazine to apologize to the Philippine government for offensive and defamatory comments on Filipinos in an article on the country’s claim over the Spratly islands which China also claims.

Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros voiced strong protest over the article of Chinese writer Chip Tsao published in the HK Magazine of the Asia City Publishing Group, where he called the Philippines a “nation of servants.”

In his article, Tsao protested the Philippine claim over the Spratlys, urging his compatriots not to bow to the Philippines because there are “more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as $3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong.”

“As a nation of servants, you don’t flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter,” Tsao said in his article.

He also mentioned that he employs a Filipina domestic helper named Louisa and warned her that should a war erupt, “I would have to end her employment and send her straight home, because I would not risk the crime of treason for sponsoring an enemy of the state by paying her to wash my toilet and clean my windows 16 hours a day.”

“With that money, she would pay taxes to her government, and they would fund a navy to invade our motherland and deeply hurt my feelings,” Tsao added.

“I sternly warned her that if she wants her wages increased next year, she had better tell every one of her compatriots in Statue Square on Sunday that the entirety of the Spratly Islands belongs to China,” Tsao wrote.

The Chinese writer likewise said the Philippines should stop threatening China.

“The Philippines may have a Barack Obama and the hawkish American military behind them, but we have a hostage in each of our homes in the Mid-Levels or higher. Some of my friends told me they have already declared a state of emergency at home. Their maids have been made to shout ‘China, Madam/Sir’ loudly whenever they hear the word ‘Spratly.’ They say the indoctrination is working as wonderfully as when we used to shout ‘Long Live Chairman Mao,’ at the sight of portrait (sic) of our Great leader during the Cultural Revolution,” Tsang said in his article.

Hontiveros took strong offense at this and said the magazine should apologize immediately.

“This disgusting, derogatory, and vile remark can only come from dim-witted and mediocre writing. The magazine should apologize straightaway. The article reflects the kind of attitude that promotes abuses against Filipina workers,” Hontiveros said.

She said Tsao’s story should not have been published, owing to its defamatory nature characterized by racial discrimination against Filipinos in general, and domestic helpers in particular.

“Chip Tsao should find another profession. He should leave the Spratlys issue to the diplomats and writing to real writers because clearly he has neither competence nor talent in foreign affairs and in writing,” Hontiveros added.

“When you make fun of a particular group, you expose them to abuses. Wittingly or unwittingly, you end up supporting acts of intolerance and abuses,” she added.

“Filipina domestic workers should hold a one-day strike to tell the likes of Chip Tsao who’s the real master of the HK economy. If all Filipino workers in HK would strike, the HK economy would grind to a halt without us having to invade the territory,” she said.

She said Filipinos are not asking for political correctness, just professional treatment.

“Domestic work is a decent job. It’s not just done by hired Filipina domestic workers, it has also been the function of mothers of all nationality, in Hong Kong and China and elsewhere. It should be treated with respect,” she said, adding that by insulting Filipina domestic workers Tsao has also insulted his own mother.


I was slighted by the article. Now I will bash Tsao. This f*ck*g chinese pig must be hanged by his balls at the bashing he has done to Filipinos. What gives the as*hol* the right to make defamatory remarks about Filipinas. Then he can go hire his own FCKN mother to clean his toilet for him. Dang! FCKN idiot. All the Filipinos should keep their dignity by not being employed by the FCKR Tsao. Let his wife and kids clean their sh*t. And Congresswoman Hontiveros is right, leave the foreign affairs to those with brains. Tsao the idiot should shut up and keep his slavery attitude to the dungeons of China. He should look at his own backyard before he bashes the Filipinas who sell their dignity in order to feed the Republic of the Philippines.

Then again, the almost 150,000 Filipina maids in Hong Kong do not speak well of the kind of human resources we send out to the tiny Special Administrative Region of China. But the Philippine government is left with no choice because the local economy depends highly on dollar remittances from OFWs. Without the latter, the Philippines would probably be the poorest country in Asia, next to Bangladesh and Pakistan. And that's the pathetic side, that while Tsao has no right to go bashing and defaming the Filipino "servants", our government has got to clean up the human resources we send out to foreign land, which is tarnishing our image as Filipinos. In our own backyard, our lawmakers steal the very money that we earn, only to send more Pinoys to foreign land to be used, and abused. And those who are lucky just watch from the sidelines.

You see, we mirror what we give. Perhaps it is time that we take back what is ours. Even if it means having the head of Chip Tsao on a silver platter!

Chip Tsao is a best-selling author and columnist. A former reporter for the BBC, his columns have also appeared in Apple Daily, Next Magazine and CUP Magazine, among others.