Impressive Asian Airlines

After the workshop in Penang, I travelled to Bangkok via Kuala Lumpur on Malaysian Airlines. The infrastructure in Malaysia is really impressive (especially when you come from the Philippines). Excellent roads, an airport in Penang that is small but offers excellent facilities, and an international airport in Kuala Lumpur that is really top of the line. We boarded on time, but then our plane was found to be defective and we had to get off again. No matter; within 20 mins, we got to board another plane from the gate next door and took off with less than an hours delay. Many other airlines manage such a delay without any technical problem… So I ended up being deeply impressed by the flexibility of Malaysian Airlines. And this came on top of a special experience with Singapur Airlines on the way to Penang: we had been delayed in Manila and had only some 20 mins to get to our connecting flight. Not to worry: Singapur Airlines was ready, had an electric car waiting for our group and raced us across the airport to our gate. They also managed to get all our luggage on board. On the way home tyo Manila I took Thai Airways – a mercifully uneventful flight. A trip to two countries with three airlines and one very impressed customer – travel in Asia can be quite an experience!

KL Airport:

KL airport terminal:

The unwilling plane:

News from Malaysia!

I am writing this blog from Penang, Malaysia, where I am attending a workshop on Information and Communication technology of our partner, the Young Liberals and Democrats of Asia (YLDA). Yesterday we went to the headquarters of Party Gerakan in Georgetown to learn about Malaysia’s new project to become a knowledge-based economy by 2020 and what steps they are taking to get there, both in terms of building the ICT infrastructure and in terms of the regulatory environment. Very impressive! In the afternoon, we learned how to produce podcasts and the participants were soon put to work to get their first podcasts done!

German Football Champions: VfB Stuttgart!!!

Yipeee!

Olé, oléoléolé, VfB!

Stuttgart won the German football championship for the first time since 1992. Former world cup winner Guido Buchwald handed over the trophy to a young team that no one had considered to be in the running for the top spot at the beginning of the season. Victory tastes all the sweeter in the capital city of us Swabians!

(Pic. source: www.vfb-stuttgart.de)

A view of my hometown Biberach

Let’s blog!

Hello friends!

After having read blogs for several years now, Pinoy Über-blogger Abe Olandres finally got me to set up my own blog. I will share a bit about the experiences of a guy from a small town in Swabia, (a lovely region in southern Germany) who finds himself in the bewildering and fun metropolis of Manila. There will be culture clashes, food experiences, family stories and musings about life, politics, history and cats. Happy reading!