About Cebu Pacific Airlines

Last Tuesday, the budget carrier of Cebu Pacific Airline have announce that they will be hiring an about 300 flight attendants even though there are some concerns that they are dealing particularly those cabin crew strike that have recently happened. The aimed of hiring new employees in Cebu Pacific Airlines is to fill on those job positions that will be opening once the Cebu Pacific Airlines will accept the delivery of four new Airbus 320 aircraft between the month of October 2010 until January 2011. The Gokongwei have already own a carrier that recently got 553 flight attendants.

According to Candice Iyog who is the current airline’s vice president for the marketing and distribution that they are already scheduling of adding more flights unto Kota Kinabalu, Jakarta, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and Seoul just in time with their Airbush A320 aircraft deliveries and even needing more cabin crews upon continually handling on the additional capacity. Cebu Pacific Airlines will be scheduling the recruitment campaign from month of September till October for areas in Manila and Cebu.

Hampi - A quest of a different kind

We climbed the Matanga Hill in Hampi , looking for the yellow throated bulbul. This bird  had made the rocky terrains its habitat and has been defying me every trip. This time I around, I stood there in pin drop silence waiting , looking for it. After a long wait, Virupaksha ,my guide got a call and as he moved away, the bird flew in and perched on the branch ,right above my head. I didnt move or breathe, fearing the bird would fly away,which it did within seconds, only to reappear again on the next branch. This time around, I managed a couple of quick pictures. If you are a birder, you should not miss it !

A beautiful poem by Ugich Konitari aka Suranga Date on this post was in the comments section. I thought I will share it with all of you here. Thanks a ton for the poem :)

I've seen her often.
Like me ,
she often flies;
sometimes faster 
than me across oceans
and sometimes 
amazingly slow
to Chennai.....

I've seen her 
on 
the Matangi hill.
but 
wanted to meet her
alone;
and so 
my friend 
sat on a tower
directing calls to her guide.

Although a bulbul,
I watched
like a hawk,
straining 
at the
fashionable yellow,
and the minute 
she was alone,
I flew in
to meet her .....

She thinks 
she stood in 
pin drop silence,
but I could clearly hear
the beating
of her heart .....

:-))

More markets in Hong kong

This is not one of those famous shopping markets in Hong Kong - but it was just another fish and fruit market near Times Square , close to Wan Chai . Walking distance from our hotel, we roamed around this area on our first day, familiarizing ourselves with the area.

The Philippine Airlines

The Budget Philippine Airlines carrier Cebu pacific last Friday have flew on their second regular flight with the dancing cabin crew composing of male stewards instead of females after the criticism that they have receive with the original dancing stunt of pretty female cabin attendants that somehow can be seen in youtube upon demonstrating the flight safety precaution of toe-tapping. 

More and more people especially the kids likes the male dancing crew version of flight safety demonstration due to the alertness or live that it provides to their audience to take much attention to the safety instruction that been conveying without much boredom of watching and the same time learning of it.

Cebu Pacific Flight Attandants

The Cebu Pacific flight attendants demonstrates on how to use carrying seat belts, life jackets and oxygen masks for passengers safety.

Souvenir from Hong Kong - The Peeing Doll

This one is for all my readers.

Strolling around Stanley Market last week , I saw several souvenirs, but this one caught my eye - The Peeing Doll. I was taken in by the entire " manual " which clearly illustrated how to make the doll pee..I did not buy it, but I took permission to take a picture. In Hong Kong, most shopkeepers do not allow photos to be taken, but the lady here obliged as I had bought a few tea pots from her . 

Anegundi - relics from the past

A couple of langurs greet us as I listen to my guide Virupaksha gush about his hometown. “ Anegundi is older than Hampi – in fact this is the mother kingdom .” Indeed, Anegundi  is ancient,with cave paintings of prehistoric man, it is the mythical Kishkinta of Ramayana , it is holy as the Pampa Sarovar flows here and it is historic with ruins of forts, palaces , temples and gateways hidden around  the boulders. But the most important aspect of Anegundi is that it is a lively settlement, with a charming village that opens its doors to most tourists who visit Hampi

A fisherman and his wife are busy making nets  near the Tallarighata gate, as we sip tea in a small shack, talking to some old women who are lost in the passage of time. “You will find another gate in Hampi as well, “ says Virupaksha  and explains that these gates were used to collect tolls or taxes during the Vijaynagar dynasty from people entering from other kingdoms.

An auto driver decides to take us on a whirlwind tour of Anegundi . We see the village,  palace , the main entry gates and then climb up the old Durga fort listening to more stories . “ The Vijaynagar kings used to come here and pray before every battle, “says Virupaksha , and then they go to the holy Pampa sarovar lake and the lakshmi temple there. “  We climb further to see  an ancient entrance to the fort, ruins of a palace and tombs .

But Anegundi is ageless  -  be it the settlements of prehistoric man or the myths around the Ramayana, there is a mysticism around it. “ Kishkinta means a bush, a forest where monkeys lived, “ explains Virupaksha, telling me about the Hanuman temple atop the Anjanadri Hill where tourists climb more than 400 steps to reach there.

As we lose ourselves in the green fields below bordered by the boulders, Virupaksha warns us that the last coracle would leave for Hampi soon. A few minutes later, sitting precariously on the rim of the coracle , carrying  two bikes and a dozen people , I cross the river Tungabhadra .  My thoughts get carried away to a passage in Robert Sewell's book , " A Forgotten Empire , which narrates the observations of a 16^th century Portuguese traveler , Dominoes Paes who had visited the empire.

 He mentions that the coracle was used even then to carry ““ fifteen to twenty persons and even horses and oxen can cross in them if necessary . “Paes adds ,” People cross to this place by boats which are like baskets, inside they are made of cane and outside of leather…and the boats are always turning round, as they cannot go straight like others; in all the kingdoms where there are streams there are no other boats than these.”   It is interesting, I thought as we reached Hampi that a relic like the coracle lives along with the monuments from the Vijaynagar days.

This story was published today in Metro Plus in my column, The Inside Story