Muban Thai Samut

We woke early again today after a so-so sleep, giving us time to pack up before going to Melbourne airport. The Uber fare quote for today was even more expensive than yesterday, so we settled on a taxi fare which was slightly cheaper. It ended up being a maxi taxi so at least there was plenty of room for ourselves and our luggage.

Since we’d purchased business class fares, we had the advantage of a smaller check-in queue before heading to the Marhaba Lounge, which is complimentary to business class passengers with Philippine Airways. We have been here before after purchasing lounge passes - it is definitely not the same quality as a Qantas lounge, but it’s still good to be in a private area with complimentary food and drinks. Our boarding ended up being later than expected, but the process was easy and hassle free.

We haven’t flown Philippine Airways before, and the business class was a delight. Each seat is a pod like on the Qantas A330, and the service is amazing. Personally, we both thought it was better than business class on Qantas. The meal service we received was great too - since we aren’t flying standby for once, I was able to pre-order an ovo-lacto vegetarian meal instead of just hoping they’d have an option available. The best thing was the amount offered - for the first time in a long time, I had to refuse any more!

I settled in and watched the new "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" movie and spoke briefly to the crew, who were trying to avoid an exceedingly drunk elderly man who kept coming into the galley. I don’t think they have the same RSA regulations as we do back home! I also watched “DC League of Super Pets” which was pretty fun and more enjoyable than the other movie.

I continued my tradition of getting a photo with the cabin crew who kindly gave us some snacks to enjoy after leaving the flight. I ended up taking the onboard blanket with me, in case we may need it for the overnight train journey through Vietnam. After arriving into Manila, we made our way to the transfer area for our next flight to Bangkok. As we had three hours until our departure, we could use the Mabuhay Lounge here as well, for some extra comfort and food.

Whilst in the queue for the transfer passengers, we met a couple from Victoria, John and Fiona, who accompanied us to the lounge. The four of us got along extremely well, particularly since John and Ted were taking advantage of the free bourbon! Time flew quickly and, before we knew it, it was time to walk the short distance to our next gate, which was already in the process of boarding.

The seats on this flight were different from the last flight but actually more comfortable, similar to the business class seats on Lufthansa. We needed to wait a while onboard for the final passengers before we could depart and be on our way. We certainly can’t complain about being hungry either - for a short flight, we were again served a two course meal which we loved.

Since we are still on Melbourne time, I took advantage of the fully flat bed to meditate and get some sleep. The arrival into Bangkok was slightly bumpy but it was otherwise another amazing flight with Philippine Airlines. At the airport baggage collection though, one of our bags came through quickly with about nine others, then the others didn’t come for another 15 minutes!

We bade farewell to John and Fiona before catching a taxi to our hotel nearby. The hotel is beautiful, but since it was close to 11pm, we didn’t really get a chance to see much. Tomorrow we continue our travels on to Vietnam.Read more