Here's a few to get you started
 |
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Sunday, March 1, 2009
We made it home alive (but tired)
Our last night in Bangkok was basically spent trying to spend our remaining baht. Never in my life, while on a trip, have I had to try to use up my money but things were so cheap that I had thousands of baht left over. Val did too, but I blame her previous aversion to buying everything and anything that caught her eye, unlike me who bought it all. Anyway, we both bought some t-shirts and knick knacks. I bought some wooden kitchen things for Mom and Chris. We ate street noodles for dinner, packed (an impressive feat in itself) and went to bed. Despite being, by far the most expensive place we stayed in, our hotel was very noisy. Apparently, I slept through it the first night (Val informs me) but on our last night, I couldn't get more than 15 minutes of shut eye before the next drunken lout would decide to have a shouting level conversation in the echoing hallway outside of our room. I possibly got one hour of sleep before our 4am wakeup.
We cabbed it to the airport and started our 24 hour oddessy to Canada. I'm sure I don't really need to go into the details but I will give you some highlights. First, Val wanted to pick up some duty free booze so we went, logically we thought, to the duty free shop in the Bangkok airport. But for some reason, they have it outside of the checkin area. So our cashier informs us that since we are flying (we are at an airport for Pete's sake) we can't buy a bottle here, we have to wait until we get to Canada. Val tried to explain to her that if we bought it in Canada, it wouldn't be duty free. The cashier then explained slowly with a pitying look on her face (because clearly we were idiots) that you can't take liquid on a plane, you know. At that point, it seemed pointless to try to speak logically to this woman so we decided to buy in Japan. (take note here, duty free is pretty much the driving force for this entire adventure).
Our flight was uneventful and cramped. The not very good movies offered on our way over were still the same for our trip back. I found myself watching Beverly Hills Chihuahua, I am ashamed to admit, because it was the only English movie left that I hadn't already seen (some twice). The food wasn't even as good as the first trip either but we had been spoiled by our last two weeks. We got to Japan and had only two hours to get sorted. Did I mention that this time we had checked our bags. I was still carrying my new plastic travel bag which weighed a ton. I had packed all of my breakable in it such as 2 stone pots, mugs, a stone plaque, some ceramics etc. so it was also bulky but delicate. Even though we weren't leaving the international area of the Narita airport, we still had to go through security for some reason, so annoying cashier was right (I'm sure by accident) as they would have taken our bottles away. Once we cleared that (with a bit of an issue with my blade shaped stone plaque) we were able to do some duty free shopping. I bought a bottle for Bill and some chocolates. I bought two kit kats - one red bean paste flavoured and the other matcha tea flavoured. Ya gotta love the familiar mixed with the 'exotic'.
the next leg was very long and very cramped. And I was pretty much ready to act out my own versions of the movies in the aisles. "Bang Bang" said Mark Wahlberg in 'Max Payne', "kerboom" said Leo DiCaprio in another explosion in 'Body of Lies', "but I can't forget him" said Kate Beckinsale in'Serendipity", "Yea Mon, we can win dis ting" says some random actor in 'Cool Runnings', "yip yip" said an overly cute chihuahua in BHC which I interpreted as "kill my agent for booking me into this movie, I may be a dog but I have pride, woof".
After dinner we tried to have a bit of a sleep (Val had my cold by now and was pretty wiped out) but, of course, there was a screaming baby on board. The term screaming baby doesn't really do it justice. This was no tiny waa waa baby, this was a two year old that had come from India so had been on a plane for as long as us (15+ hours at this point) and who had some lungs on her. She wailed for a good 6 hours, interspersed with screaming laughter and hysterical noises based on unidentifiable emotions. I did not like this child. But we made it. We landed in Vancouver where we had another two hour layover. It was a very hectic two hours though. First was customs to whom we admitted that we had brought back some wood products (Val had bought a couple of carvings and I had my kitchen utensils). Then we waited for our bags which were delayed due to a malfunction on the belt or some such - who can tell when they explain over the kssshs kssssh PA system. Then a stop at agricultural inspection so that they could check our wood products (fine) and then a million miles of walkways through the Vancouver airport. OK, side discussion here, what is going on with that airport! Has it been designed using a small intestine with diverticulitis as inspiration? How far can they make travellers walk, especially after we had all of our bags? Anyway, we finally made it to the domestic check in where Air Canada again was fine, checked our bags (two for me, one for Val) and headed to another security check - yeah, I know you see it coming but we had been awake for almost 48 hours at this point so we did not. Wait in line, make it to the scanner where Val, who went first, was asked about the large amount of liquid in her bag. ooops, we had forgotten to move our duty free into the checked luggage. So back to check in. Fortunately, Val still had a bag allowed and a bag to use so we crammed our bottles in (mine wrapped in my coat which I had lugged around Thailand for two weeks just so I could wear it when I got home) and we checked our last bag. Back through security (a much longer line this time), we were starting to worry about getting to our gate in time. More millions of miles of walkways but we found our gate and were fine timewise, we must have had 5 minutes sit around time. We did not have time to have a coffee which was what we had been using as self-bribery to get through the Narita to Vancouver flight.
16 minute flight to Victoria was uneventful but freezing, the air coming out of the vents was actually frosty. Remember - no coat. Chris was there waiting and whisked us home. My mom had come down to Victoria to meet us and she was at my house so she took Val home. When she got back, I unpacked all of my purchases to show off to Mom and Chris. Watched an hour of TV, ate a bit of dinner, trying to keep myself awake. I made it to 4 pm when I fell asleep in the living room chair. Mom finally woke me up and told me to go to bed which I didn't argue with. I woke up at 1 am, forced myself back to sleep until 4.
This morning I am catching up on banking, drip coffee, laundry and hot protein conditioning my hair. I may unpack but I will probably just watch the two 'Lost' episodes that I missed.
Thank you for reading my blog, it is always fun to write these. I just read it and already it is reminding me of the fun we had (and what a terrible speller I am.) I will post pictures in the next day or so. Joanne
We cabbed it to the airport and started our 24 hour oddessy to Canada. I'm sure I don't really need to go into the details but I will give you some highlights. First, Val wanted to pick up some duty free booze so we went, logically we thought, to the duty free shop in the Bangkok airport. But for some reason, they have it outside of the checkin area. So our cashier informs us that since we are flying (we are at an airport for Pete's sake) we can't buy a bottle here, we have to wait until we get to Canada. Val tried to explain to her that if we bought it in Canada, it wouldn't be duty free. The cashier then explained slowly with a pitying look on her face (because clearly we were idiots) that you can't take liquid on a plane, you know. At that point, it seemed pointless to try to speak logically to this woman so we decided to buy in Japan. (take note here, duty free is pretty much the driving force for this entire adventure).
Our flight was uneventful and cramped. The not very good movies offered on our way over were still the same for our trip back. I found myself watching Beverly Hills Chihuahua, I am ashamed to admit, because it was the only English movie left that I hadn't already seen (some twice). The food wasn't even as good as the first trip either but we had been spoiled by our last two weeks. We got to Japan and had only two hours to get sorted. Did I mention that this time we had checked our bags. I was still carrying my new plastic travel bag which weighed a ton. I had packed all of my breakable in it such as 2 stone pots, mugs, a stone plaque, some ceramics etc. so it was also bulky but delicate. Even though we weren't leaving the international area of the Narita airport, we still had to go through security for some reason, so annoying cashier was right (I'm sure by accident) as they would have taken our bottles away. Once we cleared that (with a bit of an issue with my blade shaped stone plaque) we were able to do some duty free shopping. I bought a bottle for Bill and some chocolates. I bought two kit kats - one red bean paste flavoured and the other matcha tea flavoured. Ya gotta love the familiar mixed with the 'exotic'.
the next leg was very long and very cramped. And I was pretty much ready to act out my own versions of the movies in the aisles. "Bang Bang" said Mark Wahlberg in 'Max Payne', "kerboom" said Leo DiCaprio in another explosion in 'Body of Lies', "but I can't forget him" said Kate Beckinsale in'Serendipity", "Yea Mon, we can win dis ting" says some random actor in 'Cool Runnings', "yip yip" said an overly cute chihuahua in BHC which I interpreted as "kill my agent for booking me into this movie, I may be a dog but I have pride, woof".
After dinner we tried to have a bit of a sleep (Val had my cold by now and was pretty wiped out) but, of course, there was a screaming baby on board. The term screaming baby doesn't really do it justice. This was no tiny waa waa baby, this was a two year old that had come from India so had been on a plane for as long as us (15+ hours at this point) and who had some lungs on her. She wailed for a good 6 hours, interspersed with screaming laughter and hysterical noises based on unidentifiable emotions. I did not like this child. But we made it. We landed in Vancouver where we had another two hour layover. It was a very hectic two hours though. First was customs to whom we admitted that we had brought back some wood products (Val had bought a couple of carvings and I had my kitchen utensils). Then we waited for our bags which were delayed due to a malfunction on the belt or some such - who can tell when they explain over the kssshs kssssh PA system. Then a stop at agricultural inspection so that they could check our wood products (fine) and then a million miles of walkways through the Vancouver airport. OK, side discussion here, what is going on with that airport! Has it been designed using a small intestine with diverticulitis as inspiration? How far can they make travellers walk, especially after we had all of our bags? Anyway, we finally made it to the domestic check in where Air Canada again was fine, checked our bags (two for me, one for Val) and headed to another security check - yeah, I know you see it coming but we had been awake for almost 48 hours at this point so we did not. Wait in line, make it to the scanner where Val, who went first, was asked about the large amount of liquid in her bag. ooops, we had forgotten to move our duty free into the checked luggage. So back to check in. Fortunately, Val still had a bag allowed and a bag to use so we crammed our bottles in (mine wrapped in my coat which I had lugged around Thailand for two weeks just so I could wear it when I got home) and we checked our last bag. Back through security (a much longer line this time), we were starting to worry about getting to our gate in time. More millions of miles of walkways but we found our gate and were fine timewise, we must have had 5 minutes sit around time. We did not have time to have a coffee which was what we had been using as self-bribery to get through the Narita to Vancouver flight.
16 minute flight to Victoria was uneventful but freezing, the air coming out of the vents was actually frosty. Remember - no coat. Chris was there waiting and whisked us home. My mom had come down to Victoria to meet us and she was at my house so she took Val home. When she got back, I unpacked all of my purchases to show off to Mom and Chris. Watched an hour of TV, ate a bit of dinner, trying to keep myself awake. I made it to 4 pm when I fell asleep in the living room chair. Mom finally woke me up and told me to go to bed which I didn't argue with. I woke up at 1 am, forced myself back to sleep until 4.
This morning I am catching up on banking, drip coffee, laundry and hot protein conditioning my hair. I may unpack but I will probably just watch the two 'Lost' episodes that I missed.
Thank you for reading my blog, it is always fun to write these. I just read it and already it is reminding me of the fun we had (and what a terrible speller I am.) I will post pictures in the next day or so. Joanne
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
