The 20-day tour in toronto and nova scotia hasn't even started and i was already tired. I have been on this tour for the last 2 months facilitating this, liaising between our main office and the participants.
i left Iloilo in June 13 to catch the 10 am flight to Manila, together with the (bigger) batch of earlier "departers". Some were booked on later flights because they had a different route.
Our group was scheduled to fly to Toronto, from Manila, 7pm of June 13, going through Vancouver, BC on a 2-hour lay-over. Our group will be time-travelling, if you may call it. We gained a day, arriving in Vancouver about 2 hours earlier of the same day we left the Philippines. What we, however, gained, we will lose when we return home. We will leave Toronto in June 29/June 30, to arrive in the Philippines July 1.
Have i already mentioned it is my first time travelling outside the Philippines? As expected, i didn't know that the check-line was 10,000 kilometers long. it took us about 1.5 hours to get to the counter. we did some more lining up at the immigration, then at the security checks (there were about two major checks) then the final long wait. Incidentally, the flight was delayed by more than half an hour, making the wait even longer. The cramped waiting idea made it worse.
and oh, did i say the lay over in Vancouver is just two hours? I imagined that we now had to run for our connecting flight to Toronto considering that we will be arriving late and I was pretty sure there will be more lining ups to do once we get to Vancouver.
at 54 minutes past 6 pm we finally entered this gate:
and took off about 45 minutes past 7 in the evening, June 13.
***
Flight to Vancouver from Manila takes about 11.5 hours. Vancouver is 3 hours advance than Toronto, making it about 9 hours delayed from the Philippine date. Despite the 11-hour travel, we are still expected to arrive in Vancouver at 4:45 pm of June 13, technically about 3 hours earlier than the date we left the Philippines. As I said, we time traveled. our plane was sucked into a black hole with the time-space continuum already distorted, we were able to bend time. Which is somehow, good news, we'll be a day younger.
The bad news though is, our expected boarding time in Air Canada flight to Toronto is 5:35pm. Given the time we had to spent in the border security and the time to gather our luggage, sprinting likely the best way to make it to our flight. Yes, it was a check through flight but somehow the having to pass through border security rendered that service null and void. We still have to gather our luggage, as instructed by the PAL check in counter person, present it to customs/immigration and go through the whole security check for the nth time. it gets pretty tiring. and one would wish s/he travelled naked so she doesn't have to go through all the frisking and the "de-belting" and the bag scanning...
The security personnel at the Vancouver airport were friendly though. and most of them looked asian. large asians.
****
The in-flight food was terrible. i barely ate them.
We were served late dinner. Some creamed chicken (with rice) and cold penne salad and maja blanca pana cotta (that i also barely touched).
Then i had interrupted sleep every 2 hours. all the in-flight movies, I've already seen. I tried watching (shyet, i forgot) an action movie but was distracted by my seatmate who kept on asking for things and my attention, when every one, including me was trying to sleep, and with the cabin lights already turned off. When he finally fell asleep, I found myself not able to so I "watched" 500 days of Summer. Didn't, actually. I just put on that movie and when it started, turned the monitor off. I realized this kind of "noise" puts me to sleep. when the movie was done i listened to Oasis' What's the Story Morning Glory, some brazilian stuff and Madonna's True Blue album (this reminded me of ABD--this album is so 80's synth).
****
At 2am (philippine time) i awakened and decided to brush my teeth. I noticed there was some light coming through the crack of the window shades. We've crossed the international date line and our time travel was done. We're back to the morning of 13th.
I had the Oasis, Brazilian bossanova and Madonna on loop and dozed off some more.
***
We were served breakfast at what seemed to be already lunch hour (but still 8 am on my watch). I asked for fish fillet and waited for it to surprise me. Surprise, it was stewed milkfish belly with 3 button mushrooms and a wedge of tomato. I only ate the mushrooms. Then on the side was a creamy dollop of scrambled eggs--this one i was able to finish half, and half a portion of the rice. Dessert was almond jelly and 3 pieces of canned lychees. I finished the desert. it seemed the only edible food for me. There was the omni-present raisin and walnut roll then a piece of ensaymada, imported from Red Ribbon.
I learned i should not be drinking orange juice during long flights because the juices i took from the 2 meals made me all gassy. Although i didn't fart a lot during the flight (or so i thought), my belly was all bloated and it made sitting very uncomfortable.
We made it to Vancouver at 4:30 pm. Lined up for clearing at the boarder security, waited some more for our luggage, past another security checked that collected the immigration forms, then off we sprinted to the check in counter for our last leg of the flight.
Lining up for the boarder clearance, i had a CHANCE to panic learning that the participants did not bring any printed copy of the immigration letter that our office provided them, and that I only had with me five (5) copies. My boss expected me to have like at least 12-15 copies to give each of them, and I thought we only needed at least one for one group representative (my boss) to present to the immigration officer.
I panicked.
But I was right. The one copy did it for all of us.
***
The passengers from the PAL flight from Manila help up the Air Canada flight to Toronto. Fortunately, none of the passengers clapped their hands when we finally boarded. I had about 1 minute to panic when i noticed that 4 in our group have not yet boarded, panicked some more when I realized that one of them was carrying my TWO hand-carry bags ( i had to go somewhere earlier and left with the group my bags). I only had with me my passport and boarding pass for the Toronto flight. No money, no ID, no wallet, no nothing. not even a piece of candy.
The indian lady who tried to steal my seat thinking we weren't gonna make it kept on staring at me. Finally she asked if it was my seat she was sitting on. I told her i'm "F" but didn't move to take over the seat because I am without my essential things.
What if the plane decides to leave without those four?
I'm doomed.
It's gonna be a banged-up abroad moment.
After what seemed like forever they finally arrived and I was finally able to sit down and shoot this scene:
Coming up: the Vancouver-Toronto leg, early morning dinner at Mcdonald's at Spadina Avenue and walking back to hotel freezing my ass in the 14 degree early morning chill. .
FIN.
i left Iloilo in June 13 to catch the 10 am flight to Manila, together with the (bigger) batch of earlier "departers". Some were booked on later flights because they had a different route.
Our group was scheduled to fly to Toronto, from Manila, 7pm of June 13, going through Vancouver, BC on a 2-hour lay-over. Our group will be time-travelling, if you may call it. We gained a day, arriving in Vancouver about 2 hours earlier of the same day we left the Philippines. What we, however, gained, we will lose when we return home. We will leave Toronto in June 29/June 30, to arrive in the Philippines July 1.
Have i already mentioned it is my first time travelling outside the Philippines? As expected, i didn't know that the check-line was 10,000 kilometers long. it took us about 1.5 hours to get to the counter. we did some more lining up at the immigration, then at the security checks (there were about two major checks) then the final long wait. Incidentally, the flight was delayed by more than half an hour, making the wait even longer. The cramped waiting idea made it worse.
and oh, did i say the lay over in Vancouver is just two hours? I imagined that we now had to run for our connecting flight to Toronto considering that we will be arriving late and I was pretty sure there will be more lining ups to do once we get to Vancouver.
at 54 minutes past 6 pm we finally entered this gate:
and took off about 45 minutes past 7 in the evening, June 13.
***
Flight to Vancouver from Manila takes about 11.5 hours. Vancouver is 3 hours advance than Toronto, making it about 9 hours delayed from the Philippine date. Despite the 11-hour travel, we are still expected to arrive in Vancouver at 4:45 pm of June 13, technically about 3 hours earlier than the date we left the Philippines. As I said, we time traveled. our plane was sucked into a black hole with the time-space continuum already distorted, we were able to bend time. Which is somehow, good news, we'll be a day younger.
The bad news though is, our expected boarding time in Air Canada flight to Toronto is 5:35pm. Given the time we had to spent in the border security and the time to gather our luggage, sprinting likely the best way to make it to our flight. Yes, it was a check through flight but somehow the having to pass through border security rendered that service null and void. We still have to gather our luggage, as instructed by the PAL check in counter person, present it to customs/immigration and go through the whole security check for the nth time. it gets pretty tiring. and one would wish s/he travelled naked so she doesn't have to go through all the frisking and the "de-belting" and the bag scanning...
The security personnel at the Vancouver airport were friendly though. and most of them looked asian. large asians.
****
The in-flight food was terrible. i barely ate them.
We were served late dinner. Some creamed chicken (with rice) and cold penne salad and maja blanca pana cotta (that i also barely touched).
Then i had interrupted sleep every 2 hours. all the in-flight movies, I've already seen. I tried watching (shyet, i forgot) an action movie but was distracted by my seatmate who kept on asking for things and my attention, when every one, including me was trying to sleep, and with the cabin lights already turned off. When he finally fell asleep, I found myself not able to so I "watched" 500 days of Summer. Didn't, actually. I just put on that movie and when it started, turned the monitor off. I realized this kind of "noise" puts me to sleep. when the movie was done i listened to Oasis' What's the Story Morning Glory, some brazilian stuff and Madonna's True Blue album (this reminded me of ABD--this album is so 80's synth).
****
At 2am (philippine time) i awakened and decided to brush my teeth. I noticed there was some light coming through the crack of the window shades. We've crossed the international date line and our time travel was done. We're back to the morning of 13th.
I had the Oasis, Brazilian bossanova and Madonna on loop and dozed off some more.
***
We were served breakfast at what seemed to be already lunch hour (but still 8 am on my watch). I asked for fish fillet and waited for it to surprise me. Surprise, it was stewed milkfish belly with 3 button mushrooms and a wedge of tomato. I only ate the mushrooms. Then on the side was a creamy dollop of scrambled eggs--this one i was able to finish half, and half a portion of the rice. Dessert was almond jelly and 3 pieces of canned lychees. I finished the desert. it seemed the only edible food for me. There was the omni-present raisin and walnut roll then a piece of ensaymada, imported from Red Ribbon.
I learned i should not be drinking orange juice during long flights because the juices i took from the 2 meals made me all gassy. Although i didn't fart a lot during the flight (or so i thought), my belly was all bloated and it made sitting very uncomfortable.
We made it to Vancouver at 4:30 pm. Lined up for clearing at the boarder security, waited some more for our luggage, past another security checked that collected the immigration forms, then off we sprinted to the check in counter for our last leg of the flight.
Lining up for the boarder clearance, i had a CHANCE to panic learning that the participants did not bring any printed copy of the immigration letter that our office provided them, and that I only had with me five (5) copies. My boss expected me to have like at least 12-15 copies to give each of them, and I thought we only needed at least one for one group representative (my boss) to present to the immigration officer.
I panicked.
But I was right. The one copy did it for all of us.
***
The passengers from the PAL flight from Manila help up the Air Canada flight to Toronto. Fortunately, none of the passengers clapped their hands when we finally boarded. I had about 1 minute to panic when i noticed that 4 in our group have not yet boarded, panicked some more when I realized that one of them was carrying my TWO hand-carry bags ( i had to go somewhere earlier and left with the group my bags). I only had with me my passport and boarding pass for the Toronto flight. No money, no ID, no wallet, no nothing. not even a piece of candy.
The indian lady who tried to steal my seat thinking we weren't gonna make it kept on staring at me. Finally she asked if it was my seat she was sitting on. I told her i'm "F" but didn't move to take over the seat because I am without my essential things.
What if the plane decides to leave without those four?
I'm doomed.
It's gonna be a banged-up abroad moment.
After what seemed like forever they finally arrived and I was finally able to sit down and shoot this scene:
 |
| 14 June 9:29 am Philippine time. but it's actually half past 6 pm of June 13, Vancouver time. |
Coming up: the Vancouver-Toronto leg, early morning dinner at Mcdonald's at Spadina Avenue and walking back to hotel freezing my ass in the 14 degree early morning chill. .
FIN.
No comments:
Post a Comment