Awaking on the last morning of a multi-month holiday, there
is definitely a bittersweet feeling. On
one hand it is sad that your trip is coming to a close, but on the other, it's
nice to be going home to your own bed and not having to pack and unpack every
other day.
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| Thank God for English...cause I have no idea what that other stuff says! |
Since our flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver was not
scheduled to depart until around dinner time, we had a few hours to kill. Colleen and I decided to take our hotel's
complimentary shuttle into the central part of the city. Due to the insane traffic, this relatively
short trip took north of an hour, thus limiting our time to play tourists. After strolling around the harbor for a bit,
we headed to one of the nearby plentiful shopping malls to find me some pants
and shoes for the flight. Now why would I need new pants and shoes for
a flight you ask? Answer: Because I was
travelling standby on Air Canada, and as the son of an employee I was required
to dress somewhat nice. Momma said
flip flops, a wife beater, and surf shorts were a no go. We figured this would be an easy task as Hong
Kong is famous for its cheap shopping.
Boy were we wrong! Every store we
checked out was uber-expensive and
because of my new found "vacation belly" I could find not a
pair of pants to fit me if my life depended on it. Damn small and skinny Chinese people! Eventually we were able to find some dress
shoes, but after a solid hunt, it appeared we were striking out on the
pants. The most common size pants
everywhere were 28 and 30, and all I will say is that I was nowhere near that
in the waist department! In the end I
made the executive decision to just wear my jeans, which ended up being fine as
they weren't overly strict on the dress code.
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| Damn filthy-ass Hong Kong pigeons! |
After grabbing some lunch at the Spaghetti House, Colleen and I headed back to the hotel, packed our
stuff up for the last time and grabbed a cab to the airport. Just a
warning: if you don't like walking, avoid the Hong Kong airport! It is quite simply the most massive airport
in the history of airports!
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| We're coming home! |
The twelve hour flight to Vancouver was pretty uneventful,
although I did manage to catch up on some movies (Argo and Lincoln) ahead
of the Oscars which were scheduled to air the next night.
Arriving in Vancouver, Colleen and I said our goodbyes as
she was catching a Greyhound bus back to Kamloops for a couple of weeks before
returning to Inuvik. I on the other hand
had to get to Toronto. There was only
one problem: since I was travelling standby and all of the flights to Toronto
were sold out, I was forced to catch a flight to Montreal where I would hopefully
be able to connect to Toronto the next morning.
Thankfully I was able to get on a late night flight to Montreal, and
would have to tough it out at the airport there until the morning flights to
Toronto. I spent the night lounging
attempting to sleep in a wheelchair, which let me just say is not the most fun
after you've been in transit for over thirty hours. I was able to get on a 7am flight to Toronto
and I must say I have never been happier to see my childhood bed! After 38 hours in transit (with almost no
sleep) and a couple of months away from home, it felt good to be back on Canadian soil!
Now it was time to face the music in a couple of days and
fly back to Inuvik, -40°C temperatures, no apartment, and work. Yeah, come to think of it, I was missing Asia
already! Fuck this winter stuff!
~Brentski~ ****THE
END****
Thank you to everyone
who read any parts of the "Asia" blog series.
I realize I was publishing these accounts well after the fact, but last year was a very busy one for me so
it was hard to find the time and motivation (I'm not so busy now as some of you
may have heard!). Thanks again, and stay
tuned for more!
