It’s a wrap!!

Posted under Southeast Asia 2009

Not much that you can say about the monotony of air travel, the lack of movement, the drone of the engines and airline food. Well actually you can say a bit. Our flight from Beijing to Vancouver was with Air China. Hey a good trip, edible food, lots of drink, helpful attendants and comfortable seats. Not too much wrong with this. The one blip on our return screen was at ( you guessed it) — Vancouver. Now in our three month sojourn we had spent time in airports all over Asia, and of course had to deal with all types of immigration and customs peoples, but I must say that all this went flawlessly, that is until we arrived into Vancouver. Our flight arrived about noon local time, and of course we were ushered down to customs and immigration — well what there was of it. In a fancy new facility with stations for 22 inspectors, there were five on duty. This at a time of day when flights were arriving every ten minutes. There is no possible way that those five inspectors could keep up with the arrivals, and in no time the very large waiting area was jammed with people. Now the admiral and I had about two and one half hours between our connecting flight to Victoria, and it started to look as though we might not make it. Add to this that we had to retrieve our luggage and then go back through security after taking our long-suffering luggage back to Air Canada for our fifteen minute jump over to Victoria.

While we were picking up our boarding passes from the Air Canada attendant, she pleasantly asked us how our day was going. Well you know what they say — if you don't want the answer, don't ask the question, and I mentioned that all was well until we arrived at customs and immigration, where there was a horrendous backlog. I also mentioned that we were nip and tuck for our flight because of the delay. The lady looked at me as the moron that I am, and carefully explained that it was always like this at that time of day, because there were so many flights arriving. Well duh to me. Even MacDonalds put on more staff at peak times, methinks.

My only suggestion is that anyone wishing to see the 2010 Olympics should start arriving now. By the time that they clear customs, they may make the venue that they wish to see.

Just had to get my annual bitch off my chest , but in fact it's been a blast — until the next time!!

And that's a wrap.