30 Hour Trip Home

Monday morning we woke up early and headed to the Bangkok airport for the beginning of the longest day ever. We waited in line to check in for about half an hour and slowly made our way through the huge airport before boarding our plane. We dumped our backpacks and thought happy thoughts they would join us in Vancouver. Once we got through immigration and security, we grabbed some food and boarded the plane.

Our first flight was 5 and a half hours from Bangkok to Seoul, South Korea. It was quick and we watched some Netflix and I finished a whole book on Kindle. We transferred at the Seoul airport, and went through security. They ripped dad’s bag apart and took his lighter away and even looked at his insulin needle. In the 11 flights already, no one ever did that. The worst that happened at security for us was someone inspecting the bug spray and making dad spray it on his arm to prove what it was. We had about an hour before boarding the long flight back to Canada. Our flight ended up being delayed a bit to leave so we waited with everyone at the gate. This flight to Vancouver was 9 and a half hours. The flights are way shorter on the way home due to the tail winds going the opposite direction. We were totally okay with this.

The long flight wasn’t too bad. We had two meals and watched a lot of Netflix and some movies. We made sure to get up every 1-2 hours to help our restless legs. We couldn’t sleep which was frustrating. I was in the middle seat and the guy by the window loved spreading out and slept the entire flight. I kept knocking his knee back over so I had enough space. By the end of the flight it actually went by pretty quick and we were so excited to be back in Canada!!

Right when we landed, I turned my phone service back on and had a voicemail and an email. The email was from my insurance company about a claim from today and my voicemail was from Enterprise saying they heard I needed a rental car. WTF!? I called my boyfriend Andrew right away and he told me he got in a car accident that morning. He was completely fine but my car was not. We were pretty upset and I cried the entire walk off the plane and to the customs area. Poor Andrew. I won’t go into details out of respect for him but we were definitely stressed out. I was so thankful that he was okay. He had everything under control and I told him I would call him once we finished transferring and everything. We went through customs and it was the easiest process ever. Canada should teach every other country their methods. No half hour lines, we were in and out of the electronic kiosk. We picked up our backpacks and then dropped them back off at the Westjet counter. Then we went to Tim Hortons right away and went outside for some beautiful cold Canadian fresh air.

Tastes like home. The cold air felt really good. I was still wearing a tank top and flip flops and dad was wearing shorts and flip flops. We probably looked crazy to everyone but we didn’t care. We sat upstairs and drank our coffee and tea and I called Andrew back and got everything sorted out. We went through security again and found a lounge for the afternoon. We each paid $40 to go into the Plaza Premium lounge and I would say it was well worth it. We got to shower which was amazing after the long flights. We changed into clean clothes and enjoyed the unlimited food and drinks (including alcohol). We stayed here the whole afternoon. We were super tired after not sleeping for so long but we tried to stay awake so that we would sleep tonight. I napped a bit in my comfy chair but it wasn’t restful.

The layover was long and the plane boarding was delayed another hour. We took our final flight of 2 and a half hours back to Winnipeg and we both slept the entire ride. Mom and Brooke were standing there waiting for us and we had a great reunion and we were so happy to see them. Mom and Dad are finally reunited!! We waited for our backpacks and then mom drove us the hour long drive back to Winkler. We were greeted by our crazy happy puppies and mom made us grilled cheese which was great. We were so tired from not sleeping but we still stayed up until 3am.

We woke up early the next morning and had a nice relaxing day and napped in the afternoon. Mom made us a HUGE delicious meal of all of our favourite foods.

 

Today, Wednesday, we were wide awake at like 4-5am. The jet lag is the weirdest thing. I work midnights at work all of the time and I thought it would be like switching from nights back to days but it’s so different. At noon here it’s like bedtime back in Asia and it really messes up your system. I think by tomorrow we should be back to our normal rhythms. 

Today mom is driving me into Winnipeg to catch my flight home to Thunder Bay and I can’t wait to see Andrew, our apartment and my own bed. We have a lot to do this week before I go back to work this weekend and we have to go car shopping before the rental car period is over.

I can’t believe the trip is complete! I plan on doing one more post summarizing the entire trip, but I just wanted to sincerely thank everyone who has been following along. We and my mom have received countless messages and comments through the journey and I know everyone has enjoyed the blog. I’m really glad that I took time out of every day to write this because it will be great to go back years from now and remember our trip.

Thank you!

Xoxo Hales