Most of my Vacation time gets accumulated in the month of December, unlike most people, I love spending time in Vancouver during the summer. It’s not that I don’t want to be home for Christmas, it’s just that I can’t stand the cold sometimes (and the rain, but that’s all year around). So, being away for the winter lets me escape to a warmer climate and let’s me start off the New Year in another country.
This year unfortunately my departure was later then expected. I had a Christmas photography gig scheduled the night before which I couldn’t pass up. Three nights before, the weather network was predicting a huge winter storm to hit the major Pacific North West. I was optimistic, it hadn’t snowed for in days, Vancouver barely gets any snow, the weather network hasn’t always been on the ball with our conditions.
The night of my flight, mother earth brought down a winter Vancouver wasn’t see in years and getting flights in and out of Vancouver was going to be a challenge. By 2pm it was snowing so hard they had to close down the runway in 30 minute internals just to plow it. Local flights were being diverted to other cities, and after about 5 excruciating hours sitting and waiting to leave the bay, they canceled all flights and shut down the airport all together. My flight was reschedule to the following day at 8am, but this didn’t leave me with enough time to connect to Cambodia. After some persuading, I was able to transfer airlines to leave at a earlier convince of 2am on Cathay Pacific. A much needed upgrade from Air Canada!
The airport was packed with frustrated and stranded travels trying to find their way back onto an airplane, odds of even flying were slim. The 2am departure was delayed, boarding didn’t start until 3, detaching from bay wasn’t until 4, defrosting at 6:30, and final lift wasn’t off until 7:30. Standard airport procedure was arrivals/departures 30 minutes, then back to plowing runways for another 30 minutes. With all the delays, I was 24hours behind my original itinerary. Cathay Pacific was a much needed change, bigger seats, better food, more entertainment and better service. The Hollywood movie selection was nice, from titles like Dark Knight, Elf, Hancock and more. If you were into the Asian Cinema, “The Good, The Bad, The Weird” in Korean or “Mere Daap Pehle Aap” a Hindi Comedy which starts a Indian Jessica Alba look alike. If you must know, I watched it! Beautiful movie! Not your typical love, marriage, and down right brilliantly choreographed dancing spectacle. Doesn’t mean they had to leave it out though!
Arrival time is 12:30, outside Temperature is -50C and I’m flying over Hakodate, Japan as we speak. Connection to Singapore needs to be re-booked because the flight’s late, but flights should be going out bi hourly, no worries there. One thing I’m worried about is my baggage being successfully transferred over from my Air Canada’s to Cathay Pacific’s! I can’t have my luggage be a day behind me.
I hope good fortune finds me along the rest of my trip! *looks around for wood*
Wow Tomasz!
Awesome yet gruesome beginning to your adventure!
I was wondering why it was taking so long for you to blog. Anyways I’m sure you’ll be fine for flights the rest of your journey.
take care of yourself!
keep blogging!