Hi there,
It was 9th of June, 2014 that we boarded our first of a series of flights to Toronto Ontario. I can recollect that our check in took almost more than an hour and both my parents, sis and Lakshmi's parents were still waiting on us, if need be the case for disposing some luggage at the check in.
Finally, after we got our boarding passes for all the connecting flights inclusive, we made it to Gate 26 for the flight to Mumbai. One thing that was eating me was the fact that infants would be screaming their lungs out during take offs and landing. In our case, it was nothing like that and Aahana, the darling that she is, was absolutely fine and made our life much easier.
We reached Mumbai at 23:15 hrs, India time and then started a rather strange process of arriving at the International Departure of Mumbai Airport. Strange, i say because it involved us taking a van and going across the airport and then entering the international terminal surrounded by the likes Hyatt, Leela Palace, Sheraton. The International terminal in Mumbai, i must say was impressive to see at the least.
After a brief sojourn with an immigration security officer and then after 3 forms and one face to face meeting with a immigration officer, we ended up reaching our gate to board the flight to London (Heathrow) just before the flight was called.
We got a seat with a bassinet for the infant; I did not like my seat, as I had for my company a hulk who had his elbows hitting me all the time. All through the flight Aahana slept like a log, until she was ready for her next snack.
Landing in Heathrow was nostalgic, as I was there in 2006. Not much has changed, except for the security which is not more or less militarized. They opened the entire cabin luggage, checked through all the food items of Aahana and were testing my Amrutanjan balm with a feverish rigor.
By the time we were done with the security, we realized that the flight has been called. We had to rush to Terminal 34, which was in a different world; With the clumsy stroller and all the bags on me, I felt i was doing a better job as a porter than many around me.
Although, i was mentally prepared to book the next flight, we made it to 34 and collected our boarding passes and then were in Air Canada. Now this is a flight i must say, was comfortable; The people were graceful and already you could feel how would be the things to come to in Canada.
After 11 hours of journey from UK to Canada, we finally landed in Toronto , Pearson International Airport. We ran into the customs; The lady asked us if we have anything to declare and then when she was convinced that we had nothing of interest to her except our baby food, we were shown the door to the immigration department.
This place was quiet; the only one screaming was Aahana as she was in a state of hyper excitement; I don't know what got onto her, but she was like enjoying herself in the company of the immigration officers;
When our turn came in, the immigration officer checked our landing papers, POF and then asked us to wait, while he finished the paper work and finally stamped on copies of our COPR and then counter-foiled the passports and then "Welcomed us to Canada".
After collecting our baggage, we engaged a porter who took us to the place, where we can wait for a complimentary shuttle to the hotel; He was a srilankan Tamil guy with an accented English.
The porter costed me a cool 20 $ and then we got" the shuttle and were at "Comfort Inn"; Marlon the driver who picked us, was kind enough to help us get the luggage trolley to our room after we checked in.
It's been 4 days and I am posting this post back dated;
Will post about our adventures in these 4 days in the next post. Until then, you have a good one!
It was 9th of June, 2014 that we boarded our first of a series of flights to Toronto Ontario. I can recollect that our check in took almost more than an hour and both my parents, sis and Lakshmi's parents were still waiting on us, if need be the case for disposing some luggage at the check in.
Finally, after we got our boarding passes for all the connecting flights inclusive, we made it to Gate 26 for the flight to Mumbai. One thing that was eating me was the fact that infants would be screaming their lungs out during take offs and landing. In our case, it was nothing like that and Aahana, the darling that she is, was absolutely fine and made our life much easier.
We reached Mumbai at 23:15 hrs, India time and then started a rather strange process of arriving at the International Departure of Mumbai Airport. Strange, i say because it involved us taking a van and going across the airport and then entering the international terminal surrounded by the likes Hyatt, Leela Palace, Sheraton. The International terminal in Mumbai, i must say was impressive to see at the least.
After a brief sojourn with an immigration security officer and then after 3 forms and one face to face meeting with a immigration officer, we ended up reaching our gate to board the flight to London (Heathrow) just before the flight was called.
We got a seat with a bassinet for the infant; I did not like my seat, as I had for my company a hulk who had his elbows hitting me all the time. All through the flight Aahana slept like a log, until she was ready for her next snack.
Landing in Heathrow was nostalgic, as I was there in 2006. Not much has changed, except for the security which is not more or less militarized. They opened the entire cabin luggage, checked through all the food items of Aahana and were testing my Amrutanjan balm with a feverish rigor.
By the time we were done with the security, we realized that the flight has been called. We had to rush to Terminal 34, which was in a different world; With the clumsy stroller and all the bags on me, I felt i was doing a better job as a porter than many around me.
Although, i was mentally prepared to book the next flight, we made it to 34 and collected our boarding passes and then were in Air Canada. Now this is a flight i must say, was comfortable; The people were graceful and already you could feel how would be the things to come to in Canada.
After 11 hours of journey from UK to Canada, we finally landed in Toronto , Pearson International Airport. We ran into the customs; The lady asked us if we have anything to declare and then when she was convinced that we had nothing of interest to her except our baby food, we were shown the door to the immigration department.
This place was quiet; the only one screaming was Aahana as she was in a state of hyper excitement; I don't know what got onto her, but she was like enjoying herself in the company of the immigration officers;
When our turn came in, the immigration officer checked our landing papers, POF and then asked us to wait, while he finished the paper work and finally stamped on copies of our COPR and then counter-foiled the passports and then "Welcomed us to Canada".
After collecting our baggage, we engaged a porter who took us to the place, where we can wait for a complimentary shuttle to the hotel; He was a srilankan Tamil guy with an accented English.
The porter costed me a cool 20 $ and then we got" the shuttle and were at "Comfort Inn"; Marlon the driver who picked us, was kind enough to help us get the luggage trolley to our room after we checked in.
It's been 4 days and I am posting this post back dated;
Will post about our adventures in these 4 days in the next post. Until then, you have a good one!
