January 10 Yellowknife to Vancouver

What a relief to make it to Vancouver as planned.  Every newscast and weather forecast I heard was dire to say the least so the stress level rose with every word I heard.  Blizzards in Alberta.  Snow and wind warnings in British Columbia.  The NWT was simply frigid. 

 After sitting on the tarmac for a half hour waiting for the plan to be de-iced we finally got away and landed in Edmonton only to wait some more for the gate to be cleared.  It was blowing wildly in Edmonton but the snow seemed to have abated.  I barely had time to walk from the gate where we docked to the gate where my Vancouver flight was departing.  No time for a smoke or a washroom break.  I was one of the last to board.  After that we sat on the runway for a half hour or so waiting for heaven knows what.  By that time I was relaxed and didn't really  care as long as we got to Vancouver.

I feel as if this is some sort of stacked Russian doll scenario.  Each plane gets larger and larger.  The Air Canada regional jet from Yellowknife to Edmonton was as bad as I remembered from my return from Africa - small, no leg room, no storage space, etc.  If there was any service offered I missed it because I slept most of the way.  There wasn't much more room on the flight to Vancouver but at least there was a closet in which the flight attendant stored my backpack, coat and hat.

Service on the Vancouver flight was excellent (at least in Business Class).  The snack was just that, a snack and consisted of a few slices of Black Forest ham, two kinds of cheese, a pickle, one pickled onion, one lettuce leaf, some other hairy greens and a bannock like substance.  At least everything was more or less recognizable.

Given the short connection time in Edmonton I fully expected that my suitcase wouldn't make it on my flight so was completely amazed to see it trundling down the carousel.  Once I had it collected and had asked two different people where to get the shuttle to the Holiday Inn I was standing outside waiting for it.  I saw the line for the taxis and estimated that it would take people at the end of the line several hours to get a ride.  I overheard someone else say that he had been waiting an hour and quarter for the bus to his hotel.  How lucky I was to only wait five minutes for my shuttle!  I heard the captain of the plane say it was complete mess here and the shuttle bus driver say that the whole city was shut down and as we were driving to the hotel I saw some highways backed up for as far as the eye could see.  By northern standards there was no problem with the snow but people here are only used to rain.. LOL

Contrary to what i thought I must be traveling a little lighter than usual since I didn't need to use a cart or search for a porter when I arrived at the hotel.  On the other hand my suitcase is almost twice the allowable weight limit (36 kg vs 20 kg) for the trip so I may still run into difficulty when I get to Yangon.  And then there is my backpack that weighs almost the same I am sure... 

The security check in in Yellowknife was thorough to say the least.  I was selected for a random check and that meant being scanned and felt up from head to toe and back again.  The only thing missed was a cavity search!  Of course they also had to go through my backpack with a fine tooth comb leaving me to try and cram everything back in again afterward.  Great fun!

On we go.  Tomorrow it is off to Tokyo (10 hours) and Bangkok (7 hours).  By the time I get to Bangkok I will be totally screwed up time wise again...  I plan to get up at 6:00 am (or sooner), head to the airport around 9:00 and my flight is scheduled to leave around noon.

Stay tuned.