Back home!

Proof that we were in the Vancouver airport yesterday :)
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Jet lag strikes again! Here it is, 5:30 am, and sleeping just seems impossible (after all, that is 5:30 pm Beijing time). So what better than to add some closing comments to our trip story?

Well, the good news is we made it, and in fact we even landed in Ottawa 10 minutes ahead of schedule, despite planes that are definitely not modern by any stretch of the imagination - in fact the plane to Vancouver sounded like it was going to shake itself loose before we even landed. But that didn't prevent the crew from sleeping quite peacefully through the middle part of the flight, which was actually quite reassuring...

trying to distract them with cookies...

Air Canada has some kind of weird policy where two people with kids on their lap cannot sit together, so K&C were not able to get adjoining seats on their flights. Add to that the fact that we weren't booked in seats next to theirs, and the fact that the flight was overbooked and there was no way to change where we were seating because of fairly large groups being seated all around us, and the flight from Beijing to Vancouver could have been quite traumatic for all involved. We ended up seating 5 rows behind K&C, and they were seating separated by an aisle (which turned out to be not too bad, because they could both get up whenever needed). We agreed that they would use the international call for help sign (flailing your arms over your head) if they were in dire need of help, and they didn't need to resort to that all flight. The girls did catch a bit of sleep over the middle part of the flight, when the lights were down, and they handled takoff and landing pretty well. Luckily there were not too many delays on the plane, because just sitting there and waiting is really not a forte for 1 year olds :) ALl the other babies on our flight behaved very well, so it was really a success on all fronts...

The second leg of the journey (Vancouver to Ottawa) seemed to drag a little, despite the fact that we actually managed to catch a little sleep on it. It was weird to not be looking for the girls or trying to distract them with cookies, toys and assorted bottles. K&C probably had their hands quite full, since we left them with the girls sleeping in their strollers, so they may have stayed awake for most of the flight to Toronto. But it sounds like they had family picking them up at the airport, so they would at least get some help there. And a lot of the fellow travellers seemed to be helpful, and seeing parents with such cute baby twins would make anyone want to help, so surely their last flight must have went ok (though VERY tiering for sure).

On our flight, we only had one of the babies from our group. But unfortunately she had ear infections in both ears (can you imagine?). Well, she was in a lot of pain for about 15 minutes in the air, so she screamed a bit, which was pretty heartbreaking to hear. But she got better, and luckily this was her last flight, so no more airplane ear pains for her for a long while... One of the families we were travelling with still had to fly Vancouver->Montreal->Halifax->Deer Lake (NF). I can't imagine having to do all that with a little one, but luckily they are seasoned veterans, as they've already done this three years ago!

And thus ends our great first time visit to Asia. Pretty sure it won't be the last, as we've enjoyed ourselves way too much not to do it again at some point in the future. We would like to try that brand new train to Tibet that was just put into service (it only takes around 48 hours one way).

Thanks for reading (and commenting!), and stay tuned for the next adventure :)