It's cold outside...

The journey to Toronto was long.  After an exhaustive search on the internet we had managed to secure what seemed to be the easiest and cheapest route to Canada from Borneo.  Our journey would take us from Borneo to Kuala Lumpur, to Amsterdam, to London and finally Toronto - over 24 hours of flying time with plenty of stopover time to boot.

Our stopover in London Heathrow would be about five hours and we had convinced ourselves that we didn't want to leave the airport.  We were returning to London prematurely and we didn't want to acknowledge it.  We were meeting my dad there as we had managed to book onto the same flight from London to Toronto (although little did we know, he wasn't flying in the cattle-cart Economy that we were), and a couple of others from home were coming to meet us to say hi, and to bring some warm clothes for us.

We touched down in London Heathrow with butterflies in our stomachs (not literally, airplane food hasn't deteriorated that much).  It felt weird to be back in the country, and yet so normal.  In fact, the normality of it made us uneasy.  Seeing some friendly faces was great, and after a coffee, my dad, Yaz and I boarded our flight to Toronto.

The flight passed without incident, and we touched down in Toronto to be met at the airport by my cousin, Moona.  He took one look at us in our summer wear and laughed.  "It's cold outside" we were warned.  Funnily  enough, coming from the thirty degree heat of Malaysia it's hard to comprehend how cold a place can be, but the words "it's cold outside" certainly didn't do it any justice.  Between minus fifteen and minus twenty celsius is what we were in for.  The snow was incredible coating anything that stood still for more than three minutes.

During the week we attended the funeral and several other ceremonies, and before we knew it we were waiting at Toronto airport for our flight to London Heathrow.  This is where it all went a bit pear-shaped.  After waiting for a couple of hours an announcement was made that our flight was being cancelled due to a technical issue with the airplane.  We therefore had a choice of transferring to Air Canada which would leave an hour later, but would be without our luggage, or staying another night in Toronto and flying the following day with our luggage.  Yaz and i had several connecting flights with a number of airlines and therefore staying another night wasn't an option.  We took the Air Canada flight and arrived in London, not really sure what to do.  After some discussions about our luggage the airline assured us that it would be sent to our ultimate destination (Phuket, Thailand) in a couple of days.  For those of you who have been following our adventures, you'll appreciate the little trust we have in baggage handlers.  We decided after much deliberation to stay one night in London, wait for our luggage, and then continue our journey the following day so when we arrived at Heathrow we ran around like headless chickens, changing our flights and organizing our luggage.  Some of Yaz's family had come to the airport to see us for what would have a been a seven hour wait - little did they know, we would be joining then in the car for the ride back...

Being back in London was weird, but disturbingly normal.  The car journey back to Yaz's mum's house, where we would be staying for the night, was a markedly depressing affair - mainly due to the incessant London drizzle.  We had mixed feelings about being back in London - on one hand we were really excited to see everyone, but on the other, it felt all too familiar, almost as if we had been home for months.

That evening, was an eye-opener for both of us.  While we were enjoying the company of family and friends, and even, to some extent, the familiarity of it all, we quickly realised that after eight months of travelling, you can easily become complacent, almost taking it all for granted.  This trip back to London made us re-evaluate, and truly appreciate travelling as if we were starting over.  And so the following day, with all the excitement, and adventure injected back into us we set off for a long, long flight back to South East Asia, glad to be leaving behind the sub-zero temperatures of Canada, and the drizzle and comfortability of London...