Landing in Canada

This is a slightly different type of landing experience. I did not fly straight to Canada from India. Since I was going in that direction anyway, I figured I may as well have a miniature holiday in London for a week and then go to Toronto. So I had booked Jet Airways Bangalore to London (13 hours), and change flights in Mumbai. And Westjet London to Toronto direct(8 hours). They were fairly cheap, The Jet was around 20k. And Westjet, 15k plus 3500 for baggage. In all, less than 40k, which I thought was great.

My flight from Bangalore was at 910 in the morning. My dad insisted I must be there 3 hours prior to departure since it’s an international flight. So I reached the airport at 6 only to find out that immigration happens in Bombay and for all practical purposes this was treated like a domestic flight. So I was stuck in Bangalore airport with three hours to kill. The only good thing, I had to check in my bags only once. I had two American Tourister trolleys, a soft-sided big one and a polycarbonate medium-sized one. On a side note, the polycarbonate one feels much stronger and nicer, the fabric one was a bit flimsy and the handle broke in London. Anyway, back to Bangalore airport, both bags were around 21 kilos and my cabin bag was about 9 kilos. No problems with both. I had put a red shoelace around the trolley handles to mark my suitcases. But later I found out red shoelaces were the ‘in’ thing, every trolley is a blue American Tourister with a red shoelace. Luckily my dad had also put a blue ribbon, so I spotted mine eventually. I digress. Back in Bangalore airport, I had an average idly sambar chutney and waited patiently for 2 hours. Then I boarded the flight to Mumbai on time. The flight took off on time. Breakfast was served, like in most domestic flights, no alcohol here. The food was worse than the idly at the airport. I didn’t mind too much. I had a promising future to look forward to.

In Bombay airport, immigration happened pretty swiftly. Right after it, a woman gave me a 300 rupee gift voucher for Mumbai Duty-Free. I bought liquor chocolates and paid the difference (not the best thing to buy, pretty mediocre chocolate). I boarded my flight to London on time. I got an aisle seat and luckily the seats next to mine were empty. The flight was otherwise full. Many people were eying my seats and I was praying no one comes. The plane was about to take off and I sighed in relief. Just then the stewardess came and said a mother and an infant want the seats next to mine. Mother's sentiment goes a long way with me, so I agreed.

Drinks and snacks were served promptly, right after take-off. I got two glasses of red wine. It was decent. Lunch was served an hour later. Some rice and chicken. Not the greatest but after 2 glasses of wine, it seemed pretty good. I asked for another glass of wine.

The in-flight entertainment was OK. There were games, movies, TV shows and some music. I started watching a movie and fell asleep immediately. Then I must have slept for 3 hours. I woke up only because I had to pee urgently. But there was a long queue. Clearly, I wasn’t the only one who went overboard with the wine.

Dinner was served later. It was the same thing I had for breakfast. It was called a pizza wrap. Generally, I’ve learnt in life not to eat anything that conflated the names of two dishes like Pizza Wrap, Biryani Burger, Idly Pakoda, Biryani Pizza and so on. This pizza wrap was terrible, to say the least. I was also told that there was no wifi. I was a bit disappointed as I wanted to check the score. I asked for another glass of wine to take the edge off.

The flight landed 10 minutes earlier than scheduled. But immigration at Heathrow made sure those 10 minutes were made up for. It took more than an hour at Terminal 4. I think they’ve delegated this terminal exclusively to poor Asian countries. The queue was never-ending. The immigration officer wasn’t the most friendly guy. He wasn’t badly behaved either. He just seemed a bit cold, that’s it. But these things are amplified when you’re made to wait 90 minutes. Being accustomed to watching stuff with subtitles on made me look for the captions button on the counter. There was none. He could have been speaking Gaelic. He wanted to see my ticket to Canada when I told him I don’t have a job in Canada. Other than that it was pretty smooth. In all, it didn’t take more than 2 minutes at the counter.

My return from London was at Gatwick airport. I got there 2 hours before departure. Here, things were a little different. You have to check in your bags at the self-check-in kiosks. First I had to get tags from a machine by scanning my passport. A woman helped me put the tags on my bags. Then I had to go to the check-in area nearby to physically drop off the bags. After that, strangely there was no immigration while leaving London.

Right after security, I was greeted by an expansive duty-free exhibition. They had a nice collection of alcohol and colognes. I bought a bottle of whisky and a couple of colognes. I had some pounds left in my multi-currency Forex card, I used that up(on that note, I think forex cards are very convenient for swiping and online shopping). Also note, London duty-free is generally more expensive, especially for cigarettes and tobacco.

The westjet flight from London to Toronto was running on time and boarding happened promptly. I noticed that most travellers were either visiting Canada or going back to Canada. It didn’t seem like there were many immigrants. As luck would have it, I got a window seat and the seat next to mine was empty on an otherwise full flight. The flight was about to leave and someone decided she wants to deplane because she was nervous. So that caused a 2-hour delay as they had to deplane all passengers in order to do a security check. But I later realized that the 2-hour delay was a blessing in disguise.

The flight seemed slightly more spacious than the Jet. Since this was a super-budget airline, everything had to be bought onboard. But the menu was fairly affordable. I bought a meal and a drink combo. The meal was pretty yummy and the wine was a notch better too. My forex card came in handy to pay as cash was not accepted. I bought another glass of wine. This was an eight-hour flight. The onboard entertainment was also a paid service hence I stuck to Netflix on my phone. There was paid wifi. 500 Rupees for 3 hours. Was pretty slow but good enough for basic browsing, scores and WhatsApp.

Snacks and tea were served later. This was on the house. Dinner came later. That was also pretty good. Overall, I was very pleased with Westjet. I think their heart is in the right place.

The flight landed at Toronto Pearson airport 10 minutes earlier than the revised schedule. I walked out along with the rest of the passengers. After walking some, there were several declaration kiosks. I barely waited a minute before it was my turn. These were machines where you scan your passport and your details show up on the screen. You are then asked a few questions about the purpose of your travel and if you’re carrying dangerous items into Canada. You’d be wise to say no to all, either way. A photo is taken automatically and the machine hands a slip with your photo and details on it.

From there I walked to the next section which was immigration. I was the only one it turns out. The officer looked really bored and tired as it was already 6:30 in the PM. He made a funny remark about my t-shirt. I didn’t think it was funny. He asked if I knew someone in Canada. I said a couple of acquaintances. He then asked if I had any dependents. I said no after a pause as the question seemed a bit out of context. He then asked why I paused. I said I wasn’t sure if I heard the question right. He seemed satisfied. After doing a bunch of things on his computer he asked if my PR card can be mailed to the same address. I said no. He said then I’ll have to update the address later. I said cool. Finally, I was made to sign on copr papers. He then said I’m good to go. Proof of funds wasn’t asked for.

As soon as I exited immigration. I was greeted by a friendly-looking man and woman duo, at the Service Canada section. They asked if I’d like to get my SIN. I said yes, please. The guy handed me a bunch of pamphlets and a Welcome to Canada book. Then I was given a tiny form which strangely asked for my mum and dad’s birth names and not my name. I filled it out and my SIN was processed immediately as I was the only one. The lady behind the counter said Welcome to Canada and good luck. She seemed sweet. In all, this whole process didn’t take more than 20 minutes from landing.

I walked out of the airport and asked for a cab and there was a cab right in front of me. I took that and gave my address in Mississauga. It took me barely 15 minutes and I reached my place. While in the car, the driver said I’m lucky as the traffic was terrible just an hour ago. So I guess the flight delay wasn’t a terrible thing.

The guy I’m staying with took me to a mall to get a phone number. A woman there patiently explained all the plans. Heads up, everything’s pretty expensive. I got a Virgin mobile postpaid. It’s 55$ a month for unlimited local calls and 4 GB data. There was a credit cap of 200$ since I had no credit score in Canada. I later found out that I can’t make calls to India or any other country for 6 months. A friend suggested I switch to Roger’s after a month. Another friend suggested I buy calling cards till then. Apparently, they’re really cheap for making calls to India.

It’s only been a day here. So far, everything’s been great. The weather is pretty cold but I like it. Tomorrow, I plan to open a bank account. A friend warned about credit cards, he said every rejected application affects the credit score and that’s a problem later. He suggested I use prepaid cards till my credit score is built. Will expand on that topic when I have all the information.

A couple of takeaways: a short holiday in Europe is a great idea to ease the pain of a long journey, and it also makes the immigration process in Canada much easier since you're typically landing with non-immigrants. Leave a comment if you have a question.

Later. Peace out.