Canada Fall '24 - Ep. 02 - Reunited with My Best Friend in Toronto
3-Hour Transit at Incheon
The crisp morning air greeted me as soon as I stepped out of the plane into the jet bridge to make my way to the terminal. The sun has just started peaking from the horizon, painting the soft blue sky with orange highlights behind the clouds.
Good morning South Korea.
It’s been five months since the last time I was here and it felt just like any other time I arrived at this airpot, tired and in dire need of sleep. Some passengers from my flight seemed to share my sentiment seeing how they’re dragging their feet while others—mostly Koreans from my observation—walked in a faster speed, waving through us the slower ones.
While the majority of my flight mates turned left to head to the immigration, I walked a little further down the terminal towards the bright green entry leading to Incheon Airport’s International Departure Terminal 2 for my second leg of the flight.
The security check are was pretty quiet since there weren’t that many people who were transiting on my flight. I did the usual song and dance of putting my bag, laptop, and carry-on inside the screening bins before walking into the backscatter passenger scanner and picked them up again on the other side.
Shower & Breakfast at KAL Prestige Class Lounge
Terminal 2 on the other hand was pretty bustling with people who looked way too energetic and cheerful this early in the morning for my non-morning-person self. I didn’t remember Incheon being so busy at this hour of the day but seemed like a lot of people were catching early morning flights today. After being momentarily distracted by the delicious smell of the hot breakfast sandwiches and coffee aroma when I passed Dunkin Donuts, I made my way to KAL Prestige Class Lounge on the 4th floor of Gate 249. One of the perks of my Morning Calm Club membership is that I got 4 vouchers to the KAL Prestige Class Lounge every two years when my membership is active. And these past two years, I haven’t used any of them so I thought today’s the perfect time to use it since the vouchers are actually expiring this month.
After I showed my passport and boarding pass to the staff in front of the lounge, I immediately headed to my favorite part of this lounge, the shower room. The shower rooms at the KAL Lounge are pretty clean and spacious with basic amenities such as body wash, shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, shaving cream, towels, toothbrush, and hair dryer provided in each room (see how it looks like on my vlog).
20 minutes later, I’ve washed the plane off of me and felt more awake than I was before when I got off the plane. Honestly, being able to shower right before a flight—especially a long-haul one—is one of my favorite thing to do. Boarding a flight feeling clean and refreshed just makes a long-haul flight a little bit more bearable.
Next, I headed to the main area of the lounge to get some breakfast. Usually, I don’t do breakfast but just in case I get clumsy again and spill my food on the next flight, thought I should have some. I had the scramble eggs, sausage, hash brown, mushroom, porridge and miso soup from the buffet selections. They were alright. I think I’ve had better ones during my previous visits but it was good enough to just fill my stomach with something.
Seat Change Update
Half hour before my boarding time, I made it to Gate 231 and walked up to the gate agent who was standing behind the counter. The middle-aged Korean man didn’t seem too friendly and if it was any other day where there’s no baby sitting next to me is involved, I probably wouldn’t bother him. But since my peace for the next 13 hours was on the line, I reluctantly spoke up.
“Excuse me sir.”
The man looked up from the screen he was looking at and gave me a glare, which I interpreted as either he wanted me to continue with whatever I’m going to say quickly or his attempt to discourage me to do so so he has one less problem to deal with. Okay, not a very good start to this whole following up on my seat change issue but I chose to believe the former so I continued.
“The agent in Jakarta who checked me in told me to follow up with you about my seat change since I’m seated next to a baby,” I explained.
“Ah yes. The seat change. I’ve seen the note made on your ticket but I’m sorry, no other seats available. It’s a full flight,” he said while shaking his head and waving his hands in front of him.
There was a finality to his answer and I didn’t really want to push or argue so I just nodded I said, “Ah, I see. That’s fine then. Thank you.”
So I guess I’m braving this 13-hour flight sitting next to baby. At this point, I’ve made peace with my fate and was just hoping that the baby is chill and won’t be too fussy.
I did a poll on my Instagram about this whole situation and the majority of people who voted seem to prefer sitting away from the baby even if it requires you to sit at the very back of the plane. A sensible choice to be honest and I can totally understand that. Even so, there’s also some people who are like me who’d rather stay in the current seat in front of the plane next to a baby. Guess I’m not alone in this after all.
One friend commented on my story, “How did you know that you’re going to sit next to a baby? I want to know too.”
If you read my previous post, I actually found out from the staff who checked me in at CGK when I did my baggage drop. Honestly, I was pretty impressed that they’re trying to find me a better seat when they saw that I’m surrounded by babies when I didn’t even ask them to move me. Props to them for the initiative taken.
Also, the funniest replies I actually got from my friends who are a mom.
“Omg even I’m scared. If it’s a newborn, bye,” said one friend.
“Even I who has a kid don’t want to sit next to a baby. Lol,” another one said.
Another thing I love about the Korean Air app, (i don’t know if any other airline also does this too but) Korean Air gives you updates when your luggages are loaded into the plane. A very good feature for people like me who’s paranoid that my suitcases could get lost in transit.
Second Leg: Seoul (Icn) to Toronto (YYZ)
At 9 am, I was riding the escalator down to the jet bridge to board my flight. There was a family with a baby in front of me so I saw one of the six babies that were supposedly going to be on this flight. When I got to my row, the seats next to me were still empty. So I settled in and waited nervously for my seat mates to come.
One by one, people passed by my row trying to make their way to their seats. I saw two families with babies who sat a couple of rows in front of me. Then there was a family with toddlers that came and sat on the row across from me on the right. More people walked by while the two seat to my left was still empty and I saw no baby approaching my seat just yet.
After a while, suddenly somebody stopped in front of my row and said, “Excuse me. This is me.”
I looked up surprised and quickly stood up from my seat to let the person get to their seat.
My mind was honestly still very confused when I settled back to my seat and buckled my seatbelt because tell me why, instead of a parent with a baby, the person who’s currently sitting next to me was a young Korean-Canadian guy wearing a hoodie and what looked like a pajamas pant, leaving a trail of scent that lingered even after he settled on his seat (thank god it’s not some weird smelling perfume).
Then I thought to myself, ‘Okay, at least no baby is sitting on my left and my right. Maybe the staff meant there’s a baby sitting next to this guy on my left. The same row as me but on the opposite end.’
More people boarded the plane and that far left seat on my row stayed empty.
While waiting for the occupant of that seat, I asked the guy next to me, “Did they tell you about the baby?”
He looked up and leaned closer to me, “Sorry?”
“Did they tell you there’s going to be a baby sitting next to you?” I asked again, curious if he received the same information that I did.
“Oh. No, they didn’t,” he shook his head. “There’s going to be a baby sitting next to me?”
“The staff who checked me in told me there’s going to be a baby sitting next to me and there will be 6 babies on this flight.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that. I bought this flight last minute so I just got whatever seat is available,” the guy replied.
“I see,” I nodded. “Well, let’s hope if there’s a baby sitting next to you, they won’t be fussy.”
“I hope so,” he smiled and leaned back on his seat.
Finally, after most people has settled in their seat, the owner of the empty seat on my row appeared. And what do you know, the person was a young woman traveling alone (at least from my observation) with no baby on her!
I guess this past 12 hours, I was worrying for nothing because there’s no baby sitting right next to me. Woo hoo! This was the very best scenario that I didn’t even think of. But I was kind of surrounded by babies, toddlers and kids. Maybe this was what the staff in Jakarta meant and I just assumed that the baby is going to sit right next to me because to be fair, being surrounded by babies, toddlers and kids could get uncomfortable too if all of them are crying loudly.
For this flight, the first meal options were Chilled Acorn Jelly and Rice Soup (Korean), Stir Fried Beef with Oyster Sauce (Chinese) and Vegetables Mapa Tofu (Chinese Vegetarian). Didn’t really feel like eating something cold so I opted for the Stir Fried Beef with Oyster Sauce that’s served with thin noodles with the sides of fresh salad (shrimp, cucumber, tomatoes, and arugula), chocolate bun and matcha chiffon cake. The thinly sliced beef was tender. The oyster sauce was nicely seasoned with bold flavors. The carrots and the peas were cooked softly and the so was the noodle. It was a solid 8/10 dish.
The highlight of my meal though was the dessert. The matcha chiffon cake was probably the best in-flight dessert I’ve ever had. The chiffon cake was soft and moist and it was topped with delicious matcha cream that tasted so good. The. Best. A 10/10 dish for this one.
While having my first meal, I decided to watch ‘Now You See Me 2’, an old movie that is on my good-to-rewatch list. If you haven’t watched it already, the plot is about the illusionists known as the Four Horsemen who find themselves in more trouble in Macau, China after fleeing from a stage show. Devious tech wizard forces the infamous magicians to steal a powerful chip that can control all of the world’s computers. Rewatching this movie 8 years later after my first time seeing it was still pretty entertaining. My rating: 8.5/10.
The lights in the cabin was dimmed soon after meal service was completed, encouraging the passengers to get some sleep. But I was still feeling stuffed so I decided to finish watching the movie. After the credits rolled and my food was somewhat digested, I took off my contacts and went to sleep.
After five hours of not-so-deep sleep, I got woken up by delicious smell of food in the cabin. Snack service apparently has begun and I rapidly blinked my dry eyes to force myself awake. Minutes later, a familiar warm rectangle box was placed on top of my tray table along with a cup of water I asked for from the flight attendant when she asked if I want anything to drink. Korean Air’s Tomato Vegetable Pizza is one of my personal favorite in-flight snack and probably one of the best snacks I’ve had on a flight. The soft, chewy pizza was covered in delicious tomato sauce and gooey light cheese with tomato and vegetable toppings on top. The portion was just right and it’s served warm (sometimes it’s still super hot even that I had to blow it before I took a bite). This snack was a 10/10. Also, I love the multiple pull tabs it has on the box where you can tear off the packaging from so you can eat the pizza without getting your hands dirty.
Although I was still in need of sleep, I couldn’t seemed to fall back to sleep after finishing that slice of pizza. Maybe it’s the combination of my body started to feeling sore from sitting too long (it was hour 13 of me sitting on the plane since the night before), the warm temperature of the cabin and the faint baby crying noise that escaped my AirPods’ noise-cancelling feature that made my body restless and chased away the sleep.
And so I decided to continue watching the second movie I started when I was eating my snack, ‘The Invisible Guest’ (Chinese). The movie is about Joanna, a young entrepreneur who’s accused of being the mastermind behind a locked-room murder case involving her ex. To clear her name, she works with a police officer, Zheng Wei, who’s in charge of her case and offered to make her case go away in exchange for some money.
By the end of this movie, I just realized that I’ve actually watched the Korean adaptation of this movie (‘자백’ or ‘Confession’ starring So Ji Sub) during one of my previous flights and that’s why the plot is so familiar. It’s not exactly the same, but it has the same story progression as the Korean version. Still, this one’s a pretty good adaptation. My rating: 8/10.
It’s been 10 hours of sitting on this plane and 23 hours since I stepped into the airport last night and I still have three more hours to go. It’s half hour before the next meal service so I decided to freshen up a bit before the queue of the bathroom started getting too long. It usually happens after the the crew turns on the lights inside the cabin to wake everybody up for the meal service.
I started watching my third movie after I got back to my seat. My pick this time was ‘Retribution’ starring Liam Neeson whose character is driving a car with his two kids when he received a phone call from an unknown assailant who claims there is a bomb in the car that will explode if any of them exit the vehicle. He then has to follow a series of twisted instructions while trying to figure out how to survive. My rating: 7.5/10. This movie also kind of reminded me of other movies that I’ve watched in the past that has similar plot. ‘데시벨’ or ‘Decibel’ (a Korean espionage action thriller movie) for one, but honestly, for me ‘Decibel’ was executed better and more interesting.
For the second in-flight meal, the options are between two Western menu: the Braised Beef Stew with Olive Tomato Sauce or the Linguine Pasta with Rose Sauce. I chose the Braised Beef Stew just because I didn’t feel like eating noodles two times in a row. It was served with fresh salad, apple and orange slice, and butter bun. I wasn’t expecting much for this one just because I’ve had beef stew multiple times in the past but the beef stew was actually better than what I thought it’d be. The super tender meat was coated with flavorful sauce that wasn’t too heavy. And the mash potatoes were super creamy. I really liked it. It’s a 8.5/10 for me.
Solution for Noisy Baby Crying Noises During Flight: Noise-Cancelling Earphones
Now that I was approaching the end of my 13-hour flight, I can say that sitting on a flight surrounded by 6 babies, kids and toddlers wasn’t too bad. There were some episodes of the babies being fussy during the flight and woke me up from my sleep, but honestly, they were still bearable. I do have my AirPods Pro to thank though because I had them on during the duration of the flight (except when I was watching movies where I switched to just a regular cable earphones) and it did a pretty good job of blocking the baby crying noises as well as the fairly noisy cabin noise, even when I’m not playing any music on my phone. So I just mainly keep them in my ear for the noise-cancelling feature and it worked wonderfully.
If you’re looking for a more affordable option, Anker actually has a good alternative. I copped the Soundcore R50i NC three months ago and for the low price of IDR299.000 (≈$18.88), I think the sound quality and the noise-cancelling feature work pretty well. Plus the case is easier to clean.
I actually also own a regular earplugs that help with blocking out noise in less noisy places which is the Loop Earplugs Quiet 2. It’s made out of silicone with various ear tip sizes and does a 24 DB (SNR) of noise reduction. And interestingly, turns out a couple of my friends also own this earplugs.
22 minutes before landing, the captain finally announced that we’re making our descent to Toronto Pearson International Airport. Me and the rest of the cabin started to put all our things away in preparation for landing and I can’t wait to finally stretch my legs soon.
Touch Down Toronto
9:30 am local time, I finally stepped my foot on Canadian soil and found myself inside Toronto Pearson International Airport. Current outside temperature was 20°C so the weather was really nice. Even though I’ve been here before, I didn’t recall any parts of this airport from my trip more than a decade ago. It felt like my first time being here all over again.
The walk to the immigration was pretty long but welcomed since I get to stretch my foot for a bit. I was worried that immigration here will be like my last experience when I entered the U.S. through San Francisco (it took me three hours to just get into the country because I got selected for a secondary screening), but for the second time on this trip, I was worried for nothing. Immigration here was a breeze. There are primary inspection kiosk (PIK) or eGate that you can use and the process is pretty straightforward.
1. Scan your passport
2. Take your photo at the kiosk when prompted
3. Answer a few questions to complete your customs declaration
4. Take your kiosk printed receipt to a border service officer
If everything is a-okay, the officer will direct you to the exit door leading to the baggage claim. But if they select you for secondary screening, you'd probably will have to line up at one the counters to see the immigration officer.
The whole thing took me maybe about 5 minutes. It’s super fast and efficient and I’m super impressed.
When I arrived at the baggage claim area, I saw the porter service sign near the entrance. The rate is $20 for 1-3 bags and $3 for each additional bag. I rarely saw porter service at airports overseas so I thought this was interesting.
After being impressed by how fast and speedy the immigration was, I once again was being impressed by how fast the baggage handling was at this airport. The bags from my flight actually already starting to come out on the belt by the time I get to baggage claim. And since my Morning Calm membership perks also comes with priority baggage handling, my suitcases were already out on the belt waiting for me.
They also have staff who picked up the luggages from the belt and lined them up on the floor so it’s easier for passengers to grab their suitcases. I’m really liking this system because it spared me for any potential muscle strain when I lift my suitcase from the belt (believe me, it has happened multiple times in the past).
I think this is a Korean Air thing (or maybe other airlines are also doing it, I just don’t know about it) because they also do similar thing in Jakarta airport and Incheon airport where they usually rearrange the placement of the luggages on the belt so they’re easier to be picked up.
Exactly seven minutes later, I’m out at the arrival hall waiting for my friend Juli to come and pick up me up. My flight arrived half an hour earlier than the scheduled time of arrival so she’s still on her way.
The arrival hall was ordinary. It’s clean and organized but nothing too special about it. The place wasn’t too busy either. Maybe because there weren’t many flights that are arriving at this hour of the day.
Pre-paid eSim
For this trip, I’m trying out eSim for the first time and it worked pretty well. Purchased the 30-Days 10GB USA Canada eSim from Digi Travel on Tokopedia and it costs IDR 387,000 (≈$24.5). The QR code and activation instructions were sent to my email and the process was pretty simple. I activated it on the day of my flight and it worked the moment I turned on my phone when I landed in Toronto (as well as when I arrived in the US three weeks later). And I have to say, it’s nice not having to switch out sim cards.
Reunited with My Best Friend
A little past 10 am, I finally spotted a familiar figure in a black parka wearing flip flops walking towards me. My best friend was finally here and she hasn’t noticed me yet since she’s so focused on typing something her phone. Probably work related I assume since she’s technically on the clock. When she did look up from her phone, she looked ahead of her and started to search for my face in the crowd. The thing is I was already right in front of her and she didn’t even noticed me. Not until a couple of seconds later when she’s closer she finally saw me and we both laughed when we made eye contact.
“Where are you going ma’am?” I teased before hugging her hello.
“Sorry I’m late,” she apologized after we pulled away and I was laughing at her slightly panicked state.
“Did you just wake up?” I asked, noticing that she looked like she just got out of the shower and immediately left for the airport.
“So, I woke up at 8:30 this morning,” she started explaining herself using that upbeat expressive tone that I’ve been used to hearing from her since middle school.
“Uh huh. But?”
“But you’re super early! You’re supposed to arrive at 9:55,” she replied animatedly, clearly not expecting me to out at the arrival hall half this fast.
“Yes, yes, I’m super early,” I said agreeing with her because even I didn’t predict that I’m going to be out at the arrival hall half an hour early.
“So yeah, when you messaged me when you just landed, I just finished showering and I was like, ‘Oh my god!’ And then I was rushing,” she continued rapidly with her hands moving animatedly in front of her.
“Were you panicked?” I asked, holding in my laugh listening to her explanation.
“Yeah, I was pretty panicked. Cause I don’t want you to wait around for too long at this airport because our airport is not very nice,” she replied, lowering her tone at the end.
If you’re a long time follower of my Instagram, you probably recognized Juli from my Disney World trip a couple of years back. We took a vacation together to Orlando to visit the Disney World and Universal Studio but she was working during the whole trip. I ended up making a series of videos of her working on her phone while we’re on the theme parks and posted them on my Insta story. It became sort of a running joke between us and even with some of my IG followers since they remember her from the incident. I’ve got a couple of comments in the past every time she showed up on my IG story that went something like, “Isn’t this your friend who’s always on her phone in Disney World?”. Yes guys, this is her. She’s also the whole reason why I flew to Toronto this time, to spend time with her and see what her life looks like now that she’s not working 24-hours (she works for a different company now that has a more reasonable office hours).
After a quick selfie in front of the YYZ installation, Juli ordered us an Uber to go back to her house. The 25-minutes ride was filled with small talks about lighter topics since my brain wasn’t really fully functioning due to the lack of sleep. One of the things she told me was Uber is now pretty cheap in Toronto due to an influx of new immigrants that came into the country who started working as Uber drivers. Following the the law of supply and demand, the rising numbers of drivers then resulted in lower cost for Uber users. She said Uber rate is now almost 30%-40% cheaper compared to years before so she uses Uber more often these days.
I Got a Labubu
When we got to her house, the first thing I got was a house tour. The place she’s currently living in is different than the place she lived in the last time I came to visit her. So this was the first time I’m seeing her new house. One of the highlight of her place is that she got a play room where she keeps all her toy collections on display. I knew she was a collector but I didn’t know that her collection is this big.
And of course with the Labubu hype that’s going on right now in Asia, I immediately spot her Labubu collection that’s up on one of the shelves. And the for the next couple of minutes, Juli went into her fan-slash-professor mode, talking energetically and animatedly about all things Labubu while I tried to absorb all these new information into my brain (you can see all her Labubu excitement in the vlog).
At some point, she also gifted me with one Labubu—the Sea Salt Coconut one—since she knows Blackpink Lisa is a big fan of Labubu and Rosé received one from Lisa and I guess since I’m a big fan of Blackpink, she thinks I should have one too. It’s pretty sweet really.
“This is the blue one for you so you can match with Rosé’s,” she said excitedly as she pulled out the toy from the plastic packaging, revealing the famous monster with sharp teeth and pointed ears.
“How did you know Rosé owns that one?” I asked surprised since I know that she likes Blackpink, but she doesn’t follow Blackpink updates as close as I do.
“Of course!” She said proudly. I guess she really keeps up with Blackpink updates these days, especially the Labubu-related ones it seems. (Although later on, we found out that Rosé’s Labubu from Lisa is actually the Sesame Bean one, not the Sea Salt Coconut. The girl made a mistake when looking at the photo. Lol.)
First Meal in Toronto: Korean Food
Two hours later, I finally was able to relax in my comfy PJs, fresh out of the shower. I didn’t really feel like going out today since I’m still tired from my flight so we decided to have a chill day at home and just order delivery. For lunch, we ordered from one of Juli’s favorite Korean place, The Famous Owl of Minerva.
We ordered the Seafood Green Onion Pancake (해물파전), Beef Short Ribs Soup (Galbitang 갈비탕), and LA Galbi (LA 갈비) to share. The Seafood Pancake was nice and thick with generous toppings. The meat in the Galbitang was tender and the broth was super comforting. The LA Galbi was a bit on the drier side for my personal taste but the meat was nicely seasoned with smokiness to it. Their kimchi was also really good, although it was super spicy for me. Juli really likes their kimchi (since she eats spicy food better than me). She usually use their kimchi to make kimchi fried rice and she even made one for me to try. And it’s good. All and all, it was a 8.5/10 for my first meal in Toronto.
Cure for the Jet lag
At 3:37 pm, my eyes started to get really heavy as the jet lag was hitting me hard. It’s been a while since my last jet lag and as I was trying to fight the sleepiness away, I felt that I’m slowly losing the battle. So then Juli offered to order me some Milk Tea to keep me awake and I quickly agreed.
45-minutes later, I had a cup of Black Milk Tea from Machi Machi in my hand—light sugar, light ice with half mini taro and kanten toppings. The milk tea was really good. Light, fragrant and not too sweet. I also like the mini taro and kanten toppings as well. A 8/10 from me. I wasn’t sure before that the milk tea could help to keep me awake, but what do you know, it actually worked. An hour later after my first sip, I felt more awake than I was before. I guess their black tea is really strong.
The rest of the evening was filled with more catch up with Juli, talking about her Pop Mart obsession and other things we haven’t had the chance to tell each other (which is a lot) since our last meet in Jakarta back in December 2019. And there’s no way we can talk about everything today. But even so, we did managed to share some shorter tidbits of our lives before we finally decided to call it a night and went to bed. And that was my first day in Toronto.
