Domino Doors
Leaving Costa Rica was a sad affair. After 5 weeks there it really started to grow on us. The animals, the people and the nature in particular. I was also starting to really learn some Spanish. From Costa Rica our departure flight took us all the way around the globe in 48 hours. To Toronto Canada for one night then Japan and finally Thailand.
In Toronto we met Yara and Ihor, it was an unexpected coincidence that Ihor was in Canada that same week to see his family. Yara was very sweet and let us stay in her beautiful downtown apartment. Being in Toronto was refreshing, all that stress you have of being in a 3-rd world country is gone and instead it is just modern comfortable conveniences; all the simple things you take for granted.
Toronto itself was very pleasant and seemed really laid back. The people were very friendly, they struck conversations with us on the tram, helped to pay our bus fare and genuinely were quite open. Laura and I honestly had a moment considering living in Toronto! Now if it wasn't for that darn cold winter...
The next morning we got on our next flights and endured a very long journey on two planes. On our first fliight from Canada to Japan we got to sit in First Class for the last 30 minutes of the flight, which was interesting but overall Air Canada didn't do very well with their service. Good legroom but bad seats, frozen food that wasn't cooked and their inflight computers kept crashing on both of our flights.
Our stop over in Japan was brief, but somehow it was enough to give me a flash-back of my time in Japan in early 2007. Japanese people who are so cute they invoke that childhood desire to take something home to pet it and feed it and love it all day. The weird food, green-tea obsession, and marked efficiency that highlights but a few of their unique trademarks. Japanese people disembarked and new ones came aboard our third and final flight from Tokyo to Bangkok on Thai Air.
Thai Air wow'ed us with their great food, excellent economy seats and good service. We got off the flight in Bangkok, very late at night and went through customs. There were no problems with immigration and our 1-year visa's were successfully activated. We felt like we were now fully distorted through a thin and long time-warp-tunnel. It's quite an experience to go from Central America to Canada to Japan to Thailand in just two days, it's like the MTV blitz ADD experience of traveling.
The air was hot and very humid, the city buzzing and yet dark and looming. We embarked on our taxi and meandered through small tiny streets hunting for our hotel room, found the key in the vase and stepped through the gate, took off our shoes and walked on wooden floors into a barren and desolate room. A new life and adventure now awaits.