Tuesday 26, November 2024

What a long day. We were up early (6:00 a.m.) so that we could have breakfast and pack the blue bag, which is what we use for our panniers. One of my panniers converts into a backpack, that is where I put my computer, Ralf’s iPad and all the other gadgets and various connectors we need, also our warm puffy jackets. It is going to be cold in Montreal.

At 7:25 a.m. we were in the lobby waiting for our taxi. Fingers crossed we would get a van. We didn’t get a van, the taxi was a Toyota SUV, just a little bit bigger than our Honda HRV. The bikes would fit, the blue bag was next to me in the back seat and Ralf sat in the front seat. When we asked at reception to book a taxi for us, they told us it would be 250 TWD ($10.80) and only take 15 minutes to get to the airport. The cost was 200 TWD, ($8.65) and it took 10 minutes. Woo hoo off to a good start.

We were early but we had the bikes, and we always like to be early. Once again, we were amazed at the efficiency of Taiwan and the airport. One of the baggage handlers took our bikes to the over-sized area and we were ready to line up for passport control and security. The pannier went through the x-ray, and we scanned our own passport and directed by the machine to stand still, and our photo was taken.

We were all done and dusted by 8:30. Boarding was at 10:30, flight at 11:10.  We had two-hours to kill and no money to spend. Mind you there were very few shops that we could afford to shop in – GUCCI, Barberry, Rolex, TAG Heuer etc. Ralf had already exchanged our remaining TWD to U.S dollars before we went through passport control.

The plane was ready to leave at 11:00 and it pushed back from the gate on time. The Captain informed us that we would hit some turbulence during the flight. We hit a lot of turbulence on the way out. Oh well, if the plane falls out of the sky at least we go together.

As we were lined up to board, a young Asian woman asked if we had cycled the Island. The bicycle helmets might have given it away. We got chatting to her, she had cycled the Island with an organized tour (Giant). She had rented their bikes and in her tour group there was about 12 people. She asked how long we had taken. We said we had been in Taiwan for five weeks and had taken about 25 days to cycle the whole Island including Kenting and the northern lighthouse. I wasn’t quite sure if she was impressed that we had cycled the whole island or surprised it had taken us so long. Most people cycle the Island in about 10 days, averaging 100 kms per day. We told her that we had wanted to see and enjoy the Island.

The flight apart from the turbulence was good and I watched a couple of movies and had a catnap for about an hour. Ralf binged watched Deadpool 1 & 2 and Deadpool Wolverine. He said afterwards that there was several hours of his life he would never get back again.

My worst fear with this flight was that we would have to clear customs and get our bags, then check-in again at the Air Canada counter. We had two hours to do this. As we were ready to land the flight attendant confirmed that we would have to clear customs, passport control and pick up our bags. Baggage for connecting flights would have to be rechecked!!

By the time we got off the plane we had barely an hour before boarding started for the flight to Montreal.

We were waiting for passport control and the young Asian woman spotted us. We started chatting again, she was very interested in our trip. I told her about the blog. Immediately she went on-line and was checking it out. She asked, where else we had travelled and what was our favourite place. South Korea said I, New Zealand said Ralf. Back on to her phone and was checking out the blog from South Korea. I am notorious for chatting to people (Czech couple) and not introducing myself and finding out the names of who I am chatting to. This young woman was so nice I introduced myself and was about to say this is Ralf, when she said, “this is Ralf”. She had been reading the blog but didn’t know my name because of course I am writing the blog and do not mention my own name. Daisy and I shook hands, and she told me she lives in Vancouver and had a four-hour lay-over.

I wish we had a four hour lay-over. Eventually we got to the front of the line, and wouldn’t you know it we had a chatty customs officer. Usual questions, then, “You cycled in Taiwan, how was that? blah blah blah”. I am trying not to look at my watch as time was ticking, and we still had to get the bikes.

We got two carts, Ralf went to over-sized pick-up, and I went to pick up the blue bag. Then we waited and waited for our bikes. What to do, do we leave the bikes and get to the Air Canada flight, or do we miss the flight and wait for the bikes?

Eventually a fella came around and moved a surfboard that had been stopping the conveyor from moving and our bikes arrived. We ran to Terminal One!! It was the other side of the airport. We had about 15 minutes before the plane started to board.

The fella at the Air Canada counter was very calm. I was burbling about arriving from Taiwan and Customs, Passport control, the bikes etc. All while trying to hand in the etickets, passports and any other piece of paper I could find. He said very calmly as if we had all the time in the world, “let’s try and get you on that plane shall we”. One of the baggage handlers took our bikes, the blue bag was on the conveyor, and he gave us our boarding cards and we were off and running again.

Then we hit passport control and security. Hurry up and wait. We were third in-line to put our bags in the trays, I asked the guy in front if he would mind if we pushed in. “No problem and you can go in front of that guy as well we are together”. The guy who was now ahead of us couldn’t stand in the right position for the x-ray machine. It took him three attempts. Can anything else go wrong. Yep, the guy who was getting his passport checked ahead of us gave the border officer an expired passport. He slowly dug into his bag and got the right one out. Finally, she checked us through. Again, we were off and running to the gate. They had started boarding, but not our seats yet. We were going to get on the plane, whether our bikes and luggage would get on, is another question.

I didn’t even have time to go to the loo before getting on the plane. But we were on the plane and heading home.

“This is your Captain Speaking”. AAAAgh what next, we looked out of the window and there was the blue bag and the bikes sitting on the conveyor and the truck. “Unfortunately, we will be delayed pushing back from the gate as we have a couple of passengers who have not shown up for the flight, we have had to remove their bags.”

NO, we are here, please don’t remove our bags. Phew, they were taking other bags off, not ours. Of course, the baggage handlers now were really miffed as they had to do this in the rain, and we watched them throw our bikes back onto the conveyor.

A relatively short flight of 4.5 hours and we were landing in Montreal.  What joy and chaos will we have here.  As I turned my phone from Airplane mode to normal It pinged with a message from our taxi driver from Howard’s. “Hi, I am Francis your taxi driver. I am waiting at the Wal-Mart parking lot. When you are ready to be picked up text me and I will be there in 10 minutes.”

Yeah, we have a taxi.

Clear passport control – you do it yourself. There is a bank of machines where you scan in your own passport, answer the questions that a border control office would have asked you. the machine then takes a photo of you and prints a clearance sheet for you to hand into the border control officer, after you have picked up your bags. That was easy and quick.

O.k. luggage, last time we landed at Montreal it was a game of guess which carousel your baggage is going to. No, you guessed wrong we are putting it on a different carousel, even though we told you it was carousel 5, we have put it on carousel 8.

Not this time, because our blue bag was last on the plane it came out first. The bikes were also waiting for us at the over-sized carousel.

We were done and dusted in less than half an hour. We got to the pick-up/drop-off area and texted Francis. Less than 10 minutes later we were heading out of the airport.  Francis told us there was a bit of a traffic slow-down around Vaudreuil but then it should be plain sailing home. No slow-downs and we were home by 7:30 p.m.  We had been awake for over 24 hours. We still needed something to eat, although we had been fed on the first flight, on the second flight we only got a snack – two biscuits!!

Fortunately, we did have some pasta and home-made pesto in the freezer and our wonderful cat/house sitter had left us a bottle of white wine in the fridge.

We managed to stay awake for another hour and then it was off to bed. Hopefully, because of the time I thought we might be able to get on Canadian time and schedule quickly and will not suffer too much from jet-lag.

As you can see by the posting date of this blog. The optimistic me of not suffering from jet-lag didn’t work out. Jet-lag has really bothered me this time. By mid-afternoon I am fading, I am falling asleep at 7:00 to 8:00 at night and waking up at 4:00 in the morning.  Today I woke up at 6:30, I am still bright and chipper at 4:00 p.m. and hopefully I can stay awake until my usual bedtime.

The bikes did not arrive unscathed. My bike again was damaged. Nothing serious, both of our front fenders need replacing and my back rack was damaged. Probably due to being thrown around in San Francisco. We will contact Montague to get the replacement parts and then get them both serviced. Just in case we want a spring cycling vacation.

One more post – Thoughts on Taiwan.