Canada Fall '24 - Ep. 05 - Playing Tourist in Downton Montréal

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Canada Fall '24 - Ep. 04 - My Personal Local Tour Guide

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this already but the whole reason for my Canada trip is to spend some time with Juli. A little bit of a background story, we’ve actually been friends since the 7th grade and apart from the first two years we spent together, the rest for our friendship has always been long distance. We did the Jakarta and Australia long distance when I moved to the land down under for high school. And after she moved to Toronto, we’ve been doing the Toronto and wherever-I-currently-am long distance since. During this more than two decades of friendship, apart from quick meet ups when she’s visiting Jakarta, we only have taken three trips together. One time during college when she visited me in San Francisco, one time after we graduated college when I visited her in Toronto, and the most recent one was when we went to Disneyworld in Orlando (technically, the first two trips weren’t even trips where we both went somewhere together, but we did spend time in the same place so you get what I mean). 

So this year, since it’s been a while since my last visit to Toronto and we missed each other last year (I was in the US when she was visiting Jakarta), I thought it’d be fun to pay her a visit and see what her life looks like these days since she told me that her job is now not as crazy busy as the previous ones that she had. 

We decided that I’d come for a three-week visit. That way she doesn’t have to take any time off work while we’d still have plenty of time to do catch ups and sightseeing during her free time. That also means that during the weekdays, our first half of the day was usually spent at home with both of us working. And since we both don’t really cook (she sometimes does and I don’t), we did a lot of Uber Eats orders for our meals. All of that is just me trying to say that you’re probably going to see a couple of Uber Eats orders on some of my blog posts. Anyways…

Quintessential Canadian Breakfast

I started the day with one of the most quintessential Canadian thing out there, Tim Hortons which according to Google is the equivalent of Dunkin’ Donuts in the US. I ordered the Bagel B.E.L.T (CA$5.39) since I’m craving bacon and Juli said their bagel is pretty good. I also ordered the Farmer’s Breakfast Wrap (CA$5.39) and the decaf French Vanilla (CA$3.29) per Juli’s recommendation since those are two of her favorite breakfast menus from Tim Hortons. And after trying them, I get why she likes them because they are pretty delicious. I liked all of them, even the decaf French Vanilla (a little too sweet for my personal preference, but it’s still good) which surprisingly sat well with my non-coffee-drinking stomach. 

Sushi Delivery

We spent the day at home because I had some stuff I needed to work on. And so for dinner we decided to get some sushi from one of Juli’s favorite sushi place, the R Sushi.

We ordered the Salmon Ikura Don (CA$25.95) that’s served with Miso soup and the Cherry Blossom Roll (CA$15.95) which basically a salmon avocado roll topped with tuna. The sashimi and Ikura were pretty fresh, the rice was good, and the portion was pretty fulfilling. A solid 8/10 from me. Also, we actually ordered quite a number of times from this place since Juli really likes sushi and sashimi and I do too.

First Time Riding Toronto’s Subway

The next day, after having a slow lazy Saturday morning at home, we finally left the house around 1 pm. Me, Juli and Tom took the subway and headed to Downtown Toronto to do some sightseeing. This was my first time riding Toronto’s subway since last time I was here, me and Juli pretty much just walked around the city since she lived in downtown. 

The fare for adult is CA$3.30 if paid with debit/credit card (CA$3.35 if you pay-as-you-go) and kids ages 0-12 ride for free. Apple Pay also works for paying the fare so it’s super convenient. I have to say that the station and the subway cars (at least the ones we were in) were definitely cleaner than New York’s subway. Inside the subway car wasn’t too quiet either. Unlike Japan or Korea’s subways that are usually pretty quiet and silent, here people talk among themselves in a moderate voice level. 

Strangers Asking for a Photo

We got off at Union Station and started our exploration in downtown Toronto. The first interesting building that we passed by was the Fairmont Royal York, a landmark Toronto hotel. The historic luxury hotel was opened in June 1929 and its tall Châteauesque-styled structure is certainly a head turner for people who walk by the building, including me.

I stopped to take some shots of the building and suddenly a group of three teenage boys approached me. One of them asked me if i can take a picture of them. Strangers walking up to me asking me to take their pictures is nothing new to me and has happened multiple times during my travels. Even so, every time it happened, it never ceases to confuse me on why you would want a stranger—who you probably will never see again—to take your pictures. Nevertheless, when I feel like it, i usually oblige to their request just to see what will happen. this time, the conversation went something like this:

“Excuse me, can you take a picture of us?” 

I looked away from my camera and found the boy who asked me the question standing not too far from me with his two friends behind him. A little surprised and confused at the ask I replied with, “Why?” 

The boy just shrugged. “Just because.”

Well, the answer was simple and innocent enough so I said, “Sure.”

He then called over his friends and i told them to stand in front of me with the Fairmont Royal York building in the background and took a couple of shots. After i finished with my shots and told them I’m done, they thanked me and starting to walk away. I quickly asked them if they want to give me their email or something so I can send over the pictures to them. One of them said sure so I handed over my phone to them so they can type out their email address.

“You guys from around here?” I asked while the boy was typing.

“No, we’re from up north.” he replied before handing me back my phone. The reply made their request make more sense now. Fellow tourists asking for a photo isn’t that weird. Although what’s weird is that they didn’t ask me to take one with one of their phones.

“Cool.” I said checking the email address he wrote before slipping my phone back to my pocket. “I’ll send over the photos.”

“Thanks!” he said and the three boys gave me slight nods and waved before walking away.

And that’s my the first another random encounter with strangers on this trip. Went pretty normal I’d say. If you were me, would you take their pictures?

Touristy Things 

After that encounter, we arrived at the first spot Juli wanted to take me to, the Berczy Park. The park is pretty nice. Not too big, not too small, and not too crowded. There were a lot of dog-owners roaming around the area since it’s a dog park. There were also people who are sitting around on the benches and picnic tables around the park. It’s a pretty nice place to people and dog watch I’d say, especially when the weather is nice like today (it was 21°C when we were there so the weather was perfect).

We then stopped by at the Gooderham Building, another one of Toronto’s landmark that is dubbed as Toronto’s version of the Flatiron building. It’s smaller in size and even though it looks like a dupe of the NYC’s Flatiron Building, interestingly this building was actually build first. Photographing the building can be a little bit challenging since you have to take the shot from the other side. Even more challenging if you yourself want to be in the shot. But it’s doable. And if you get it from certain angle, you can also get the CN Tower in the background.

After a short 3-minute walk from the Gooderham Building, we arrived at St. Lawrence Market. The market kind of reminded me of Granville Island Public Market in Vancouver. Similar vibes, but I feel like maybe the space here is a bit more spacious. There are lots of food vendors inside the building and a great place to grab a bite if you want a lot of options to choose from. 

I wasn’t really hungry when we were there and there was nothing in particular that I was dying to try so I just did some sightseeing and didn’t buy anything. Juli was hungry so she bought Buster’s Sea Cove East Coast Lobster Roll and she offered me to try some of it (read my review here). 

The Well

It was cloudy and drizzling a little when we made our way to The Well, one of Toronto’s newest and biggest development. The place was just opened last year in November and Juli wanted to take me here since she thought I would like the architecture of the building. And she was right. The giant complex do have a very impressive architecture and I had a lot of fun shooting around the place (you can see more photos here).

Apart from showing me the cool shopping complex, one of the main reason why Juli wanted to come here was to pick up the two Labubus she bought from Facebook Marketplace from Mr. Surprise, a designer toy store on the upper ground of The Well. The seller has dropped off the items she bought at the store and she needed to pick them up. The whole Drop-Off/Pick-Up Service the store provided is pretty cool actually and definitely makes it easier for people to buy and trade stuff through the store (read more about it here).

We didn’t go into a lot of stores since I didn’t feel like shopping. So we mainly just roamed around the area to sightsee. We did go to Indigo though. This bookstore is huge and you can also find a bunch of lifestyle products inside the store. It kind of feels like Kyobo Bookstore in Korea (although some Kyobo locations are even bigger than this one). A couple of things I like about the store, first, the layout of the store feels open and not too cramped. Second, there are chairs available in different sections of the store for you to sit on. Both are a plus for a bookstore. The design of their manga section is also pretty cool and the kids section is pretty big as well. I think kids would love it if they come here.

Italian Dinner

At the end of the day, we found ourselves at Cibo Wine Bar at King West for dinner after a failed attempt at getting a table at a nearby Mexican place. The appetizer was good, the main was okay (read the full review here) and the portion was pretty big for me. Also, it is highly possible that it’s just North America’s regular portion and I’m just not used to it. 

When we’re done with dinner, we took the streetcar to head to the subway station. This was another first time for me. The streetcar was pretty nice and clean. Way better than San Francisco’s Muni streetcars from what I can remember from the last time I rode one more than a decade ago (I don’t know if they’re better now). Apple Pay also works on the streetcar and Juli told me that if you get off and transfer to the subway, you don’t have to pay again. Toronto apparently allow riders to switch between subway lines, streetcars, and buses in any direction using a single fare, within a two-hour period. So unless you go over the two-hour period, you won’t be charged any additional fare which is a pretty good deal I’d say.

After walking around downtown Toronto for 9.4 km and more than 16,000 steps, we finally arrived home and called it a night. 

Places Visited:

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Canada Fall '24 - Ep. 03 - Watching Them Argue About Real Estate

First Morning in Toronto

After 11-hour of good night sleep and two hours of rolling around in Juli’s comfortable bed after I woke up, I finally dragged myself out of bed in search for food. It’s past 1 pm and my stomach was starting to grumble in protest, demanding to be filled since my last meal was only half a cup of Machi Machi’s black milk tea from yesterday afternoon.

Apparently, Juli hasn’t had her lunch yet either so she heated up the leftover food from yesterday’s lunch for us to eat (which also reminded me that food portion here in North America is huge). 

“Do you want soy sauce for the seafood pancake?” She asked while pulling out a large ziplock bags filled with single packaged condiments from one of the kitchen cabinets.

I was shocked looking at the bulging clear plastic bag she’s holding and how many condiments it holds. 

“What is inside this thing?” I asked while laughing at the slightly absurd view in front of me because I don’t think any one person needs this many packaged condiments in her house. 

She smiled and while digging through the pile to find a package labeled with ‘Soy Sauce’ she said, “I know right? It’s crazy how many I got and I don’t even know when all these are expired.”

“Are you collecting these ma’am?” I teased because her hobby of collecting things seems to extend from toys to packaged condiments. 

“Tell me about it. And I don’t even use these. I have high blood pressure so I don’t eat soy sauce.”

“But you keep them?” I asked curious.

“Yes, cause it’s a waste to throw them away,” she said with a concerned face, making me laughed even more.

“So Asian man.” I teased as she put the ziplock back to the kitchen cabinet after pulling one of the soy sauce out for me to use.

Half an hour later, we finished our lunch and both of our stomach were full and stuffed. Juli went back to work while I went to shower and freshened up myself.

A Walk in the Park

Later that afternoon after Juli is finished with work, she suggested that we go for an afternoon walk since the weather was really nice. We left the house around 5:30 with Tom—Juli’s boyfriend—who joined us and drove us to the park.

The 19°C weather was a nice welcomed change from Jakarta’s constant hot 33°C+ weather. I was still able to walk around outside without wearing a jacket on, enjoying the cool breezy temperature without getting sweaty or feeling cold. A rare occurrence since I rarely travel during in-between season. 

After 30 minutes of Tom weaving through Toronto’s afternoon rush hour traffic, we found ourselves at Sherwood Park. It’s a large family and pets friendly wooded park in midtown Toronto with walking/running trails, picnic area, large playground, wading pools and a fenced off dogs off-leash area. It looked like a beautiful park with plenty of area to walk around in. 

Finding myself hanging out with Juli on a weekday when the sun’s still out without the sight of her glued to her phone was a pleasant surprise. It did feel a bit foreign to me since our hangouts usually involved her checking her work phone every so often to reply to work-related messages. So it was really nice seeing her having a normal afternoon after work for the first time. 

Honestly, I was keeping my expectation low for this trip given what happened during our Disneyland trip (read about it on Ep. 02 post). I didn’t exactly know how busy her new job is so my plan was to just go with whatever is more convenient for her schedule. But turned out, this trip started with a bit of an unexpected surprise seeing how she actually clocked off at the end of a normal business hour. 

Another (totally unrelated) unexpected surprise that I got this afternoon was the inclines that were present on the route Juli and Tom took me to. What I thought was going to be a relaxing afternoon stroll in the (flat terrain of the) park turned into some sort of a hiking session (at least according to my own definition of hiking. It might not be for everybody else who’s more in shape than me I think). It wasn’t that bad, but it was a bit of a hike up and down hilly terrains and stairs. Juli told me that if we were to come during peak autumn, the view is supposedly really pretty. But since it’s not peak autumn yet, most of the leaves were still green. 

Real Estate Talk

After we got to one end of the park, we decided to take another route back to where we parked. Mainly because Juli wanted to show me what she called the rich people’s neighborhood around the park (and not because I was scared of the climb up back to where we started as she said in the vlog). So our afternoon stroll in the park turned into a before sunset stroll in the rich people neighborhood.

Yesterday, I was listening to her telling me all about her favorite Pop Mart and Labubu collections. Today, I was listening to her telling me all about her preferences in real estate while looking at the nice residences we passed by along our walk. She told me about which type of houses she likes and dislikes and which type of houses she wish she could buy in the future. And honestly, with the amount of hard work and ambitions that she has, I wholeheartedly believe she probably could own one someday. 

“If you ended up buying one of these houses, I think a Mercedes-Benz is a requirement,” I said after noticing the type of car parked in front of the third house she pointed out as the type that she likes. 

“Why?” She asked confused. 

“Didn’t you noticed that all the houses you pointed to have at least one Mercedes-Benz in their front yard? At this point, it just looked like a requirement to me,” I shared my observation with her. “Look, another one,” I said pointing at the German luxury car in front of a house with her preferred look and style.  

She just laughed and shook her head. “Nah. I won’t get one. Car is a depreciating asset and I don’t even drive.”

“That’s exactly what my cousins said!” I said surprised. A couple of my cousins told me that car is a depreciating asset when we were talking about asset and investments and that’s why they never really feel the need to upgrade or buy another car as long as their current ones are still useable. It’s funny how they have the same view on the subject.

At some point, Juli and Tom had a little disagreement on which area should be included in the rich-people-neighborhood list (and I was just standing in between the two, listening to them arguing back and forth). Tom seemed to think that the area we were in is not part of the list while Juli think it is. In the end, they still disagreed with each other on this particular area but both agreed that Bridle Path, a neighborhood a couple of blocks north of where we were, is definitely part of the list.

“We’re talking about homes that are worth $26 million,” Tom informed me on the housing price of the said most affluent and prestigious neighborhood in Canada.

“You know Drake? The singer Drake? He has a mansion in the Bridle Path neighborhood,” Juli added excitedly.

Thai for Dinner

We finally made it back to the main road where we started right during sunset and just in time for dinner. The walk we did in the past hour seemed to have burnt a lot of our energy because all of us were starting to get hungry. Juli asked Tom if he prefer Italian or Thai for dinner and surprisingly, Tom chose Thai. And so we went to their favorite Thai spot around the area, PAI (see full review and more photos on this post).

The place was pretty busy when we got there. But fortunately, there were tables available for people who did walk-ins like us. The host led us into the dining area where a lot of yellow lantern-like lamps are hanging from the high ceiling (which immediately reminded me of the lantern scene in Tangled, but maybe not as romantic considering we’re inside of a casual Thai restaurant) and we got seated immediately. 

The energy was high inside the dining room. Chatters were heard from different tables with patrons half-shouting to their dinner companions trying to talk over the loud upbeat live music playing in the background. It was a fun atmosphere if you like this kind of vibe like my friends do. For me though, it was fun, but the place was a bit too loud, especially because we were trying to talk to each other during dinner. I was tired from shouting over the music by the time we finished our meal. I think I’d enjoy it more if we came her to just get a drink, listen to music and wind down.

Dinner was nice. I really liked the spring roll we ordered for the appetizer. The Pad Thai and Pad See Ew me and Juli ordered were also good. But I personally think that the flavor profiles were a bit different than the ones I usually have in Asia. Understandable though since they probably adjust the flavors to cater to the local market. 

Juli told me her favorite menu, the Pad See Ew, is the closest thing she can get to an Indonesian Kway Teow in Toronto because there seemed to be no good Indonesian restaurant in the city. And I can totally see what she’s saying. The food is definitely good enough to satisfy your cravings when you’re missing a little taste of home. 

MILK TEA RUN

After dinner, we went across the street to Coco because I wanted to get a Jasmine Milk Tea to bring home. Random TMI about Coco, I was introduced to Coco by Davina when I was visiting her in NYC. Since then, every time I see Coco, it would reminded me of her. They really do have great milk teas though. My go-to is the basic Jasmine Milk Tea. An 8.5/10. 

With my Jasmine Milk Tea safely tucked inside Juli’s take away paper bag from PAI (once again, we didn’t finish our food since the portion was pretty big for us so we took home the leftovers), we made our way to the car to head back home. After 11,308 steps (6.3 km) of walking today, it’s a wrap for my second day in Toronto. 

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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.

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Canada Fall '24 - Ep. 01 - Spilling My Food on the Plane

Six Babies on the 13-Hour Flight

“Is there a problem with my reservation?” I asked the check-in agents behind the counter who seemed to be trying to solve an issue on the screen in front of them. One of them was still holding my passport in her hand while the other was hovering above her murmuring instructions. Both of them looked up to me and gave me a slightly nervous smile, making me start to worry that there really was a problem with my reservation.

15 minutes ago, I arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport for my flight to Toronto. Despite arriving right in the middle of the airport porter’s shift change which resulted in not one porter was in sight at the departure drop-off area, I was lucky enough to met one porter who’s just about to load his customer’s luggages to their car. This service is actually one of the thing I’m grateful for at our airport. For IDR 75,000 (≈$4.85), I got the convenience of not having to carry my two 23 kg suitcases, one carry-on and backpack. Pretty helpful especially if you’re not that strong and have a back problem like me. 

When I was inside the departure terminal, I immediately went to the ‘Morning Calm’ lane at the Korean Air counter. There was one person in front of me who was immediately called to one of the open counters for the airline’s frequent flyer members. I’ve been flying Korean Air the last couple of years and their service is usually pretty quick. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any long lines before and today was no different. Another counter opened up quickly after the last one and my porter immediately pushed the cart with me towing behind. 

While he was loading my suitcases to the baggage belt, I handed my passport to the check-in agent who then reconfirmed my details and destination after she pulled up my reservation on the screen in front of her. We had a bit of a small talk while she’s still processing my check-in and everything seemed to be going normal. But then, I noticed that it took longer than usual for me to receive my passport back and my boarding pass. Shortly after, the agent called out for her supervisor who came over and looked at the screen with her. And now here we are, with me trying to find out what seemed to be the reason for the delay.

The agent who has my passport spoke up, “Well, for your second leg of the flight from Seoul to Toronto, it seems like there’s going to be a baby sitting next to you. So now we’re trying to find you another seat that is away from the baby since it might be uncomfortable to be sitting next to a baby.”

Not gonna lie, my heart dropped a little at the new information I just heard. The flight from Seoul to Toronto is about 13 hours and 20 minutes long. And of course my overthinking mind went straight to imagining the worst-case scenario: the potential of having to sit next to a crying baby for the duration of the flight. That’s not good. Not good at all. Even so, I tried to think of the best-case scenario as well, which is sitting next to a very calm baby which wouldn’t be a problem at all.

“Oh no! That’s not good,” I said light-heartedly voicing out my concern with a laugh. “How many babies are there on the flight?”

“There are actually six babies on the flight,” the agent responded.

My eyebrows shot up immediately, surprised that there were so many babies flying from Seoul to Toronto. And it’s not even holiday season. Or at least that I knew of.

“In that case, please do continue with your search. It’d be awesome if I can get seated away from the baby.” I replied with a grin, hoping that there’s available seat somewhere else for me. 

“That is what we’re trying to do. But it seems like the open seat options are all at the back of the plane. Would you want us to move your seat to the back?” She asked.

Now there’s a new dilemma: sitting in front of the plane next to a baby or sitting in the back of the plane not next to a baby. One additional factor that I took into consideration was I did pay extra for the seat that I’m currently in. And when I asked the agent if I can get refunded for the fee if I move to the back of the plane, they couldn’t say for sure. 

So in the end, since I feel like I already paid anyway and didn’t want to go through the hassle of getting a refund or waste the paid seat, I decided, “That’s fine then. I’ll just stay at my current seat and pray that the baby next to me is super calm and behaved.”

The two gate agents smiled at me and the one holding my passport said, “We sure do hope so. We’ve also made a note on your reservation saying that if there’s a seat open at the front of the plane, you’d like to be moved to that seat. So when you get to Incheon, you can check with the gate agent there and see if they can help you out.”

I nodded and threw them a grateful smile, “Thank you. I’ll do that. And thank you for informing me. I really appreciate the effort to get me a new seat.” 

They really didn’t have to inform me or go that extra mile trying to find me a seat. But they did and I really did appreciate that. One of that small things that matters you know. I have to say that I’m (once again) impressed with the service at Korean Air. 

After that conversation, the gate agent finally handed me back my passport and two boarding passes with my luggage tags stuck behind one of them while informing me the boarding gate and time. I thanked her before walking away from the counter and silently worrying and wondering what kind of baby I’d sit next to tomorrow morning.

The Walk to the Gate

40 minutes before the boarding time, I made it pass immigration and inside the departure area. And as usual, I was greeted with warm air around inside Soekarno-Hatta Terminal 3. I think most of you who’ve been to this airport probably agree on how the air-cons need to be improved, given that the temperature inside this airport has never been cool. Although since it’s night time now, at least it’s not as hot as it is during day time. Also, I don’t know if this was new or they’ve always been there before and I just failed to noticed them but the bright, bright lamps they use around the airport really didn’t help with the temperature. They’re emitting more hot air inside the airport, practically cancelling out the cool breeze from the air-con. But hey, at least there are air-cons. Better than nothing right?

While walking to my gate, I did find the gate change surprising this time around. Having been flying to Seoul countless of times from this airport, my flights to Seoul with Korean Air usually departed from one of the gates that are near the escalators down from immigration. Gate 9 or Gate 8 were the ones I usually departed from which both are only a short walk from the escalator. But this time, Gate 5 was written on my boarding pass which is pretty far down from the main entrance of the departure area.

The 10-minutes long relaxing walk to Gate 5 was probably my longest walk in this terminal ever. The area around the gate felt less busy and the air-cons were actually cooler than the ones on the previous gates. Also, I found out from one of my cousins that mid-term break was the following week and some families might’ve started their holiday early this week, thus why the airport was busier than usual. I guess that made sense seeing how there were a good number of traveling families around the airport.

First Leg: Jakarta (CGK) to Incheon (ICN)

The boarding process started around 9:10 pm with all the priority passengers boarding first and then followed by Zone 1 which was my boarding group. I made it to my seat exactly 13 minutes later and found out after the plane doors were closed that the middle seat next to me was empty. Yeay! It’s one of those little wins in life that brings me joy, you know. So I buckled up and ready to kick-off the first leg of my trip, a 7-hours flight to Incheon, South Korea.

KE628 In-Flight Meal

45 minutes after take off, the meal service started. Thanks to Korean Air app recent new feature (definitely recommend to download the app if you travel with Korean Air because they actually put up useful information for you flight including check-in counters locations at airports, meal service option, baggage tracking, etc), I actually was able to find out about the meal options before the flight, which was really nice too because it helped eliminate the stress of not being able to hear what the flight attendant is saying when they recite the menu options. 

For this flight, the choice is between Bibimbap for the Korean option and Roasted Chicken Breast with Rosemary Sauce for the Western option. I chose the Bibimbap because I haven’t had it for a while and my favorite thing about this meal is that they come with Korean rice and seaweed soup. This time, it was also served with pickled onion and custard cake (I think) for the dessert. 

The Flying Bibimbap Bowl

I was pretty excited for the meal and grabbed the instant rice to open the plastic cover on top of it. If you’ve ever had one this instant rice, you know that the plastic cover is a bit snug and it takes a little bit of force to pull it from the container. I was doing exactly that and when I have pulled the cover halfway with my right hand, it suddenly just tore off from the bottom part resulting in me accidentally knocking off my Bibimbap bowl. The bowl containing the vegetables literally flew from my tray and landed upside down on the carpet in the middle of the aisle, essentially making it inedible.

I was pretty mortified but other than the quick glance the lady sitting across the aisle from me gave to the upside down bowl on the floor before she went back to her movie, I don’t think nobody around me actually noticed, sparing me from my embarrassment. I quickly grabbed the top plastic cover of the bowl and used it as a scooper to scooped the vegetables back into the bowl. For good measure, I also used my napkin to pick up the small remnants of the veggies that were still on the carpet. Minutes later to my relief, the carpet looked as good as nothing was spilled on it. And so no Bibimbap for me on this flight. But at least the rice and seaweed soup were safe and I ended up eating those. Also, good thing I already had dinner with my parents earlier before the flight so I wasn’t that hungry. 

Movie Night During Red-Eye Flight

Sleeping has always been hard to do for me during red-eye flights. This time was no different. I ended up staying up for the full duration of the flight, listening to music, playing games on my phone and managed to watch two movies. 

The first one was Citizen of a Kind (시민덕희) starring Ra Mi-Ran, Yum Hye-Ran, and Jang Yoon-Ju, faces that have been appearing on recent K-dramas. The movie is based on a true story that happened in 2016 where a housewife in her 40’s became a victim of a Korean voice phishing group based in China. She chased after the group’s leader to get her revenge after the guy who scammed her volunteered to give her tips about the organization as his attempt to get out of the organization he was forced into. 

I thought the movie was quite funny and entertaining with an interesting insight into how voice phishing organizations work. It managed to bring hope and light-heartedness to a pretty serious crime that happens often these days, especially to the older generation. My rating: 8/10.

The second movie I watched was Troll Factory (댓글부대). Based on true events and witness accounts, Troll Factory explores how the media and social media outlets manipulate and drive public opinion about real news as well as fake news.

This one started pretty slow, but once I got passed the first 15 minutes, it got really interesting. Even though fake news issue is nothing new, this movie gives you a glimpse into how a trend, narrative and manufactured-fact are created on traditional media and social media. Very interesting subject matter that left me wondering even more about validity and bias of what I see on online. My rating: 9/10.

2 movies later at 3 am Jakarta time and 5.5 hours into the flight, I’m still awake.

Hours later, we touched down in Seoul at 6:21 am local time. Landed 44 minutes early than the scheduled time of arrival which is pretty normal with Korean Air from my experiences. All and all, the flight to Seoul was pretty normal and relatively peaceful.

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