2020.01.11 \u2013 Ottawa \u2013 Beijing (CHN) \u2013 Saying that we were eager to leave on our trip would be an understatement. Our two backpacks were loaded and ready-to-go well over a month before our departure. We had spent a fair amount of time developing and refining our travel route and itinerary. Even Jenny had gotten very active in researching our various foreign destinations. She focused on bookmarking relevant YouTube videos while I did the same for travel blogs. We shared and organized our bookmarks with a convenient bookmark manager. It seemed like we spent more time planning this trip than most of our previous travels. Unfortunately we were negligent about reading up on the recommended travel vaccines and medications for the malaria zones that we would travel through. We managed during our last week in town to secure an appointment at a travel clinic. We also bid farewell to family and friends as part of our last preparations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the day of our departure, our good friend Gang picked us up at home and drove us to the bus terminal for our 9am bus to the Montreal Airport. It was nice to enjoy the bus ride as it rained. Our airport check-in with Air China was efficient. We had lunch before crossing the security screening. Our 2:05pm flight left almost on-time and we managed to survive another 13+ hour flight to Beijing for our connection to Manila.<\/p>\n\n\n
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