Hello dear forum mates,
I along with my wife and kid landed on the 13th on Pearson Airport, Toronto. The overall experience was very good. We flew on Emirates, Dhaka-Dubai-Toronto. There was 9.5 hr transit in Dubai, we stayed at a hotel provided by Emirates. It took a long time to get the transit visa and hotel transportation, we could stay at the hotel for only around 4 hours. But still it was worth it, we slept for 3 hours, took a long warm shower, changed and had breakfast (included in the ticket).
Then it was a long 14 hour journey to Toronto. We got the Airbus A380. It was great. Food was good, I ate a lot. The in-flight entertainment system is awesome. They are very caring about the kids also.
Tips for the flight:
BD Airport: 1. Don't overweight your luggage unless you have someone influential at the airport.
2. They don't always weigh your handbag/cabin bag or laptop bag, so you can put in 1 or 2 kg extra.
3. Although you can carry 1 cabin bag for each ticket, I would suggest those with kids to carry as less bags as possible. Remember you will need to look after your kids and have to walk a lot.
4. Drink a lot of water/juice in the journey. Keep a little bit of moisturizing lotion for the kids, as the air is very dry in the planes.
The landing experience was also smooth. No hassle. Though there was a lot of crowd, as multiple flights landed at the same time. No one wanted to see our money, only asked what amount I was bringing in. I had no goods to follow. And no one asked about the good accompanying list either.
When picking up your luggage, you will need some small dollar bills or coins to get the trolly. So keep some 5$, 10$ bills with you. There are also Koolie type people with big trollies available who will carry all your luggage for 18$/20$.
You can apply for the SIN no. from the airport, but it will take about 40 minutes. So you can also do it after you enter Canada. I did it yesterday from Service Canada at Scarborough.
I am staying at a cousin's place at Crescent Town. Looking for a place to rent. Will start job search soon.
Life is very good here, smooth and relaxing. No hurry, no tension. You don't have to calculate when to go out to avoid traffic jam.
Grocery is not expensive here (stop converting everything to BD taka). If you are careful, you can get good price. There is always some kind of sale, discount, deals and coupons available.
Warm clothes:
No matter how much warm clothes you bring, you will still need to buy warm clothes and shoes from here. Because they are very different here. I would suggest don't bring too many heavy clothes, may be just one heavy jacket and one light jacket, and buy the rest from here. You will need to buy snow boots, snow pants etc. which we have never seen before. Of course clothes and shoes are a bit expensive than BD, but there is Walmart for cheaper options, and you can also get good price during sale.
I will post more later, breakfast is waiting.
