My Dearest Forumites,
Thank you for the well wishes. I know many have really missed me but the truth is I miss you more than you miss me. We are like united Nations, all for one and One for all!
The journey was not smooth at all but if God has destined one for a place, no matter what; you must be there.
Yes, we boarded on Saturday 18th Aug. to montreal via doha but we missed our connecting flight to Montreal and the next flight is on Wednesday; unfortuately, we don't have the transit visa to stay in Doha for more than 24hrs! We have to come back to lagos to reshedule our flight. :-\ :-\ :-\
Lesson one for us all,
Please check your connecting flight to know if they fly to your destination on a daily basis. This was my error as I thought Qatar flies Canada daily.
Lesson two,
Transit free visa will only last 24hrs within the airport (Though I stand to be corrected), As I planned to check-in at any hotel but was refused for lack of transit visa.
We came back to Lagos on Monday to rebook our flight. Guess what, all seats were fully booked. Just like what happened in Doha when I asked to be placed on any other european nations or US. The London olympic and holiday returnees made seats unavailable. The only available seats we got was a bit on the high side and you know that yours sincerely we do the calculation to the nearest kobo! So I gave a tall order to search during the midnight. Alas we got 3 cheapest seats on United Airways for Saturday 25th August (A week after our first aborted journey!) wonderful!!!! while the last seat was N25,000.00 costlier on same plane o! We all have US visas, so no qualms passing through US. But if you must pass US, omo ready for regorous search and please declare all your POF. I did!
LANDING EXPERIENCE
We boarded on 25/08/2012 to Huston Texas at 10.50pm Naija time. Got to US at 5.05am Texas time. Went through the Immigration and Customs (Thank God one of my sons is US citizen) the queue na DIE! So we were allowed to pass through US citizen line. We were sent to the custom room for the declaration of above US$10,000.00.
Went straight to connect our Calgary flight. We wondered for sometime before check-in which actually started at 11am Texas time. We took off to the Holy Land of Calgary at 12.40pm and landed at about 4.00pm Calgary time for a 4hrs 19 mins flight. Note Calgary is 1hr behinde Texas.
AT POE
We were welcomed to Canada and Calgary in particular. Our passport was stamped and visa cancelled since it is for only one leg! We were asked to provide address for PR cards which the man said we come on 6weeks time.
AT CUSTOM POINT
I gave them the declaration form and nobody was even interested in my POF sheewww #hiss# all the houlabaloou that we make on the forum sef! I gave them my list of Goods to follow and was stamped and signed. Meaning any time I decided to bring those listed items, I pay no charges and I included food stuffs, furniture and cars in case I need to ship some items from Naija I heard it is easy and cheap if you got a good exporter. Am negotiating with one now and the price seems reasonable enough. Whats the point using like $5,0000 to equip your house when you got some of the things in Naija which you could ship for say $900.00 to $1,000 (am not Ijebuish but just being PRUDENT!)
FINALLY
I had called Gents2,Moegbenga and theJackson. I will call Seglad, Oloye, BDPA, and iii today. And anyone who I have the fone no.
Calgary is expanding o. The place cold small sha and the roads are bigger than Naija own. So far, am enjoying myself ooooo.
Pa Right has landed gbam gbam GBOSA oooooooooooooooooooo ;D ;D ;D