My first trip to Toronto, a far, cold and beautiful place, is almost over as I am sitting at the Pearson airport at midnight, waiting for my flight back to Vietnam. Just a week ago, I was super anxious about this trip for many reasons. Now I think my trip was quite successful. Therefore, I want to share my journey for those who would be anxious like me to be more informed about the trip.

View from the Toronto Convention Center View from the Toronto Convention Center

How I could go to Toronto

I went to Toronto to present a research paper at a computer science education conference. We did the research in an independent study course at my university. After the course, the professor encourages any students who are interested to polish the results and submit to a conference. Thanks for the encouragement of my friend Phuc, I joined the task. Then our paper was accepted a few months later.

A session in SIGCSE A session in SIGCSE

With that ‘ticket’, we started the 2-month preparation process for the trip. Phuc and I applied for a fund at my unversity, in the middle of Lunar New Year. Mostly thanks to the recommendation letter of our advisor, the school generously granted us the fund. The committee trusted that we can help the community by thriving to be better selves, which is partly why I am sharing my experience in this blog post.

After that, we applied for visas in Canada and US (transit) at the same time. It was a long and exacting process, where you expect to have a nice sticky piece of paper (called, of course, ‘visa’) to be attach in your passport. For Canada, we start from the government’s guide. We filled out the applications for Visitor visa online and paid a fee of 185CAD. After that, I went to the Canadian Visa Application Centre (180 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, HCM) 4 times (for biometrics collection and passport handling) to eventually get the visa. Ideally, it should have taken 3 times at most but I wrote my name wrong in the application, which cost one more time. That mistake was that I wrote my “first name” as “Khoi” only, while I should have prefixed my middle names into it (Phung Nhat Khoi) to exactly match my passport. The merit of the application in assessed only based on what I wrote as no interview was taken.

I applied for US Transit visa (code: C1) in a similar fashion, starting from the government’s turorial and a 160USD application fee. The US required an in-person interview, which is known for a really low success rate. For that interview, I prepared a succint statement of why I need to go through the US, which worked well and got me the visa. Note that, when the visa is delivered to your address, you need the National ID (CCCD/CMND) to verify yourself.

With the visas and funding available, I was certain that I would go. Unfortunately, Phuc could not come with me due to unknown visa issues.

Preparation

Canada is cold, far, and expensive. Therefore, I paid much effort in making sure I wouldn’t die of those reasons.

Winter clothes were needed to fight the cold. I went to the Russian Market (instead of Uniqlo) in HCM to buy sweaters, thermo-tech clothes, gloves and beanie hat for reasonable prices. I also needed thick coats, but I borrowed one it from a friend because that thing is so expensive. Then I only pack a few more “Vietnamese” clothes to wear as an the inner layer or at nights. During the actual stay in Toronto, I was so relieve that my clothing plan worked well.

For telecommmunications, I bougth an e-sim from Airalo. For 5GB, the plan lasts for 30 days and costs 18USD, which is reasonable for me. I ended up using only 1GB in 5 days :) .

For money, I changed money at Kim Mai Jewelry Shop at a very reasonable rate. I also knew that my VISA debit card would work as a backup plan if I could not use cash. I ended up spending about 200CAD (for some food and souvenirs).

Flights and transits

My flight from HCM to Toronto took 24 hours totally. There are two stops in Incheon, Korea and Minneapolis, US.

As adviced by friends, I came to the airport 3 hours before departure time. The advice turned out to be very reasonable. The check-in queue for US flights was super long AND people checked with huge baggages. Also, I needed to spend 30 minutes in total to talk with the staff there about the legitimacy of my trip. Thanks to the proof documents I brought, everything was fine and I flew.

The transits were fun as I first stepped my feet on those countries. I always got to my boarding gate first, made sure I am ready to board, before messing around with all the exotic things at the foreign airports. Note that, the checked baggege needs to be collected and re-checked in the US (Incheon airport did not require that).

My first time seeing real snow (Minneapolis) My first time seeing real snow (Minneapolis)

The longest flight was from Incheon to Minneapolis, which was about 12 hours. I was sitting by the window, which was fun at first. However, I soon regreted because it was hard to go to the toilet while the passengeres next to you are sleeping and blocking the way. Also, in that flight, headsets were given for free (by Delta airlines), but I didn’t take it because I didn’t know.

I arrived in Pearson airport in Toronto at 11.30pm, which is a terrible time to arrive. I prepared at home to take the affordable UP Express train to my hotel. However, the train was close from 11.30pm to around 4am. Not expecting that, I spent two silly hours walking about the cold airport, trying train, Uber, and taxis. Failing with train, I tried to book an Uber for the first time in my life, assuring that it would work just as Grab. But the app rejected my VISA for some mysterious reason. Going back and forth mentally and physically, I eventually had to spent 65CAD for a taxi to my hotel.

I would like to highlight that navigating in Pearson airport is not trivial for me. I found it very hard to locate myself within its 2 terminals and multiple levels. When I arrived, I even got lost to a basement and about to dangerously cross the highway. The staff there, although hard to find, were helpful in getting me to where I wanted.

Stay in Toronto

After all the planning and preparation, I have an enjoyable stay in Toronto as it should be. Toronto is a safe and beautiful place, so there is not much chance for you to screw up here. Therefore, I will give a list of random facts about my stay at this city:

  • Although my school has paid for the room, my hotel required 600CAD of deposit at check-in. After check-out, they asked for up to 3 business days to return the money to my debit account.
  • The food in this place (and probably all around North America) is normally served in a big portion, twice as much as a normal one in Vietnam. ‘Poutine’ was the only Canadian cuishine I tried and it tasted good.
  • There is a thing called ‘coat check’ at my conference. The organizers reserved a big room just for participants to put their (huge) coats in to enjoy the other activities in freedom.
  • Walking in the streets of Toronto is amazing. The buildings are magnificient and the streets are not crowded.
  • I visited the University of Toronto and recommend it – a pretty and ancient place. I also saw the Roger field, which is beautiful as well.
  • I avoided going to tourist traps like the CN tower and the Ripley Aquarium. The former is because I had an unworthy experience going up to the Singapore Flyer – ‘the highest observation wheel in Asia’. The latter is because I saw a lot of fishes swimming around already.
  • Going home after walking in the street, I always got electrofied when touching metal. I am not sure how to avoid that.
  • There are quite a few homeless people in Toronto. And drugs are legal here with the shops for that beingwidely available.

Khoi in snow Khoi in snow

Coat check Coat check

Presenting our paper Presenting our paper

The University of Toronto The University of Toronto

Conclusions

I really enjoyed the trip. Now I am ready to check-in for my flight back home.