T minus 60 days (or thereabouts)

"The airline is going to increase it's fuel surcharge tomorrow" said the travel agent over the phone.
"Do you have your VISA's approved yet?"

That was the beginning of the pain for Uncle Alec - not only were the air tickets from KL to Vancouver expensive, they were made insulting by the addition of a fuel surcharge. Without our visas, the travel agent did not want to take our money (we would loose a lot if our visas were not granted), but that meant the insulting fuel surcharge was about to become an obscene fuel surcharge.

Mummy found the website of the Canadian High Commission, and we downloaded the forms for our VISA applications. You can get Individual, or family visas. After a few emails back and forth, Uncle found out that for the 4 of us, it would be cheaper to apply for 4 individual visas rather than the family one. Also, we could submit all 4 applications on 1 form (the form caters for 4 applicants at once) and would be processed together - so we paid as individuals, but would be considered as a group. This was really great, and is something we noticed even in Canada later - the packages are created to help people save on co$t, and if you are honest with the Canadians, they will try to help you get the cheapest combination.

Somehow, I can't see this happening at home - people would get fixated on 'family' or 'non family' categories, and either force us to pay the higher fee as a family application, or process the applications individually making baby an unaccompanied child - which requires lots more documentation. Malaysians are sometimes good at "the letter of the law" without coming close to seeing "the spirit of the law".

Anyhow, we took a morning off, and took our documentation to the Canadian High Commission at Menara Tan & Tan (here is a map) and prepared to sit and wait. Mummy said they might want to interview us, so it would be faster to wait rather than go home, then find we have to go again for an interview.
We got there after 830am, and waited till they opened (I think it was 9am). The nice lady behind the counter asked if we would wait for the visas, or if we'd be back another day. Uncle said we'd wait. Then we all sat down and pulled out books to read. Around noon, they called Uncle's name, and gave him our passports, all with single-entry visas. We were good to go.

Mummy said not everyone was so lucky - a couple who applied the same time as us were called in for long interviews. Probably because they were both of employable age, said mummy - just the kind who could dissappear into the country and work illegally.

Mummy called the travel agent that very afternoon to get our air tickets. In the end, by the time we got our visas, the fuel surcharge had become absolutely offensive. Poor Uncle Alec.