The Abu Dhabi skyline from our hotel
Abu dhabi through the haze
Abu Dhabi’s newest mosque
Finally, after months of planning we were relaxing in the Qantas Club, toasting our holiday, and awaiting the first leg of our middle eastern jaunt. The short hop to Sydney went smoothly and with my inbuilt redundancy scheme to make sure a cancelled flight couldn’t hurt us, TC and I had plenty of time to head into the city and purchase the boys toy (a laptop/tablet) he had coveted for some time. After a short panic that a series of missed calls on my phone may have been an escaped fur child (it wasn’t), we collected the laptop and free (large) monitor and headed back to Sydney airport. Then we had to find something to do with the monitor. Storing it would have cost almost what it was worth and just ditching it would likely have caused a security incident. Fortunately Australia Post is open late and would deliver for about $15.
Last time we were airside at Sydney’s international terminal it was being refurbished so there wasn’t many dining options other than Maccas or Subway. This time there were many so we had a (very late) lunch of Beef Fillet Ramen while we waited to board our Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi. Etihad international economy is not designed for the tall. TC had to sit with his legs apart to be comfortable. While the entertainment box presented enough choice so you didn’t get bored, I was close to running out of options by the time we landed. The service, though, was friendly, the restrooms cleaner than any other plane I had been on, the seats comfortable with decent lumber support and the meals good. For dinner we had a dolmade and salad, pasta with tomato and parmesan, bread, an apple crumble style desert, a chocolate muffin and (semi) proper coffee. Breakfast was an omelet, mushrooms, tomato and spinach, yoghurt, fruit salad, bread and juice.
After 14 long hours (most of it at night over the ocean), we arrived in Abu Dhabi at 6am where the local temperature was about 40 degrees. Abu Dhabi is an easy airport, despite the fact that you have to get security screened when you arrive. Customs is just a walk through if you have nothing to declare and immigration was a quick stamp with no queues. While we were deciding what to do next, a tout approached TC and we agreed to go with him. I had a few concerns when he started walking away quickly with all our gear. – Our gear made it to the hotel safe and sound but it was a miracle we did. The speed limit in lots of the UAE is 140 km an hour. That wouldn’t be quite as bad if they stayed more than 10 cm from the car in front. After hurtling down the highway at break neck speed, we arrived at our hotel, the Intercontinental Abu Dhabi, and the blast of heat as we opened the taxi door was overwhelming. We headed straight into the expansive, cool lobby and checked in. Recognising we would likely be completely ruined after the 14 Hour flight, we had booked two nights of accommodation which allowed us to check in immediately, have a shower and snooze for a couple of hours. The staff were fabulous. They couldn’t have been more helpful or courteous. Our electricity wasn’t working and was fixed within minutes. As they could tell our visit was for leisure not business (the T-shirts, jeans and backpacks were a bit of a giveaway), they had given us a room with a beach/pool view. The room was fabulous – a big shower with rain shower head and handheld, a separate toilet (with bidet) and an impressive mini-bar (which we left alone). [Army of Me – Bjork – I discovered her hushed tones and belting voice at my first Big Day Out (hers too I think). What we knew about Iceland before the GFC and volcano]
My snoozing was rudely interrupted by my ringing phone. It was Qantas, checking because my Qantas Club card was returned to them as undeliverable. If they checked their records they would see it was the first of three cards they sent to me because they kept getting lost! I surmised that the series of messages on my phone the previous day were probably from them. We decided it might be an appropriate time to get up and go explore Abu Dhabi. We went downstairs and while waiting for the hotel’s shuttle bus to the Marina Mall, had a coffee in the café in the lobby, which was a great people watching opportunity. So far in our travels we hadn’t encountered many local Emiratees, apart from those on the Immigration desk at the airport. The tout was probably Bangladeshi, the check in staff Eastern European, the head concierge Chinese, and the porters Indian. There were a few Emiratees taking coffee or tea in the café, or having business meetings with Europeans. There was a real mix of dress codes too – from British people in holiday wear to Europeans in business suits and a few Emiratees, mostly men, in traditional dress.
We arrived at the mall in air conditioned comfort. There were some great views of the city from the mall but in the overwhelming heat, we were keen to go inside. No wonder shopping is one of the Emiratees’ favourite pastimes. And this is where all the locals were. Groups of men wandered around the mall in traditional dress as well as groups of women, many with children, also in traditional dress. There were different levels of dress too. The traditional black robe that we rarely see at home was everywhere but it was really just a black linen coat, often with brightly patterned maxi skirts peeking out. There were varieties of headdress too. These ranged from a head scarf to the veil which reveals only the eyes to a full black head covering. Whether just the veil or the full head covering, most women were heavily made up. While we were sitting in the hotel lobby, a young woman wearing a full veil flipped it up to use a mobile phone, revealing rich red lipstick and heavily made-up eyes.
We wandered around the mall which contained some familiar stores such as Top Shop, Zara, Bally and Armani along with some less recognizable ones. We decided to stop for lunch and while looking a Filipin o café spruiker convinced us to sit in a little takeaway outlet. The other customers included a range of Emiratees and English tourist included an older couple with poorly designed and executed tattoos. We ordered burgers which came with turkey bacon and were not very tasty. We also had a coke each. I went to open it and thought I had broken the top. On closer inspection it turned out to be an old skool ring pull – something I hadn’t seen for the past 20 years or so. The can also featured the coke ribbon complete with Arabic script. We sat looking over the mall ice rink while the kids skated around.
After lunch we took a bit more of a stroll around the mall, past the under construction indoor ski slope, complete with windows where other shoppers will be able to observe your snow plants. We saw expensive watches, interesting shoes that I didn’t dare ask the price of, and some expensive electronics equipment. TC bought a computer game and we headed back to the hotel for a dip in the pool. We enjoyed a drink at the swim up bar and I’m sure annoyed all the Brits and Germans in the pool who just wanted to sit on the edge by swimming about under water. The water temperature was reasonable but we needed shoes – the concrete was really, really hot. [Come as You Are – Nirvana – a fabulous track off a fabulous album. I was a latecomer but my tape of Nirvana got a good workout driving around in my Suzuki Alto in the mid nineties.]
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