The DCs do Abu Dhabi dooo!

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Date Wednesday 20th October 2010
City Cairo to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Climate Low 26c - high 35c - fine and sunny
Currency 1.00ADS = $NZ0.30

Ahmed came and collected us from the hotel at 10.00am. He was great once again - getting our luggage through with no problems and assisting us through all the checkpoints into the departure area. Baksheesh (tip) paid and we were back on our own. We had an hour or so to wait for our flight so we hung out in McDonald’s using their free wi-fi to catch up on emails. It was our first time on Etihad Airlines and we were impressed. The flight was good and we landed in Abu Dhabi just before 7pm - due to the two hour time difference. It was great to see Aaron waiting for us and before long we were back at their place just a 10 minute drive away. The whole family greeted us at the door and we enjoyed a lovely food platter and caught up on the last 2 years. There was also a birthday surprise for Shaun in the form of a birthday cake baked by Bridie! Shaun and Aaron ended up having a late night, breaking open the duty free, and made it to bed at 5.00am- just when Sue was getting up for work!

Date Thursday 21st October 2010
City Abu Dhabi
Climate Low 26c - high 35c - fine and sunny, maybe one cloud

We had a relaxing morning today as we had an adventure planned for the day. We were going to go on a 4x4 desert safari with Aaron, Sue, Bridie and Ella! We were picked up by our driver in a new Toyota Land Cruiser, complete with a padded internal roll bar! All six of us piled in and we were off in search of steep sand dunes. We had about a 40 minute drive before our driver turned off the asphalt and headed into the soft stuff. The young girls were screaming in excitement while the older girls were just screaming. We powered up, down and sideways on the dunes for about 30 minutes before driving down into a Bedouin campsite completely surrounded by high dunes. Awaiting us were a couple of camels for a short ride around the camp. Shaun kindly rejected the offer - the last escapade on the ‘ships of the desert’ still etched clearly in his mind! Aaron and Sue went for a bounce on the camels before we grabbed some snowboards and all gave dune surfing a crack from the top of a large dune. This was great fun where we ended up with sand everywhere but we stopped before we injured ourselves. As we all stood looking over the surrounding landscape we were fortunate to watch the sun burn its glowing signature into the dunes as it disappeared over the horizon. As the red hues of dusk slowly darkened to night Shaun and Aaron took Bridie and Ella for a quad bike ride around the sand dunes with big screams echoing around the dunes.
After all this excitement it was time to relax at the Bedouin camp, where thatched shelters and small marquees surrounded a central area layered in Egyptian rugs, with low tables and cushions beckoning us to recline. The girls all went off to be adorned with a henna tattoo before we feasted on local delicacies. As we lay back to recover from over indulging, an Arabian belly dancer appeared in front of us, to assist in our digestion. In short everyone ended up getting dragged up to have a boogie, with lots of shaking and gyrating and laughter ensuing.
We finished off the evening sitting under the stars while the boys savoured a sheesha before our driver eventually dragged us away around 10pm and drove us home. A fantastic day!



Date Friday 22nd October 2010
City Abu Dhabi
Climate Low 26c - high 36c - fine and sunny

We were up and at ‘em early today to catch the camel racing. This is only seasonal and with early starts to miss the heat of the day. We arrived by 9.30am but it looked like we were still too late. There were hundreds of camels and their handlers slowly fanning out from the race course as we approached, so unfortunately we had missed the day’s races. We did manage to see a few training runs with both the handlers and the little robotic jockeys perched on the back of the camels as they galloped down the home straight. It was fascinating and a little amusing.
With the day heating up we decided to head off to Radisson Blu hotel to grab some rays and to cool down in their pool before partaking in their Friday long brunch - a common event held at many of the hotels where the set price includes the buffet and alcoholic beverages from 12.30pm-3.00pm. We over imbibed as usual and waddled out of the hotel to make tracks for home. The day wasn’t over though - we were heading out to a special place for dinner!
A few hours later and all glammed up, we jumped in a taxi for the Yas Hotel, situated on Yas Island and part of the Formula One circuit, with the track running around its exterior and actually under part of the structure. It looks amazing with its flowing, sculptured exterior illuminated by ever changing vibrant colours. We dined at Atayeb, one of the five restaurants luxuriating within the hotel and chose to sit outside to enjoy the warm, balmy conditions and overlook the race track and marina. The Formula One racing is actually on next week but alas we won’t be there! After dinner we explored the hotel and found two fantastic bars. One was a very cool bar with a funky lounge disco feel, with the other being the sky bar on the roof - open to the elements but cocooned within the curved roof structure.
But still this day was not over - Oh No! About midnight we bundled into a taxi and headed for the Emirates Palace located off the Corniche in Abu Dhabi. This is an absolutely beautiful building just dripping money. To prove this point the hotel has a gold bar vending machine in its lobby! You put in your credit card or hard earned dosh and it spits out a little bullion, complete with the hotels seal. The Emirates Palace was to be our special spot to partake in a cigar and cognac in their cigar bar. Shaun and Aaron chose wisely from the vast menu selection and gently leaned back into their soft, leather high backed chairs to enjoy the occasion, while Jen and Sue secretly wished that the boys had chosen smaller cigars!
After assisting with the recovery of the Cuban economy we made tracks for home, arriving at a respectable 2am.


Date Saturday 23rd October 2010
City Abu Dhabi
Climate Low 26c - high 35c - fine and sunny

Another relaxing start to the day before accepting our next mission - to seek out and conquer the Carrefour hypermarche! Aaron and Sue had invited a group of friends around for a BBQ at home this arvo, so Aaron spearheaded the crack team of Jennie and Shaun to carry out this mission. We were successful in securing enough meat and salads to feed a small army. On the way back from the supermarket we stopped in at the Grand Mosque to take in its awesome size and beauty. Again Aaron excelled as tour guide as he showed us around. Once back at home we prepared for everyone’s arrival. It was a fantastic day of friends and frivolity. Shaun was also able to catch up with Trent who had left NZ a couple of years earlier to work in Dubai, so of course this called for a cigar to celebrate! A bit of a late night for the 3 boys again.


Date Sunday 24th October 2010
City Abu Dhabi to Dubai
Climate Low 26c - high 35c - fine and sunny

It was Dubai adventure day today with Aaron as our experienced guide. We left around 12pm for the hour long drive along the 5 lane super highway. As Aaron pointed out, there is a definite delineation line where the highway road colour changes and all of the trees suddenly stop as you drive from Abu Dhabi to Dubai! Our first stop on the tour was to drive onto the 45 hectare manmade island ‘The Palms’ to go and see the Atlantis Hotel, where we’ve heard that certain suites have their windows viewing into a huge aquarium with the fish looking back at them. It even has its own marine and water park. We then popped over to the Burj Al Arab, the architectural marvel that looks like a huge dhow sail and overlooks Jumeriah beach. It is the world’s finest hotel (six stars) and where Rooney was hiding out for the weekend after signing a new 200,000 pound a week contract! After all it was only costing him 2000 pounds a night to stay there.
Next stop was at the Mall of the Emirates - a truly huge shopping mall which includes a massive internal ski field called ‘Ski Dubai’ which Aaron and Shaun were very excited about! Admission is $180Dhs for 2 hours and includes all hire gear, except for gloves so bring your gloves. Otherwise you can buy a pair for $60Dhs but these are no good to you once you go back out into the heat! It was such a weird feeling walking in from the 35’C heat and entering the ski field kept at a constant -4’C! Very good fun with two runs, some ski jumps and rails available to mix it up. Jen left the boys to it as she explored the mall.
After escaping without injury we made our way to one of the largest malls in the world - Dubai Mall. This mall features a massive aquarium on the ground floor where customers can walk through a tunnel in the centre of it, much like Kelly Tarltons of Auckland. A bonus of this mall is that it’s right next to Burj Dubai - the world’s tallest building. Between that and “The Address” - another luxury hotel on the edge of the Mall is a lovely large lake. In the evening this lake converts into a light and sound show every half hour with thousands of water spouts creating patterns set to Arabian music. This was better than the Bellagio show in Las Vegas by far. We watched a couple of different songs before heading back for Abu Dhabi, arriving home around 9pm.

Date Monday 25th October 2010
City Abu Dhabi
Climate Low 24c - high 35c - fine and sunny

Both of our hosts were working today so we were going to spend the day doing a spot of shopping at the Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi before relaxing on the beach on the Corniche. We were staying out of town in an area called Khalifa City A, so we grabbed a taxi to the mall which took about half an hour (approx 45 Dhs). There must be something about malls as we didn’t end up making it to the beach. We took a break in the shopping at 4.30pm for lunch - Jennie having traditional Arabian takeaways of lamb on hummus with pita bread, yoghurt and salad and Shaun having a yummy Popeye Fried chicken takeaway meal. We eventually walked out of the mall at 8.15pm! We both promised that we would only be sunbathing tomorrow!

Date Tuesday 26th October 2010
City Abu Dhabi
Climate Low 22c - high 34c - fine and sunny

As promised we were only going to be sunbathing today. After doing our research we decided to hang out at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Yas Island. This is a popular pastime at many hotels on weekends for expats as there are not many pools around. The cost to use the hotel facilities for the day was 110 Dhs, with very comfy loungers and fluffy towels awaiting us. The pool area is very nice at the Crowne Plaza and we had our own private deck overhanging the pool for the whole day, taking a break from the relentless sun for lunch before resuming on our tan for the afternoon shift.
We headed back for home in the late afternoon to spend some quality time with Aaron, Sue and the kids before flying out for Venice at 2.00am. We enjoyed a relaxed catch up over dinner and a wine or two; before grabbing a cab for the 10 minute trip to the airport around 11.30pm.
We did have to break out our 3rd bag at the airport due to the check-in staff advising that our 2 bags were too heavy. This can be put down to our retail therapy at the Marina Mall the other day! No charges so all good.


Date Wednesday 27th October 2010
City Abu Dhabi to Venice via Heathrow
Climate Low 13’C - high 24’C - overcast with showers

We had a great flight with a spare seat between us in row 35. This was a 7 hour overnight flight and we were asleep within half an hour, arriving at Heathrow at 6.45am feeling refreshed. We had 3 hours in Heathrow terminal 5 before our flight to Venice and we were definitely missing the warmth of Abu Dhabi, with a high of 13’C in London.

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