Thursday 5 January
Today is Jade's birthday! and, thanks to our middle of the night flight, she was awake for more of it than usual. Jade has been absolutely counting down the days and hours until her birthday. We knew that it was mainly going to be a day of travelling and I tried to impress on her that this was a glamorous (rather than boring) way to spend her birthday! But with no cake, presents or party I only partly succeeded.
The day actually started just after 11pm Wednesday night when we were woken up by the early arrival of Mohammad, who had come to take us to the airport for our 3.40am flight to Abu Dhabi. We were all packed and just had to put on our travelling clothes and squeeze the last bits and pieces in--as usual these were our myriad lot of adaptor plugs and charger cords. What would we do without all of our gadgets!
Our trip to the airport was smooth as there wasn't much traffic at night. We took the elevated highway through the main part of Cairo to the Western outskirts of the city. This time our departure was from one of the modern terminals--whew! Mohammad took us to the check-in counter and told us where we had to go after that then bade us good-bye. We checked in, cleared immigration then hit the shops to use up our remaining Egyptian money on last minute bargains. We also bought some refreshments at the coffee place right by the entrance to our gate--Gate 8. Everything at Cairo airport is on the ground level as they bus you out to the planes. When our gate opened we went through the security detectors at the gate then sat in the waiting area until our bus arrived. Paul was disappointed that he hadn't been able to find an Egyptian tie during our whole trip and we still hoped to find one with an Arab theme at least in Dubai. Because we had time to waste I went up to one of the airline staff, pointed to his tie, and asked him how to say it in Arabic. It was approximately something like kravate--like the word cravat--not surprising really when you consider that ties are an item of Western clothing so Arabic has evidently absorbed a Western word for it.
We waited and waited all pretty awake considering it was 2-3am and watched all of the young children also waiting for our flight. Oh, no! Another flight full of screamers!
We bussed out to the plane finally and settled in for the flight. There were no blindfolds or blankets at first but everyone began to get blankets out of the overhead compartments because the plane was pretty chilly. It was a fairly non-eventful flight. We all tried to sleep a bit.
We arrived at Abu Dhabi just after 9am local time,cleared customs and grabbed our bags. It was just about 10am by the time we got out into the main part of the terminal and, although we knew we had to wait until 1:30 for the Etihad bus to Dubai we still walked out to check out where the bus would be. Then we returned to the airport and found some comfortable armchairs at a Starbucks. We got drinks and snacks and sat to pass the time again. At least Abu Dhabi has free wireless internet!
Just before 1.30 we went outside again to the bus stop and got on the bus to Dubai. There was only us and two other groups of people so the bus was very empty. A staff member came around and gave each of us a free bottle of water. That was nice. I spent the hour and 20 minute ride looking out the window at all the sand.
In Dubai the bus arrived at what appeared to be a small car park behind a building. There was no terminal or facilities there but luckily there were a few taxis around. We grabbed a cab which had a boot spacious enough to fit our 4 suitcases and it was only a short 15 minute or so ride to our hotel--the Ramada Downtown Dubai, which I had booked on the internet.
We arrived just after 3.30 and immediately had a problem. We were supposed to have two adjacent rooms with a single door and entryway into them. But someone on the staff had given one of our rooms to someone else. A phone call from reception was met with a very hostile guest who refused to change rooms so we could have what we booked. In the end we got the two rooms we booked but on different floors. Paul and Jade were on the 16th floor and Jarrah and I on the 13th floor. What made it even more inconvenient was that neither of the rooms had been cleaned. We were told that the room on the 13th floor was clean so we went up there to wait for the other room to be cleaned. Except when we got there it wasn't clean. So we went up to the 16th floor and that also wasn't clean. So we had to sit out in the hallway waiting with our bags after having travelled all night and waiting for hours for our bus at Abu Dhabi airport. Finally both rooms were ready. They were beautiful, both with views of the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world) and the dancing fountain below it. It really was an excellent hotel in a great position.
Jarrah and I went downstairs to the supermarket (Spinney's) in the building next door and bought food to make for dinner while Paul and Jade rested. We started cooking on the 16th floor but then moved down to the 13th floor which had a larger kitchen and dining area. We were lucky no one caught us in the lift holding a cooking pot of boiling water!!!!!! We would have gotten some strange looks if we had!
Our day was capped off by our excellent view of several shows of the dancing fountain which had about a 3 minute display every half hour on the hour and half hour. We couldn't really hear the music but the fountains were wonderful in themselves. We love a free show!
No comments:
Post a Comment