Day 4 -Sunday 8th May

Ian's Post

So here we are, Day 4 before we even get to start the blog. Is this really a holiday, or have we just changed one form of frantic busy-ness for another?

PRELUDE.

I finished work at the Easter break and we spent the next two weeks finishing off the tidy-up of the house and garden, and getting the last of the important booking for the trip made, then into the serious packing up to get us out of the house.  We have friends renting our house now until December, so we had to pack up all of the things and furniture we will need in the New Farm unit before we left.  It was a two week marathon!  Whist everyone else was enjoying their Easter break we were mulching, digging, sorting, boxing, carrying and painting!  By the time we were due to go on holiday I was exhausted and really in need of a holiday!

 And by way of light entertainment, I went to see my skin specialist a week before we were due to fly and he decided to excise a mole he didn’t like the look of. So I had a hole stitched up in my arm, which somewhat incapacitated me in the last few days of the pack-up.

DAYS 1 to 4.

So come the morning of the 5th We were up and ready to roll. Simon took us to the airport and we boarded our flight Etihad cattle class to Abu Dhabi.  After a brief and welcome break in Singapore after 8 hours, we did the last 8 hours in that grim, tired, overnight, never land of flying into Abu Dhabi airport , arriving at 11.30pm.  We then found a taxi to take us the 60 miles north to Dubai where we we to stay for the next few days.  The taxi was fast, the road was good and the ride uneventful until we were 50m from the entry to the apartment block where Joseph and Bernadeta live. The driver missed the turning, and it took us another 10km and 15 minutes to get back to the same spot!

I’ve been told I’m using too many words, so we go to highlights mode until we catch up.

Drive around Dubai - Generally quite amazing when 10 years ago there really was very little here.  Now a city of 1.5m people, mostly expats and tourists from europe. Some stunning buildings and major infrastructure projects underway.  The Burj Khalifa (words tallest building - see two photos to get it all in) and Dubai Mall (worlds 2nd biggest shopping mall at 450,000sqm GLA)  all well executed.  Set amongst Gold Coast sprawl that just tapers off at the current edges into the desert, all along a 50km coastal strip.  With Miami style office towers clustered around 2 or 3 centers along the the coast.  Post GFC, lots of suspended building projects and mega projects half finished, but all picking up again now.  

Next day 4.  Drive around Abu Dhabi - 60km further south along the coast, the Administrative centre of the UAE, and a smaller less glitzy place -so far.  Visit the Grande Mosque - new, enormous, ( the worlds biggest hand woven carpet at 4,000sqm, and all marble clad. Exquisite work, simply but finely done. Difficult to capture the style and grace in photos.  The girls had to don an Abayas (black dress) to go round.  This was the most major tourist attraction in Abu Dhabi and had NO signage to find it.  And they build roads so fast and so often that the car GPS is really not much help.  But with petrol at 40c litre it really does not matter too much if you have to drive around a bit! Also went over the “Zaha Hadid” bridge.  Not particularly notable to be honest.  Most of the clever “form” is below road level and so not seen unless you are on a boat on the river.

Jane in an abaya

The on to the Yas Hotel on Yas Island, the other tourist attraction in Abu Dhabi.  Built OVER a F1 racing car circuit and marina, 5 star hotel, virtually empty for us but full the night before for a Snoop Dogg rap concert - god help them!  Huge room with a glass walled toilet that opened straight into the bedroom, odd design concept.

And so back to the airport and onto the next flight to Istanbul………..