After a salad lunch at our favourite ‘Lips’ cafe in Marina Mall, where were greeted as long lost friends by the waitress and a trip to Carrefours we headed back to the hotel and an evening out at the yacht club with our former neighbours Paddy and Jude. One of the founding fathers of the UAE, Sheikh Faqr from Ras Al Khaimah, died on Wednesday so the flags were lowered to half mast, the radio started playing classical music and the country entered a mourning period with lots of events cancelled, including the long awaited opening of the Ferrari World theme park. He was 90 years old and had been ill for some time but everyone was still very upset. The yacht club were able to open for food and drink but without live music, which suited us old fogey’s just fine! It was also ‘ladies night’ so Jude and I were plied with free bubbly all evening whilst John and Paddy had to buy their own! We had a lovely time and it was great to see them again. Hopefully we’ll be able to stay in touch since they have relatives in the Manchester area.
On Thursday we checked out of the Oryx and headed back to the Hilton where we headed for the beach club before returning to the airport to pick Rachel and co up after their trip to Bani Yas island. Proof of the smallness of Abu Dhabi, we bumped into Jude in the Mall and my friend Liz at the beach club and less happily, the guy who runs the ad agency that I was constantly trying (and failing) to get paid whilst having an ice cream in a cafe. I had to make a speedy exit and hope he didn’t see me since we’d spoken on the phone earlier in the week and I know that he still hasn’t been paid! About the only people we haven’t managed to bump into or get to meet are Katie and Scott from Wordsearch, but since their first son, Oliver, was born on Monday night, that’s hardly surprising!
The Claringbold family seemed to have very much enjoyed the island and had been snorkelling, kayaking done archery and taken a game drive to see giraffes, cheetahs as well as more indigenous UAE species such as oryx. The sea plane sounded wonderful and the hotel itself sublime. We went down to the souq, where we’d dropped off the large piles of laundry and enjoyed dinner at the Meat company, one of John’s haunts from when he was living there. We sat outside overlooking the creek and used three more of our vouchers from the Entertainer book which is always very gratifying. Alastair reckoned his rib meat burger was one of the best he’d ever had though John was less impressed with the ribs themselves.
On Friday we popped over to fetch a key from Helen and John, who’d kindly agreed to let us stay with them for our last two nights before heading over to the Marina to catch the Shuja Yacht for their Friday brunch cruise. It was as much fun as ever – the sea seems much greener that I remember and the weather is just lovely, mid thirties with a light breeze and just the occasional cloud. We all pigged out on the buffet and enjoyed the sparkling beverages whilst admiring the scenery. Alastair has been learning the Arabic numbers and John was testing him on them, he seems to know them all which is better than me. I never got much beyond my car number plate!
The Claringbolds headed for a last afternoon at the beach club before a final buffet supper and then their return to the airport. We were slightly concerned whether the discovery of suspect packages on a cargo flight at Dubai might cause delays but everything seemed to go smoothly. They seemed to enjoy their first experience of Abu Dhabi and the Arabian peninsula.
One of the things that I’ve really noticed this time is how amazing the service is, especially in hotels. Both hotels just couldn’t do enough for you, the Hilton sorted out our complex room requirements brilliantly and looked after us so well. Requests for more coat hangers and a look at a noisy aircon unit were fulfilled immediately and when the bellboy at the Oryx saw that I’d been out to get a paper they brought one up to the room the following morning. It does rather spoil you for other parts of the world where it isn’t quite so good and the staff/guest ratio is probably not so high.
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