Return to Abu Dhabi

It seemed strange to be going back to Abu Dhabi and I was definitely looking forward to the sunshine and a chance to spend some time on the beach.
We set off from Manchester and although we couldn’t get an upgrade on our Etihad points we were thrilled to be moved into business class just as we were settling down in our seats on the plane – never has the pre take off glass of champagne tasted so good! After a pleasant flight and a delicious Margaux we arrived to a humid night and checked into the Hilton. Next day we went to fetch the hire car – nothing short of a bus so that we could fit all six of us in and then spent some time at the Hiltonia beach club before heading back to the airport to pick up Rachel, Andrew, Ellie and Alastair. Abu Dhabi is clearly a small world, since we saw my old car at Spinney’s and met Helen and John inside, then waiting at arrivals we met Maria Brown and were able to catch up with her whilst waiting for the delayed flight from Heathrow.
John must have eaten something bad or picked up a bug as he was really ill the next day and couldn’t get out of bed. He was not himself for another couple of days so we spent a lot of time resting in the hotel room. Luckily the Claringbolds were delighted with the beach club and happily spent many hours there. We took them to visit the Heritage Village where Rachel and Alastair both rode on the camel and on the Jenny bus for a bit of a tour before heading up the Burj Marina for juice and panoramic views. We ate at la Terraza buffet where Alastair managed to get through far more courses than anyone else despite being half price – most impressive. The drinks for AED 1 on a Monday night also went down well with the rest of us! After a tour of the Dhow harbour and Yas Island on Tuesday morning we dropped them at Royal Jet to catch their sea plan to the Desert Island resort on Sir Bani Yas Island. We had decided to stay in Abu Dhabi whilst they were on the island which was fortunate with John’s delicate state and checked into the Oryx Hotel. We’d not been there before but were very impressed, especially after the expedia deal of £89 per night. It’s a business hotel, clearly aimed at Arab men, but we had a huge room on the 13th Floor (no-one is superstitious about the number 13 round here!) with a superb view down the island. The staff were very helpful and friendly though the food at the top floor restaurant did not match up to the views.
Wednesday we headed to the Etihad offices to try and find out why Mum and her friend Jo have still not been credited for the flights that were cancelled back in April due to volcanic ash. Fang Fang was very helpful and promised to send another email request to the ‘online department’, who are clearly virtual people and cannot be spoken to in person! The flights were still open despite an email trail requesting refunds. She has since managed to change their status but they reckon it will still take 30 days to refund the money. However we do seem to have moved forward so you can’t beat a face to face conversation in this part of the world. My friend Liz has promised to take up the face to face cudgel if this doesn’t do the trick.