Dispatch #01: Touchdown Abu Dhabi

After the past few days that I’ve been jittery and anxious, I’ve finally embarked last night for my trip to Europe. The check in would have been smooth at NAIA Terminal 1 if not for the near foul up at the check in counter when the Etihad staff insisted that I present the credit card or give the card number to them despite having a note written that it has already been verified in France. I had to call my contact in Paris and, after about 30 minutes, it was resolved.

Nothing really special during my trip. The Etihad flight to Abu Dhabi was almost full except at the last few rows. There was nothing to see outside as we flew at 1 AM. The Great Gatsby kept me entertained though and some Arabic classical music.

As for the food? Well, I didn’t expect that I will get full with the bread, the orange juice, fruit yoghurt, fruit slices, omelet, ratatouille, hash brown… wow! It was a nice flight though but being in Economy, the seats were just quite cramped.

The plane touched down at 0530H at the Abu Dhabi International Airport. From afar, this structure is not so impressive as Hong Kong, Singapore… it’s cramped and passengers waiting for their flight outside the boarding gates are just everywhere, spilling into the path.

There’s nothing much to do actually here except if one wants to buy from the duty free shops or eat but I was just sitting checking some shops, waiting for my boarding time at Gate 6 for my outbound flight to Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

In this post, I’m introducing DISPATCH, a series of short accounts during major travels. Ideally it will give an account of what basically transpired or happened during my travels, in transit. For this series, follow me in Twitter via @LangyawMedia, Instagram via @EstanCabigas and Facebook via LangyawTravel and with the hashtags #LangyawDispatch #LangyawEuroTrip.