Six hours at Abu Dhabi airport

‎Oh well! Long transit times can be a total pain, especially when you are in no mood to do much at the airport. So the million dollar question is – why such long transit hours? As if it’s so difficult to guess!! Sometimes in life one has no choice, isn’t it? With the travel season in full swing it does become almost impossible to get tickets of your choice at a decent price point. Hence the good girl in me who likes to save decided to take this route and spend six hours at Abu Dhabi… twiddling thumbs! Well, literally! Because I figured that being on the cell phone typing away to glory is nothing but twiddling thumbs, isn’t it?

It’s a nice airport, albeit small. But it has everything that one looks for in order to feel comfortable, especially when the flight and travel gods aren’t exactly being nice to you by providing decent and shorter connections.

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So here’s what I liked about the airport:

1. Free wi-fi – can you beat that? The moment I got through security check that’s the first thing I was looking for. I already mentioned my perception of myself (the good girl who likes to save, remember), so wi-fi is a boon to send “safely landed now waiting and eating” messages back home to all the eager loved ones who are waiting on you!
Btw – I nearly embarrassed the guy on the food counter by looking shocked and repeating the same question three times “free wifi?”. He almost thought I had lost it, I looked so overwhelmed.

2. No Starbucks – saving is the theme of the day! I didn’t have to drink my regular chai latte no water no foam (just kidding okay!!). Before you start believing that I am such a miser let me tell you that I love Starbucks, especially for the charging points, wi-fi and no-nonsense ‎co-passengers who are drowning themselves into their laptops! Well I was disappointed with no Starbucks at the food court, but since I managed the ‘free’ wi-fi and charging point, skipping chai wasn’t a big deal.

3. Charging point – a point that works with Indian chargers. Now isn’t that a dream come true? For someone who is twiddling thumbs and spending tonnes of battery life with each passing minute? This is one thing I dread not finding especially when I am on my way to Europe or the Americas!

4. Helpful staff – the Etihad staff is super helpful. The person at the Jet Airways counter – Lloyd – in Mumbai was very cooperative and went out of his way to make me and my life comfortable. However he couldn’t access the Etihad airline seating arrangement and hence couldn’t change my aisle seat into a window one. I can’t even begin to tell how badly affected I am on not being able to get a window seat. But the lovely lady – Selma ‎was not only super sweet, but I fell in love with her ever fluttering eyelids and bewitching smile, the long eyelashes and beautiful eyes which were enhanced by outstanding make-up. She went out of her way too and ensured I got the window seat on the emergency exit row, to take care of my long legs in the 6 hour long flight to Rome. Am going to send recommendation letters to both airlines for both (Lloyd and Selma) for their outstanding customer service.

5. Shopping – am sure you are not shocked to read this one. Any sane girl (well almost) would get excited to get to such a lovely airport and roam around the length and breadth to figure out the best deals on anything and everything under the sun. It’s a great shopping stop undoubtedly. But since I mentioned earlier, I’m on a saving trip, so no shopping for me this time. The real reason being that I have no space in my bags and am too exhausted to lug around extra bags. One heavy backpack and an even heavier cabin bag just does me in. So for this time, shopping is a no no. Though I must admit, it’s a fabulous shopping place.

6. Skype – managed to speak to my dear husband for a looong time thanks to the wi-fi. And a good wi-fi connection (which is almost impossible in India these days). Should this have been a continuation of point 1 and been 1a instead of 6!? Please assume it is point 1a if you are finicky and fussy about the continuation bit (thank you!).

7. Russian co-passenger – who barely speaks English. She came looking for her life saviour too (yes you got that right – the charging point). And yes – there are points to accommodate chargers from all countries. I love this non-racist approach of the Emirates folks. Trust me, this has proven to be such a pain point for me during my earlier travels. Oh, but we were talking about the pretty Russian who speaks broken English, but managed well. Was good to have a small conversation with her and yes, she saved me a bit from getting sore thumbs (talk about saving today!!). This is the best part about travel. You meet people who you would remember for life!

8. Food – the food court has a decent spread to take care of many culinary tastes. Though most of it is non-vegetarian (and not meant for me), it is a good court where you will not starve. Talking about starving, well – non-availability of my type of food lead to bigger savings (the dirham ‎and dollar types. 🙂 well, am kidding again. I did manage a cookie and a drink, because I prefer eating light during long travels.

I think eight is a good number but this post would be incomplete if I didn’t write another crucial point.

9. Blogging – now, would it have been fair if I missed this one. For argument sake, you could say that this is also a continuation of point 1 – wi-fi. But hey, blogging does require extra motivation and a lot more twiddling of thumbs (willingness and ability to make it easier for economics students) resulting into a sore hand literally. Plus, whether wi-fi is available or not, one could still type on the phone or the laptop if one wanted to. The other argument could be that this one flows from point 3 – the charging point. Juice is necessary to keep the cell/ top battery going. But, well does it matter?

As you can see, or rather read, my mind is reaching a point of shutdown and I think it’s time for my flight as well. So let me bid adieu for now and connect back when I re-surface somewhere at some other time in some other destination.

Until we meet again…
Cheers,
Archie!

Ps – I didnt have the patience to go around clicking pictures. The moment I found myself a nice seat in a cozy corner I decided to stay put, stick it out (my butt with the rather hard but warm wooden chair) and write a post instead. Howzzat?

Featured Image source: Flickr