Travelling to Abu Dhabi, UAE

Prologue

This is going to be a little bit long winded, cos 2 years never update liao lolxx....  It may be dry, but it's my 心声 sia, heehee...

Al Wathba Fossil Dunes

Not only did Covid had caused almost the whole world to shut down for 2 years, this poor travel blog also hibernate until I think all my readers left me already.  So for those who are still reading here, I am very very thankful, thank you for coming back, THANK YOU.

I made it to Abu Dhabi, flew off on 17 Mar and came back on 15 Apr, 30 days in total, the longest I had ever left home.  Subsequently in less than 2 weeks I went to Kuala Lumpur for a short trip of 4 days.  It was hard to find time......

I had wanted to update but don't know where to start, also I was lazy to gather all the information to put them down.  I have so much photos in hand, half of them I haven't seen them yet.  These few days I had been cracking my head on how to blog about my one month stay in Abu Dhabi.  Normally I love to post my experience on daily basis, but it's going to be too lame and long winded to do 30 posts.  I had decided to categorise into -

Dubai Expo
Dubai Mall & Burj Khalifa
Supermarkets & shopping malls in Abu Dhabi

and separate posts on a few attractions, also maybe what I had bought and the Etihad Business Class........ so probably I can squeeze everything in less than 10 posts.

For those who are interested in the daily version is at my baby blog HERE.

It's very dramatic, looking back, I couldn't believe what I had been through......

For the pass 2 years, I had stayed at home, partly "kia si" and partly I lost all motivation to work.  All along I worked so that I could save enough money to travel.  So when the world shut their doors, my heart was shut too.

I was very broken when I had to cancel my Japan trip in 2020, even till today, Luis and I will still talk about it.  Actually, I was planning to visit my baby sis after the Japan trip, who was then working in Oman, then that couldn't be done and it was my great regret.  She told me she was the only one with nobody from her family visit her, for 4 years.  I was too ashamed even to cry in front of anybody.  My love for her was so verbal and worthless.....  Later, she left the company and left the country, so I had never been to her house in Oman.  I would consider it a blessing in disgust for her that she found another job in Abu Dhabi.  I told myself, this time, I wouldn't sit and wait any more, as long as I was able to grab an air tix.  I wanted to be with her this time, I didn't care if I were a nuisance or of help, I just wanted to be there.

Another part of me was that I was very unhappy at home.  People envy me as a tai tai who sleep late late, buy groceries from hotel/restaurant supplier, cook expensive dinners but I wasn't happy.  I couldn't really pin point as to why I was so depressed, blame it on the hot weather, menopause, I don't know..... so it was a chance to escape from reality.

It was announced in some time in Dec 2021 that UAE would open and a few days later, they decided to postpone.  It was a roller coaster to me.  Nobody knew how I felt cos nobody took me seriously when I said I wanted to visit.

Finally another announcement was made, UAE opened border on 25th Feb.

I began looking into Etihad air tickets and it's surprising affordable for a 7.5hrs flight, wow wow wow....

On 20 Feb, I booked the air tix, fly 2 Mar, return 28 Mar, happy.

And Etihad airline gave me this ticket, yay yay.

After which, there's a lot to do -

1) Travel Insurance

30 days very jialet..... I usually buy from NTUC but it was about $270+, very xiong.....  Etihad airways covers medical/hospitalization and quarantine facilities for Covid.  So I just need something very basic to cover suay-ness of missing baggage, flight delays, getting into accidents etc....  So I found AXA travel insurance at $138.  But please hor, DO NOT BUY from them!  I had to went through a hassle, cancelled it and bought another one from MSIG about $187.  I will explain what happened later, very drama one.  Basically, get your travel insurance, most of them has Covid coverage.  For some countries buying a Covid covered insurance is compulsory.  For UAE it's not, but I needed to safe, in case suay suay, at least I protected my bank from bleeding excessively.

2) Pre-travel PCR test

I booked with PDTSWAB.sg, was $138, a home test.  The reason why I booked a home test was that clinics doing PCR test were very very crowd.  Chances of getting positive was just so high by sending yourself to these clinics.  That period of time Singapore was at it's peak with more than 10K cases daily.  Anyway, it was later cancelled, $118 was refunded, $20 they mekan as admin fee, cos just before my flight, the airline dropped PCR requirement lolxx...

3) Obtain Vaccinated Cert

The vax cert can be obtained from Notarise.gov.sg which can be kept in PDF format.  I printed out hard copies, screen shot and send them to UAE's ICA Smart Service whereby they will update in their local app.

4) Download local app Al Hosn

It's like our once upon a time Trace Together app.  You need to show this app to enter into malls and attractions.  Both locals and tourists in UAE needs to do PCR every 14days (fret not, it's AED40 about SDG15 only), and the result will be updated in this app.  The crucial thing is - you have to key in a local phone number, cos they can't send OTP to activate the app if you use Singapore phone number.

5) Phone roaming

We needed to do supervised ART before flying back.  The new rule was implemented while I was in UAE.  Supposed to be simplified but the process required OTP so, I switched and switched between my SIM cards until I went nuts sia.  I bought a local SIM card from Etisalat at the airport.

On 23 Feb, I had my hair cut and did my nails, preparing to fly on 2 Mar....

On 24 Feb..... Luis kena, haiz...........  I couldn't believe it, I knew probably 30% of the population kena, but of all times..... gawd.....

I called the Etihad to cancel and leave the tix as open date; re-schedule the PCR test till 1 month later with intention to re-schedule again in time to come; and lastly emailed this AXA insurance to hold on to the policy and even explained to them what happened.   That genius customer service asked me to give them a new date of commence for the policy, I replied it's not possible, how the hell I know when my kid recover wor????  Will let them now ASAP when I re-book my flights lah.

3 Mar, kiddo was negative, he took 8 days to be fully recovered.

I re-booked my flight to 17 Mar - 15 Apr.  Emailed AXA insurance, that idiot told me to buy another policy as the previous policy was expired.  KNN sia, I called, tried not to scream, gotten full refund, the poor girl who answered my call asked if I would like to get another travel insurance, I said sorry, no.

 15 Mar, my biz class seat was success!  My econ tix was $275 + bid $375, total $650 for biz class was super good deal.  Imagine it's more than $700 for Emirates econ flight.

17 Mar 2022, my new passport received it's first chop.  I felt like a bird out of the cage.

Also for the first time, I didn't have an itinerary cos my main motive was to accompany my sis and help with her new apartment.

Here's summary of basic information for travelling to Abu Dhabi, UAE:

Destination: Abu Dhabi, UAE

It's capital of United Arab Emirates and about 1.5hrs drive from famous Dubai.

No quarantine for fully vaccinated visitors.  Need to download local app Al Hosn.  PCR test needed every 14 days at AED40.  PCR test is available in all hospitals, most clinics and some of the shopping malls.  They even have drive-thru.  The airport's PCR result is as fast as after 3hrs, others varies from 8hrs to 24hrs maximum.

Duration: 17 Mar to 15 Apr 2022

Fully used up 30 days of free visa.

Weather: Mar 14 to 28 degrees, Apr 27 to 40 degrees

Flight: Etihad Airways

Economy $509 for 2 way.  Bid for biz class $375 for flying over and return was $400.  Flight duration about 7.5hrs.

Time difference: 4hrs behind Singapore

Eg. UAE 1pm, Singapore 5pm

Currency: SGD1 = AED2.65 (approx.)

Accommodation: I stayed at my sis place in Al Reem Island

Protocol for face mask: Required indoors, outdoors optional

Next post I'll share my flight experience with Etihad Airways.