FROM ABU DHABI TO SYDNEY

Ceiling of Abu Dhabi International Airport Terminal 1
Car Prize of one of the Raffle Draws at Abu Dhabi Airport

Waiting Lounge - Terminal 3

(This entry should be ahead of Pacman's victory article)

Leaving Saudi Arabia on 29 April 2009, I arrived at Abu Dhabi International Airport Terminal 1 at 5 minutes past one o'clock in the morning of 30 April 2009. My next departure will be at 10:15 AM. Before, I could have a free dinner and breakfast meal courtesy of Etihad Airways but I learned that it was discontinued.

Waiting for the 10 hour ordeal to pass, I tried to have a nap but it was hard to have a good night sleep on a hard chair with plenty of passengers talking loudly nearby especially those Nepalese going to work in Saudi Arabia. I do hope that Etihad will provide passengers with snooze quarters for those on a 5 hour or more stop over. I had a small chit-chat with a Filipino going on a similar flight schedule via Philippine Airlines to the Philippines. Counting it all, I guessed I had a two hour nap.

The departure area going to Sydney was at Terminal 3 which is about 10 minutes walk from Terminal 1. Well, the new addition to the airport was impressive with those natural trees and plants lining the hall ways.(I'm just wondering though where is Terminal 2). There were also duty shops along the way. The waiting lounge is spacious bordered also with natural plants.

The departure time to Sydney was on time. During the 13 + hour flight, I watched the Oscar award winning film "The Slumdog Millionaire", "Yes Man" with Kim Carrey - although I slept at the middle of it, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" of Brad Pitt and another film which I could not recollect the title. I tried to play "Tetris" but the remote of Seat 28C was not working.

The food was great simply because I ordered Oriental Meal during reservation. If you do just like what what I did, your meal shall be served first.

We arrived at the Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport at exactly 6 o'clock in the morning of 01 May 2009, lining on with the thermal scanners ahead of us for swine flu virus detection. I left the airport at 7 :20o via the train service to Parramatta.

Coming Home From Home

http://americanbedu.com/2008/04/07/desert-camping/

After a gruesome 15 hours airplane ride from Sydney to Abu Dhabi and 1 more hour to Dammam, I finally arrived to my second home - Saudi Arabia - on 12 May 2008. Unlike Sydney, the weather in Saudi Arabia is beginning to get hot. Bigla akong nanibago. May suot kasi akong makapal na wool jacket nang umalis ng Australia, 'tapos ang init-init naman nang daratnan mo.

I still have jetlag. I am waking up at midnight and feel sleepy at 3 in the afternoon. Nangangapa pa ako sa trabaho. Mahirap din naman agad malaman ang mga nangyari sa loob ng 3 buwan.

The ground floor of our staff accommodation building is already finished but I did not move in. I am in my OLD portable, the one I used when I first came in. Hintayin kong matapos yong first floor at doon ako lilipat. Ang hirap din kasi nang palipat-lipat papalit-palit ng kuwarto. Nahahalungkat mo yong mga gamit mong hindi mo na sinusuot pero hindi mo pa tinatapon o pinamimigay. Tila ba may sentimental value pa rin ang mga iyon. Butas-butas na nga at naninilaw na ay gusto mo pang isuot.

COMING "HOME"

Abu Dhabi Intenational Airport (View from the Departure Area)

Being born and raised in the Philippines, I considered Australia my second "home". My family and I migrated here in September 2005 but I have to leave in September 2006 to work with my former boss of 10 years in Saudi Arabia.

On 1st February, I have to leave Saudi Arabia and go back to Australia on my second 3 months break. This is necessary to fulfill the residency requirement to get an Australian citizenship.

I left our Camp at 10:30 pm and arrived in SABTCO station in Al-Khobar at around 12:00 midnight. The bus to Bahrain left at 1:57 AM, 02 February 2008 and arrived 3:30 AM in Bahrain. I was hold at the check-in counter for about 5 minutes to verify my boarding pass to Sydney. Probably, it never occured to them that a Filipino from KSA was going to Australia. The airplane that took me to Abu Dhabi left at 5:50 AM and arrived at around 8:00 AM.

There were full of passengers at the Abu Dhabi International Airport. As usual, most of the attendants manning the duty free shops are Filipinos.

Before boarding the airplane to Sydney, I was again questioned at the documents verification stand. It really surprised the officer that a Filipino was boarding a flight to Sydney. After asking a few questions, I was clear. I was the only Filipino in the flight, excluding the 2 stewardesses.

The almost 13 hours flight from Abu Dhabi to Sydney seemed endless. I watched Maricel Soriano and Aga Mulach's movie " A Love Story" and a film thatI forgot the title. I wanted to watch "Bee Story" but the film was not available in my monitor. I tried to sleep but I guessed I only had 2 straight hours.

I arrived at Sydney airport at 7:12 AM, Sunday, 03 February 2008. My wife's PAL flight from Manila and Melbourne arrived late at 12:08 noon. Philippine Airlines (PAL) lived to its expectation of coming late. (PAL = PALaging Late). My wife and son did not know that I was coming so they were surprised to see me. My brother's wife Emy fetched us from the airport.

My journey was carried out by Etihad, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates.

Umuulan ng araw na iyon. Tila sinasalubong ang aking pagdating.