During my stay in AD I had joined Omar, who was shooting a video showing random people dancing to the song “Happy” by Iforgotthenameagain. The video is now online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=audy0aHjdyg I think it’s really well done. Yours truly has a short appearance around 3:40. Dancing in the streets of Abu Dhabi!

Going through the memory cards before meeting a local food blogger for lunch.

Staying at hotels is something I could get used to. The bed was incredibly more comfortable than anything any hostel has to offer and the breakfast buffet was as extensive as it was delicious. Scrambled eggs made to order for you? Certainly Sir, coming right away Sir! Belly filled I took a taxi over to the Etihad Towers to have a look at and from their viewing platform 300m above ground.

Etihad is considered one of the better airlines in the world and accordingly I had no reasons to complain about anything on the first leg of my Manila bound trip. Somewhere over Basra daybreak put a blue shimmer on the horizon. Down below were some extremely bright and yellow lights - are the Iraqi oil sources still on fire? The quiet flight took just over six hours and with dinner and breakfast service there were only about 2-3 hours for napping.

With Abu Dhabi being oil sheik country, I expected my stay to be somewhat pricey. A quick glance at the hotel restaurant’s menu confirmed that and had me crunching numbers. Fortunately a stroll through the neighborhood revealed that even in Abu Dhabi there is street food. A local bakery produces some cheese filled pide bread in their tandoori style oven and with 3 Dh a fix it costs less than a tenth of what the hotel charges for a basic meal.