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yatrik · Member Joined: 08 Nov 2012 Posts: 19

Friday 23rd January 2015

Early morning start, woke up at 4am for an alarm ringing since 3:30 (that still is fastest I have woken up, ie Alarm time to wake up time) quick shower and off to Umm Suqueim Road for the finish line of Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon, which the Ethiopians ruled ! All of top 10 men were Ethiopians with a 20 year old winning with a 24 sec gap from runner up. And in the women, 7 out of top 10 were Ethiopians the others being Kenyan. Well, a long morning at work ended by 1. Went to the Mall of Emirates and had some lunch.

Nishant and Nabeel picked me up from there and we went SPOTTING ! Yay ! Had a nice few hours spotting.

Click the images for Hi-Res photos on Flickr

Saturday 24th January 2015

After a hectic Friday, woke up pretty past noon. And today again Nishant would take me spotting, this time another location.

Again spent a few hours spotting and he then dropped me to the Etihad Travel Mall on Sheikh Zayed Road, I was the only one to check-in at that time, and he just swiped my passport tagged my bags and the boarding was in my hand. Had to wait for the bus to arrive. Was asked to wait in the waiting area, where there were around 10 more pax for the same bus.

The bus arrived and there was a boarding announcement ! Boarded and 10 mins later started towards AUH. There was a Driver and a 'cleaner' as crew. As soon as we started, we all were given a bottle of water and a mentos ! An hour and a half later we reached AUH. Being used to CISF checking upon entering the terminal, I wasn't quite sure whether I entered the correct building ! I already had my boarding pass with me and with bags already checked in, I headed towards security and immigration. Security was a breeze, hardly anyone there, again, no stamps on baording pass and baggage was felt much better.

3 counters were open for immigration, each had a queue of 1 each, I joined the first one. Waited for my turn, the officer just scanned my passport, put the exit stamp, placed my boarding pass, closed the passport and handed over. Since it was my first few stamps, I was too excited to see the stamp. And boom, the EXIT stamp read 24 Feb 2015. Showed the officer the stamp, he checked his stamp, confirmed the date was incorrect, changed the date on his stamp, stamped my passport again on a new page with the correct date. A long walk to the gate from there.

AUH-BOM

Aircraft – Airbus A340-642
Airline – Etihad Airways
Registration – A6-EHL
Seat – 40A

Logbook Stats
3rd flight for 2015
1st on A346
2nd on EY

Reached the gate and there it was, A6-EHL had come in from IAD I think. Boarding started on time and was row wise, loads seemed pretty light. Got to my seat 40A. Could see the 2 huge engines right outside. Soon as boarding completed, the person next to me shifted the the empty aisle seat just next to him, 3 out of 4 seats were empty. The row infront as well as behind me, just had pax in the window seats, aisle seats were empty. Taxiing to the runway, saw the beautiful EHJ, the A346 in the F1 livery. Soon after takeoff, I switched to the aisle seat as no one was seated in front so no one would recline !

The drinks cart rolled out, within a few minutes followed by the food cart. I am sorry, I dont really remember what I had. There was another juice/water service while collecting the trays.

Landed on runway 27, taxied to T2. There was an Ebola screening before immigration. You're giving a form to fill just confirming that you dont have any symptoms, form a queue and walk through one of the counters where the officer just monitors the screen to an infrared camera. The officer stamps the form which you have to hand it offer to immigration officer, who won't stamp your passport if you dont have that form stamped. Immigration took about 20 mins.

Thanks for reading.

sumantra · Member Joined: 28 Oct 2007 Posts: 4685 Location: New Delhi

Now that is a report we expect from Yatrik Seth, with fabulous photographs!
Start with a Marathon, and part 3 of a marathon trip comes to a close.
Incredibly lovely spotting images, Sir! Beautiful angles, and nice, exotic spots.
24 Feb 2015: ha ha, time travel! I am sure it must not have been that funny for you then and there.
Thank you for a lovely report again!
Cheers, Sumantra.

ameya · Posted: Tue Oct 20, 2015 12:05 pm Post subject:

Nice TR!

Can you let us know more about this "Boarding announcement" at the bus stand !
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yatrik · Member Joined: 08 Nov 2012 Posts: 19

stealthpilot · Member Joined: 19 Dec 2006 Posts: 2325 Location: BLR, DXB

You came to DXB without telling the residents .... tsk tsk Wink

Great set of TRs .... will you be coming back next year fro the run?
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yatrik · Member Joined: 08 Nov 2012 Posts: 19

yatrik · Member Joined: 08 Nov 2012 Posts: 19