Abu Dhabi - Travel Day

I was quite excited and looking forward to being sent to Abu Dhabi for a few days to cover the Abu Dhabi International Film Festival. It would be a cool experience to get out of Doha and see another Gulf state for a bit and also be good for me knowing that "festival crunch time" was upon us in Doha.
But when the travel actually happened, it was quite an unexpected pain.

Ahmed and I arrived at the airport around 8pm (flight at 1030). That is when I should have noticed the warning signs.
I loaded all the equipment on to the weigh in station and got my boarding pass. As I was turning to walk away, the attendant nonchalantly knocked the giant pelican case off the belt and it landed directly on the top of my foot. I was wearing flip flops.
My foot swelled and bruised almost instantly.
We got some tea and talked over the game plan for the coverage we were supposed to get over the next few days. Turns out, there wasnt much plan but we were going to get what we could, when we could.
We got on the plane for an easy 1 hour flight.
When we arrived in Abu Dhabi (time difference is 1 hour ahead - 12:15am) we walked through the airport feeling pretty optimistic.
Until the security stopped us.
There was no english being spoken but from the little updates Ahmed was giving me, things weren't good. They were not letting us through with the camera gear.
We spent 2 hours arguing and pleading our case, showing paperwork, making calls, and even reading off every serial number on each piece of equipment we had with us.
Eventually, the let us go by paying 1100 Riyal. Not sure what this figure is for or why we had to pay it, but we were too tired to argue anymore.
We got in a cab and had a 30 minute journey to our hotel; Khalidiya Palace Rayhaan.
A massive structure with typical grandiose Arabic architecture.
Another problem.
The booking was not completed. The credit card used to book the rooms was only to confirm the room and not to pay for it. Another hour went by and we were dead on our feet. It was almost 3am and we needed to be up for 7am to go to the first shoot.
Tired, beaten, and bruised, we made it to our rooms and passed out.
Its 630am now and my eyes and body hate me.
Day one of shooting at the Circle Conference commences whether I like it or not.