Muscat

Before completely bidding goodbye to summer 2006, we decided to get on a plane and head off to the Middle East for a weeklong vacation to make our last hoorah for the season. True enough when we got there the sun was shinning at +40C temperature.

Aug 06, departure day: we started the day pretty early at 3am. Surprisingly Bianca was up and about considering we had to wake her up from her slumber. When we got to the check-in counter we were informed that our seats have been upgraded to the Business Class. The plane apparently is not full and our booking agent requested that we get the best seats. I was more surprised with how the Indira Gandhi airport was at this time. There were no long lines in the security check, checking-in was a breeze and the immigration was quicker than what we were used to. This made me decide to take more trips during this time of the day to cut my chances of waiting in line.

When we were waiting at the gate, I noticed that 95% of our co-passengers were Indians, who if I can accurately say are going to Muscat in search for greener pastures. I had this impression that most of them had never even been on a plane since you could sense how anxious they were. I just hope that they do find what they are looking for in Muscat.




The Seeb International Airport in Muscat is very well maintained and is comparatively smaller than HK or Bangkok airports. It was quite nice that at 7am most of the Immigration counters were opened. Waiting for us at the exit gate was Shangri-La’s Al Barr Jissad Resort and Spa representative who would then later take us to the resort. It was a 40-minute ride from the airport to the hotel. On the road you could see white and beige structures, which are either government or private offices, residences or commercial places.

Since we arrived early, we were not surprised to hear that our room was still not ready. That’s why we opted to first take our breakfast in Samba, the Al Waha coffee shop. By the way, this resort has three hotels in its complex: Al Husn, Al Bandar and the Al Waha. Al Waha is more of the family weekend place as the two others are more business like.


After breakfast and after putting our luggage in the room, we didn’t waste any moment and headed straight to the pool. It was a warm morning that’s why the water was very pleasant. As expected Bianca dashed off and jumped to the pool as soon as her floaters were on.


50 meters from the pool was the beach so we had the choice of where to go. But for this trip we have discovered that the beach was overwhelming for Bianca. The waves and I think the grandiosity of the beach overtook her excitement of being in the water. The sand in her feet just didn’t seem well for her since she kept on bugging us to shower off the sand. That’s why most of the time we enjoyably spent it in the pool and the lazy river.



Food: The food in the resort was absolutely good. This was a resort that boasts of its 15 outlets so you really don’t run out of options. Aside from Samba, some of the restos we tried included the Surf Café. It’s theme is a casual resto with internet access and a billiard table. Another restaurant was the Bait Al Bahr which features fresh seafood. This is where I had my sumptuous foie gras and lobsters … yum! yum! yum! Al Tanoor is an outlet that’s located in Al Bandar. It has Western, Indian, and local stations that give you a wide variety of choices.

People: Most of the people working in the resort were expatriates. And majority of those are Filipinos, saw familiar faces who I have had worked with in Makati Shangri-La. It was actually nice for me since I was in the care of my kababayans. They always gave me special treatments when it came to my requests. One time I requested for a DVD player to be set up in the room and was informed that they were all out. But when they knew I was Pinoy they kind of went the extra mile to search for one. Another pinoy insisted on setting up our Room Service dinner in the balcony of our room so we could enjoy the warm night with the sound of the waves gushing in the shore while munching on our sushi and grilled seafood. I must say, that was really nice.


Overall, the vacation was wonderful! We had so much fun as a family and enjoyed every minute of our holiday … Thomas as usual was 100% hands-on in taking care of Bianca, that’s why she super adores him and I love him more for that.

So that was our summer getaway … next up a visit back home in October :)