As some of you might know, we were given a free 2 night stay at the exclusive Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah resort and spa in Oman, and decided to take the trip this weekend, to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary.
We left the UAE on the afternoon of the 13th and entered Oman at about 16h30. We were lucky to have just missed a rather heavy rain, but it did leave the wadi's and river beds looking rather beautiful.The drive to Muscat took about 4 hours or so and we finally arrived at the hotel at about 21h00. You should bear in mind that this trip was done on the first day of the muslim Holy month of Ramadan. For those of you that dont know about Ramadan, basically it means not eating, drinking or smoking in public until sunset. Not too great if you are doing a long distance car trip.
The hotel is actually made up of three seperate hotels. 2 Five star hotels and 1 Six star one. Although we found the room to be very average for 1750 AED ( about R3500.00 ) per night, we did find that the hotel itself was very beautifully laid out.As you can see, we had a view of the pool area to the left of the room, and a beach view to the right.
At dinner on the first night I decided to have my first Martini. I allowed luiza to choose one for me and she chose the Don Vito...
Don DevitoTequila, Chocolate Liquer, White Cacao Liqeur, fresh cream and chocolate
When you arrive at a destination at night, you miss out on the initial beauty of the area...you also tend to find out the next morning that what you thought we mountains that you were driving through...WERE'NT...as you can see below...
After driving aroung in the local mountains for a while the next morning, we came across a small fishing village called Quntab. A small but quaint little village with a total human population of 1000...and a goat population of 800...
We found a really nice place to do some snorkelling, and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to become one with the local fish life...
didnt see much though as it was rather late by the time we finally got into the water, and we had lost most of our light. The area does seem to have a huge scuba diving and snorkelling industry in Oman, which definatley warrants coming back here in the near future. Next time however, we will definiately bring the kids with us.
Day three proved to be the more interesting of the 3 days as Luiza convinced me to go on a Dolphin viewing boat trip. For those of you that dont know my history with boats...let just say by the time the boat trip was due to start, I was suitable and completely medicated for the trip.
After convincing myself that we were wasting money on the trip and that the hotel was just telling us that there were Dolphins so that they could get our well earned money from us...LUIZA managed to get some really good pictures of the Dolphins that I was conviced we would not see.
Oh, and one more thing before I end this story. When we checked in at the hotel, we told them that we would be spending our Wedding Anneversary with them and they said they would do something special for us...
I really didnt believe them....
On the evening of our anneversary, they showed up at our room with Cake, Roses and a pretty expensive bottle of Champagne...what a nice gesture...
Anyway, it was a really great weekend and it was a really pity to have to come back to work today.
Until next time...
Mike, Luiza and the boys
After driving aroung in the local mountains for a while the next morning, we came across a small fishing village called Quntab. A small but quaint little village with a total human population of 1000...and a goat population of 800...We found a really nice place to do some snorkelling, and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to become one with the local fish life...
didnt see much though as it was rather late by the time we finally got into the water, and we had lost most of our light. The area does seem to have a huge scuba diving and snorkelling industry in Oman, which definatley warrants coming back here in the near future. Next time however, we will definiately bring the kids with us.Day three proved to be the more interesting of the 3 days as Luiza convinced me to go on a Dolphin viewing boat trip. For those of you that dont know my history with boats...let just say by the time the boat trip was due to start, I was suitable and completely medicated for the trip.
After convincing myself that we were wasting money on the trip and that the hotel was just telling us that there were Dolphins so that they could get our well earned money from us...LUIZA managed to get some really good pictures of the Dolphins that I was conviced we would not see.
Oh, and one more thing before I end this story. When we checked in at the hotel, we told them that we would be spending our Wedding Anneversary with them and they said they would do something special for us...
I really didnt believe them....
On the evening of our anneversary, they showed up at our room with Cake, Roses and a pretty expensive bottle of Champagne...what a nice gesture...
Anyway, it was a really great weekend and it was a really pity to have to come back to work today.Until next time...
Mike, Luiza and the boys
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