Ahoy Sailor... The Al Said's off on a trip

If you care to take a trip down to the Muttrah Corniche today, you will notice that it's looking emptier than usual because the Al Said and the Fulk Al Salamah are making tracks. The Fulk Al Salamah is the boat that follows the Al Said around. Presumably to support it with logistics. And stuff.

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Above - The Al Said

Above - Fulk Al Salamah

So where are they going? I guess it could be the Dhofar region, for the Khareef festival, or perhaps they are on exercise. Or perhaps they are going for a summer cruise. If they stop in Dubai I'm sure we will hear about it. But then again, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Sultanate of Oman did make this statement last month claiming that His Majesty Sultan Qaboos will be paying an official 3 day visit to Iran by the end of June (but he didnt go - perhaps something to do with all the riots taking place there?). Perhaps now that things have calmed down somewhat since last month His Majesty has decided to pay a visit to the Islamic Republic.

I wonder if we'll see anything in the local papers?

Blue City

There's not much to say about this so I'll just re-print the press release that came out a week ago.

22 July 2009
Essdar Investments Limited ("Essdar") has today announced a public tender offer (the "Offer") to purchase the outstanding Class A Floating Rate Senior Secured Unrestricted Notes (the "Notes") issued by Blue City Investments 1 Limited ("Blue City") with outstanding principal amount of US$ 661.5 million.

The Notes are part of the securitisation in November 2006 of a USD925m financing for Blue City Company 1 S.A.O.C. (BCC1) for the development of an upmarket residential, hotel and leisure resort on the coast of the Indian Ocean at Al Sawadi under the Project Al Madina A Zarqa, located 90km to the west of Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman.

The Offer may increase Essdar's aggregate Note holding to more than 75%. Essdar sought and obtained the consent of Blue City for a notice of the Offer to be made available to Note holders through the Euroclear and Clearstream clearing systems.

Essdar Capital Limited, regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority, is the financial adviser.

Interesting. A quick look over the Essdar Capital website here results in finding a more in-depth news release on the above mentioned buy-out. The deadline appears to be Next Wednesday (August 5th) at 17:00 GMT - so 8pm here in Muscat then. The next day is the published date for announcing whether the proposal was successful.

Bearing in mind that Fitch Ratings downgraded Blue City's bonds to CCC on the 15th of July, the current bond holders may very well be interested in getting out now and potentially cutting their losses. Considering that the Tender Agent for this deal is Citibank, and that these deals cost a lot of money to organise (I'd imagine the fees for this will be measured in the millions) - one might consider that this may be a formality to buy the bonds.

I don't know, and I guess none of us will know, until next Thursday the 6th of August when the announcement will be made by Essdar Capital as to whether their bid has been successful or not.

le fin.

Naseem A'Sabaa - New Development Announced

A new Integrated Tourism Complex (ITC) has been announced today. It's to be situated next to The Wave project on the coast. The official blurb in the Oman Observer can be found here but I'm sure in a few days that link wont work, so below is the pasted release from the Zawya website.

29 July 2009
Naseem A'Sabaa to generate $ 2.5bn income

MUSCAT -- A Malaysian real estate developer and an Omani landowner have signed a joint venture to build an integrated Tourism Complex (ITC) called Naseem A'Sabaa. Officials of the two companies, namely Bandar Raya Developments Berhad (BRDB), Malaysia, and Amouage Hotels and Resorts LLC, said the Naseem A'Sabaa would be built on a 400,000 square metre area in Al Athaiba. This is way above the smallest size (200,000 square metres) allowed for an ITC project in Oman.

Muhammad al Khaldi, Chairman, Amouage Hotels and Resorts, said the project is expected to generate sales worth $2.5 billion and will be up and running in the next five years. The joint venture has been concluded following almost two years of negotiations. Naseem A'Sabaa is a beachfront ITC project hardly 10 minutes from the airport neighbouring The Wave project. It will have residential villas, condominiums, two five-star hotels, a marina, marina apartments and commercial blocks.

The Naseem A'Sabaa project will be designed to target Omanis, Gulf nationals and a select group of Europeans, Dato Jagan Sabapathy, Chief Executive Officer, BRDB, told the Observer in response to a question. Sabapathy said the project is of great economic significance to Oman as it will a go a long way in creating new economic opportunities. Preliminary planning for the project has just begun.

Dato Muhammad Zamri, Ambassador of Malaysia, underlined the project's importance, saying it is set to be a unique one and quite different from the existing ITC projects in the Sultanate. Radiance International LLC, an investment procurement and real estate projects company, played a key role in bringing the Omani and Malaysian sides on a common platform for concluding the joint venture.

Sayyid Khalfan bin Taimur al Said, Chairman, Radiance, said: "BRDB is one of the leading top five developers from Malaysia and Amouage Hotels and Resorts is the first private Omani company to go in for an ITC project, where non-Omanis are allowed to own land and property." Amouage's vision is to develop a unique complex, which blends the architecture of Oman and Asia and is an asset for Oman.

Interesting stuff. It looks like there will finally be another metro-area marina for all those people with boats at the over-crowded Al Bandar Marina. OK, so Shangri-La are also building a Marina (and Marina Apartments) project as well, and that should be ready by 2011 - it's currently out to tender. So the Marina scene here in Muscat is hotting up!

Interestingly, the Malaysian partner company, BRDB also bought a 30% stake in Amouage Hotels and Resorts LLC - but that was not reported in any Gulf news sources. But I've found the story here if anyone's interested. The only real juicy bit is that BRDB are buying a 30% stake of Amouage Hotels and Resorts LLC from Mamas Loizou Ioanou Christodoulides and Mohammed Saleh Bin Eid Al Khaldi, for RM423,000 cash (thats about RO 46,000). That's not a bad little incentive is it! Strange that Amouage Hotels and Resorts LLC, by extension, is only worth RO 153,333. I would have thought it was worth more than that.

However, excellent news in what has been recently a more subdued market in the region. I look forward to seeing it develop.

Also noted in the Oman Observer article, "Radiance International LLC, an investment procurement and real estate projects company, played a key role in bringing the Omani and Malaysian sides on a common platform for concluding the joint venture. Sayyid Khalfan bin Taimur al Said, Chairman, Radiance". Now, I did a bit of research on Radiance and found this website. I should imagine that Sayyid Khalfan bin Taimur al Said has impeccable business and Government contacts in the Sultanate of Oman. What a great example of how the Government (& possibly Royal Family?) are working to stimulate growth in the country. Top marks.

Been to Salalah yet? 10 Top tips

Recently I took a trip to Salalah, I went there just to get some R&R and didn't go off exploring much. But here are some helpful bits of information for anyone who's thinking of making the dash to escape the heat for a few days:

• Tip 1 - Oman Air fly Muscat-Salalah a lot every day, I think it might be 7 times a day. The cost of a ticket is RO 60, and the flight is about an hour and a quarter - and you are served a hot meal on the flight.
• Tip 2 - You can take the bus down if you want, but it takes 12 hours
• Tip 3 - Make sure you get a map of Salalah before you get out of the airport - Be warned though - Turtles book shop in Muscat Airport sells maps for RO 3.000, but the same map is distributed for free by the Ministry of Tourism desk down in Salalah airport. It's the best map of the area I've found in my limited searching.
• Tip 4 - Check out this website for some information on what to do and see in Salalah and the local area
• Tip 5 - There are two main hotels in Salalah, The Hilton, and The Crowne Plaza. Both have bars, but you will pay RO 3.000 for a pint (selection - Tiger, Fosters or Heineken) or RO 2.200 for a bottle. Most Thursdays during the season the hotels will run some sort of disco night.
• Tip 6 - The weather is mostly misty, and visibility regularly gets down to 100m or less. The sea is stormy and there is a ban on swimming in the sea during the summer months - you will only be able to swim in swimming pools or inland natural pools.
• Tip 7 - If you plan to visit the caves / waterfalls / mountains - book a 4x4 at the airport. You'll pay a bit more but its worth it for the reduced hassle. A small car rental, as a guide line on prices, is about RO 50 (including insurance) for a 2 day rental. By small car I mean a Yaris. So it's not cheap to rent a car down there, but unfortunately essential if you want to go off the beaten track, or for that fact, anywhere.
• Tip 8 - Taxi's in Salalah are horrendously expensive if you're a "Western" ex pat - I got gouged RO 5 for a 5 minute ride. I also paid RO 5.000 to go from the airport to the Crowne Plaza hotel (I wasn't staying at the hotel, but I believe there are free buses going to the hotel from the airport at scheduled times for guests).
• Tip 9 - Bring mosquito spray - tis the season for them down there.
• Tip 10 - It's not cold there, it's about 25'C and it's very, very humid (near constant drizzle). Walking in jeans is a very sweaty affair after half an hour or so!

If you haven't been, it's worth a look-in - if only as a weekend getaway to break up the summer heat for a bit. If you have any extra tips... please be sure to leave a comment... :)

Muscat Rugby Club: MRFC

The Muscat Rugby Club has a long history here. Way back when things were more relaxed, the Rugby Club was an institution. The club house used to be some portacabins liberated from some construction sites and hobbled together. Stories say that if you sat on one end of the bar, and someone jumped up and down at the other end, your beer would spill! In fact, did you know that His Majesty himself is the Patron of the club? And that the club started in 1971, just 1 year after HM took power. OK history lesson over, on with the blog.

Then some real money was spent on the facilities, a decent club house - one of the best I've seen - anywhere, and a grass pitch, which makes things so much more chivalrous. Playing rugby on sand just isn't cricket, and it's bloody tiring enough running around let alone doing it in sand.

And then the club was shut down. In typical bureaucratic fashion, the actual reason for shutting down the club was for lack of permissions for several events over a period of weeks. But I suspect that if some guests from Kuwait were not dressed in drag, and not drunkenly arguing with some ROP people, that things may have been different for the fortunes of the club.

As we prepare for Ramadan, some bars, The Rugby Club included, will have a blow-out. Presumably to get rid of all their perishables (read: beer). And this year, now that the Rugby Club is open again (since October last year) the club will be hosting a band. On the 12th August, an excellent band from Dubai (The 3 Amigos), are coming from Dubai to play in the club.

So if you fancy some faintly homosexual banter and some good beer, there are worse things you could do than go down for the pre-house party season piss up. I believe there is a cover charge - 8 rials if you're not a member. At least it's less than a ticket to that excuse of a concert that Hi FM recently put on with Sean Kingston... I still cant believe I actually went to that thing.... the DJ was more entertaining that the main act... and I'm not saying I enjoyed the DJ either.....!

Oh, and if you enjoy full-contact ball playing with your friends... you will have to wait until the new season starts this fall, because I think the rugby pitch has been dug up for some maintenance at the moment.

The Pork Shop

After living in Muscat for nearly 2 years, I had occasionally heard rumours of a pork shop in Ruwi. I just assumed it was all nonsense, but recently I have discovered that it actually does exist! And because there is not enough information on the Internet about little things like this here in Muscat, I've decided to blog about it.

The shop is opposite the LuLu's in Darsait. It's marked on Wikimapia here. The place is called Al Hamadi Fisheries, it's open from 8am to 1pm & 5pm to 9.30pm Sat-Thurs, Fridays it's open in the morning only. The shop sells frozen meat and fish, and in a side-room, it sells frozen pork products. They have frozen beef, lamb, mutton, duck, veal and tons of different types of frozen fish. They even have a The Week box there, which is usually well stocked (try finding a copy after Tuesday elsewhere!)



Oh, and the place is cheaper than Al Fair, which is always nice. And speaking of Al Fair, check out this last picture of some Ham in their MQ branch which was snapped recently.

It's rancid. It's green. Why is it still on sale?

The Sheraton

A constant main-stay that I find in bar-room conversation is the ever-popular question: "When is the Sheraton ever going to open again?".

And the answer is, November 18th. Albeit a partial opening, but I have confirmed reports that short of a total disaster, the hotel will have a partial opening. The reasons for the delays in the hotel renovation are enough to write a few text books on how not to carry-out a renovation project. The original project was supposed to be just a fresh coat of paint and some new furniture. The final project will entail:

• Newly refurbished suites (they've fixed that smell problem!). A nice extra is each suite will have a flat panel TV (par for the course these days) and a PS3 to play with.
• A new ballroom (to seat a few hundred people)
• New Business Centre
  
• New restaurants and bars (the night club is no more)
• A new Spa and Gym (which has replaced the night club)
• New external swimming pool, and a new pool bar
• New tennis courts

There is a rumour I've heard a few times about the Chinese takeaway, I mean, night club that used to be in the basement of the Sheraton. When it was indicated that there was to be no more nightclub at the hotel, the "pimp" for all these hard working Chinese horizontal refreshment providers was, shall we say, put out? His primary place of business was being closed. So the rumour goes, this unhappy turn of events so irked said "pimp" that his considerable Wasta muscles were flexed and the owners of The Sheraton building here in Oman were required to open a new bar (place of business) for the ladies of the night somewhere in Muscat.

Is it true? Probably not. But I wouldn't be surprised if there were elements of truth to it....

Anyway, The Sheraton will be opening in November, for HM's birthday. Even if the hotel isnt fully finshed.

Just a quickie: TSC Azaibah now open

For those that haven't received the spam text from TSC lately... their latest branch has opened on 18th November St.

Initial reports are that it kinda sucks. It's a single floor shop which caters to the basics: Meat, Dairy & Produce. There's not very much in the way of snacks, canned goods or baking stuff, that sets TSC Qurum apart from it's competitors. But still, competition is good :)

And with Waitrose set to open in Ghubra in Q1 next year (opposite zoo-lu), it looks like the super-market scene here in Muscat is starting to get more competitive, lets hope it means in better prices for us consumers!


EDIT - Thanks to Eternally Distracted, apparently there is a second floor! Which contains all the other stuff.... :)

Piracy in Muscat.

Well I was going to comment on my amusement last week when waiting in the departure lounge but I've decided to expand it a bit and talk about piracy and Oman. Of course I mean movies and games piracy, and not the other variant which the Somalians (as funded by the Israelis according to the Editor in Chief Essa Al Zedjali) are proving so good at.

Whilst waiting for my flight in the departure lounge, I looked up at one of the many flat-panel monitors suspended above the seating areas and burst out laughing when I saw that a movie was being played, in what looked like Windows Media Player. The name of the movie was The Wild, and the file title was The.Wild[2006]DvDrip.AC3[Eng]-aXXo.avi and for any doubters, a quick search on a torrent website nets this and pretty much proves that someone at Muscat International Airport is a movie pirate, and apparently feels brave enough to broadcast their bootlegged wares onto the public information display monitors!

I snapped a picture, and here it is:

And a close up of the file name:

So, what other sources of bootleg movies and games are there in Muscat? Well, there are the Al Fair car park guys, who shuffle around usually in the evenings, looking slightly dodgy with bulging plastic bags chock-full of dvds. They usually have 10 to a disk movies and want a rather shocking RO10 per disk, for something that costs less than 100bz to produce. There's the numerous shops in and around the Sabco Center, which will cater to both your movie, and your games console desires as well. And then there is Ruwi highstreet, where I fear it's hard to actually buy anything original! There are bootleg jeans, shirts, jackets, bags, belts, caps, movies, games, watches and even bootleg perfumes and aftershaves!

So, thats my take on the bootleg scene here in Muscat....

I still find it funny someone was playing a bootleg movie on the Airport's own tv systems!

A new begining.

Hello anyone that's reading this. I've decided to launch a new blog highlighting my life and experiences in the Sultanate of Oman. I've been living in Oman since 2007 and have experienced a lot since then.... I thought maybe I could share my experiences with you all.

Tomorrow I'll post a something funny about a recent experience at Muscat International Airport....