ROP crack down on Road Safety "turns" blind eye to Retail concerns

What a nice weekend that turned out to be?!

I even went for a drive in Bertha down to Yiti. The old road is such a nice drive I find. Normally, on my frequent trips to Ruwi, I take Qurum heights road, as opposed to the other road via Hatat House. Seeing as I was heading for Hamriyah on the weekend, I figured I'd go via Wattayah. The road works are progressing at the Qurum wadi crossing, and now it looks like the final part of the bridge is being completed and hopefully the road works will be finished soon.

Imagine my shock when I saw the following sign (picture taken by a passenger!)



Click on the photo to make it bigger so you can really see what the sign is suggesting. Yes, that's right, some bright spark thought that it genuinely would be a good idea to have shoppers headed for The Sultan Centre (and the Al-Harthy Complex) to do a U-Turn on what is possibly the busiest stretch of highway in the country. That is staggeringly stupid. I wonder if ROP approval had to be given for this sign? Or whether ROP approval was even sought?

Now as I said, I do not regularly drive this route so have not much of an idea when this new route was made (and the subsequent kamikaze sign) but what on earth is going on there? Someone should take that sign down before a serious accident occurs.

le fin.

Local hotel's summer offers.

Summer is well and truly here. Summer's a funny time here, people tend to fly off to cooler climes in an effort to at least beat the heat for a little while. It's a scorcher of a summer globally, with Europe getting a good dose of sun, and those pasty white Brits are even experiencing sustained sunny periods of more than 42 minutes at a time. I'm told Ice Cream van's are having a fantastic season, and for once there wont be the stock story for a slow news day of the lollipop guy grumbling that his sales are low due to no sun. Even over the pond, in Toronto they are seeing temperatures exceeding 40'C this week. Sweaty stuff.

If you're like me, and actually work for a living and can't just slip off for the summer, then you might be considering a weekend at one of the lovely 5* hotels here in Oman. There's the Chedi, InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Al Bustan or the Shangri-la to choose from locally. Or you could avail yourself of one of Oman Air's summer vacation weekends down in Salalah at the new Mariott, or Crowne Plaza or Hilton.

Oman Air are offering return flights, 3 nights stay, breakfast (& dinners in some hotels) for RO 139/person until 13th July (and then it shoots up to RO 178/pp). That's not bad for a 3 day escape. Did I mention already that Saturday is a confirmed public holiday?

A little closer to home, the InterContinental Hotels Group (which controls the InterContinental, Crowne Plaza and Al Bustan here in Muscat) have a 3 for 2 offer running at all of their locations.

The Chedi have a few packages, but I've only included the two best ones here:

SUPERIOR ROOM - OMR 88.920 all in.
- breakfast for 2 in The Restaurant per night
- 10% discount on Food and Beverages in The Restaurant
- 25% discount on any Spa Treatments

CHEDI CLUB SUITE ROOM - OMR 169.650 all in.

- breakfast for 2 in The Restaurant per night
- 10% discount on Food and Beverages in The Restaurant
- 25% discount on any Spa Treatments
- Complimentary Cocktails & Canapés in the library
- Complimentary mini-bar, laundry and internet access

I'd highly recommend going for the Suite package. All of the rooms are great, but those suites... the tub takes an hour to fill!

And finally, the Shangri-la at the Barr al Jissah resort has two offers this summer:

For a minimum of two nights @ RO 110/ night you get breakfast and dinner in a standard room at Al Waha.

Or, if you only want to stay one night, you can get the 50% off published rate offer, and that means you can get a regular room in the Al Waha with breakfast and dinner for RO 90.


Now in order to actually get these deals, you must of course have your resident card to prove you are in fact a resident here - so don't forget to mention that when booking! I'm looking forward to a weekend at the Bustan in a few weeks - does anyone have any recommendations on which spa treatments to go for?!

Well done Holland! 3-2! What an awesome game! Now to just beat ze Germans!

Enjoy the long weekend everyone!

le fin.

Muscat Daily...

In my on-going review of the latest English language daily news-paper here, Muscat Daily, I make another comment today.

Anita Joseph wrote an article on page 3 today entitled "Muscat: second least expensive city in GCC". It must really be a slow news month if Muscat Daily is allowing it's journalists to copy idea's from blogs - I wrote the same article last week, here.

I guess imitation is a form of flattery, right?!

le fin.

It's official: Saturday is a holiday!

Don't you just love long weekends? I know I do!

I think I'll seriously consider another trip up to do buy, or perhaps carry out some aggressive eye-lid inspections, who knows.

Tonight see's match 61 of the FIFA World Cup, a show down between Uruguay and The Netherlands.
Coverage is on Jazeera Sports (+10 and HD), and it kicks off at 10:30pm tonight. I hope the Dutchies win!

In local news, the ROP are cracking down on drivers again with a plan for manditory 48 hours in the slammer for the following offences (if caught): Running red lights, speeding, driving on the shoulder, driving without drivers license and not indicating.

The ROP have also been asking women to cover up more in the last few weeks too. Presumably as it's getting hotter, and women are wearing less, they're being asked to be more modest.

Thats all for today.

le fin.

Muscato's back, sort of.

Just a quick one today.

Fellow expatriate blogger, Muscato, who disappeared without a word months ago checked in on his blog yesterday to mark the July 4th celebrations. It's seems he left the country with Mr Muscato and Koko the dog stayed behind as a rear guard, shortly to be re-united with Muscato in an as-yet unknown new destination. One thing for sure though, there will be champagne available, so not Kuwait or Saudi then!

Hopefully we'll hear more from the most prolific Oman-based blogger there ever was, but I guess time will tell.

le fin.

Special guest blogger, Angry In Oman "Something for the ladies"

A little treat for those readers out there that miss the fabulous Angry In Oman. In what I hope will become a regular guest blogger here on Muscat Mutterings, may I present to you, a story by AIO:


I was recently returning to Muscat from a trip abroad. While I was abroad, I decided to buy a little something special for myself from an adult store, a vibrator.

I packed it in my suitcase and forgot about it.

As you know, when you get into Muscat airport, you collect your suitcases and then have them scanned before leaving the airport.

My suitcase went through, and the man watching the scanner called over another officer.

The officer asked me if I "had something" I shouldn't. I didn't really know what to say, so I just stood there and shrugged.

To be honest, I wasn't going to give it up readily.

The officer asked if I minded if he opened my case and took a look. I said sure.

He went in and looked around and found nothing.

I thought it was over but no.

He went back to the scanner and looked again, then came back to me and looked around some more, again he couldn't find it.

He then asked me "you have something? Something for the ladies?"

I knew then that he was going to find it, and he rooted around a little bit more and found it and thankfully I had put my something special into a plastic bag, otherwise it would have been a thousand times worse.

Immediately I started to apologise.

The officer said it was ok and asked me to go with him into his office to fill in the paper work.

I followed him and sat down.

I should point out at this time that I was not alone, but with Cush who knew all about my something special who just stood there, doing nothing, saying nothing.... presumably because he had a magazine of questionable content in his own bag!

We went into the office where I was asked for my passport and some details. The officer was shocked to find out that I lived in Muscat for such a long time but was umm...so oblivious to the uh rules.... which ok I totally knew that it wasn't allowed, but I wasn't going to admit that to the man! I'm such a coward.

So there I was sat in the office feeling super embarrassed, but actually the officer was really cool about it. We even had a little chat as he filled out the paperwork...yeah, seriously, paperwork.

Me: this must happen all the time, right? Sorry.

Officer: actually no, not really.

Me: oh... Sorry.

Officer: but it does happen sometimes.

Me: really? I'm very sorry.

Officer: Sometimes Omani girls have them.

Me: yeah that makes sense, sorry.

Officer: it's ok, you just need to pay 5 Rials.

Me: ok, sorry. So.... what do you do with them? (I so had to ask!!)

Officer: they just stay here (big grin on his face)

Me: like right there on your desk?

Officer: yes

I looked at the desk but there was no sex toys on it. So...I still don't really know where the vibrators really go, but I have some theories.

The only thing I can say is that that vibrator will never work again. It had an internal battery pack which can be removed and I took it out to avoid my toy accidentally turning itself on and causing a bomb scare. The battery pack was still in my suitcase when I got home.

So there ya go.

-Angry In Oman.

Dubai Do Buy, and Bertha the 4x4

I recently took a trip up to Dubai, and wanted to share my experiences with you all.

Firstly, because Ikea is having a sale, I decided to drive up in my 4x4. Now to people that know me, and know the 4x4 in question, the first words out of their mouths upon hearing this news was, "Are you sure Bertha is going to make it"? Cheeky buggers.

Four and a half hours after setting off on Thursday, we arrived at our destination, the hotels at Festival City. Now Bertha is not a particularly pretty 4x4, I like to refer to her as mature. So pulling up to the concierge of a 5* hotel in Bertha was a touch embarrassing, but it's over and done with now! To further entertain you all, when waiting for the valet to return Bertha to me on Friday, after a longer than expected wait, Bertha finally emerged from where-ever it was that they had stashed her. The driver got out of the truck and said to me rather angrily "too much problems sir". Is there no end to the insults that dear old Bertha has to endure?

First piece of local news: Some clever spark at the Ministry of Roads & Transportation has clued-in to the fact that having turning lanes on high-ways where people drive at speeds over 120 KM/h is probably not the best way to go about things. I report with great pleasure that almost all (but not all) of the turning lanes that you encounter on the highway to the Hatta border are now, or currently, being closed off with guard rails.

This is excellent news for drivers going up and down the highway. I'm not sure how happy I would be if I lived in one of the towns or villages that straddles the highway with no round about to cross the highway (somewhat) safely. I guess that means that some fly-overs are in the pipe works then.

Back to Dubai. As I wrote above, I was visiting Dubai for a spot of Ikea shopping. The sale this year is particularly good, and as the Undercover Dragon would put it, I managed to secure a 4x4 load of treasures (albeit flat packed) for my return.

At the border leaving Oman, and entering into the UAE, I was expecting the ROP officer to ask me for my Orange insurance booklet, but that never happened. I guess that initiative fizzled out already then. The UAE security check point on both Oman borders at Abu Badi / Ar Rawdah is now a permanent thing, with little huts for the guards to stand in. The road works that were under way in Madam (and Sohar for that matter) are now complete. There also appears to be a new speed camera (or something) on the Hwy 44 between Madam and Lahbab. It's an Omani style, in the sense that it captures the rear of your vehicle, but perhaps it's not operational. I drove past it at 120 KM/h thinking that was the limit, only to find out subsequently that the limit was in fact 100 KM/h. Just a warning to anyone planing on making the drive. The camera's are on that stretch of road that goes through the desert dunes.

And that's it for today. Tomorrow, hopefully, something amusing for you all.

le fin.