Oman Air's new Business and First Class lounges.

Oman Air have finally done something about the terrible lounges at Muscat International Airport. This article written by Business Traveller, shows a bunch of pictures, plus shares some details on the new lounges.

Items of note are:

First Class -

Limo transfers in Audi A8 vehicles
Bar
Showers
Lounges
A la Carte menu and chef




Business Class -

Bigger than current lounge
2 Chedi Spa massage rooms offering 15 minute treatments
Bar
Food buffet
5 computer terminals

The lounges should open next week, and will only be available to Oman Air passengers flying in those respective classes. Looks pretty neat!




Looking forward to checking out the business lounge soon!

le fin.

A milestone & Crazy Emiraties!

Firstly...

Somehow, 100 people out there in the blogosphere have decided to follow my blog. I am also amazed at the facebook followings as well... at the time of writing this it was standing at 284 people. I'm vain and like to be followed (!) so a big thank you to all of you who follow me and my blog!

=)

I want to share a story with you all about my good friend "Dave" (thats not his real name, and I often use Dave as a replacement name for many people). Christmas, 2007. Dave was driving back from a meeting in Sohar and was being harassed on the road by this dude in a Swift. There were a lot of trucks in one lane and he was driving at 130KM/h but the swifty wanted to be more... swift? This Swift driver was blaring it's horn, shining it's full beams in his rear view mirror permanently, and tail gating Dave.

Finally a gap between trucks that Dave felt was large enough for him to safely move into materialzed in the left lane and just as he was moving into it, the swift undertakes him and draws level with him. The driver is shaking his fist at Dave and blaring his horn. Dave had not been in the country for a very long time and so reacted how he would have where he grew up - he flipped the swift the bird!

The swift driver got even more mad and then went in front of Dave and then slammed on his brakes, nearly causing a major accident and kept telling Dave to pull over to the side of the road. Dave thought this guy was a lunatic and just wanted to get away from him and so ignored the nut case and carried on driving back to Muscat. He told me the story when he returned and I told him.... dude you cant flip the bird here, you'll get in trouble.

Sure enough, he got a call from the ROP in Sohar - he had to report to the Sohar police station and bring his passport. Off he went with his PRO, and the ROP confiscated his passport, but the swift driver didnt come, and so after waiting for 3 hours he returned to Muscat. This was repeated, and then on the third time, the so outraged (but can't be bothered to show up) swift driver turned up.

And then the stories began. Apparently Dave was spitting on his car, yelling obscenities about the drivers family and goats, everything you can think of. Thankfully Dave had the foresight to bring his PRO who translated all of this and afforded Dave the chance to deny these accusations.

A long story short, Dave got shaken down for RO 1,000 to make that Swift driver drop his case.

Now I shared that story with you for 2 reasons -

1) No matter how bad someone is driving and how much they may be irritating you, keep those fingers around the steering wheel!

2) I read with some amusement at this story in the UAE. A Pakistani man appealed his sentence and deportation order to the highest court in the UAE, the Court of Cassation. However this court just rubber-stamped the previous ruling. Madness, but there you are.

Have you ever been in trouble for flipping the bird?

le fin.

A fundraiser for a very good cause.

Hello everyone.

Some of you will already know about this, and perhaps more of you have heard the sorry tale of Hanna Mitchell and her partner Rob McConnon. Rather than re-write the story, I'll paste the email that the ANZO committee sent out to it's mailing list yesterday.

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Many of you may have heard of the recent medical drama suffered by Hanna Mitchell, a young Australian working in Oman with her partner Rob McConnon. Hanna and Rob have both been active members of the Muscat Gaelic and Australian Football Club, and as such we are co-ordinating some efforts to help them out.

Hanna underwent what seemed to be a routine surgery here in Muscat, but ended in Intensive Care with a brain injury that has left her partially paralyzed, unable to talk, and facing a medical system not able to offer the necessary specialist rehabilitation. It has been a horrendous ordeal which Hanna, Rob and their families have had to go through; it could have been anyone of us, or our loved ones lying helpless in a hospital bed far away from home.

Things improved to the stage where Hanna was able to be airlifted back to Australia where she has now entered a specialized rehabilitation centre and begins a long, but hopeful road to recovery. As a result of these unfortunate events both Rob and Hanna have had to leave their jobs here and will return to Australia permanently. They have also incurred significant costs to date and will continue to do so throughout an extended recovery period.

Of course the most important thing is that Hanna gets better and gets the best medical treatment possible but for a young couple who are planning to get married this summer it is a heavy financial burden. Many people have asked what they can do to help in some small way. This coming Wednesday 12th January 2011 at the Muscat Rugby Club a function is being held with all proceeds going towards helping Hanna and Rob get back on their feet. With Hanna safely back in Australia, Rob is back in Oman for a short time to tie up loose ends, and so it is also an opportunity to say goodbye.

The function will be a casual affair - drinks from 7:30pm, with several prizes being raffled, a donation box, etc.

If you are unable to come on Wednesday night but want to contribute - in cash or in kind (e.g. items of value that can be raffled) please contact Pete Rigby, who is co-ordinating on behalf of the club, on +968 9921 1203 or E-mail: peter.rigby@lamor.com.

Please bring as many friends and family as possible - everyone is welcome, and we look forward to seeing you there for a good night out.

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It is also worth repeating that if you would like to donate something (either money or a prize that could be auctioned) please do get in touch with Pete Rigby on 9921 1203. What happened to Hanna was and continues to be a terrible tale. I hope she has a full recovery.

One other small point worth mentioning is that between 6 and 8 on Wednesday evenings at the Muscat Rugby Club, all food and drinks will have a 25% discount.

The club house is very close to the ABA school and it is located here.

le fin.

Just a quickie: Partial solar eclipse today

Here in Oman, you should be able to experience the partial eclipse for 2 hours between 12:26 and 2:26pm. Remember to not stare directly into the sun!!

le fin.

More news on Canadians entering the UAE

A few more developments in the recent rule change for Canadian passport holders who wish to visit the UAE.

The first is that if you are flying with Etihad or Emirates, you can get a greatly discounted visit visa issued by either of these airlines. This story highlights that for $61.50 on Emirates and $68 on Etihad, you can obtain a Visit visa for the UAE - if you book ahead. (Click the link and read about it as there are a lot of qualifying requirements).

Secondly. I finally got in touch with the UAE embassy here in Oman (their number is 2440 0000). I asked their immigration section about what the process would be for Canadians living in the GCC who wish to visit the UAE. The answer I received was.... confusing. They wanted to know what my job was here, who my sponsor was, and then finally how long I have been here in Oman for. Rather strange, it seems that there is some confusion to the rules I guess. They were insistent on one thing though, that Canadians living here in Oman (or any GCC country) must have been here for at least 6 months before the GCC visa will be granted.

Seems strange to me, but there you have it!

le fin.

Girls night out!

The people at Zouk have again come up with something fun for the next few Mondays.

Ripped from their Facebook page:

Launching the “Zouk Girls Night Out” with Fashion evenings where we would like to request all interested ladies to come dressed in their best and walk the ramp.

A prominent jury will be selecting the five best ladies every Monday and then these ladies will go to the semi-finals and final event on February 14th - Valentines Day. The Short-listed ladies can win the title of Ms. Zouk 2011 and also would be part of the Zouk Calendar to be launched in February. Plus there are some really exciting grand prizes to be won!

Not enough???? How about complimentary beverages every Monday at Zouk? Yes all the ladies get complimentary beverages from Zouk every Monday evening. You can see some celebrity bartenders every Monday and different themes promoting the local talent.

So all the interested ladies who would like to walk on the ramp please send us your interest at aabhatia@gmail.com or message us here on Facebook. And if you've got the talent we've got the platform for you....inviting all the talents like musicians, bands, performing artist, singers, painters, fashion designers etc to write to us.

Don’t forget the first round and launch is on this coming Monday 10th January 2011 at 8pm.

Please note:
Guys are allowed too but only if accompanied with a lady
Cover Charge for guys is RO 10/- and as always is redeemable against their bill.
Single girls’ entry free
Free Welcome drinks for Girls
Entry to the event and Zouk is strictly for 21 years and above.
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le fin.

Oman unveils a record budget for 2011: RO 8.13bn

With Royal Decree No 2/2011 ratifying the 2011 State General Budget, there are a few things to take from this...

Last year, 2010, the Budget was RO 7.434bn. This was based upon an average oil price of $58 a barrel. The actual oil price was around $70 a barrel for 2010, so Oman will have netted a surplus from all it's petrochemical revenues. Additionally, Oman's daily production of oil has increased by around 26,000 barrels a day to around 896,000 bpd of the black stuff. At current market prices of around $90, thats a nice $80,640,000 a day (RO 31,049,624.40). Anyway, enough with the boring numbers stuff. I do wonder if the budget is ever independently audited, or the reported production of oil for that matter?

Something to note however, is this: Oman is investing heavily in something called EOR (that means Enhanced Oil Recovery - it's many different techniques in getting oil out of the ground quicker, but here in Oman as far as I know the most widely used technique is steam injection, or Huff and Puff as people in the industry call it). EOR is typically used to get an oil field producing more oil than it would with traditional oil extraction methods. Yet Oman's historical annual production is fairly flat, because existing oilfields here in Oman are starting to mature and their production is declining.

So, this years budget is projecting oil revenues of about RO 7.230bn and is planing to spend RO 8.130, a deficit of RO 900 million rials. Ok some income will come from mineral and other exports as well, plus I figure oil will surpass the $100 per barrel price again this year (well thats what all the speculators seem to think). So Oman's pretty cashed up at the moment.

Oman's population is marching up, the 2010 Census' initial reports indicated an increase in the Omani population to 1,951,000, an increase of 9.48 per cent from the 1,782,000 count in 2003.

So, Oman is spending some big bucks to try and stimulate more jobs for Omanis, and quite rightly so. The key growth areas for spending this year are Health, Education and Transport. As far as I know there are no new major hospitals or universities planned, so I imagine the lions share of the budget proportioned to health and education will go to increasing services. As for transport... it's a big year coming up: The Airport, the new dualized road from Sur to Bid Bid being just two major projects ongoing throughout 2011. I wonder what will happen with the rail network this year?

Galfar's current share price is trading at RO 0.565 per share. Might be worth a punt for someone looking to invest.... or not :P

Thats all for today, more soon.

le fin.