OCT 19, 16 .. THE SULTANATE OF OMAN .. MY HOTEL / MY ROOM

As I sit at my laptop, here in my hotel room, in the city of Muscat, in the Sultanate of Oman in the Middle East, it is now in the middle of the afternoon on Wednesday the 19th of October 2016.

NOT having been able to upload photos for the past several days, suddenly I am now able to do what I have been doing for upwards of five years, uploading photos into my Dot.Net website here.

With God as my witness, I have no clue as to why I am now able to successfully upload photos. I have learned nothing. I have learned absolutely and positively nothing from this most frustrating experience. Maybe The Shadow knows. Maybe Andrej knows. 

I will start this Post with my entry into the Sultanate Of Oman.

Just like in the days-of-old, down the steps from our aircraft we arrive into Muscat, Oman.

A nice, super modern, shuttle bus is waiting for us.

Wowie! It is still a thrill for me when I arrive at International destinations.

My excitement is NOT limited to, nor reserved only for new destinations. No! I am still thrilled to fly into Hong Kong / Ulanbaatar Mongolia / Delhi India / Dubai UAE / and now into Muscat Oman.

Here we are sports fans! Muscat, Oman.

To get the below photo, I had to stand away from the terminal. This put me directly in the bus lane. But I got a great photo. One I did NOT want to miss. Much to a few bus driver’s chagrin I snapped four photos. Framing each carefully. The below photo made the final cut.

There it is officially! We are in the Sultanate of Oman.

Here we go loop-de-loop. Spotless terminal

Along the extreme right edge of the below photo notice two men dressed in white. Notice that the man at the very extreme right edge of the below photo is looking past his associate in my direction.

Now on the left of the below photo, this gentleman has disengaged from his associate and is walking towards me. No! I was not imagining this. He is coming directly towards me and he is on-a-mission.

As I snapped the above photo, he raised his arm and in a not-to-be-misunderstood gesture, he made it extremely plain to me that I was NOT to be taking photographs.

I smiled at him. I saluted him. I waved to him. I let him know in no uncertain terms that I knew what he meant! Back into my bag went my camera!

To enter The Sultanate of Oman, you must pay a visa fee. I paid US $14.30 for a 10-day visa. The fee was 5.5 Central Bank of Oman Rials. 1 Rial = US $2.60.

Yes! They take credit cards. Need I add this observation. Because each and every visitor had to do this process, it certainly made the entry process just a tad slower than it otherwise would have been.

Once I had cleared immigration and customs, I purchased an Oman Telephone sim card for my cell phone. Photos out in the lobby were permitted.

QURUM BEACH HOTEL

I took many of the below photos today during the light of day. Others I snapped last night immediately upon my arrival at the hotel. I now have the luxury to present them to you in a nice order.

There she is! My Muscat Hotel.

“Captain? The Qurum Beach Hotel. Is there a beach?”

“I do NOT know. However! Based upon the below view, taken from the roof of the hotel, there is a seemingly large body-of-water out in the far distance.”

“I will be getting back to you on your question!”

I am liking my hotel. When you walk into the lobby, you are practically overwhelmed by an enormous, circular staircase. It goes to the top floor and it can NOT successfully be captured in one photograph.

See if you don’t agree. It is beautiful and, speaking for myself, it just overwhelms you.

The below flash and daytime photos seem to more clearly show the circular staircase.

Looking down from my 3rd floor.

Again, the daylight photo seems to show it more clearly.

Following the below photo, I show close up photos of the lovely couch on the right below and a close up of the left side of the lobby.

The below night time photo is how I will always remember the lobby couch.

The day time photo shows it more clearly.

The left side of the lobby.

MY ROOM at the QURUM BEACH HOTEL

When I went online in Dubai and selected the Qurum Beach Hotel, I decided that I was going to reserve a plain, basic, low cost room without any frills and / or perks.

I got exactly and I got precisely what I was seeking, a bare bones room.

Below is my magnificent room in the Al Farej Hotel in Dubai.

When I checked into the Qurum Beach Hotel last night, an absolute gem of a night manager ‘sized-me-up’ and said to me ..

“Sir I would like you to look at a room of a more luxurious quality than the room you have reserved.”

Hoo-Boy was it nice. It was a small suite of several rooms. And I nearly bit the-switch-and-bait.

In a 20-minute process, I sat in each room and silently mulled the two of them over. Back and forth between the two rooms I went several times.

The nice suite cost US $80 per night. The economy room cost US $40 per night.

Finally I decided that because I am only going to be staying here 9-nights, and I am not going to be living in Muscat, I would stick-to-my plan and go bare-bones.

Below you have my no nonsense, lowest cost, most basic, bare bones room in Muscat.

Several very important perks that came with my room are:

I have WiFi. It is good and it is fast. I have an air conditioner that is so efficient I have to turn it off because I get cold. I have a nice mini-fridge that really gets water cold. I have a nice dresser and closet.

Above you see the window in my room. My view isn’t all that great.

I can get easy and permissible access to the hotel roof and other outside areas and did so to take the below photo of what I look out upon from my room. It still is not all that great a view.

To get my two, 5-litre bottles of water you see below, I had to risk life and limb to get to a super market last night in the dark.

The super market is out of sight, across the way to the left in the photo below. I had to climb the rocky passageway you see below and in the following photos.

It may not look like much in the daylight but in the dark of night it was dicey. The hotel night manager insisted on sending one of his employees with me. The young man said it was dangerous and he carried the heavy jugs back and he made sure I stayed vertical and did not fall head first down the embankment.

I said that I can get outside of my room. In the below photo I think that you can see the open roof areas of the hotel.

From the roof.

Bring money. Bring a lot of money to stay in the local neighborhood luxury hotel.

As I said above, there is a lot of easy and permissible access to the roof and other exterior areas.

My room tariff does NOT include breakfast.

For US $6.50 I have the option to eat breakfast here in the hotel. I have the option to eat outside the hotel.

BREAKFAST .. OCTOBER 19th, 2016

Captain put your folded arms down on the table. Put your head down on your arms and weep some silent tears of joy at your good fortune. Happiness is not wanting what you do not have. Happiness is wanting exactly what you do have. I am in Muscat, Oman, and God set before me the below feast. Is it the Al Farej breakfast? NO it is not. Is it modest? Yes. Will it do? It most certainly WILL DO!  

Let’s peek into the two chaffing dishes.

Egg omelettes. The photo looks like they are chapatis or tortillas.

Beans and tomatoes in a savory sauce. Um-m-m-m good.

Immaculate. Spotless. Eat off the floor.

A nice seating area. The total seating area is larger than the one section I sat in below.

Here is today’s breakfast.

Look at the toast in the above and below photos. I will be coming back immediately to the toast.

Today I do not have to eat my steak dinner with a spoon. Today I can ask for a knife and a fork. Today I can go back to the toaster and get the toast right and proper. Out of courtesy to another guest, I rushed the toast I just showed you above.

Study the below photo for just a second. Do you all see my sandals at the bottom of the photo?

I put my sandals as I show above to let you see that there is an almost invisible ledge as you go into the serving area. With my plate of food I came around the table and tripped on the above ledge. I did NOT fall flat on my face along with my lovely breakfast plate but it was oh-so-close. What purpose does this ledge serve?

With this deeply, philosophical question about the above ledge’s purpose in this life I shall sign off with great joy.

Cap

This is my second Post today dated OCT 19, 16. Please continue to scroll down to view my previous Post just in case you did not see it yet. I would not want you to miss my THANK YOU PATTI Post. Smiles, Cap.

• ← OCT 19, 16 .. THANK YOU PATTI .. THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH
• OCT 20, 16 .. SUICIDE .. THE ‘S’ WORD IN MY LIFE →