The Chedi’s Summer Offer & Upcoming Social Media Competition

   The Chedi’s summer offer promotion (from May 5th to Aug 31st) seems to be the best offer for a five star hotel in the city (as far as I know), a special OMR 85++ rate for local residents only.  This includes breakfast, wifi, selection of the mini-bar, discounts at The Spa (30%) and 20% discount on food and soft drinks.  To make a reservation or find out more information, contact The Chedi Muscat at +968-2452-4401 or email them at reservation@chedimuscat.com (Valid resident ID is required. Offer is subject to availability.)

Here’s the promo pic:

   Readers of this blog will be happy to know that the Chedi is willing to let one lucky reader of this blog enjoy a free one-night stay.  Some other bloggers and I will be meeting with the Marketing Communications Executive over dinner at the Chedi to discuss the details. (It’s a rough life, I know! 😉 )  Stay tuned and details of the social media competition will be revealed soon! 🙂

Full Moon Beach Buffet at the Shangri-La

It was real honor to be invited by Rasha Al Mandari and the gang at Shangri-La’s Barr al Jissah Resort & Spa for their very 1st “Full Moon Beach Buffet” which was a smashing success!  The appetizers were so good! I wasn’t able to get all the food choices in these pics as otherwise it would have been a 40 pic blogpost!   The chefs are ready to cook you up whatever you desire.  Ingrid Hotanijaya (Communications Executive) and Chef Lila Shrestha King Fish. I couldn’t believe the size of these fish! 2 more of our favorite folks at the Shangri-La: Eihab Attia (Communications Manager) and Rasha al Madani (Restaurants Marketing Manager). The live band was fantastic! Here is a clip of them playing, “Have I Told You Lately that I Love You?“:Almost every guest who attended the full moon buffet opted for the full course deal which included unlimited beverages including: house red&white wines, Mojito cocktails (awesome!) and a couple of choices of beer as well. Just a quick pic of one of my plates! The food was phenomenal!Always leave space for dessert! 🙂Ingrid and Eihab pictured with Khalid Orabi, the editor of Al Isbou’a, Oman’s free Arabic weekly.  It’s the Arabic version of the popular “The week” English publication. It was an amazing evening socializing with such fascinating people!We had a table right next to Dahlia Al Riyami and her husband, Mohammed.  Dahlia runs the wonderful blog “Aish Elaqtta” (one of my favorites!) which is Arabic for “What’s Happening?“.  Here’s another clip of the live band. In this clip, you can hear them performing, “Red Red Wine“, “I Saw Her Standing There“, “I Feel Good“, a Spanish tune called “Besame Mucho” and “Moondance” (so appropriate for “Full Moon buffet”!). I was not surprised to learn that the talented singer is in fact a Filipina! 😉It’s always nice to meet up with this super social couple! Susan is the owner of Totem clothing. I just blogged about their new shop opening at MGM.  She has also started a new food blog, called “HeyFatsu“.  Her husband, Maurizio, runs the ever popular Muscat-Collective-Intelligence blog and is a social media expert and organizer.     These guys had the right idea; they selected the Arabic style seating on cushions near the beach! Scott Armstrong is on the far left. He is the new Chief Executive Editor of the Times of Oman and we wish him all the best with his new post.      Got a pic of this friendly European couple enjoying a romantic evening on the beach. They were staying at the Bander Hotel. (Just in case you get the wrong idea that it was only bloggers and members of the media at this buffet! 🙂 ) There were plenty of guests who enjoyed the full buffet + all you can drink.  If you plan on attending the next Full Moon Beach Buffet, I would highly recommend making a reservation at (+968)2477-6666.  I think Shangri-La plans on having another Full Moon Beach Buffet in April.  I’m guessing that the evenings will be too hot and humid from May to September.  Details: 35OR++ including wine,beers, soft drinks, signature cocktails and non alcoholic beverage. Food only: 20++, Beverage 15++

Amazing Sunset Shot from PDO Beach by Badar Al Lawati!

From Badar Al Lawati Photography facebook page.  His comment for the photo read, “Yesterday’s sunset was just so amazing! I had a blast just sitting on the rocks and watching….but that was something i just had to take a snap of.”  Make sure to check out more of his photography on his facebook page. Thanks for letting me share this, Badar. Nice capture! 🙂

Burj Al Arab and Jumeirah Open Beach Park

The ironic Burj al Arab (“Burj” is Arabic for “Tower“) along the waterfront makes for a stunning background at the 1 km long Jumeirah Open Beach.You can always change once you get there as they have these private changing rooms. www.beachchameleon.ae . (1 for men, 1 for women)There seemed to be a lot of people on standing paddle boards on my first visit to this gorgeous beach.Burj Al Arab is right next to Wild Wadi Waterpark.  The pic above is looking at Burj Al Arab from the entrance to Wild Wadi.Only those who have made reservations to visit Burj Al Arab are permitted beyond this point.  This picture was taken at the guardhouse entrance.  More about this building and booking a visit there at this site.

Here’s a short video of this fantastic beach.  The water was so clear and calm.  I was there just after 9am on a Saturday morning.  If I come back to Dubai, I will definitely try visiting this beach again!

Kharabah Island, the Damaniyat Islands Marine Park

  In between dives this past Saturday, we dropped 3 Europeans off for snorkelling on this island before picking them up about an hour later.  The main instructor of Global Scuba, Abdullah, told me that the island/beach is called “Kharabah“.  It is one of the most gorgeous white-sand beaches I’ve seen in Oman!  6 of us dove at 2 dive-sites (posts coming soon) and we saw all kinds of interesting fish and marine animals, but failed to spot any sharks.  The 3 snorkellers saw several black tip reef sharks just meters from shore!  In addition to sharks, they saw a lot of colorful fish (which – like me – they seemed unable to identity!) and a lot of squid. (I got totally confused because the Italian snorkelers kept calling them “calamari”! 🙂 )  If you are interested in snorkeling or scuba-diving at the Damaniyat Islands, I recommend either Global Scuba or Omanta as those are the dive centres I go with and they’re both great.  Other dive shops that travel out there are Extra-Divers and Oman Dive Centre (and others).     Have you ever seen such water before?! It’s unreal!  Here’s a video from 4 different clips of the beach and immediate area to give you a much better idea of just how gorgeous this spot is:  The Damaniyat Islands are a definite must-see in Oman, whether you scuba-dive or not!