First week in Oman : the pictures

You'll find here couple of pictures I have taken during my first week in Oman.

I took this picture on my way to work. It's close to plant where I work, this was the first cat I saw in Oman. they're actually quite different from those in Europe.

I don't know why but I think somebody I know might bring a cat back in Amiens...

Pedestrians crossing...

Inexpensive beach cleaner.

Ever wonder how you spell 'Papa John's' in Arabic ?

Trip to Oman (2/2)

Paris-Barhein

The rest of the flight went pretty much ok.

Once we had reached 10000ft, the flight attendant asked for my choice of meal (which you have to pick up from a list) : appetizers, main, cheese and dessert. I don’t remember what I picked, I wanted to eat fast and sleep. However, I felt hungry when there was a good food smell coming from first class. In Gulf Air they have the Sky Chef : there is an actual cook getting meals ready in a small kitchen in the plane. They also have a Sky Nanny : a dedicated flight attendant taking care of children during the flight.

Although having a chef looks to me as an excessive luxury, the Sky Nanny is a good idea. For children in the first place, as she must be trained to handle fears and expectations of the little ones onboard. For the parents of course, who can rest a little during a long haul flight. For the rest of the passengers, since you have less “baby generated noise”. It must be a tough job since you have to communicate with children speaking different languages, some of them you may not understand.

The meal takes forever… They set up your table with steel cutlery and serve you one dish after the other. Just like in a good restaurant. I had some wine with it, a Merlot from Bordeaux as I can remember. Not my favourite but good enough. The food, served in china, looked good and actually was good. You have a basket of different breads to choose from. I picked several of them but they were all dry and tasteless. I have not tried the many cheese offered. I haven’t tried the Cognac and other alcohols offered at the end of the meal. I had already put my seat in the bed position. The whole process took like an hour. One hour less to sleep…

I realized afterwards there was a fast meal served in 15 minutes available anytime during the flight. I should have taken that.

In the comfort of a horizontal seat with a fluffy blanket, I soon fell asleep. I woke up one hour before landing and was offered an ice cream (mango cream).

I expected the crew to be from Middle East but it was not. About half of them were, the rest was from Europe for what I can tell.

The rest of the flight was OK. I stopped in Barhein but had to rush to get the next plane (hopefully I went out first from the first airplane).

Barhein-Muscat
The second flight was running very late (more than 30min) because of a delayed flight with transferring passengers. It was an OK flight, there were many German in the business class. They were loud and demanded Champagne instead of the regular wine.

Arrival at Muscat
On arrival at Muscat airport, I had to pay the RO 6 visa fee. So I gave 15€ to the and they handed me back RO 1. Then I waited for about one hour to get through the immigration process. A Bristish Airways plane had just landed before us and I had to wait for all the tourists to go through. I was thinking that my priority handling of the luggage was useless now.

Eventually, I got my one month visa, got my luggage and went through customs. The hotel doorman was waiting for me with a sign. After waiting for another passenger, in vain, we headed to the hotel bus. It was midnight and I had been travelling for 16hours. When we stepped out the airport terminal, I was struck by the temperature. Despite the time of the day (or the night I should say), it was still about 30°C (86°F).

The good things of my trip : the personal care in Business, the horizontal seat providing good rest, the quality of food

The bad things : people in business think the world revolves around them, the lounge in Paris, the delay of the 2 flights.

Next message will probably be about my first days in Oman.

Trip to Oman

I arrived in the Sultanate on Oct. 8th. d in

I left home at 6am, took a cab to Amiens train station, then a bus to TGV Haute Picardie (the bullet train station) and the TGV (french high speed train) to Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris.

The taxi driver was OK. He came late because he couldn't find the street (!). Despite this, I gave him a 10% tip and not even got a 'thank you'.

The Check-in :

The trip to Roissy was pretty much OK and I was there at about 8:30 (my plane was scheduled at 11:30). My suitcase was very heavy so I decided to check-in right away. Therefore, I went to the Gulf Air Business Class desk and almost got kicked out by some bouncer.

"This line is for first and business class, economy is this way".

OK, I was wearing no suit nor tie, but still... Anyway, I told him I had a business ticket and he let me go.This was my first trip in business class and I wanted to enjoy all of it : fast check in line, lounge, priority handling of luggage. Check in went smooth and the lady gave me a pass to get access to the lounge and put "priority handling" tags on my luggage. I don't know if these tags have any influence on the delivery speed though.

Next step : the lounge

I was looking forward to enter for the first time in the "Air France Première Lounge" (which, I guess, is rented by Gulf Air to Air France).

Finding the lounge is not so easy in Roissy terminal 1. It is at the 10th floor with few signs showing directions.

I gave my access pass to the lady behind the counter. She told me to get seated. There were chairs and couches. There were 5 or 6 people in the lounge when I came in. I took a chair and picked up newspapers among the many available. I asked the lady if I could hve a cup of coffee, she told me to help myself, which I did.

I took a cup of coffee, a tomato juice and some cookies. There was not even croissants or pastries but there was plenty of alcohol (it was 9 in the morning). I was quite disapointed by the lounge actually. After reading the newspaper and talking to my family on the phone, I left the lounge and went to the boarding gate to spot planes while I was waiting for my flight to board.

A group of French tourists came to seat next to me. They were very annoying, all dressed as if they were about to climb mountains inside the plane, all having the same bag with the name of the travel agency written on it.

Guys, let me explain something to you : when it's written we gonna climb to 50 000ft, we mean the plane is doing the job. No need to wear your trekking shoes...

Aboard the plane

Once in the plane, I had to force myself to make a left (so used to make a right to the economy class). Actually the flight attendant looked at my boarding pass as if something was wrong. But somebody actually came to show me where I was seated. He offered a hand for my carry on but I thanked him (I can still put my carry on in the overhead compartment...).

Then I could look around : there were only 12 seats in my cabins, they were huge. You actually have plenty of space. Look at the pic, if you don't believe me :

After having played with the control of the seat (leg rest, back inflating cushion,...) the seat next to me beacame occupied by another passenger.

As soon as he was seated, he started screaming at the flight attendant because he was not offered newspapers soon enough. I just could not believe it. The good thing about this stupid man is that I got this with my choice of newspaper :

What happened next ? You'll see in next episode !

First steps

Welcome to everybody !

First steps on the blog moon for me. I don't know what it'll look like or if I could update it as often as necessary but I hope it'll be a useful tool to keep in touch and show pictures.

About me : I have just arrived in the Sultanate of Oman and put up this page to relate my "adventures" to friends and family. Perhaps, visitors may find useful information about the life in Oman for a foreigner.

That's it for the first message.

See you soon for more.

B.