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Alila Jebel Akhdar Jebel Akhdar is a well touristed area in Oman’s Al Hajar mountain range. The main reason for overseas tourists to visit is usually to stay at one of the two well known high-end mountain resorts: either Anantara or Alila and soak in the mountain views and cooler temperatures...

Movenpick Ghala, Muscat Muscat has a decent selection of hotels spread all over the sprawling city. It’s a city without an easily identifiable centre and one that has close to zero walkable areas. So seeing as visitors are reliant on a hire car or taxis, choosing a hotel based on location isn’t...

I encountered nibbling fish at the sinkhole!

Wadi Shab According to the many blogs I read when preparing for this trip to Oman, Wadi Shab is a highlight for most travellers. Wadi seems to be a fairly versatile word meaning anything from a vast deep gorge to a dry creek bed. Wadi Shab definitely falls into the former. It’s a roughly 2 hour...

Royal Opera House Muscat We started our morning with a visit to the Opera House. This beautiful building and cultural institution is another legacy of the much beloved and highly cultured late Sultan Qaboos. He commissioned it in 2001 and the venue opened in 2011 with a performance of Turandot...

Snorkelling Trip to the Daymaniyat Islands The Daymaniyat (aka Dimaniyat) Island Nature Reserve lies about 20km off shore from Muscat. Multiple tour operators run trips daily for snorkelers, divers and campers to visit the small archipelago of rocky and sandy outcrops and the crystal clear...

It is magnificent! It straddles opulence and contemporary chic in design

Arrival and Exploring Muscat Highlights What we saw of Muscat Airport upon arrival was stunning. Wide, open spaces, modern, clean and well thought out. There was a bit of a queue in the foreigner line at immigration and no sign of any priority lanes for WY premium passengers. We were through...

Flight: WY844 MNL-MCT Aircraft: B787-9 (2 class Config) Tail No: A4O-SK (3 years old) Seat: 11G Sch Dep/Actual Dep: 07:45 / 07:35 Sch Arr/Actual Arrival: 12:00 / 12:20 The day before departure I booked an airport transfer from the hotel to NAIA Terminal 1 for a 5:15 pickup. The $35 price is...

Fairmont Makati As an Accor Platinum member, this was the natural choice for our stay in Manila. Makati is probably the most tourist-friendly part of the metropolis to stay in and the Fairmont is right in the heart of Makati’s commercial district. So it ticked the location box and is priced at...

Lunch at Gallery by Chele Gallery by Chele is one among a small handful of top fine dining restaurants in Manila. Situated somewhat obscurely on the 5th floor of a bland office building in the commercial district of BGC, it is a collaboration between two chefs: one local and one Spanish. The 10...

Manila summary + Pinto Art Museum My time in Manila can largely be summarised by “food, shopping, massage, family, art”. There’s no need to go into great detail of the intricacies of our time in Manila, apart from pointing out the incongruity of the fact that I hate malls in Australia and...

Flight: SQ910 SIN-MNL Aircraft: A350-900 (Regional config) Tail No: 9V-SHN (5 years old) Seat: 17A Sch Dep/Actual Dep: 08:55 / 09:30 Sch Arr/Actual Arrival: 12:50 / 13:05 Priority boarding commenced at the advertised boarding time of 8:20 for this 3-ish hour flight to Manila. It was a long walk...

Singapore Transit: SilverKris Lounge T3 Despite the fact that I my flights both used gates in T2, I wasn’t keen to sit in the dark and drab T2 lounge for over 3 hours, so I took the people mover over to T3 and headed up the escalators to the much larger and newer SQ lounge there. When I arrived...

Flight: SQ218 MEL-SIN Aircraft: A350-900 (Long Haul config) Tail No: 9V-SMO (7 years old) Seat: 14A Sch Dep/Actual Dep: 00:35 / 00:25 Sch Arr/Actual Arrival: 5:30 / 4:48 Given the fact that this flight departed well after my usual bed time, my intention was to try to squeeze as much sleep out...

And so it begins, with cold churros in the fairly underwhelming Melbourne Silverkris lounge. Despite the international terminal being busy when I arrived at around 22:15, it took 10 minutes flat to get from the value car park bus drop off in front of QF T1 arrivals to SQ J check in and bag...

Hahaha! First of many typos with my clumsy fingers, no doubt

The Sultanate of Oman has been on the bucket list for quite some time, but never quite reached the top of places to visit … until now. As a tourist destination it offers incredible landscapes from coral reefs, beaches and fjords to rugged mountains and desert sands as well as cities with rich...

I totally agree that the premium lane at security should have carry on limits enforced as stringently, if not more so than the general. On yesterday’s flight when I boarded in group 2 and took my seat in row 13 I could see that there was basically no overhead space left between me and row 4...

Fresh off QF486 tonight (18:30 MEL-SYD 737 service) and rather than the pitiful offerings that have passed as “dinner” for the last few years, they served cheese and crackers in Y. Is this the new normal? There wasn’t a cabin announcement apologising for irregular catering. The party pies or...