THE problem with luxury hotels, I have always found, is that the staff are bigger snobs than the guests. My stay in the Dorchester in London was marred by an incident in the diningroom. A waiter presented a green vegetable on a silver platter. "Yes", I said, "I'll have the cabbage". The waiter's eyes shot to heaven. "It's spinach", he said, "sir". I swear a minute elapsed between the "spinach" and the sir". It was plain I was not Dorchester material.
Some hotels can carry off opulent comfort with geniality. Ashford Castle is a case in point. So is the Great Southern in Parknasilla. The staff understand the difference between service and servility.
The Al Bustan Palace Hotel would be on most well travelled people's list of the ten top hotels in the world. The hotel is owned by the Government of Oman (prop. His Majesty Sultan Qaboos) and was built to host the 1985 Arab Co operation Council Summit in Muscat. His Majesty spared no expense in impressing his fellow potentates. The taps in the bedrooms are gold plated. The manager who showed me around explained that this was not ostentation or extravagance but simply a labour saving device: gold plated taps; don't need to be polished as frequently as ordinary brass ones. Obvious, isn't it, once you think about it.
Ambivalent about Alcohol
The hotel has a 628 seat theatre incorporated in the building. There is, naturally, a royal box (prop. Sultan Qaboos). There are 247 rooms, about half in European style and about half in Arabic. All have mini bars. Oman is ones of those Gulf states with a deeply ambivalent attitude towards alcohol. The country wants to encourage tourism and understands that a holiday without alcohol is a concept alien to the average tourist. The Al Buslan has a number of bars and wine is served in the restaurants. During Ramadan, however, the curtains in the restaurants are drawn - even in the middle of the day - so that nobody will be scandalised by seeing strong drink being taken.
It is not a good idea to hire a car in Oinan if you intend to, drink. If you kill somebody in a road accident while under the influence, the dead person's relatives are entitled to seek the death penalty. Though generally, I was assured, they don't.
The Al Bustan is set against a dramatic mountain backdrop on 200 acres of private beach. The beach is patrolled discreetly to ensure that the locals don't trespass. Not, I fancy, that they would, since His Majesty has an autocratic way about him.
I spoke to an Omani woman with two children who left her Omani husband because he regularly beat her. She took up with an American expatriate and, as soon as she did, the children were taken from her and placed in the care of her mother in law. That is the law, she has no say in the matter - and neither indeed does the mother in law.
Unlike, say, Kuwait or Dubai, Muscat retains the authentic feel of a Middle Eastern city. Again, Sultan Qaboos can take much of the credit since he has decreed that buildings may not reach above a certain height and owners are allowed to paint their buildings from a palette of just six colours selected by His Majesty.
Dependent on Oil
The Omani economy is heavily dependent on oil revenues and is anxious to diversify into areas like tourism. They had 20,000 tourists last year. There were probably more, in the Abbey Tavern.
One of the neighbouring countries, the little emirate of Shaijah, paid the price of relying on oil. Some years ago, Shaijah ran out of the stuff and had to be bailed out by Saudi Arabia. The Saudis made it a condition of their loan that Shaijah go dry. Luckily, the sundry Dubai is only half an hour away.
For the moment, Oman can afford to be choosy about its tourists. The $200 a night stays in the Al Bustan should keep out the backpackers, though I was dismayed on the night I stayed there to find 40 RAF fliers in the bars and billiard room. They were overnighting in Oman, I was told, en route from some gig in Singapore to their home base in England. The reason they were staying in the Al Bustan Palace, I was further informed, was that there was no room in the Muscat Intercontinental. The British Defence Secretary Michael Portillo may have more scope for defence cuts than he realises.
Not for the Price Sensitive
We ate at the beach restaurant, looking out at the Gulf of Oman. The food was more Intercontinental than Omani - good quality hamburgers and French fries. Wine is expensive, nearly £20 for a bottle of exceedingly ordinaire French stuff, but if you're staying in the Al Bustan in the first place, the management does not expect you to be price sensitive.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has announced a five year plan for tourism which includes the building of camping sites and picnic areas, thus recognising that the Al Bustan Palace, splendid though it is, has an essentially limited market.
Leaving Muscat through the international airport, I browsed around the duty free shop. It is beautifully appointed and the mechandise is of the highest quality, but horrendously expensive. All the cognac was VSOP and all the Scotch was single malt. Nobody was buying anything.
As most travellers to the area know by now, the place to buy duty free is Dubai. Should you want to gold plate your taps when you get home, you buy the gold in Dubai's duty free shop. Remember, goldplating taps is really just a labour saving device.