NEED a tanning butler? A sleep sommelier? Therapy on room service just in case
we wake up at 4am and want to discuss separation anxiety? It's hilarious
what hotels come up with in an attempt to grab our attention.
But every now and again a posh place comes up with an idea that sounds stupid
- is stupid - but turns out to be so wildly enjoyable that only the most
confirmed miserabilist would object.
Ladies and gentlemen, run as fast as you can off the nearest cliff for...the
paraglide check-in.
It is 9am and my Range Rover clang-clatters to a halt on the pass in the
1,800m (5,900ft) sandstone Hajar mountains that ooze out of the Arabian Sea
like giant pyramids of toffee.
I've left the hookers and the hookahs of Dubai far behind. After a few days of
razzle-dazzle retox, I've come to detox and what better way to begin.
Up here the air is clear and the only sound is the wee-ooop of the ospreys as
they circle and dive for sardines. “Ready to join the birds?” asks Hristo
Arnaudnv, my instructor.
I've never paraglided before, but, thankfully, Arnaudnv is right behind me.
Literally. We're roped together. Still, it's not for the fainthearted
because once you've stepped into the harness and the canopy is billowing,
there's no time to bail out. Hesitate, and you get dragged back up the
hillside, breaking bones on the way.
So, when Arnaudnv shouts “Run!” I sprint straight off the fragile 150m ledge.
S-i-l-e-n-c-e. I'm suspended, motionless in mid-air. For a second, I really
do feel like Roadrunner, the cartoon character who runs off a precipice and
carries on until he realises he's run out of road and is about to plummet to
the canyon floor. But then “Whhhump-schmeeeee!” The canopy yanks me up over
the peaks by the scruff of my neck.
Sitting back in the harness riding the early morning thermals is about as
relaxing as life - let alone check-in - gets. There's the freedom, the
weightlessness - and the view. I'm having a very good air day.
The paraglide check-in suits Zighy Bay and Oman itself. It's low-key, quiet,
eco-friendly and a little bit special. Since it opened up to Western tourism
a few years ago, the Sultanate, which lies across the Arabian peninsula from
Dubai, has tried hard to be the anti-Dubai. The resorts, even the big ones
such as Shangri-La's Barr Al Jissah, are low-rise, meticulously landscaped
and have just the right kind of service.
The Six Senses at Zighy Bay on the Musandam Peninsula, the fjorded tip of the
Arabian peninsula nicknamed the “Norway of the Middle East”, is the most
luxurious of Oman's hotels. If it can get over its teething problems, it
will rival Emirates' Al Maha desert hideaway as the best retreat in the
Gulf.
The resort lies next to the tiny village of Zighy in a sickle-shaped bay with
mountains rising steeply behind and on each side. There's no tarmac road,
only a dust track, into the bay and, managers say, it will stay that way. I
felt completely isolated.
The resort is all-villa but, unlike many Middle Eastern hotels, the properties
blend into the surroundings perfectly instead of rising like phalanxes of
flaunted wealth. The walls and the pools - each villa has one - are made
from Oman's distinctive, dark Nizwa stone.
The interiors and furniture use so much local teak and thick coir rope it's
silly. Hand-cut branches for hangers, anyone? The overall effect is that you
know you are in the Omani desert, not another five-star resort or a
wannabe-Aman.
The same goes for the food and wine. The chef, Ali Salloum, has created two
dishes that are worth a day trip from Dubai alone: the Arabic, flatbread
with forest mushrooms, grilled baby leaks and soft-boiled egg with truffle
oil for breakfast, and the chicken kebab with garlic yoghurt for lunch or
dinner. Unlike many other resorts in the Gulf, the hotel has a wine list
with the kind of vintages that make sense in the heat.
As you would expect from a brand such as Six Senses, the spa offers all the
right Asian treatments, ranging from soft facials to organ-rearranging
massage, but they are performed in authentically Middle Eastern
surroundings, not the kind of hi-tech clinics favoured by many Gulf resorts.
So far, so five star. But there are problems. Service is well-meaning but
haphazard. One order in three seems to go missing and there are not enough
telephone lines. Dial 0 for service and half the time you get the engaged
tone.
For reasons no one seems to be able to explain, the largest of the out-door
restaurants is closed in the evening, which means all but a handful of
guests have to eat dinner inside. The lighting in parts of the hotel,
notably the bathrooms and the library, seems to have been designed by a
vampire. It's so dark that you can hardly see your reflection in the mirror
and, to read the titles of the books in the library, you need a torch.
The activities are wildly over-priced, in particular diving. The same goes for
local hikes and bike rides.
The good news is, most of the gripes can be quickly dealt with. When they are,
Zighy Bay will be the perfect antidote to Dubai. Best of all, when you glide
into the front desk and the receptionist asks, without lifting her eyes:
“Have you had a pleasant flight?” you can, for the first time in your life,
reply: “Yes.” And actually mean it.
Need to know
Six Senses Hideaway Zighy Bay (020-8780 3519, www.sixsenses.com)
offers seven nights in a pool villa from £2,359pp. British Airways (0844
4930787, www.ba.com) has flights from
Heathrow to Dubai from £389 return. Zighy Bay is two hours' drive from Dubai
airport.
Further information Oman Tourist Board (020-8877 4524, www.omantourism.gov.om).
