Where’s Anne? Life in Circles

Life can be such as interesting journey of connecting circles.

When I started my career 25 years ago, I worked for a company in Toronto that did a lot of tourism projects in developing countries. My first big assignment was to be part of a team to develop the first tourism strategy for the Sultanate of Oman.

The country intrigued me. It has an interesting history, quite different from other places in the Middle East. The clothes have an Indian and even African influence – at one time in the mid 1800s, Oman’s capital was actually way down the East African coast in Zanzibar.

The Portuguese controlled Oman for 140 years in the 1500s and 1600s. Their hilltop forts still create beautiful dark silhouettes against the sky at sunset. Oman’s famous carved doors are from the forests that are a rare resource in the Middle East.

Muscat Fort at Sunset

While I was working on the tourism study back in 1984, single women were not allowed into the country, so I didn’t get to see it in person.

Now I’ve come full circle. I finally got to Oman in September of this year to help with the new Fairmont hotel project soon to be under construction at “The Wave”- an interesting mixed use development with residential, our Fairmont Hotel and a Greg Norman championship golf course and of course our Willow Stream Spa – in Muscat, the country’s current capital. 

It was worth the wait.

Oman is beautiful and I was struck by the openness of the people. A great young guide, Majid, took me to all of the sites and openly shared his views on life, what he and his friends enjoyed doing and lots of details of family life. I even met some of his friends over coffee. (He also really liked going to spas so that was very helpful information).

Majid, my driver in Muscat

At first glance, the scenery is similar to other parts of the middle east -  lovely sand and sea – but there is an interesting effect of light and dark here. The land isn’t as flat as many other areas and this makes a contrast in the shades of sun and shadow throughout the day. Looking up at the hilltops, the historic forts are at times black against the sun and other times they sparkle with a golden flow of reflections. The same is true of the colors of the sand depending on the time of day.

Our Willow Stream spa here is being developed as an aqua thermal spa  inspired by the healing waters of the sea and the detoxifying heat of the desert.   All of its touch points will be in the Omani style. Rosewater and rose oil are very popular in all of our spas and I didn’t know that they are a centuries old tradition in Oman. Rosewater here traditionally comes in small copper bottles.

You will be hearing much more about this exciting project soon. In the meantime, I am delighted to have come full circle, after 25 years, once again working on hospitality in this lovely country. Wow.

I love this.