Greater Muscat is testimony to what an abundance of space and money can achieve when coupled with a tortuous topography. Stretching for over 30 kilometres along the coast, the city is a string of seaside hubs nestled around bijou bays, hilltop colonies and business districts, each connected to the other by expressways that snake through the mountains separating them. Like Los Angeles, Muscat is built for the car.
Architecturally, it is a pleasant if uninspiring mix of very similar-looking villas (some so vast they fall into the category of ‘My Own Private Oasis’), strip-malls and gated communities. It’s this city’s setting, a dramatic backdrop of razor-sharp ridges and crumpled bed sheet mountain ranges dotted with watchtowers and small forts, visible from almost everywhere, which rescues it from the soulless sterility of other regional capitals. That and the fact that the entire city seems to be perfumed. For centuries, Oman, or more strictly speaking, Arabia Felix was one of the wealthiest regions on Earth thanks to its trade in frankincense, the odour of choice in temples and homes from Luxor to Londinium.
Of course, the camel trains that plied the Incense Route to the Mediterranean are long gone but a frankincense haze still lingers, scenting everything from taxis and restaurants, to shops and private homes. Even the tassel that dangles from the neckline of the flowing robes worn by Omani men comes dipped in frankincense oil, permitting the wearer to walk around in his own exquisitely perfumed world.
After a few days in this heady, sensual and (I suspect) mildly narcotic cloud, you come to appreciate the Ancient World’s lust for Oman’s white gold. It takes the edges off the day, encourages a state of perpetual daydream and sets a smile in the heart as well as on the lips.
Keeping that smile on your face (or giving you that blessed air of contentment) is, apparently, the mainstay for the Chedi’s existence. If you didn’t already know, the Chedi is Muscat’s hipper-than-thou hangout, the boutique residence of choice for catwalk models, media moguls and design-conscious business travellers.
A low, white cluster of buildings scattered through neatly manicured gardens overflowing with water features, it was an early exponent of the Asia-meets-Arabia school of design and service, the heady aloha aleikum experience that has since taken the Gulf, at least, by storm.
A sensation when it first opened, the Chedi may no longer be quite as visually distinctive as it was when it was launched but as it has matured into dependable excellence, the hotel no longer needs to get by on sensation.
Not that it doesn’t still manage to create a splash. In October of this year, the Chedi unveiled its brand new Spa. Located at the far end of property, the Spa offers much more than a place of repose. The facility, built in keeping with the rest of the hotel, is endowed with a spacious, state-of-the-art health club, a breath-taking 103 metre-long infinity pool - the longest of its kind in the Middle East - overlooking the beach and, of course, the spa itself.
The whole project grew initially out of a desire to expand the gym but as discussions began on the project, the hotel realised it had an opportunity to do more than just add a few new exercise machines. “We were ready to invest, so we thought why not add a pool and while we’re at it, why don’t we put a new spa on top?” explains the Chedi’s affable manager, Yorke Brandes one afternoon in the Chedi’s airy club lounge, The Library. “We called the whole concept The Spa and decided to open it up and offer memberships to Muscat residents.”
There’s plenty to tempt. The new 400 square-metre health club makes the previous facility, formerly housed in the neat little structure on the beach that’s now used to hold yoga classes, look like a home gym in comparison.
Kitted out with free weights and cardio balls and a range of running, rowing and other sweat-making machines by Technogym, the club is also home to an aesthetically pleasing, but initially somewhat baffling Kinesis Wall. This minimalist mechanical marvel apparently works the muscles other muscles haven’t heard of and, at the far end, you will find a collection of equally unusual but much more exquisite instruments of torture. As you survey their leather handles, chains, trapeze mechanisms, sliding padded benches and half-barrel ‘seats’ that appear to be designed to be lain upon and bent over, you will be forgiven for thinking that you have just stumbled onto a playground of a decidedly adult nature. Rest assured that it's only the Pilates corner.
Once you have finished straining yourself at the gym, a steam room and sauna - segregated, of course - is ready to iron out your kinks, while upstairs, the 13 self-contained rooms and suites that comprise the new Spa, are ready to deal with any kinks that the sauna might have missed.
The menu here is focused on relaxation rituals, elaborate baths, facials, body polishes and other beauty treatments – yes, for men too – and, of course, assorted Asian traditions of therapeutic massage, whether Japanese, Tibetan, Balinese, Thai, or Ayurvedic, expertly dispensed by the Spa’s dedicated team of specialists.
Pumped, stretched and toned, polished, pummelled and pressed, the Spa ultimately delivers you to the languorous delights of the Long Pool. If you’ve timed your day just right, you’ll get to stretch out there, on one of the enormous lounge-style pool beds and sip something fruity. And why not bask in the last of the day’s heat, before swimming a few leisurely laps as the sun sinks slowly over the horizon, for a time of rest well spent.
WHAT The Chedi Spa
WHERE Muscat, Oman
OPENED October 2011
WHY It’s home to the Middle East’s longest infinity pool, because it boasts a collection of some of the most interesting exercise machines in Oman and because it makes the Chedi an even more delightful place to stay than it was before.
