Sultan ruins Christmas in Oman

This is an excerpt from www.telegraph.co.uk

Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al-Said of Oman is not likely to win any popularity contests among British travellers this week, after he cancelled thousands of Christmas bookings in Muscat's leading hotels so he could move the date of a conference.

The decree sent out to the hotels from the Diwan of the Royal Court this week that the Gulf Co-operation Council Summit (attended by bigwigs from all the other Gulf States) was moving from late-November to Christmas week, left no room for negotiation or protest. When it's Said, it's done in these parts. That's what comes with being a Sultan.

Unbelievable.

My Mum and her hubby are supposed to be staying at one of the leading hotels affected. It is absolutely no surprise at all that you can get more information about this from a UK website than you can from the press out here.

A comment made on the above article did made me laugh though:

"I spent a Christmas in Oman once. Why anyone would go there by choice is beyond me. I guess if you have spent a year in the UK under Brown any fly ridden dust bowl in the desert might appear attractive."