Tag: swimming pool

Desert Glamping – A Thousand Nights Camp, Oman

There are a variety of things to do in Oman. You can go to a beach, or hike a mountain. But the biggest appeal, and the one that most people think about is visiting the desert. You can make a day trip out of it, or if you are really adventurous, you can pitch your own tent and spend a night under the stars. There is a middle ground available as there are many glamping sights all over the desert, and one of the premiere ones would have to be The Thousand Nights Camp just outside of the town of Bidiyah.

It is a little bit of a hike out of town, and you do need a four wheel drive vehicle to make it out there. It is also suggested that you deflate your tires to give you a little more traction over the loose sand that will blow on to the dirt path that will take you out there. Beware that the town of Bidiyah is full of people waiting to take advantage of this. They will bug you about giving you help to get out there, and if you are a little worried, you might want to book somebody ahead of time. If you are a skilled driver and you have a powerful four wheel drive, you should be able to make it out there without a problem.

Once there, you will be given your own tent that is bigger than most hotel rooms, designed like one a bedouin would stay in, has its own private shower, and electricity. It even has a bed, and air conditioning, though I stayed out here in December and could just open the windows to get the tent to the right temperature. You are still roughing it though because there is no refrigerator in the tent unless you pay for an upgrade. If you do that, then you get your own patio, and private pool, and the best views of the dunes.

There is also plenty to do while out there. They have a small pool that is great for cooling off in. A couple of camels are available if you would like to try your hand at riding one of them. You can borrow an ATV to explore the sand dunes, or hire a local guide to drive you to the more remote places. They also have a recreation center which is great for kids, a nightly traditional Arabian fire, and an oryx farm that you can check out.

Or you could do the simplest thing of all, and put on your hiking shoes, and climb those sand dunes yourself. The first one is a bit of a trial to get up, but once you are on top of the dunes, it is a lot of fun walking along them. Within a half an hour of leaving camp, I was able to get far enough away from the camp to feel like I was the only one hiking around the desert. I was also able to find the perfect spot to watch the sunset.

And it is a great place to watch the sunset, especially in December. It was the perfect temperature out there, and the wind only came up as soon as the sun dipped below the horizon. There was even enough light afterwards to have enough time to safely back to the camp and the wonderful meal that they served for dinner that night. There are many of these camps in the desert, and they all have similar things that they offer, but the Thousand Nights Camp was far enough away to make it feel like I had really gotten off the beaten path. If you come out here, this is one of the stops that you have to put on your itinerary. You won’t regret it.

Thanks again, until next time.

We Got a Pool – Siam Summer

As far as the crow flies, we are only about 12 to 15 kilometers away from our home. Given Bangkok traffic at the wrong time, that is an hour away when taking a taxi. Despite these simple facts, it feels like a whole different world we are experiencing right now. The adventures we have taken so far have been simple and not too complicated, but we have taken that step to venture out of the Air B+B we are staying at to wander around a mall, stroll through the downtown area, and go out to eat. They are simple steps that we have taken to rejoin society, and we will take bigger steps as the week progresses, but it is a good start.

Mostly, we have enjoyed the fact that we are no longer confined by the same four walls, and we have been taking in the views from our tiny little patio. It is nice to experience the big city that we have been living in and having the ability to walk out of our front door and be right in the heart of it. I do not know if I could enjoy it constantly, and the place we are in is extremely tiny, but it is close to great restaurants and shops, and we are hop, skip, or jump away from parks which have now opened in the city. It will make for a fun and exciting week.

But the most exciting thing is that we have a rooftop pool that we get access to. Considering we are staying in the top level of this apartment building, we can get there is less than thirty second, and that includes putting on our swimsuits. It is situated in a nice alcove of the building that offers a shady retreat from the heat of Bangkok, and it is ten stories off of the ground so a nice breeze blows making it the perfect place to spend an afternoon.

I am making some assumptions, but I believe that it gets a lot of use by the people who live here and it is probably one of the biggest selling points of renting out an apartment in this building. But Covid-19 has changed that for the time being. Only one group is given access to the pool at any time right now. We had to sign up to reserve the pool for an hour, but considering that we are downtown during the work week and things are starting to open up again, it was not hard to find a time to go out and enjoy this feature.

It is not the most dramatic of travel stories I know, but in these times, it is the simple things that we should hold on to. People will eventually find the courage to take the precautions to venture out in the world again. If the world plays it safe until a solution can be found, life can once again be an adventure. It will just need to be stripped down a bit which will cause us to really take in those simple moments in life and truly enjoy them, so when you discover a pool to yourself on top of a building you are staying at, take advantage of it. The experience has been a simple one, but has been one of the most memorable ones this late into 2020.