MyTravel, a Scandinavian tour operator, had organised a unique Around The World tour for 405 Scandinavians – 160 from Denmark and the rest from Sweden – in celebration of the 50th anniversary of its two divisions, Spies in Denmark and Ving in Sweden. Ten destinations were chosen to ensure that the passengers got a taste of some unusual places. The tour group left Stockholm, Sweden, on April 22, starting the trip with Copen-hagen in Denmark and moving on to Hamilton in Canada and San Francisco in the US before travelling to the Far East and finally the Middle East.

“We chose Vietnam instead of Bangkok because it is a lesser known destination and therefore, more exotic. Most people know about Dubai but many do not know anything about Muscat and Oman. So we chose to come here,” explains Jessica Svensson, the tour coordinator. Incidentally, Muscat and Cairo were the only two destinations in the Middle East. In Muscat, the tourists stayed at the Shangri-La’s Barr al Jissah that organised a special Arabian village and an Arabian night event for the guests. They were also taken to the Grand Mosque, the corniche and the souq. To keep all aspects of passenger comfort in mind, the flight even had its own on-board doctor.

“When the average age of the passengers is 59 years, it can be very stressful for the crew because they are not trained for administering any specialised medical treatment that may be required,” says Dr Erik Hohwü. “The aeroplane allows the cabin crew to descend into the hold through the cockpit to restock food supplies. That is the only special arran-gement on-board this flight,” says Captain Bent Thomassen, the pilot of the Airbus A330.

Classical rendezvous
The French Embassy and ROSO join forces for a western classical music night

For one last time, the conductor raises his baton and whips it down. The orchestra winds up in a flourish. It is a resounding end on this count – a fragment from Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet lashing out against the world. At the Al Bustan Palace Hotel, it was a Michael Cousteau-Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra (ROSO) rendezvous all right.

Impressed by ROSO’s show at the UNESCO Palace in Paris last year, Cousteau had wished to get here since. He had conducted, performed and advised orchestras in Egypt and Bahrain before. “Beethoven’s ‘Ninth Symphony’ was already available in long play format by the 1930s in Japan, before it was available in Europe,” he points out.

The reach of popular music hasn’t meant a lag in the hold of the western classical. For Cousteau, its perch as the “master narrative of European music” remains. “It is the most comprehensive amongst music forms. You are tested on everything,” says the Sorbonne and Vienna-trained conductor. Classical music has reinvented itself periodically. Michael delivered a lecture on Hector Berlioz – a figure he claims was the first modern French composer, who railed against old-fashioned music.

Smooth operator
Audi debuts its new Q7, the new luxury SUV from the German carmaker

The Audi Q7 made a rather apt entry into the Omani market. At the Oman Automobile Association, a select audience was treated to how well the first full-fledged SUV from the Audi stable can handle arduous off-roading. A member of the Audi team dem-onstrated how the Q7’s traction control system ensures that power is transferred equally when one of the wheels spins off the ground.

This demo was besides all the drills that one would expect to put an SUV though – conquering a steep climb, gliding over gravel and so on. Like they say, the proof lies in the pudding.

Audi pits the new Q7 in the luxury SUV segment taking on heavyweights like the BMW x5, the Porsche Cayenne and the Mercedes ML class. The Q7 has a new 4.2-litre V8 engine with FSI petrol direct injection, which develops 257 kW (350 bhp) and achieves a maximum torque of 440 Nm. The Audi Q7 is equipped with standard quattro permanent four-wheel drive.