The typical Dubai style dilemna

Well, there are only 2 hotels in Musandam. One is super swanky, probably 6 or 7 stars and it is highly recommended. It is also 700 US dollars a night and has a 3 night minimum for the summer because it is the "high season". Let me tell you, the Gulf is never in it's peak of tourism in the summer, most hotels have great rates this time of year but not this one. Obviously we stayed at the other hotel. It wasn't dirt cheap of course, everything is relative in this region...Well after our beautiful drive to the area the hotel looked great. Our room had a balcony and a sea view. That is however where the luxury ended. The entire hotel was staffed by waiters that seemed to have no training at all (not their fault) and an overly sarcastic Omani manager. He delighted in telling us no every time we asked for something- he was very deadpan about it until he saw the look of dismay on our faces at which point he would laugh and admit he was kidding. Everything had to be asked for at least 10 times, it was like a hotel run by stoners. The restaurant was as brightly lit as my high school cafeteria, every meal was a buffet of dry and cold food. When night time came I had to forgo wearing my new sexy maternity dress for linen pants and a tank top, it just felt wrong to wear a dress considering the ambiance. We were pleasantly surprised though as we tucked in for our evening buffet that we could sit outside so we did...and we were joined by 2 extremely loud cats that were either in heat or starving. They sensed our animal lover hearts and took up permanent residence underneath our table. As grim as this sounds we had a great time- we laughed constantly and reminisced about St. Lucia, now that was a nice hotel and it was cheaper!