Pralex: Prasheel in Oman: Great Times!

A while since my last update, and a bit of a change of pace since then. While the regular routine now is pretty much the same as before, I just stopped giving a fuck about everything other than riding. I usually get a couple hours in on the terribly crowned and sloped road outside of my house in the afternoon, and then once arriving at the show site, it is rare for me to stop riding for the couple hours we are there, only really slowing down when the team comes out to warm up 10 minutes before show.

A couple highlights over the past week include the fact that I finally got to go to the Crown Plaza Hotel/Resort. After our 14th day of shows, about the half way point, we headed there one night to celebrate. While drinks aren't cheap there, I didn't mind spending over half of my per diem for the week to get some whiskey in me. We first had a couple drinks in the bar there, while three asian singers, all dressed the same, sang some pop hits including Lady Gaga, Rihanna, and various other types of music...it was pretty terrible.

After that, we got some more drinks and headed down to the beach. After taking off my shoes and socks, and emptying my pockets and rolling up my shorts, I ventured in to the Indian Ocean with some rye and coke in hand. Definitely the highlight of the trip so far, as we finally took advantage of where we are in the world and what it has to offer. After that, headed back in to the bar, chatted with some locals, had some more drinks, yay yay yay.

Our sketchy driver Mohammed, six days after we gave him money for some whiskey, and one attempt to give us brandy instead, he finally came through with it. He immediately came inside and started drinking with us, despite the fact that his 'loving' was upset and calling him, lolol.

Uhmmm, we got our weekly allowance for food the other night, 35 rials (which is about $100+ CAN, and can easily feed two people for the week), and I managed to blow through 21 rials of it in one day, hahaha. We went to the mall that day before shows, and the market tent at the fair was open to us that day (its only open to us two days a week...the day before we get our allowance, and the day after), and we got Pizza Hut Delivery which was delicious. Oh yeah, I got some whiskey for myself from Mohammed, as Julien managed to score a hook up for beer through his pseudo Omani girlfriend.

Speaking of girls, the team and I made friends with three interesting sisters that work at a perfume/cologne/incense booth right next to us. Really sweet Muslim girls, they enjoy our shows and stuff, and like to give us good deals and even free gifts. Ben got a flower, Ben, Devin, and Matt got cologne, as a group, we got some incense and charcoals, and I got a flower, some candy, icecream, and a pseudo-awkward waffle date (lolol), all from the middle sister. Their english isn't great, and neither is my arabic, but we usually go over to talk to them once a day just to say hello.

But, for the most part, I just ride my bike. I've adapted quite well to the heat I guess, as I can ride for over an hour now without feeling like I'm going to pass out (compared to the 20 minutes on the first day). I pretty much shaved my head and found that to help a lot too. Ridings lots, but not necessarily too well, but hoping to get some footage before I leave. Possibly look for a collaboration effort between Alex and I as he'll be editing up the riding and random footage from my trip.

Oh yeah, more photos!