Thursday, August 13, 2009

Prasheel in Oman: The Home Stretch/Final Chapter

So I finally made it to the 29th and final day of shows. While it has been a long month, it's also passed by rather quickly. Overall, it's been another really interesting experience, but I also could have lived without not being out here for so long. As it would occur with any group of people, some tension has developed between some people. Some of the guys I get along with great, and if I had to, could spend another month with them doing shows, but others, I don't necessarily feel the same about.

The past few days have been a LOT better, as we've been waking up early (well, I've always been getting up around 9am, while others sleep in till 3-4pm), and going sight seeing around noon. A few days ago, we went to Maghsail Rocky Beach, which is a super epic spot, with a huge rock, and lots of blow holes. Yesterday, wasn't as epic, but we went to Ayn Garziz I believe. We wanted to go to a spot with water where fish swim around your ankles, but our driver, Mohammed, took us to the top of a mountain and said the water was a 2h walk down. We also went to another cool spot with caves after that. Today, we went to Kattak, and then Khor Rori. Kattak had some water, and a cave up top, and Khor Rori is the remains of this super old palace from like 6000 years ago.


Now, I will list random facts about Oman and my stay here:

My neighbour has a rooster, so if I'm awake around 4am, its hard for me to sleep.

Neighbour also has goats in his backyard, which like to shit whenever I go out to ride flatland in front of the house, which smells terrible.

We have two bathrooms in our house, but one toilet consists of a hole in the floor and a hose for cleaning up.

Six men living in one house for 30 days results in a messy house.

Omani people are very rude, and aggressive when it comes to wanting to see me ride ramps.

Parents let their children do whatever they want, including allowing them to run up and down ramps and kicking my bike.

When we do shows, we usually have a fenced off area. Here, we have lengths of string around waist height to keep people out of our area. Children and parents alike do not understand the meaning of such, and walk through the area whenever they feel like it, opposed to walking a couple extra feet to go around.

Just like in Canada, I'm apparently a ghost when I'm riding and people try to walk through me.

Men are not allowed to show any public displays of affection to women, including their wife, but it is perfectly normal to kiss another dude as a greeting, or walk around holding his hand, lol.

You can find shawarma making places everywhere, same with people grilling kebabs.

When people are sick, it is common belief that they have a ghost in them.



So, tomorrow, I get to start my journey home. It consists of 1.5h flight to Muscat, a 3h layover, a 1h flight to Abu Dhabi, 1h wait on the plane there, a 6h flight to Amsterdam, a 10.5h layover to explore the city, a 7h flight to Montreal, a 1.5h wait, a 2h busride home to Ottawa, a 10h layover there, then head to Charlottetown, PEI on the east coast via a short layover in Montreal.

Basically, 20h of flights over a 3 day span or something, with a bunch of time zone changes involved as well. I'll be out in PEI for a week though, and start shows the day I arrive (actually miss out on 2 days). Should be a great weekend all over the world, haha.

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