Ma'a salama Oman :(
Nu är vi åter i Sverige och har vaknat till liv efter en mindre hibernation.
När vi kom innanför dörren slocknade vi nästan direkt och sov från kl. 14 till kl 06 morgonen därpå.
Våra kroppar har skrikit efter sömn efter alla sena nätter.
Vem trodde att man skulle åka till Oman och leva loppan, egentligen? Hehe.
Sista kvällen begav vi oss alla ut för att festa lite och säga hejdå till våra nyfunna vänner.
Fan, det känns trist att lämna alla öppensinnade, vänliga och generösa människor. Vi kommer att sakna dem alla riktigt, riktigt mycket. Men ett som är säkert är att vi kommer återvända snarast möjligast!
Om man får klaga lite skulle jag vilja passa på att spy galla över vår svenska sommar. Vad fan?! Blåst, regn och rusk...
Vi håller på att frysa ihjäl. Det är en väldig kontrast mot den ökenvärme som vi är van vid nu. 
Ras al-Hadd & Ras al-Jinz
Igår var det hög tid för oss att hoppa in i två stycken 4wd för en liten roadtrip med våra omanska vänner.
Destinationen var Sur, eller rättare sagt Ras al-Hadd.
Vi tog oss fram i ett riktigt fascinerande landskap; både på vanliga vägar men också i så kallade wadis (uttorkad floddal som fylls med vatten då det regnar). För mig kändes det sistnämnda mest skrämmande medan Rikard som satt i den andra bilen var exalterad och kiknade av skratt. Killar...
Hur som helst lyckades vi överleva de vilda off road-turerna och vi såg fram emot att få slå läger på en fin strand. Gärna i solnedgången.
Men icke. Vi stannade lite här, lite där. Badade lite här, lite där. Stannade på en coffee shop lite här, lite där. Osv.
Våra omanska vänner känner ingen stress! Men när klockan närmade sig 23 och det hade varit becksvart ute i flera timmar började vi alla längta efter lite BBQ.
"Jack Sparrows" inbyggda kompass var lite ringrostig och vi cirkulerade runt runt runt utan större framgång. Till slut var vi tydligen på rätt spår - när en förbipasserande fotgängare råkade peka vår slutsträcka en aning fel.
Jack Sparrow, jag och Mira var fast i lera. Riktigt djup lera. Bil nr 2 klarade sig med nöd och näppe...
I Sverige hade det antagligen bara varit att gilla läget och ringa en bärgningsfirma. Men inte i Oman! Från ingenstans kom den ena omaniern efter den andra. Till slut var det omkring 20 män i vita fotsida "klänningar" som lyckades få oss fria.
Väl på plats var det dags att tillaga lite mat, BBQ. Middagen serverades kl. 02 och det dröjde inte länge innan vi gav upp lägerelden för lite sömn.
Jag och Rikard sov i en av bilarna, precis utanför hade vi sällskap av två jättekeliga herrelösa hundar samt en GIGANTISK sköldpadda som höll på att lägga ägg.
Nu somnar jag vilken sekund som helst... Mer uppdatering imorgon.
God natt!
ABDULLAH!
Im totally exhausted because we have really been going at it 24/7 over here.
But boy have we had some fun! We have met a bunch of fun/crazy people and we have been out on several adventures that we couldnt have dreamt of when we first landed in Muscat.
We are now working our way trough our last week here but we are going to make it count!
Yesterday we went to Shangri-La which is a 6 star hotel and had the best shisha ever. The hotel held the same class and the athmosphere there was simply put, awesome!
After our little get away we were supposed to meet up with our "PIRATE" friends in a little village called Qantab were they live. Me and Rikard was invited to their home (Hospitality here is amazing), there we sat down in a typical arabic "living room" were you sit against the walls with a pillow as a back rest. Maroon served us mango and dates as well as the typical arabic coffee. Maroon was also wearing traditional dishdash which he was quick to change out for something more suitable for going out. (See picture)
After that we went to a beach party and later on we went out to a at Intercontinental hotel. Its safe to say we had a pretty solid day.
Vilken vecka! Jag har aldrig varit med om något liknande.
Är helt slut, min kropp går på sparlågor. Vi har verkligen varit igång nonstop.
Men jäklar vad kul vi har haft! Vi har träffat massa roliga och helt galna människor, varit ute på det ena äventyret efter det andra.
Nu är vi inne på sista veckan, men den skall vi göra till den bästa!
Igår var vi till ett hotell i närheten, Shangri-La. Vi rökte den bästa shishan någonsin. Den var grym och hotellområdet likaså. Riktigt riktigt riktigt läckert.
Därefter var det dags att möta upp våra piratvänner. Jag och Rikard blev inbjudna till deras hem där vi fick slå oss ned i ett typiskt arabiskt samlingsrum. Avsett för män.
I rummet fanns bara en stor matta samt massa kuddar längs väggarna. Vi blev serverade massa färsk frukt och arabiskt kaffe - och under tiden fick jag ladda mitt urladdade batteri till mobilen. :)
Maroon var riktigt stilig i sin dishdash - något som vi tidigare inte sett honom i. När tiden var inne för oss alla att åka till strandpartyt i närheten sprang han snabbt iväg och kom åter i en helt annan mundering... Före/efter-bild kommer nedan.
Efter någon timme på strandpartyt åkte vi till en nattklubb i Muscat där vi träffade på massa vänner. Efter en hel del skålande och skrålande stagnerade partystämningen och sängen kallade.
Idag har vi ett födelsedagsbarn! Rikard fyller 28 år och trots grattis-shottarna vid tolvslaget igår skall firandet fortsätta. ;)
Ma'a salama!
Jag och Maroon före...
Maroon efter...
Shangri-La, Al Bandar
Födelsedagsbarnet
Zlatan, Mira, Jack Sparrow and me
Sexy times
Sexy times 2
A road trip back in time
Like I mentioned earlier we are running a little bit behind on the blogging. Here is an attempt to play a little catch up.
2 days ago "Jack Sparrow" took us out on a little roadtrip south of Muscat. The road to our destination was full of dangers such as rockslides, risk of driving off the cliff, and the always present danger; Omani drivers. We drove through little villages with goats and donkeys everywhere. Out there time has stood still for quite some time and as a result the people that live there are very conservative. Its fun to see really. When we got to the destination the last couple of kilometers were all gravel roads, and we are talking low quality gravel roads. They were quite fun to drive on though, I felt like a WRC superstar at times.... Until I got stuck in the sand and a villager had to pull our sorry asses out with his 4 x4, but thats another story.
Our destination was a beautiful beach that seemed to have no end. There we ate some food that we had bought in Muscat at some little cozy local joint. When we got back to Muscat we hung out at our new favorite place, the Oman Diving Center, and had a few beers/laughs with our friends.
Tomorrow is my B day! I hope they wont sacrifice a goat to honor me.
- Rikard
Josefine and the rental in the desert
Donkey business
We handed out ice cream to the kids. Look how at the happy face!! =D
Was it sheep? (read cheap)
Beach and coast line
Hangin out on a boat
We met some really nice Omani people that took us out by boat for a whole day (Same people we partied with tonight). We were snorkeling, sightseeing, harpooning fish and BBQing at night at a very nice and untouched beach. This day went to history as one of the beast days ever in my life. Here's some pictures, enjoy!
masalama RIKARD and josefine
Somethings wrong with my gear!?
Just hangin out
Getting some charcoal in a village by boat
Its safe to say we all felt pretty good at this point
About to leave from the beach... pics did not end up in cronological order =p
Preparing some harpooned fish
salty water makes floating sooo much easier
Schrimp soon to be grilled Omani style
One babe, one fish and one gut with harpoon
Back to basics
Down went the sun and up came the moon
Jack Sparrow with his crew
-Rikard
Royal Halwa
In the latest addition to this blog I told you guys that we were out clubbin. In a social aspect that night was really rewarding allthough it did reward me with a nasty hangover as well. We actually spent some time on the dance floor at intercontinental and there we met a very interesting man.I cant fully figure out how to pronounce his name so I call him YesMan which sounds close enough to the real deal. YesMan impressed us righ from the start by owning the dancefloor in his traditional Omani attire. We ended the night at 4am by cruising the finer parts of Muscat in his brand new Nissan Armada. (He told us later though that he had been a little dissapointed because his chauffeur had been 3 minutes late to pick us up).
It turns out that YesMan works for Sultan Qaabos who is the current king of Oman and wants to bring us some traditional Omani chow come the next day. We concluded amongst ourselves that it had been a great night and YesMan had been contributing to that but we were all sure that he would not follow up on his "drunken promises". But like so many times before we were wrong again. YesMan came over and brought traditional Omani Halawa, coffey and some other goodies. Naturally he had orderd all this stuff 10 in the morning from the best place in Oman and threathend to close them down if they didnt deliver as expected, we hope he was joking.
YesMan have 600 pigeons and he is actually racing some of them. Speaking of racing, YesMan also had some exciting cars in his garage including a Corvette and a mean Mustang which he showed Josefines dad (Sven Erik) earlier during the day, Sven Erik also got to meet his brothers.
Mira had also met some guy earlier at Continental so we met up with them at a very nice beach which we are infact heading to today. The beach in itself and the scenery around it is awesome but they also have a arabian style bar were you can sit in the shade on pillows and smoke Shisha while listening to a nice assortment of party tunes,
I feel I have to round this up now, the beach is calling!
-Rikard
YesMan and his royal Halawa
Hangin out on the beach late at night
The ladies got lucky with the daving centre water sport crew ;)
Yet another blurry image 
The arabic bar at the diving center (Closing time)
Party party party!
Herregud, vilken kväll! Det känns som att det finns en hel del att berätta, men vi är nyvakna (kl är 13:30...) och litet smått bakis och skakis.
Det får bli ett inlägg i bilder.
Men vi måste bara skriva att The Chedi är helt sanslöst jävla häftigt och lyxigt!!! Vi har ej skådat något liknande tidigare.
Tyvärr var det ganska mörkt så vår kamera kunde inte prestera den glans som The Chedi verkligen genomsyrar.
Ojoj, nu är det fredag vilket innebär Omans "söndag", vilket i sin tur innebär böneutrop nonstop. But we like it. ;)
What a nice evening! It feels as if there are many stories to be told, but we just woke up and feel a tad shitty..
so were just gonna post a few pictures from last night.
Gonna say one thing though, if you are ever in Oman, check the Chedi out!
Ma'a salama
-Jos och Rikard 
Party!
Det återstår bara en skattjakt efter lite alkohol att förfesta på... Vilket inte är det allra lättaste alla gånger här.
Nåväl, vi skall testa på The Chedi ikväll. The Chedi är ett riktigt tjusigt hotell i Muscat som ligger ganska så högt på världsrankingen över hotell.
Vi planerar också att ta oss till Left Bank en sväng... Och vem vet, det kanske blir så att Rikard svänger sina lurviga på Hyatt eller InterContinental också.
Tonight we gonna hit the bars. We are rested, feeling good, and we even gotten slightly tanned.
Now all we have to do is treasure hunting for some booze for our pre party, easier said than done here in Oman.
We are going to the Chedi this evening. The chedi is one of those glamourous hotels and even holds a high ranking internationally amongst hotells.
Then after that we are planning to go a place called Left Bank....And after that, if we are lucky, Rikard will show us his best Dance moves at the Hyatt and Intercontinental hotels as well.
Samtliga bilder är lånade från:
http://emea.hotels.com/hotels-oman/hotels-muscat/the-chedi-muscat/#photos
Nu skall jag banne mig gå ut och lägga mig på taket. Skall kämpa riktigt hårt och försöka ligga i åtminstone 20 minuter. Därefter börjar nog mina livsviktiga organ gå på sparlåga.
Kram till alla våra nära och kära!
The time has come to go lay out on the roof. Im giving it my best and Im aiming for 20 minutes in the sun.. After that I would probably have to worry about my health a little bit.
Hugs and kisses to all my beloved friends and family
-Jos
Al Wasadi
I was really gonna blog about yesterdays activitities last night but they really got the best of me so I'll be breakfast blogging instead.
So yesterday we got a trip tip from Josefines dad about a resort 70km north of Muscat that he said was nice. We decided to take his advice and headed north. Upon arrival and as we left the highway we made our way through villages that must have looked the same for millenia. The common denominator for these villages was goat. Under every tree there were goats, around every trash bin there were goats, there were goats everywhere, even ontop of cars there were goats. 
So about 1511 goats later we arrived at our destination. We headed straight for the activity center and booked camel rides for two. Thing is they only had one camel so I ended up on a horse. In hindsight im perfectly happy with that after seeing Josefine trying to cling on for dear life on that wobbley tall legged camel. My horse was lazy. On the way down the beach and away from the stables it would move very slowly and insist that we would stay in the water, preferably as deep as possible. It was really hot and I didnt have the heart to give the poor horsie a hard time to make it go faster so I focused on just filming Josefine on that camel, that video will be sold separately. ;)
After the four legged beach adventures we headed for the water and took a loong well needed swim. After that we pretty much layed out all day. We rounded up the day with some good eatin' straight from the local waters, a walk on the beach and a "sunset" swim in the Ocean. 
We are planning to come back to this place for the snorkling trips that are available there. They take you out on a boat and drop you off on an island off the coastline leaving you there for a couple of hours, sounds great we think.
-Rikard
Achmed, "the ship of the desert" and fruit cake
We thought it was a brilliant idea to take a picture on the lot
Stylish photo of Josefine
Hangin out in the shade
Finally!
En lång och ståtlig donna - med slanka ben, stora ögon och gudomliga ögonfransar...
Vi klickade direkt, det var inget snack om saken.
Today it finally happened. Love at first sight.
A tall and gracefull lady - tall slender legs, big eyes and heavenly eyelashes...
We clicked from the getgo, there was no doubt about it.
Rikard får passa sig nu...
Idag fick jag alltså äntligen träffa och lukta på en kamel. Som jag har längtat!
Jag var även kavat nog att ge mig ut på en liten, men väldigt hög, kameltur längs stranden.
Det var riktigt häftigt men ack så vingligt då min kära donna skulle resa sig upp.
Araberna satsade pengar på vilken sida av kamelen jag skulle ramla av på. Tji fick dom!
So today I finally got the chance to meet a camel!
I didnt settle with that, I was adventureous enough to take it out for a spin. It was an really awesome experience but once we got going but getting up from the ground was a scary ordeal.
The Arabs started betting money as to which side of the camel I would fall off but I proved em all wrong!
Efter vår romantiska strandritt
Nu lämnar jag denna fruktkaka!
Summa summarum: jag/vi har haft en riktigt grym dag idag. Kameler och dromedarer
är lätt bland dom häftigaste och finaste djur som finns. :)
Om några år skall jag vara stolt ägare till några stycken!
To sum it up. We have had a real blast today. Camels are easily one of the coolest animals on planet earth. Give me a couple of years and Ill be the proud owner of a handfull of camels.
Ma'a salama
-Jos
Transformers in Muscat
When we got our tickets we were very satisfied with the low cost of a movie ticket here, about half off compared to back home. I had a theory that they were gonna try to steal our money back on the mandatory pop corn and coke but I was wrong. Another thing that we were quite happy about was the fact that the person working the ticket booth freed up seats for us even though he had turned people away before us. Hmmm, makes us wonder if they keep seats for us crackers down here to keep us happy.. !?
One thing about our movie experience was completely off though. They had all of us waiting outside the theatre until the movie was just about the start. So when we managed to finally take our seats the movie had already started and I barely saw the beginning of the the damn thing. People were still pouring into the theatre for about 5 minutes into the movie.... What were they thinking when they made us wait outside instead of letting people take their seats?
Apart from that we had a great time and we will probably visit the movies several more times during this trip.. And every time we do so we gonna help the janitor out buy tossing our own junk.. I feel sorry for that guy, but thats another story and it will be told another time, so stay tuned.
Tommorrow we going to ride us some camels! :)
Link to source
Josefine after the movie outside the cinema.
Jag vill ha en...delfin.
Det har varit helt fantastiskt! Måste dock erkänna att jag var litet smått skraj då den unga omaniern gasade på lite extra. Det guppade rejält stundtals, men jag lyckades klamra mig fast!
Vi hade tur idag, det var bara jag, Rikard och Mira + en till person som var inbokade på denna tripp.
Väl ute på okänt vatten började vi ge upp hoppet om att få skåda dessa fantastiskt söta djur. Men vår "kapten" gav sig inte, efter några samtal (modernt, hehe) var vi på väg en liten bit närmare land... Och titta! En, två, tre, 20, 50, 100 delfiner!
Dom var överallt; framför oss, bakom oss, till höger och vänster. Hoppandes och spexandes. Det var riktigt underbart att se!
Trippen avslutades med att vi åkte till ett korallrev där vi fick snorkla i turkost glasklart vatten, det var så vackert! Men jag är glad att man inte alltid snorklar då man badar... Det finns en hel del originella djur där under ytan. :)
I dont think there is a better place to be when its a sizzling 40C outside than out on the ocean.We went on a fantastic dolphin watching trip today. I did startle me a bit when the Omani skipper tackled the waves out there, forcing us to cling on for our dear lives.
We got lucky today, It was just me, Rikard, Mira and some other person on the boat for this trip. The clock went on ticking and we had yet to see any dolphins and I think we had all given up hope. But our skipper didnt give up, after a few phone calls we finaly found the spot. First we saw one, then two, three, 20, 50, 100 dolhpins! They were everywhere, jumping and toying around. It was a wonderful sight!!
After watching the dolphins for a good while our skipper took us to a nice cove were we got to snorkle in the crystal clear water. It was great and we saw lots of different kinds of fish in various sizes and colours.
Förväntansfull pojkvän
Mira
Lugnet före stormen
Och titta! Ett stim av lekfulla delfiner!
Flipper?
Minst sagt svåra att fånga på kamera. Filmandet gav desto bättre resultat!
Efter mitt "premiär-snorklande". Det gör jag gärna om!
På väg ned för att hämta en sjöborre eller två?
HIPP HIPP HURRA! GRATTIS VÄRLDENS BÄSTA MAMMA!
Om 2 timmar och 10 minuter fyller min mamma år, världens bästa mamma! :)
Vi saknar dig här nere men snart är du på plats!
Ha en underbar dag. :)
Kramar i massor från din dotter, din man och din svärson 
Födelsedagsbarnet! 
Dotter, mamma, dotter
Solbrända och glada
Idag har det varit rejäla och roliga vågor hela dagen. En bra förberedelse inför morgondagens båtfärd då vi skall
kolla på söta små delfiner... Upp i ottan. Hur skall det gå?
Håll en tumme för att båten tar oss hem helskinnade. Tack på förhand. ;)
Skärrade inför morgondagen...
Sun and water! Well as a matter of fact we have basically been in the water all day roasting in the sun. We are in bad need of some aftersun lotion.
The waves out there has been fairly large all day... It has made us ponder upon our little boat trip we are gonna take tommorrow. Hopefully the Dolphins will be worth impending seasickness.
/J&R
