Explorer Mikael Strandberg

“Just sit back and enjoy your time in Oman!”

“Everything in due time!”

“This is the Arab World, everything just takes a bit extra time!”

Muttrah harbour by night.......

I have heard these phrases quite a few times since I arrived to the conclusion, that the Arab World would be my place to be for the upcoming years. I am an extraordinarily impatient person at times, especially when it comes to trying to get an Expedition on its feet. But, the good thing with getting older, is that you have had time to realize that one needs to learn and just follow the main stream of how things are run, otherwise you will die with a broken heart and a serious stomach ulcer on top of that! Things just take time in this part of the world and there is a reason for this.

When Sultan Qaboos took over Oman after a bloodless coup against his father, Saeed Bin Tamur, 1970, the country had no secondary schools, only two primary schools, they had only 10 km:s of paved road, they had two hospitals run by an American Mission and Oman was involved in a civil war. Today it is one of the most progressive and well-to-do countries in the world. His Majesty Sultan Qaboos have done an amazing job and have also caught up with its richer neighbors and have supplied even remote villages in this desert sultanate with electricity. The capital Muscat, where we live, is a vibrant, modern and for everyday, a fast growing hectic city. Traffic is one of the worst and most dangerous in the world. I am scared every time I venture out in the traffic. The country is growing at such a fast pace, so that the city´s infrastructure is not coping with the demand and far too many drivers are not trained to handle this growing traffic. I have been very close to getting killed several times since coming here for some utterly stupid behavior called tail piping where other drivers are a mere inch from your car no matter the speed. And, on top of that, drivers are aggressive, blaring their horn and every time they pass you they seem extremely stressed and tired. It is what city life in the West is like.

Traffic is still relatively slow in Bahla, but in Muscat, a nightmare....

One just gets a feeling, that things are moving a bit too fast for the local inhabitants. One has to remember it is less than 40 years ago, when very few Omanis for example had shoes nor electricity. Amazing development! For this reason, the deeply ingrained traditions coming from their Bedouin roots are still very strong. And that is one major reason everything in this part of the world is an enormous waiting game and personal contacts and bonding is more important than any other place on earth. One person just doesn´t take a supreme decision, no matter how powerful he is, without asking other members of the group. It is Bedu democracy.

Mountain bedu of Oman.

I have realized since I came here, that patience is more than a virtue. It is way of survival. I guess that is one reason this Expedition is meant to be, patience is very good for the survival of the human race. And that is kind of what we are doing right now, learning patience, waiting for things to happen, because in some ways things are just out of our hands. It is up to others to take a decision. Either good, like a go ahead or not at all, buddy. It is not that we don´t have anything to do. On the contrary. We could work day and night and still only cover 10% of what we have to do. For example, there´s the issue of all the other countries on route, where we need permits, contacts, visas and on top of that we have to find good camels, and they are dead expensive here, some racing camels cost 1 million dollars…..per camel! And precious time just have a habit off running away….soon we have to go through the heavy labor of renewing a visa to this spectacular country…not easy, but possible.

But, in the meantime we have set up an interesting day to day life. We work in front of the computer most of the time in our apartment when not meeting friends, making new faschinating contacts like royals, ambassadors and Bedouins or buying food at all these gigantic supermarkets, but we are trying to find more local and far more interesting shops…we walk a couple of hours a day at high speed, try to find the Arab soul in all this and enjoy the weather. Most of all, we are waiting for things to happen…

Less than 40 years ago Muscat was a tiny little fishing hamlet......today it has moved into the Century of the fast, succesfull, wealthy and modern. However, the fishermen are still there, not far away from our flat in Al Ghubra.

When I turned the computer on this morning I had a dispatch email from Christian Bodegren, who has made it to the Nile! Great start of his Sahara crossing, makes me very happy!

I think it was the Danish philosopher Sören Kirkegaard who said:

“To live, is to dare.”

I don´t disagree with that quote. I am really trying hard to do just that. Right now I am taking a risk bigger than any other I have mastered to do earlier in my life. I have left a relatively secure, safe and pampered life in Stockholm and Sweden to try my luck in a totally different part of the world, were most things are totally opposite to what I have been brought up to believe is the truth, and nothing but the truth. The Arab world and initially Oman. And Oman is actually not the easiest place just now in the Gulf to turn up with a big vision in your head and on paper and hope anybody will buy it. Since doing business in this part of the world is a question of personal relationships, which I like a lot, and it takes time to bond, another thing I like a lot, the world around you could change quickly. It has for Expedition Arabia. When I first came here in January the global economic recession had started to take hold of this part of the world, but people were still positive and vibrant and it felt like I had arrived in a Klondike of possibilities. I felt a sense of pioneering spirit.

Kamil Al-Raisi, one of many good friends in Muscat. Photo taken at The Wahiba Sands. He is worrying as well for his future.

9 months later the recession has hit harder than expected, it seems, since funds for corporate businesses are less, the swine flu is terrifying the authorities, that much that the famous Muscat festival will be suspended this year, the great neighbor in the west, Saudi-Arabia, has hit back at al-houthi rebels who has crossed the common border with Yemen, and some people of authority seems to believe it could spread and that borders will close. There´s a dark cloud over the Omanis that I didn´t see during my former 5 visits. A lot of people just don´t seem to dare at all. Frustrating, yes. But time to train what I am really rotten at, patience.

In all this negative light I arrive with P, who is doing the same journey, she has left a life, to try a new. We have a very small amount of money to live on, after a divorce which has totally cleared me. And life in Muscat is more expensive than London and Sweden! It is almost impossible to stay here for less than 2500 dollars a month as a temporary visitor, because you need a car to get around, I don´t think I have seen a public bus yet, one needs a flat were you can set up and run the Expedition professionally, a living which is proper enough to invite people for business meetings and socialize in expensive venues, Internet connection is a must and on top of that, you have to eat. We have been eating a lot of chicken, potatoes and rice lately…haha, we ain´t suffering, on the contrary. And we work from very early in the morning till late night, most days 12 hours.But we are still very positive and very hopeful to find a solution how to get the Expedition on its feet, but it is still far off…

Where we live.....

However, let me state this, we wouldn´t survive without our very good friends here. Like Robby George, this amazing wizard and joker from Kerala, with his sharp brain, business know-how and common sense and will to always help, no matter what. Kamil Al-Raisi Al-Baluchi, the soccer fan who is also a tour guide and so full of Arab spirit and willpower.  Wael Lawati, who probably one of the smartest guys I have met and extremely helpful in every way and always ready to find a solution or offer a razor sharp analysis of the situation. But the spider in the wheel of help, understanding and love is my great friend Talib Omar. Even though he is extremely busy, since he is a very successful business man, father and husband, he always finds time to encourage me, find solutions, book meetings, find the right people and explain for me the often very difficult etiquettes of Arab business and social behavior. I have met an angel.

By giving you this story of today, I just want to say that to become successful in life, you need good friends. And, almost as important, you need to be at the right place, during the right circumstances at the right time in history to become successful as such. Whatever successful means. So even if you have everything needed as a person to become successful and great visions, if it is during the wrong historical circumstances, nobody will ever hear about it. I hope we are here at the right time in history. People here just need to dare a bit more. And worry less.

One of many meetings. Robby to the right.

What do we do during the days? Well, we write an enormous amount of emails all over the world to gather information, ask for help finding needed contacts, we phone people and converse and sell, we meet people, we train 1-2 hours a day, basically a brisk walk on the beach on the top photo here and we read a lot of local newspapers of the Gulf to get an idea of the region. It is really interesting work in many ways, one impressive story was this editorial about the great leader of Oman, Sultan Qaboos and his yearly royal tour!

And we will continue to do this until we have enough funds and support to go through with this expedition. Somehow, everything taken into account, taking away Kirkegaards thoughts of reason, it seems fated to be. In this part of the world, some locals think it is written in the stars…

The Sultans mosque by night...not far away from our flat.

“I was born in cave”, Bin Hassan told me slowly and calmly when we took a 4 hour break in the middle of the first day, lying in the shade of one of the two four wheel drives that accompanied us, “and I didn’t wear any shoes until I went into the army. And now, today, I have been in Europe, I speak 5 languages, have all modern gadgets and have my own business. It feels like I have taken a gigantic step.”
Bin Hassan was dressed in his white dishdasha, a matching orange-brown turban and looked like a sultan in his grey beard. He was slightly heavy, since he wasn’t moving about by foot as he once did. Like all bedu boys he had to take and look after grazing camels, walking long distances to find something to eat. We were the same age. It made us even more comfortable with each other. Bin Hassan has experienced a lot in his life. He has seen and heard most things.
“The life of the Bedouin has changed a lot”, he said, he like all bedu (Bedu in local tongue) likes talking, it is still a favourite past time, “Today’s young kids are lazy. They don´t want to do anything. They’re spoilt. I would like to do something about that. I want to try to preserve some of the old Bedu culture. Maybe do a long trip by camel.”
“Maybe we should try to pass Rub Al-Khali together?” I said.
“Yes”, Bin Hassan answered thoughtfully, “That will be a very good idea. Let us do it in true bedu style. No shoes, bare feet, just have dried meat, dates, Arabic bread and coffee with us.”
“Unsupported, no cars, no back up” I said.
“Yes” , Bin Hassan said solicitously and told Mussalam in their local tongue, mehri, he who owned Sahara, the camel and he nodded, and Bin Hassan looked at me and said: “We need him to come with us, he knows everything about camels. He lives with them and loves them. We are strong you and me, but not like him. He is very strong.”
Mussalam smiled as always. He was in his mid-fifties, lean and strong. He smoked his pipe, talked about women and marriage and grinned. He was my image of a real bedu. And did he have to show his strength on this practise run?
Yes, because it turned out immediately I sat up on this peculiar animal, which in itself is dramatic, she groaned unhappily and then we sat out cruising through these dramatic sand dunes, me being transported like a child in a zoo, by somebody holding a rope, pulling the animal. It all went well until a group of English tourists turned up and made it all into a circus by trying t get two people on Sahara. A disaster and from that time she was almost impossible to ride for me. She groaned, vomited and looked like she could bite me all the time and even for Mussalam, sitting up on her was like a small rodeo every time. So I set out on foot.

See the slideshow from my visit in Rub Al-Khali here

See the slideshow from my visit to oman here