My travels, pictures and stories

When going to Qatar, make sure you have a VISA card that works. Otherwise you can’t pay the entry visa, and you can’t get in to the country. My VISA card didn’t work. Until I realized that the regional block was on. Luckily the bank application on the phone was able to unblock it. :-)

I’ve never really been to the middle east before, so it felt really cool to follow the plane over places like Jordan and Iraq.

Jiri, who did the kitesurf instructor training with me in Thailand, picked me up at the airport, and the day after we went out to Zekreet, a spot just opposite the country of Doha, to kite.

We were the second car to get to the spot! Wind at 22 knots and temperature around 16 degrees.

Jiri jumping a bit.

A french guy came a bit later and pulled massive 8-10 meter jumps pretty close to the shore

I didn’t bring any wetsuit, and the water was freezing cold, so while I waited for someone to show up at the beach with an extra wetsuit I took a walk in to the closest village. Some camels standing around in the sandstorm, an abandoned house and some inhabited. Take a look at the tree that is this vital and green regardless of the tough environment.

Just outside the village there was a hill that you could go up to overlook the whole place. I went up there, gazed at the empty desert, and when I walked over to the ledge, what is hidden there below..? A whole camel farm!

This is what the Qatari desert look like in strong winds.

The day was complete by a visit to “spicy or not spicy chicken”. The locals favourite after-kite place. Great food :-)

After a good nights sleep, and being woken up for prayers at 5 O’clock we went to Al Mafja, on the northern tip of the country to kite.

This was an EXCELLENT spot! Lots of flat water, space and clear water with coral sand.

There was an abandoned village just near it. Lots of buildings just left in favour for the owners new places. If you looked hard, you cound find some left stuff as well, as this tape with arabic music.

After a long day of kiteing, we fired up the grill with a copule of other kiters and watched the sunset on the beach. The arabic sausage we got our hands on in the supermarket was one of the best one I have grilled for ages.

The uprunning to this trip was a true classic. I think everyone has been there before - a friend goes to some far away place to work, you promise to pay a visit, and in the end, you get caught up in day to day stuff and one day your friend leaves the place, and you never went. Opportunity missed. Well, not this time, as I had both time on my hands and money in my pocket.
My buddy Lasse has been working for the Swedish armed forces up in Arvidsjaur for more than a year now, so as I had a couple of weeks to spare before taking off on the next journey, the timing was perfect! A long-weekend in the north of Sweden to catch a glimpse of the snow before going back to the heating sun of Southeast Asia.
I thought long and hard whether to take the train up there, which means more than a day of travelling, or to catch the plane. Taking the train is a bit retro-cool and something I would have liked to do, but memories of how horrible the food in the restaurant wagon can be made me go for the second alternative. The price was practically the same anyways.
I got a regular flight up to Stockholm, and there I hopped on a cute little turboprop plane bound for Arvidsjaur via Lycksele. With two flight attendants serving just 15 people, service was at its best, quite funny!
On my way up there, the landscape of the north slowly unveiled itself outside the window. Less and less roads and buildings and in the end just almost pure nature. I remember thinking to myself that Sweden is just so big, and what we have down where I live is really not very representative for the majority of the country.
With roaring reversing engines, I landed in Arvidsjaur at about 4 in the afternoon. It was already dark, however there were plenty of snow and it helped compensating for the lack of light. I took a taxi (the taxi) in to town to Lasses apartment, got the key from the secret hiding place we agreed on and got in. I haven’t been this far north since I was a kid, it was a really special feeling to be up there again!
About an hour or so later Lasse came home from “the office” and we went out for a walk around town, only about 6000 people live there so it’s not much, however it is the centre for a quite big area so many people rely on Arvidsjaur for special services. Consequently it has a quite big hospital, banks, several shops and a couple of bars. Even about 4 pizzerias, which is where we stopped to have our dinner. And no, I didn’t find any pizza with rain deer meat on the menu!
It was really great to get up there and have a face to face chat, as it is not so often it happens now days with that kind of distance. So, a lot of stories and about 2000 calories later, we called it a night.
I started the Friday by going to the tourist office while Lasse went to work. The first time ever I visited one in my own country. They actually had quite a lot of good tips for things to do and see around there. For lunch I went over to the “office” and we had some great salmon in the canteen together with the rest the other military personnel. Men in green everywhere you look, and one or two women here and there. It reminded me of my time doing the military service.
While Lasse were finishing up some stuff at the base, I went down to the city to have a coffee and a snack, interestingly the town has only 6000 people but this population manage to support 5 or so cafés. Maybe they put something special in the coffee, I don’t know.. Anyhow, I was happy to find that Italian coffee made its way up there as well! :-)
In the evening we went out to a bar to have a few beers. It was us, and a group of test drivers from a German car manufacturer. That was it. There’s a lot of people coming to test cars in the extreme climate, so it has become an important business for the city. You can really notice that on all the people in the bars and restaurants, and all the trucks passing by, loaded with brand new cars of the coming years model.
For Saturday, Lasse had talked with a friend that arranges snowmobile trips. This was great!! I was really stoked to ride one, it is not so often that I get the opportunity.
We started out at a lake, riding around a bit, gaining confidence on how the machines worked, Lasse of course being an expert already as he’s working with these things. Then we took off out in the wild. In just 20 minutes we were out, far from the village and civilization. We passed some really nice scenery, trees covered in snow, mountains, big lakes and also a cottage where if you want you can stop and spend the night. Two Germans came along for the ride too, and they were really excited about the whole thing.
In the evening we went to the Lapponia hotel to meet up with the German couple and have a few drinks. Apparently it was the opening night of the new bar, and it seems like that was the place people went. It seemed like the whole town showed up. Norrlands Guld – the “local” beer, had some kind of promo, and it felt funny to have that one in that particular setting. Going home it was a “refreshing” 22 degrees below zero, so it was great to get back inside once home.
The Sunday we went skiing at a nearby ski resort. I can admit I have been to bigger things, but this thing really had its charm. Only a few locals in the slopes, and the ski rental guy was really friendly. The views from the top of the hill were of course amazing, it has a special feeling to it when you can stand there and just gaze in every possible direction and there’s just nature, rolling hills covered with trees and snow, with very little signs of human activity.
After the skiing we prepared a jumbo portion of one of my specialties, risotto ai funghi. It was needed, you burn a lot of energy up there in the cold.
Before taking off on Monday I visited the local museum. Not really much to see there. After a quick lunch at the military base with Lasse I took the (the!) taxi to the airport and the flight back to the south.
The only thing I missed on this trip that I really wanted to do was to go on a dog sled, but man, prices for activities over there were just inflated beyond reason. No competition at all, and of course, everyone wants to try the stuff while they’re there. But… For example, 1700 SEK (190 something Euros) for going fishing on a lake, per person (car picks you up, drive 20 km, drill a hole in the ice, fish, go back…). That is not pricey. It is just insane. And they didn’t seem to understand how unreasonable the prices were too. It would be fun to see these business owners making it in a real functioning competitive market..
Anyhow, I can’t say it enough, I really enjoyed making this trip, and I think it was really worth while. So if you’re in Sweden and if you can, go visit the great north!