My winter boating holiday in...Iran

At the end of 2012 I went to Oman to pull a cart full of instant noodles through the largest sand desert in the world. That trip was very silly (and tremendous fun!), and one of the main things I took away from it was how much I enjoyed the region. Oman and the UAE were fantastic places, I discovered, full of great people. The Omanis and Emiratis looked after us well, when we saw them, but it was expat oil workers from other parts of the Middle East and Indian subcontinent that we encountered most frequently. Pakistanis brought us curry from their truck, Syrians gave us cake and Saudis offered to kill a camel and throw a celebratory party for us. Yemenis stopped to have a quick chat and wish us well, and Bahrainis gave gifts of more Pepsi than we could carry. It was my first visit to the Arabian peninsula and, aside from a brief holiday to Cairo one time, it was my first journey to the Middle East proper.

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