Dear buddies At then end of each trip I like to give you an overview of the practicalities of travelling to the country I've just...

Ali's first words to us when he picked us up at 8am this morning were ‘ok, let’s go buy a goat’. Photos of the Sultan are everywhere in...

It was a very pretty dawn from our balcony at Alila this morning. Time to pack up to leave. I had a grown-up looking Omani breakfast...

Junipers grow in Oman, but only up here on Jabal Akhdar. This one must be very old. Hardy and evergreen but extremely slow growing, they...

We slept very well in our desert tent, dreaming of Lawrence of Arabia or breakfast, and were up early to take a few photographs before...

For more formal occasions Omanis put the turban on over the cap because it gives a regular shape. Our model was on the desk of the Al...

Saturday Here we are in Oman. What a change in climate! It's the same temperature as Iran, but we've gone from zip humidity in the...

The excitement today on the way to Kashan was to be seeing a nuclear plant. Habib has been saying for days that we are going to see one,...

Today was a two palace day! First the Chehel Sotoun Palace. Shah Abbas II was the seventh Safavid Shah of Iran, ruling from 1642 to 1666....

Must tell you a funny Persian saying that our guide Ali told us yesterday: 'Cash vinegar is better than credit halva.' True in any...

We were up on the roof at dawn this morning just before the sun rose to see cloud for the time time since we've been in Iran. From this...

Here at the Garden Hotel the staff spray the walkways with water several times a day and there is the constant cooling sound of swiftly...

The road between Shiraz and Yazd weaves through valleys on the high plateau of the Zagros Mountains. The trip took us nearly 11 hours...

Today is Friday, the day of prayer like our Sunday. The weekend is Friday and Saturday, with Sunday being a normal working day. We...

We were to be at the bus this morning at 5am with our tripods so that we could be at Persepolis, an hour away, at dawn. We were excited...