Thanks very much for the enthusiastic comments. It was a fantastic trip.

Did you see any of the earlier episodes?

Where did you go at 18?

I wasn't too daunted to do it at 17 because of the Eurail pass. Without that I think it may have been more difficult.

I lived in Saudi for 2 years and Bahrain for 27 by the way. I also know the Emirates pretty well. My first job assignment in the region was in Abu Dhabi in 1980 where I spent 3 months. In those days there was almost nothing between the World Trade Center in Dubai and the outskirts of Abu Dhabi except wrecked cars. They used to just haul them off the road and leave them. There was a border post and a couple of gas stations and that was it.