Thirty Thousand Euros for a Jeep

Day one hundred and seventeen, Turkey. I meet Armela and Dustin at the Tas Gölü campsite, a quiet place in the hills near the Black Sea coast. The German couple are travelling in their Jimny. They have just come out of Iran and were on their way to India.

„For Pakistan and India you need a Carnet de Passage for the car,“ Dustin says.

The Carnet is a passport for a vehicle, and the deposit is set by what the vehicle is worth. For the Jeep it would have been thirty thousand euros. So they turned round. Spain now.

I paid nine hundred and ninety euros for Susi at a dealer's. Her passport can hardly cost a fortune. For once, driving something nobody wants is the winning position.

I listen to their stories. „Go to Nasser in Tabriz. He'll help you with anything you need in Iran,“ Armela says, and gives me the rest of it: bring small gifts; expect to carry absurd amounts of cash because of the inflation; take the Armenian crossing.

It is evening. We drink wine and eat dates. They leave in the morning.