I’m outside the fish market of Bandar Abbas, a major city in south Iran. Here, Persian women in chadors rub elbows with Bandari women wearing gold-embroidered, form-fitting pant legs beneath translucent, highly coloured chador-like veils and bird-like face masks, make-up clad girls in little more than the obligatory manteau, Pakistanis and Afghans in shalwar khameezs, and arab men in the hallmark ringed two-toned head pieces. Then, as I advance through the market, in a corner, I see a big aquarium with some thin long fishes inside, making curbs, turning around slowly, looking more like some sort of big eels, but with two pointed teeth coming out of the lips, and so, my friend Arash says that “this is the Arabian carpetshark, they do not eat it here, it is a fish to be used as a pet animal, as a omen, to stay inside a tank at home, and it's said that, it is better to let the window open during the night, coz, it may want to fly out and… and if it happens, the promise will be fulfilled…'' and as he says these things I smile. And so, here we go now, leaving the port area, we cross the boulevard and walk to the place where he left his jeep, in front of some shops selling many kinds of beans, glassy stones, dark rice and all sorts of spices. Then, as we get in the car, he begins to speak about a certain Bahá, “have you heard about it?” he asks, “Baba?”; “no! Baháʼí!!”; “isn’t that the arab word for sea?”; “no, that is Bahr, I’m speaking about the Baháʼí faith!”; “what is that?”; “the Baháʼí faith is actually the second biggest religion of Iran, and it teaches the essential worth of all religions and the “unity of all people'', “oh! is it?!”; “...estimated to have some million adherents spread throughout most of the world's countries and territories… Baháʼí has three central figures: the Báb, considered a herald who taught his followers that God would soon send a prophet who would be similar to Jesus or Muhammad and who was executed by the Iranian authorities in the middle of the nineteenth century. Baháʼu'lláh, claimed to be that prophet and faced exile and imprisonment for most of his life; and his son, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, was released from confinement in the beginning of our century and made teaching trips to Europe and the United States. And so, after ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's death the leadership of the religion fell to his grandson Shoghi Effendi. Baháʼís annually elect local, regional, and national Spiritual Assemblies that govern the religion's affairs, and every five years an election is held for the Universal House of Justice, the nine-member supreme governing institution of the worldwide Baháʼí community that is located in Haifa, Israel, near the Shrine of the Báb… and so, according to Baháʼí teachings, religion is revealed in an orderly and progressive way by a single God through Manifestations of God, who are the founders of major world religions throughout human history; Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad are noted as the most recent of these before the Báb and Baháʼu'lláh. Plus, Baháʼís regard the world's major religions as fundamentally unified in purpose, but diverging in terms of social practices and interpretations… The Baháʼí Faith stresses the unity of all people as its core teaching and explicitly rejects notions of racism, sexism, and nationalism… and at the heart of Baháʼí teachings is the goal of a unified world order that ensures the prosperity of all nations, races, creeds, and classes… "But, what does the word Bahá mean afterall?" I ask and 2 he says "Baháʼí is derived from the Arabic Baháʼ, a name Baháʼu'lláh chose for himself, referring to the 'glory' or 'splendor' of God. In English, the word is commonly pronounced bə-HYE, but the more accurate rendering of the Arabic is bə-HAH-ee… so, the teachings of Baháʼu'lláh form the foundation of Baháʼí beliefs. Three principles are central to these teachings: the unity of God, the unity of religion, and the unity of humanity. Baha'is believe that God periodically reveals his will through divine messengers, whose purpose is to transform the character of humankind and to develop, within those who respond, moral and spiritual qualities... Religion is thus seen as orderly, unified, and progressive from age to age… The Baháʼí conception of God is monotheistic. God is viewed as the sovereign being who is the source of all existence, described as "a personal God, unknowable, inaccessible, the source of all Revelation, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent and almighty"... though transcendent and inaccessible directly, his image is reflected in his creation, which has the purpose to know and love its creator… According to Baháʼí teachings, God communicates his will and purpose for humanity through intermediaries known as Manifestations of God, who are the prophets and messengers who have founded religions throughout human history... accepting these Manifestations allows individuals to draw nearer to God and attain spiritual progress… Baháʼís do not believe God has any human or physical form; Baháʼís do not believe God is masculine or feminine… various names are used to refer to God in the writings, the one deemed greatest being "All-Glorious" or Bahá in Arabic”; “all right, what about in Persian language, does it have the same meaning?”; “Of course, Siyyid 'Alí-Muhammad, the divine messenger of the Baháʼí faith, he was from Shiraz, do you know where that is?”; “yes, I have been there…”; “doing what?”; “same as here, traveling around, getting lost…”; “Ok, but do you have a religion, are you Cristian, Muslim, or something else?”; “no, I have no religion… I’m some kind of prophet, not the religion…”; “hum, well said… so if you are a prophet, you will be the leader of a new religion…”; “No! There will be no new religion… your religion… this Baharism thing is already a union of all religions, it’s enough…”; “Ok, enough about religions for today… see, now we are getting close to Bandar Khamir, another city by the persian sea, here we have the Hara wetland, that is one of the largest wetland in the Middle East, situated between the Bandar Khamir city and the Qeshm island…”; “I like swamp areas yes I have lived in some…”; “Oh yes, like where, for example?”; “for example the Pantanal area in south Brazil; the Mississippi river Basin in New Orleans; or the Nile Basin, close to Alexandria in north Egypt, this, to say just some…”; “hum, very interesting, you are a well traveled man…”; “Oh yes!”. And so, in a while we arrive at Bandar Khamir, another port city, and now already at some dusty coffee house drinking a Sour Cherry Tea and an Iranian Saffron Sharbat, “it raises libido, and fights oxidative stress,” my mate Arash tells me, and then we ask about the Haraye Khamir Protected Area, and the guys on the coffee house tell us that “there is no way to get there from here, you have to go all around, in the mainroad…” Ok, but we ignore what they have just said and some minutes later there we go, already advancing through the city suburbs looking for ways to get inside the swamp area and so, as expected, we buried ourselves in the mud and luckily there were some tree branches nearby that we manage to hold on and then, we have no other choice than climbing one of this trees and stay there, waiting for help. I don’t know how much time we waited, with a lot of abstract talking in the betweens and, finally, a boatman showed up at some distance, we screamed, he approached and helped us to get onboard. Said and done, the boatman's name is Ali, and he’s wearing some funny big hat, almost covering his face, like the Mexican sombrero. And so, after Arash’s translation, I get to know that he is actually asking what were we doing there, up in that tree, “talking about God” was the answer. And then, we want to know what he was fishing afteralls. “I’m not fishing,” is the answer, “I’m looking for starfishes, I collect them and sell them and other things in the market in Bandar-e Khamīr”. And then we are being taken to his house, situated between the swamp area and the Hara forest. “Beware the caspian snakes, they are mainly white with black stripes, and generally they hide in the dry mounds of mud”, he says as we disembark close to his proprietary, a cottage house elevated over the muddy surface, elevated with sticks and with a veranda all around. At his house we got to know his wife and sons. His wife's name is Eshter, and she is not covered with any kind of hijab, she even received me with a smile. His son’s names are Abtin and and Aahid, last one with the meaning of “the promised one”. Night went on, I slept a bit but left the house early, took a rowing boat by myself and came back to the road, saw the sign saying Bandar-e-Khamir, and followed 3 in the opposite direction. After a while I was taken by an old fashion made-in-India motorcycle, and so, we passed Sayeh Khosh, Bandar Hameyran and then we arrived close to Bandar Moallem, something like that, and so, at some dirty teahouse, with men in turban and ferrari posters on the window, I managed to get another ride, this time in a car, or better, a pickup. And yes, there we go again, coming back to the road, me in the middle seat, squeezed between the driver and the co-pilot. Along the way they try to communicate with me but they don't speak any English, or French, or Spanish or Turkish, they also don't understand my arab intonation, and I don't speak any farsi, so we get into some kind of madhouse conversation, making signs etc, but with a lot of misunderstandings. So, just to feed it, I try to understand what they are actually transporting in this pickup, and as a way of answering they make some weird sounds with their mouth, like animal sounds, but as I look back and see no animals there, what I see is some kind of cardboard boxes covered by a tarpaulin. It could be some dead chicken, but now, I no longer want to know. So, the windows are fully open, and they smoke all the way, listening to some nice Arabic and Persian music, I really don't see the difference, and so, at some point, I want to know the name of the artists I’m listening, and they manage to say names like Mohammad-Reza Shajarian; Homayoun Shajarian; Sohrab Pournazeri; Shahram Nazeri and a certain Azar Mohebbi Tehrani also know as Ramesh, and so, instantly, I get fan of this one, the instrumental sounds like persian bossa nova to me etc. Further, about one thousand kilometers and I don't know how much teas and goat cheese salads after, we finally arrive at the northern triangle of the persian sea, we pass the Shadegan Nature Reserve and then the so-called Iranian bay, where I get in a sailing boat that take me the Buniyan island, the largest island of Kuwait, and so, I cross some big Wadis, all dry, and I get to the Mubarak Al Kabeer Port, a port being reconstructed by Chinese workforce. And here, on the port, I got to know that this island is mentioned in the science fiction work “The Shape of Things to Come” by H. G. Wells. Then, I manage to get onto some Chinese cargo boat that takes me to the shores of the famous Kuwait city, and so, as I get out of the port, I can see a very modern and artificial city, spacious, so hot and cold at the same time. Then, I can spot many foreigners walking around, at first I think they are tourists, but then I understand that they are working here, some white europeans, Indians, Egyptians, some filipinos, etc, and half of the women population are not using the famous hijab, just to say. Further, I get to see the Al HamraTower, the tallest curved concrete skyscraper in the world, they say, and close to this landmark, I get in a conversation with some British guy that lives here, he tells me that he is a business development manager, something like that, and when I ask more details he tells me something about soft-engineering, pastries and some details about different species of quicklime, like the slaked Lime or the hydraulic Lime, imported from the United Arab Emirates. Then, I get in a bus that takes me to the southern area of the country, more precisely to the Burgan field, this is, the world's second-largest oil field, after Ghawar, in Saudi-Arabia. And so, as I get close to this desert area, I can already see the burning towers down there, over the horizon. And here now, where starts the tangle of pipes, I’m getting close to some storage warehouses, and on the side of it, there is also some kind of coffee house, more precisely, a big container refrigerated with cold water vapor, and so, as I get inside I see man in overalls wandering through in silence, and on their back, on the walls, big posters of european footballs players and also, some indian cricket players accompanied by Pamela Anderson, in the middle of all them. Then, I get in a conversation with some bangladeshi man drinking coca-cola, and he presents me to some of the drillers, one from India, other from Nepal, and other from Pakistan, all of them drinking tea, hot teas like Masala, the Oolong Chai and the Elaichi, I get to know. Then I follow the pipes and end up on the King Fahd Causeway, a bridge that unites the eastern seacoast of Saudi Arabia with Bahrain, the third-smallest nation in Asia after the Maldives and Singapore. And so, as I go through this bridge, I get to know some things about the history of this island-country, I get to know that Bahrain was home to the Dilmun, an important Bronze Age trade center linking Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley. And as it goes, my driver, driving an american car, also tells me that “this country was ruled by the Assyrians and Babylonians and that from the sixth to third century before Christ, Bahrain was part of the Achaemenid Empire, also known as the First Persian Empire, said to be the largest empire the world had ever seen at its time, spanning from the Balkans and Egypt in the west to Central Asia and the Indus Valley in the east… Then, some centuries after, the Parthians established garrisons along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf 4 to control trade routes, and so, during this time, Bahrain was referred to by the ancient Greeks as Tylos, the center of pearl trading, when the Greek admiral Nearchus serving under Alexander the Great landed on Bahrain. Nearchus is believed to have been the first of Alexander's commanders to visit the island, and he found a very verdant land that was a hub for the cotton trading network… then, later, Bahrain became very much part of the Hellenised world, the language of the upper classes was Greek, although Aramaic is still in everyday use… Local coinage showed a portrait of Zeus, who may have been worshiped there as a syncretised form of the Arabian sun-god Shams. Plus some Greek historians believed that the Phoenicians originated from Bahrain. In the 3rd century, Ardashir I, the first ruler of the Sassanid dynasty, marched on Oman and Bahrain, where he defeated Sanatruq, the ruler of Bahrain and for many centuries after, Tylos, or Bahrain, was known as Awal. Then, by the 5th century, Bahrain became a center for the Nestorian Christians, often persecuted as heretics by the Byzantine Empire, but as Bahrain was outside the Empire's control, it could offer some safety for this minority. And so, the so-called Baharna may be the Arabised descendants of converts from the original population of Christians (Aramaeans), Jews and Persians inhabiting the island and cultivating the coastal provinces of Eastern Arabia at the time of the Muslim conquest….” And talking about Muslim conquest, we are now leaving King Fahd Causeway and entering the Bahrain mainland. The first neighborhood is Jasra, then Janabiyah, where we can see a bunch of camels invading an amusement park with plastic camels, so real and fake, side by side, smelling each other. Then we pass Budaya, we pass Diraz, we pass Barbar, we pass Jannusan, we pass Daih, Sanabis and we arrive at Manama, the country's capital, at the northeast side of the island. And so, as I go through Manama city I see some similarities with the Kuwait City I have been before. Therefore, as it goes, some sort of prince takes me to visit the city’s landmarks, the Al Fateh Grand Mosque, the Bab al Bahrain, and the Harbour Towers, two twin towers located in the northern financial district. Then we cross the Muharraq Causeway and we get to the Muharraq island, the second largest island in the archipelago after the Bahrain main Island, from where we are coming from. And so, as I pass by, I get to know that the island's main trade is dominated by the pearl industries. And then, as he get to the southern part of the island, we arrive at the Dry Dock Beach, or, the shati alhawd aljafi. And as I wander through this beach, I get in touch with some old fisherman that tells me about the story of Gilgamesh, king of Uruk. “Gilgamesh, two-thirds god and one-third man, was oppressing his people, who cried out to the gods for help. For the young women of Uruk this oppression took the form of a droit du seigneur, this is, the right of Gilgamesh to sleep with brides on their wedding night. And for the young men, it was conjectured that Gilgamesh would exhaust them through games, tests of strength, and forced labor on building projects. The gods respond to the people's pleas by creating an equal to Gilgamesh who will be able to stop his oppression. This is the primitive man, Enkidu, who is covered in hair and lives in the wild with the animals. He is spotted by a trapper, whose livelihood is being ruined because Enkidu is uprooting his traps. The trapper tells the sun-god Shamash about the man, and it is arranged for Enkidu to be seduced by Shamhat, a temple prostitute, his first step towards being tamed. And so, after six days and seven nights of lovemaking and teaching Enkidu about the ways of civilization, she takes Enkidu to a shepherd's camp to learn how to be civilized. Gilgamesh, meanwhile, has been having dreams about the imminent arrival of a beloved new companion and asks his mother, Ninsun, to help interpret these dreams… Shamhat brings Enkidu to the shepherds' camp, where he is introduced to a human diet and becomes the night watchman… Learning from a passing stranger about Gilgamesh's treatment of new brides, Enkidu is incensed and travels to Uruk to intervene at a wedding… And then, when Gilgamesh attempts to visit the wedding chamber, Enkidu blocks his way, and they fight. After a fierce battle, Enkidu acknowledges Gilgamesh's superior strength and they become friends. Gilgamesh proposes a journey to the Cedar Forest to slay the monstrous demi-god Humbaba in order to gain fame and renown. Despite warnings from Enkidu and the council of elders, Gilgamesh is not deterred… Then, the elders give Gilgamesh advice for his journey. Gilgamesh visits his mother, the goddess Ninsun, who seeks the support and protection of the sun-god Shamash for their adventure. Ninsun adopts Enkidu as her son, and Gilgamesh leaves instructions for the governance of Uruk in his absence… Then, along their journey, Gilgamesh and Enkidu every few days they camp on a mountain, and perform a dream ritual… In the meanwhile, Gilgamesh has five terrifying dreams about falling mountains, thunderstorms, 5 wild bulls, and a thunderbird that breathes fire. Despite similarities between his dream figures and earlier descriptions of Humbaba, Enkidu interprets these dreams as good omens, and denies that the frightening images represent the forest guardian. And so, as they approach the cedar mountain, they hear Humbaba bellowing, and have to encourage each other not to be afraid… Then, the heroes enter the cedar forest. Humbaba, the guardian of the Cedar Forest, insults and threatens them. He accuses Enkidu of betrayal, and vows to disembowel Gilgamesh and feed his flesh to the birds. Gilgamesh is afraid, but with some encouraging words from Enkidu the battle commences. The mountains quake with the tumult and the sky turns black... The god Shamash sends thirteen winds to bind Humbaba, and he is captured... Humbaba pleads for his life, and Gilgamesh pities him. He offers to make Gilgamesh king of the forest, to cut the trees for him, and to be his slave. Enkidu, however, argues that Gilgamesh should kill Humbaba to establish his reputation forever and Humbaba curses them both and Gilgamesh dispatches him with a blow to the neck, as well as killing his seven sons… So, the two heroes cut down many cedars, including a gigantic tree that Enkidu plans to fashion into a gate for the temple of Enlil. Then they build a raft and return home along the Euphrates with the giant tree and the head of Humbaba. Gilgamesh rejects the advances of the goddess Ishtar because of her mistreatment of previous lovers like Dumuzi… And so, Ishtar asks her father Anu to send the Bull of Heaven to avenge her... And when Anu rejects her complaints, Ishtar threatens to raise the dead who will "outnumber the living" and "devour them". Anu states that if he gives her the Bull of Heaven, Uruk will face seven years of famine… And so, Ishtar provides him with provisions for and years in exchange for the bull… Then, Ishtar leads the Bull of Heaven to Uruk, and it causes widespread devastation. It lowers the level of the Euphrates river, and dries up the marshes. It opens up huge pits that swallow three hundred men... Then, without any divine assistance, Enkidu and Gilgamesh attack and slay it, and offer up its heart to Shamash. When Ishtar cries out, Enkidu hurls one of the hindquarters of the bull at her… Then, the city of Uruk celebrates, but Enkidu has an ominous dream about his future failure. In Enkidu's dream, the gods decide that one of the heroes must die because they killed Humbaba and Gugalanna… And so, despite the protests of Shamash, Enkidu is marked for death. Enkidu curses the great door he has fashioned for Enlil's temple and also curses the trapper and Shamhat for removing him from the wild... Then Shamash reminds Enkidu of how Shamhat fed and clothed him, and introduced him to Gilgamesh... Sooo, shamash tells him that Gilgamesh will bestow great honors upon him at his funeral, and will wander into the wild consumed with grief... But, Enkidu regrets his curses and blesses Shamhat instead... In a second dream, however, he sees himself being taken captive to the Netherworld by a terrifying Angel of Death. The underworld is a "house of dust" and darkness whose inhabitants eat clay, and are clothed in bird feathers, supervised by terrifying beings... For twelve days, Enkidu's condition worsens. Finally, after a lament that he could not meet a heroic death in battle, he dies. In a famous line from the epic, Gilgamesh clings to Enkidu's body and denies that he has died until a maggot drops from the corpse's nose… Gilgamesh delivers a lament for Enkidu, in which he calls upon mountains, forests, fields, rivers, wild animals, and all of Uruk to mourn for his friend. Recalling their adventures together, Gilgamesh tears at his hair and clothes in grief… He commissions a funerary statue, and provides grave gifts from his treasury to ensure that Enkidu has a favorable reception in the realm of the dead. And so, a great banquet is held where the treasures are offered to the gods of the Netherworld. Then, Gilgamesh is roaming through the wild wearing animal skins, grieving Enkidu. Having now become fearful of his own death, he decides to seek Utnapishtim and learn the secret of eternal life… Among the few survivors of the Great Flood, Utnapishtim and his wife are the only humans to have been granted immortality by the gods. Gilgamesh crosses a mountain, and encounters a pride of lions… Before sleeping he prays for protection to the moon god Sin. Then, waking from an encouraging dream, he kills the lions and uses their skins for clothing. And so, after a long and perilous journey, Gilgamesh arrives at the twin peaks of Mount Mashu at the end of the earth. He comes across a tunnel, which no man has ever entered, guarded by two scorpion monsters, who appear to be a married couple. The husband tries to dissuade Gilgamesh from passing, but the wife intervenes, expresses sympathy for Gilgamesh, and allows his passage. So, he passes under the mountains along the Road of the Sun, and in complete darkness he follows the road for twelve "double hours", managing to complete the trip before the Sun catches up with him… And so, said and done, he arrives at the Garden of the gods, a paradise full of jewel-laden trees... Here, Gilgamesh meets alewife Siduri, who assumes that he is a murderer or thief because of his disheveled appearance. Gilgamesh tells her about the purpose of his journey and she attempts to dissuade him from his quest, but sends him to Urshanabi the ferryman, who will help him cross the sea to Utnapishtim. Gilgamesh, out of spontaneous rage, destroys the stone charms that Urshanabi keeps with him. Gilgamesh tells his story, but when he asks for help, Urshanabi informs him that he has just destroyed the objects that can help them cross the Waters of Death, which are deadly to the touch. And then Urshanabi instructs Gilgamesh to cut down one hundred 6 twelve trees and fashion them into punting poles. And so, when they reach the island where Utnapishtim lives, Gilgamesh recounts his story, asking him for his help. Utnapishtim reprimands him, declaring that fighting the common fate of humans is futile and diminishes life's joys… Gilgamesh observes that Utnapishtim seems no different from himself, and asks him how he obtained his immortality. Utnapishtim explains that the gods decided to send a great flood… To save Utnapishtim the god Enki told him to build a boat. He gave him precise dimensions, and it was sealed with pitch and bitumen. His entire family went aboard together with his craftsmen and "all the animals of the field". A violent storm then arose which caused the terrified gods to retreat to the heavens. Ishtar lamented the wholesale destruction of humanity, and the other gods wept beside her. The storm lasted six days and nights, after which "all the human beings turned to clay". Utnapishtim weeps when he sees the destruction. His boat lodges on a mountain, and he releases a dove, a swallow, and a raven. When the raven fails to return, he opens the ark and frees its inhabitants. Utnapishtim offers a sacrifice to the gods, who smell the sweet savor and gather around. Ishtar vows that just as she will never forget the brilliant necklace that hangs around her neck, she will always remember this time. When Enlil arrives, angry that there are survivors, she condemns him for instigating the flood. Enki also castigates him for sending a disproportionate punishment. Enlil blesses Utnapishtim and his wife, and rewards them with eternal life… And as if to demonstrate this point, Utnapishtim challenges Gilgamesh to stay awake for six days and seven nights. Gilgamesh falls asleep, and Utnapishtim instructs his wife to bake a loaf of bread on each of the days he is asleep, so that he cannot deny his failure to keep awake... Then, Gilgamesh, who is seeking to overcome death, cannot even conquer sleep. After instructing Urshanabi, the ferryman, to wash Gilgamesh and clothe him in royal robes, they depart for Uruk… And as they are leaving, Utnapishtim's wife asks her husband to offer a parting gift. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh that at the bottom of the sea there lives a boxthorn-like plant that will make him young again. Gilgamesh, by binding stones to his feet so he can walk on the bottom, manages to obtain the plant, and then proposes to investigate if the plant has the hypothesized rejuvenation ability by testing it on an old man once he returns to Uruk, but the plant is stolen by a serpent, who sheds its skin as it departs. Gilgamesh weeps at the futility of his efforts, because he has now lost all chance of immortality… Shamash makes a crack in the earth, and Enkidu's ghost jumps out of it…” Then, we disembark at the Al Jumail village, Qatar, an abandoned village previously inhabited by the Alkubaisi tribe, the boatman tells me before leaving, and I ask who the Alkubaisi were, but I get no answer, he just disappears into the sea. So, I wander through the ruins of mud houses in the middle of the sand, I get into some of this houses and I go up some broken stairs inside a tower, and at the top of this same tower I find some vestiges of civilization, a packet of cigarettes, with one cigarette left, I smoke it. Later, I follow some electricity towers on the horizon and I get to a motorway. I raise my arm to the first car passing by, a jeep, and it stops. Inside, a man with a keffiyeh on his head, a mustache and a goatee shows me a strange kind of smile. Then, already on the going, he is telling me about the american movie he has recently watched, “man in black”, and then we speak about Qatar's main exports, natural gas, that are chiefly exported to Japan, South Korea, and India, and I wonder if there are pipelines under the sea connecting the arabian peninsula with the japan sea, and my driver confirm it. And so, in the meanwhile we arrive at Doha, the capital of the country, a city not so different from the ones I have previously seen, Kuwait city and Manama. So, I leave it straight away and follow the road south. Some guys in a black van take me to the border with the United Arab Emirates. I follow along the coast of Abu Dhabi, one of the seven Emirates, and then I cross Dubai, Sharjah, Umm Al Quwain and I arrive at Khasab, an exclave of Oman, at the tip of the Musandam Peninsula by the Strait of Hormuz. This city has been dubbed the "Norway of Arabia" because of its extensive fjord-like craggy inlets and desolate mountainscapes, of the Western Hajar Range, to where I advance. And so, I let myself be taken from village to village and finally I’m arriving in Kumzar, on the top of the peninsula, in the middle of a gorge by the sea. And as I arrive they take me straight away to attend a local marriage. So, already there, in the middle of a dusty patio, with gruff dark rocks on our back, man in white dresses dance with a bamboo cane in their hand, simulating that they are fighting with swords, some jumping in the middle, high jumps, and around them, in a semicircle, women with long colorful dresses are holding a kind of Daf over her heads, shaking it while making some squeaky sounds with their mouths. And the man jumping in the middle of the circle, also screaming some words, from time to time, like rude poetry sayings, as if answering to the women's chants, and sometimes one of the women would raise their voice, alone, and say something in a mournful and sweet tone, somehow similar to the folk songs of India, and then I’m being pushing into the middle of them and all gets blur.
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