Who wants to be a millionaire

Today I became a millionaire for the first time in my life. To be precise, a multi-millionaire, carrying around over 3 million in cash. In the last few days I have splashed over a million on food and drink alone.

'So rich for so little time'

Sadly as extravagant as this is all sounds this is all in Iranian currency; the Rial. To put it into perspective £1 is roughly 40,000 Rial, and to save you the maths 1 million Rial is therefore about £25. So actually, I imagine if any of you come to Iran you too could be a millionaire. And if you have about £25,000 then you can be a billionaire.

Working with numbers this large probably sounds a bit crazy as the smallest denomination is 1000 Rial, and it just means you are constantly abbreviating everything to something like 20 instead of saying 20,000. In what is almost a good idea but actually makes everything more confusing they do actually have an abbreviation; Toman. Basically for Toman a single zero is knocked off the end. So 10,000 Rial is 1,000 Toman and so on. Why they don't just have this as knocking off 3 zeros I do not know, as it means you are still using large numbers and people are abbreviating both Rial and Toman to things like "2" and "15". So someone can say 15 and it could be 15,000 or 150,000. Don't follow? Exactly my point. Everyone is carrying around notes with a stupid amount of zeroes on and half the time seems to be a factor of 10 out.

Anyway, rant over. As for where I made my first million, that was here in Tehran, the capital of Iran, a place I never really thought I would ever come to if I'm honest. Two days ago we finally escaped Iranian customs at the border with Armenia and drove the 5 hours or so to Tabriz. To get our VISA for Iran one of the requirements is that we are part of a guided tour for the duration of our stay here; probably mainly to stop us wandering off anywhere we shouldn't more than anything. The tour company we are using is Irun2Iran and it was all booked before we arrived. The other requirement of the tour is that we stay in hotels which isn't very within the 'Spirit of the Rally' but was something were all quite looking forward to.

Our first guide Ali led us to our hotel in Tabriz fairly hassle free and we then went to a restaurant for an Iranian Kebab and were treated to some traditional Iranian dancing. The next day we got up early as we had a long drive to Tehran ahead of us. With temperatures getting up to 40 degrees ,and our cars being very effective greenhouses. I'm not sure I've ever been more glad for a shower than when we arrived. A quick walk out for some food later and we were in bed.

The next day was a rare day off which we had all been looking forward to for various reasons. The Rub a Dub Dub boys were looking forward to finally stopping and getting their exhaust re attached, as well as getting a sump guard fitted and a new rear suspension setup to increase their ride height. They could have prioritised the latter two of these before the rally but instead spent their time more wisely putting a bath tub on the roof and attaching rubber ducks to the car. Amazingly our pre booked hotel was right in the centre of the car parts district of the city, with every single shop selling something that looked like a useful spare we should have bought. As a result they didn't have too much trouble finding a mechanic to do all this and a day later and for a small fee the Micra was looking much more rally ready.

'Find a workshop and cue the music'

The rest of us had just been keen for a wander round Tehran. So with our guide Mohamad leading the way we headed to the bazaars and Golestan Palace. After making my millions I thoroughly enjoyed the look around but I have to say the bazaar in Istanbul was just a bit better as far as I'm concerned. In the evening we headed out to the North of the city on the subway, where we found an amazing restaurant on the hillside. It was great to get out of the smog, heat, and general madness of the middle of the city - and the food was great too. We weren't to know but Mohamad had invited a group of his friends along, so we were soon trying to chat to a group of middle aged Iranian women over dinner. This was fine though as we were such a novelty that whatever we said they simply laughed and asked for another photo. This novelty factor has been evident all the way through Iran so far, but the people are lovely about it; shouting welcomes and forcing upon us all manner of little things for free. For our part we have been part of about 1000 photos and are probably semi famous on Iranian social media!

'Whoever made this palace must have been a Magpie in a previous life'

'Best British ambassadors to Iran'