Back in the Arab World

After a truly miserable 2024 - a year of multiple surgeries, thousands of coffee enemas and fresh juices, various consultations, no travel, and frequently wondering if I even had a future - I was determined to make 2025 a whole lot better. Unsurprisingly, I decided to prioritise family travel and booked several flights in late 2024 to give us all something to look forward to. In order to mimic our old Saudi life, where everything felt limitless and abundant, I chose a return to the Arab world, to the underrated North African destination Tunisia, as our first destination of 2025. 

The airport of departure - Gatwick - used to be a place I dreaded going to, much preferring the convenience of Norwich or Stansted, but my mind was now in a very different place. I felt a surge of gratitude and privilege just being alive and well and strolling through Gatwick onto an EasyJet flight to Enfidha. Funnily enough, I hadn’t even checked exactly where the airport was in Tunisia at the time of booking and when we landed I realised we were a little south of our first stop: Tunis City. Anyway, it wasn’t a big problem. A taxi driver whisked us to the capital within an hour and a half and we checked into the opulent Royal Victoria Hotel, a former UK embassy, right at the edge of the souq. 

Over the next nine days we did it all: checked off every key site in Tunis, lunch at the Four Seasons, private van to Sousse, professional makeup and video shoot for my wife, camel ride in front of El Gem, train and camping trip to the Sahara and a full board one-night stay in the Marriott to top it all off. It was an epic trip and worth pausing Gerson nutritional therapy for just over a week for such an emotional lift. It was a big shift in our lives and the first of many trips planned for the year ahead.

My wife, Miras, after a Tunisian-style makeover!