The country has its faults, as any country does, but lack of hospitality is certainly not one of them. Only when hospitality is little more than an excessive informality, when an entire nation breaks into premature smiling and all-teeth, small-talk mode – which betrays an absence of philosophical foundations – does it appear as nothing more than an awkward type of lightness. The more isolated and hostile the terrain, the more authentic the hospitality. In their falsity the travellers are made to feel at home. Desert people are renowned for sharing with strangers their last handful of dates and puddle of used coffee, often without saying a word. There is a courtesy here – without naivety. The world is inhospitable; the cold earth. Assist another person if encountered on its surface. The instinct is a basic one. In modern times it can be as minor as changing someone’s flat tyre by the side of the road. In a poor farm or village in Spain or somewhere it is common for a crust of bread and a lump of cheese to be wrapped in cloth and given to the traveller about to continue the journey.
