In times of recession its always good for a business to look to other markets and try to vary its client base, even so when I received a phone call on the 23rd December 2008 from a contact working on behalf of a client in Azerbaijan who wanted to buy a luxury RV as a birthday present for his father, I must admit I was a little sceptical! I set about discussing the range of RV's that Travelworld had to offer, however it wasn't long before it was made abundantly clear that only the very best would do and the vehicle had to be delivered to Azerbaijan by the 1st February 2009. I explained that the highest model we had in stock that would make it in time was the 2009 Monaco Diplomat 38 PDQ quad slide and this seem to fit the bill perfectly, the gentleman then said that he would also require a member of our company to visit Azerbaijan and hand the vehicle over - with my usual positive sales minded attitude my reply to all these requests was 'yes, no problem!' 'but please excuse my ignorance, where is Azerbaijan?' It didn't appear this was a question the gentleman hadn't been asked before, he explained that Azerbaijan was a former Soviet state that bordered Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Russia & the Caspian Sea...'Oh' I replied 'well we really are going to have to get a move on then'.

After many calls, e mails & explanation the deal was done, we were promptly paid in full and our service center was on full steam converting & preparing the Diplomat. Only one small problem left, how do we get a brand new Diplomat to Azerbaijan with no wear & tear? After much deliberation with the customer it was decided that a low loader would be the best option, we set about contacting several logistic companies specialized & otherwise and were by and large greeted with negative response. Most companies cited problems with overall height, visa's, insurance, road quality & even danger of ambushes! As you can imagine this all made us very nervous, until we found STG specialist transport group. Straight away this company put our minds at rest and guaranteed a result, they had done the journey several times for BP who have many bases in Azerbaijan due to their massive oil & gas reserves, fantastic! The Diplomat was collected on Jan 8th, driven to Portsmouth and loaded on a ferry travelling to Ismir in Turkey, in Ismir the vehicle would clear customs, be loaded back onto another low loader and driven to Baku the capital of Azerbaijan. The journey would take approximately 24 days and cost £25,000 (which the customer duly paid). Once we had confirmation of the Diplomat's arrival the only thing left was booking the flight for hand over. With a significant lack of volunteers and luckily my passion for travelling to new places I was booked on a flight leaving on the 8th February.

I would be lying to say there wasn't slight trepidation about the trip as I had no idea what to expect or even who I was dealing with, the English contact we had dealt with was the financial advisor to the Azerbaijan company and was based in the UK. I was told I would be met in the airport, helped through customs, taken to the hotel for a nights rest then collected the next morning to meet my Baku contact Mr Alireza of Azeron - the company who had bought the vehicle, all of which happened like clockwork. On meeting Mr Alireza I was told that we had to wait for 30 minutes as the President was not leaving his house until 10:00am and that was where the Diplomat was stored, 'ok' I replied presuming only that he was referring to the President of Azeron. Eventually we got into the Jeep and set off on our journey, I couldn't help but notice the large Police presence (all in brand new 3 series BMW's) and was told this was normal, however as we approached a large intersection I became aware of many flashing Police lights and all of the traffic slowing. Mr Alireza explained it was the President and sure enough like a scene from a Hollywood film a cavalcade of 4 blacked out GMC trucks & 2 blacked out S class Mercedes flew past covered by several more Police cars....the penny began to drop! We carried on our journey and some 20 minutes later drove along side a long walled area and up to a massive set of wooden 'castle like' entrance gates, the gates opened and two uniformed armed guards approached, they asked me to follow them into the gate house and I was asked to sit down. If by now I was still confused about the situation the final confirmation came in the way of two very large secret police dressed head to toe in black - they asked me for my passport which they thumbed through and looked me up and down - I was in the palace grounds of the President of Azerbaijan!

I was put into the back of one of the S class Mercedes and driven through the grounds and to the Diplomat - which as promised had arrived without a scratch. I carried out the hand over with several gentlemen who had been given the task of looking after the Diplomat, all went well after some translation from Mr Alireza who once finished took me back to my hotel and thanked me for all my help. All in all this was a very surreal experience and one I am sure I will tell many times in the future, on the way back to the hotel I asked Mr Alireza exactly what the Diplomat was to be used for - the answer; it had been bought as a birthday present for the first ladies father and would probably be used by all the family.

I had the rest of the afternoon to explore Baku and can report that it is a very nice place filled with very hospitable people. The previous Soviet regime obviously did nothing for the area however with their oil & gas reserves they now have all the money in the world and it seems the current administration is set on spending the money in the right places. If it carries on the same way I am sure that Baku & Azerbaijan will in time become far more widely acknowledged.

Just one more point, I didn't get a chance to photograph the Diplomat in Azerbaijan as I had the strong impression that producing a camera within the walled area of the Presidents Palace flanked by secret Police was not the wisest of moves!