Our First Real Border

We left our familiar campsite at DoggieBiscuit with some nerves, but excited that our adventure was about to really begin. The previous evening we had greedily drank the last of our alcohol with our new friend, the crazy French cyclist, Tony. He had filled us full of stories about his time in Iran, as well as giving us tips on where to go and stay. We had gone to bed giddy with excitement, and woken up with a real thirst for our folly to start in earnest.

On arrival at the border it was soon apparent that we really were leaving our comfort zone, and I had soon been tricked into changing some money at a bad exchange rate. Although it is handy to have some Iranian Rials at the border it is certainly worth taking your time with any exchange, because with the exchange rate being approximately 13000 to the pound it is easy to be flustered into getting it wrong. Certainly no matter what people at the border say you will not need more than $20 worth of currency.

As seemed to be typical of our trip we arrived at the border on a 'national holiday' and hence there were few staff around to help. But this seemed to be more of a help than a hindrance and we soon had a 'fixer' attach himself to us. Initially we were a little worried about his intentions, but at the end of the 2 1/2 hour process we loved the man, and were certainly happy to tip him the 4 dollars recommended, especially as he helped to secure the all precious fuel card. In Iran 80 litres of diesel costs $1, and hence there is a big problem with smuggling fuel over the border to Turkey (where the return run brings booze into Iran). To counter this fuel is rationed and in theory if you don't have a fuel card you can't buy diesel. In practice the merry truck drivers are usually happy to donate some of their allowance in return for some laughs about the size of your fuel tank. But we still wanted this card to make our life easier and so were happy to secure it.

Because of the lack of staff we had to have other travelers to help translate the border guards wishes, and due to the genuine interest of Iranians in foreigners we also picked up several people to help translate. The first translation was a sincere apology, because the guards are under strict instructions to finger print all American and British nationals. Apparently this is because our governments do the same to Iranians, although we are not sure if the British do do this. Either way the guards could not have been more embarrassed at the fact that they had to do this and apologized the whole way through. It is obvious that the prints are used for no practical purpose, as none of the images were distinguishable from a ink stain - although by the end of it our hands were covered in unremovable ink - perhaps the Iranian governments actual motive.

Tabriz

Once out of the border and into Iran we decided to head straight to Tabriz, stopping only to pick up some cakes (cake and pastry shops are everywhere, though no pasty shops). Tabriz is a town made up almost wholly of Turkish Iranians, and is thought of as a modern forward thinking part of Iran. We also learnt that upto 40% of the Iranian population is Turkic, and although they speak Turkish amongst their families, they learn nothing of their heritage at schools. Although not a burning issue, you could tell that this is something they would like changed.

We managed to time our arrival with dusk and were soon completely lost in the craziest traffic we had ever seen. No one follows any traffic rules and driving in Iranian cities is a macho case of survival of the fittest, quickest and biggest - and this was a total shock to our system. But, funnily enough it is no long before you realise that this form of driving can be fun, because you can throw the highway code out of the window and just go for it.

We had earmarked a hotel for the night but had no idea where we were, and had to eventually stop and ask for help; so we pulled over to asked some locals at a kebab stall. Initially they tried to draw us a detailed map, but soon realised this was too complex and so motioned for us to follow them in the car. What followed was a crazy 30 minute car chase, obviously made all the harder by all the cars in Tabriz cutting us up and trying to get in between us and our saviours. But eventually we were at the hotel, with both of us breathing a rather large sign of relief that the crazy chase was over. Jenny's sign was definitely proceeded by crossing herself! Our amazing escorts were laughing and joking when we arrived and didn't even want to accept some cakes as a reward. This was to be the first experience of 10s of Iranians going out of their way to ensure guests in their country were happy. These guys know no bounds to their hospitality, and the country as a whole deserves a big gold star!

Checking into the hotel, we were shown a price that we interpreted as $5, which obviously pleased us a lot and so booked in for two nights. It was only on leaving that we found out this price was the notorious tomans, which is effectively 10 rials. Hence our costs for the night came in at $50. Two nil to Iran! Luckily we soon filled our tank with 80 litres of diesel for a dollar and were back feeling flushed with success. 2-1 Iran.

Tabriz itself does not have a lot for the average tourist, although the bazaar is one of the biggest in Iran. For us it was a nice staging post to get ourselves ready for the challenges ahead, and we were very lucky with the people we met who helped us. We were also offered black market beer, which we turned down as we wanted to experience the 'real' Iran. Little did we know that in less that 3 weeks we would have murdered for that beer!

Because it was still a holiday the next day nothing was open, but we randomly ran into the main tourist information guy from Tabriz. Before we knew it he had taken us to a vegetarian restaurant, and given us the low down on all the information we needed, including how to get insurance in Iran, and the fact that in the majority of places it would be fine to free camp. This latter piece of information was just what we wanted to hear, especially given the rather obscene price we were paying for a hotel (this is not the normal price in Iran!!).

On hearing about the free camping we decided to head to the pride of Tabriz, El Goli park, which is a little out of town, but where many of the city folk hang out at the weekends. It was Saturday by the time we got there, and the park was absolutely heaving full of folks enjoying the 35 degree weather next to the boating lake and amongst the trees. We planned to wild camp in this park, but it was soon evident that every tiny bit of space already had a tent on it, as the Iranians love to camp for the day, right up until about 2 in the morning. This left us with only one other choice, to stay in the static tents that are erected in the park, at $15 a night. These are not really worth the money, but we hoped it would allow us a some peace. Unfortunately we were wrong, and half way through the night we were awoken by a man unzipping the tent and coming right in. We both obviously woke with a startle, and I knew it was my duty, although still half a sleep, to run at the man screaming at the top of my voice and waiving my hands in the air. Jenny was right behind me and I think this stranger ended up having the biggest shock of all three of us. We had been warned that the older Iranian male population will used the 'wrong door' excuse to try and have a peep at foreign females, and we think that this was all this bloke was after - but it made us realise how great the roof tent is and how secure we are normally.

Earlier in the day we had met up with a very nice English teacher, Mamood, with one of his ex-pupils, Amir, who were wandering the park like us. Chatting with these guys we were soon invited back to Mamood's house for some lunch and a view on Iranian life. We spent a very pleasant afternoon with these these two and Mamood's family learning more about Iranian life and society and eating some lovely food. It was an interesting insight, chatting to the whole family and we both now realise that all of the Iranian idiosyncrasies were not black and white as they first appear, and that respect to heritage plays as big a part as religion.

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Not only did Mamood help us understand Iranian life but he was kind enough to help us find a garage run by a landie owner, who helped us with an oil change, and a quick check over. We definitely have to say a big thank you to Mamood for his help in Tabriz!

Tehran

After 3 days it was time to head to Tehran and try and unpick our visa conundrum. We had been warned that Tehran was a nightmare to drive in, even by Iranian standards, and that again it was a city with few sights and little breathable oxygen, but we had to go. Unfortunately there were few surprises, and Tehran was as bad a as we had been warned, although we did like the snowy mountain backdrop. We had previously wild camped just outside Tehran, and decided to get our business done inside one day and wild camp again on the way down to Esfahan. Iran is generally a great place for overnight, quick wild camps and often you can just leave the road and find an amazing bit of desert or mountain scenery to cook up a quick dinner and get your head down for the night. This makes some the long drives a lot easier and also means that you can avoid sleeping in Tehran for two nights!

Although we didn't finalise anything in Tehran we had located all the embassies that we needed and found out how long each visa would take. Thus we could head off and explore Iran, and return for a last week of Tehran hell. At this point we hadn't realised that this would coincide with the presidential elections, but obviously this became a key fact on our return.

 

 

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