12th July 2006 - First impressions of Iran

Crossing the border into Iran was surprisingly easy - the formalities on the Turkish side went pretty easily (much smoother than getting out of Turkey at the Syrian border, actually), Lizzy donned her headscarf, the Turkish guard pressed a button and the gate rolled back on the Turkish side, the Iranian guard rolled the gate back on his side by hand (there is no no-man's land at this border) and we drove the Landy over the threshold to be welcomed by the friendly Iranian guard and introduced to his colleagues who were sitting in the shade having a chat (generally, being a border guard in any country seems quite a cushy job - we're thinking about a change of career when we get back...).  With some trepidation we entered the immigration/customs building, but we were immediately greeted by a friendly young man from the tourist info office, who acted as our translator and guide throughout, helping us to jump the queue to change money and generally helping us out.  The customs man was more interested in checking the chassis number on the Landy than rummaging through our belongings to check for contraband (we'd finished our Cappadocian wine and chucked the gossip magazines featuring scantily-clad footballers' wives in Dogubayazit to be on the safe side, but you never know what might turn out to be 'un-Islamic'...).  As we were planning to stay more than 14 days in Iran, we were instructed that we should get Iranian numberplates in either Tabriz or Tehran.  We'd heard before that you are always told this at this border but many overlanders don't bother and those who do often end up having problems at the border into Pakistan and having to go back to hand the plates in at the town before the border (a two-hour round-trip), not to mention having to pay about 30 euros for the privilege.  We decided to give this a miss and take our chances at the border on the way out.

While we might consider numberplates to be optional, Lizzy at least (Roel was a little more 'flexible' in his outlook) took the view that insurance, though not compulsory for foreign cars in Iran, was required.  Having read on other overlanders' websites that they had paid around 25 euros for a month's insurance, we were a bit dismayed to be told by the only insurance company at the border that we would have to pay almost 100 euros!  On hearing this, we decided to hold off and see if it was any cheaper in Tabriz, the first city after the border and our first planned stop.  We were very glad we did, as we managed to get a month's insurance there for around 40 euros!  It may have helped that we were accompanied to the insurance office by Mansur Khan, who works in the tourist office in Tabriz.  Mansur's brother, Nasser, seems to be a bit of a legend among travellers to Tabriz (he gets a long write-up in the Lonely Planet and rave reviews from other overlanders) and both brothers were extremely helpful and welcoming, offering us numerous cups of tea and lots of useful advice.  Mansur also showed us a great place to have dizi/abgusht (a meaty soup/stew which is typical of the Azari regions of Iran - not sure why it has two names though!) and helped us to find a sticker with the Iranian flag to put on the Landy.  Speaking of stickers, Nasser also distributes stickers with a picture of Ayatollah Khomeini, saying 'if you get into any trouble, just show this to people and it might help'!  Hmm, hopefully we won't be needing it but if we do get a chance to use it we'll report back on whether it works...

Generally, we were totally overwhelmed by the friendliness of the people we met in Tabriz.  After spending the first night (before we went to the tourist office) in a less-than-amazing hotel (Golshan Hotel, don't do it unless you like finding other people's hairs on your sheets), we took Mansur and Nasser's advice of going to camp at El Goli park, in the suburbs of Tabriz.  This turned out to be an amazing experience.  Lots of local people come to use this green space at all times of the day, but particularly after sunset when they arrive in their thousands (no, we're not joking) to picnic on every square metre of grass!  Many Iranians also use it as a free place to sleep, putting up dome tents next to their cars and saving on the cost of a hotel room.  You can hire a permanent tent in one area of the park for ten dollars, but there's no need if you have your own tent.

After we had parked and had a wander around the park, we decided to tackle a problem that had been bothering us since the border.  There seems to be a serious shortage of fuel in Iran - every fuel station has lengthy queues, especially for diesel, and often fuel stations have run out of diesel completely (you can spot these by the long queues of trucks and buses abandoned next to the fuel station until the next delivery).  Strange considering that Iran has so much oil, but it appears that there are very few refineries so most of the oil is exported crude and the Iranian government actually imports much of the fuel sold to the public.  At the moment, the government is struggling to maintain these imports at the level of demand as it subsidises the fuel heavily (petrol costs the equivalent of 7 euro cents per litre and diesel is less than 1.5 euro cents per litre - crazy, huh?) and its annual budget for this subsidy is expected to run out in August.  A newspaper article we read blamed this anticipated shortfall on fluctuations in the price of oil, but it did also mention that the Majlis (the Iranian parliament) had this year voted for a 40% reduction in the budget for the fuel subsidy, which can't exactly be helping either...  The article also suggested that (because, according to President Ahmedinejad, reducing/removing the subsidy would cause 'instability') the government is planning to introduce a rationing system (3 litres per person per day) for petrol when the subsidy runs out in August - not sure how this will affect foreign vehicles and whether it will apply to diesel as well, but anyone bringing a vehicle into Iran from August onwards will probably want to check at the border!  Another factor is that fuel is so much cheaper than in neighbouring countries (petrol is almost 1.50 euros per litre in Turkey and diesel not much less), so there's a lot of smuggling going on.  This doesn't help the fuel supply, of course, but it also means that even when they do have fuel the fuel stations refuse to let you have more than 60 litres and won't even contemplate filling jerrycans.

However, we were determined to get our jerrycans full of cheap Iranian diesel before leaving the country, so Roel decided that if no-one else would fill them he would just have to siphon some of the diesel from the Landy's tank into the jerrycans!  This turned out to be rather a lengthy and messy process, involving Roel getting quite a lot of diesel in his mouth (yuck!) and both of us getting drops of diesel on our clothes and generally very hot and bothered.  Tempers were a little frayed, to say the least.  However, just at this point, the friendliness and hospitality of the Iranian people made a spectacular appearance to change our mood!  Next to where we had parked, a small tent was pitched and five Iranian women were sitting on a rug (stoning cherries to make jam, it later emerged).  Right in the middle of the very complicated siphoning procedure, one of them came over and invited Lizzy to join them.  Lizzy tried to explain (using her best hand signals as the lady's English was no better than Lizzy's Farsi) that it wasn't really a good time to leave Roel to it (much as she would have liked to) and she would come over later.  Twenty stressful minutes later, smelling strongly of diesel, she managed to go and make good her promise.  Roel had also got into conversation with a young man passing on his bicycle who spoke extraordinarily good English (just the kind of 'serious English-speaking student' we'd heard about!), so (as seems to happen a lot in Iranian society) the men and women socialised separately!

The cherry-stoning ladies all turned out to be lovely.  Neda, 16, and Shabnam, 22, both spoke English, although their mothers and Shabnam's little sister only spoke Azari (a form of Turkish which is actually the first language of most people in north-western Iran), Farsi and smiles.  Before we knew it, the rest of their families had been summoned to meet the foreigners and we were invited to dinner.  However, Roel was still chatting to the boy with the amazing English (whose name turned out to be Hanif) and he also wanted us to have dinner at his house!  By this time Neda's father and Shabnam's father and brother had turned up and a lengthy discussion ensued in Azari - we couldn't understand what was being said but it was clear they were arguing as to which family got the honour of having us to dinner!  Luckily, an honourable compromise was reached whereby we were 'booked' to have dinner with Hanif and his parents and then meet Neda and Shabnam's families the next morning to go on an outing to Kandovan (a miniature version of Cappadocia 60km from Tabriz).  Phew!

We had a lovely evening with Hanif and his parents and returned to camp in El Goli park.  Next morning, punctually at 8, the families arrived to drive to Kandovan in convoy!  We spent a wonderful day there, lounging, eating, walking in the hills nearby, eating, chatting (as much as our common languages would permit!), playing volleyball, not to mention eating more fabulous food...  Later on, we were invited back to the apartment block where the families both lived to take a shower (causing another argument about which got the honour of cleaning up after us!) and have more food. It was fantastic to spend time with such lovely hospitable people and get to know their way of life a little.  Through Neda as interpreter we were able to have some deeper conversations about the role of women in Iran at the moment and the changes since the revolution and to tell them about our first impressions of Iran.  We left bearing many gifts and feeling very happy to have met such lovely people.

From Tabriz, we headed towards Tehran, breaking the journey in Qazvin, just north of Tehran, where we slept in the tent just next to a beautiful shrine.  Iran feels like a very safe country to camp rough in - generally the only reason we've stayed in hotels has been the heat.  In Tehran, we stayed one night at the friendly Mashhad Hotel.  Everyone had warned us not to go to Tehran with the car because of the horrendous traffic and generally tried to put us off going, but this just made us feel more determined to go and see for ourselves.  The traffic was pretty chaotic, with the terrible driving skills and total disregard for the rules of the road you see everywhere in Iran exhibiting themselves in their worst form.  But Roel has the ideal combination of good driving skills and confidence to get through such a situation and we never felt it was really dangerous.  We wanted to see it for ourselves and we're glad that we went, but we didn't really spend long enough to get to know the city in any meaningful way.  We did enjoy visiting the former U.S. embassy (now referred to as the 'U.S. Den of Espionage' - we're not kidding), the outer walls of which are decorated with anti-U.S. murals including a very striking Statue of Liberty with a skull for a head.  Despite these, and the 'Down with U.S.A.' poster and graffiti we later saw in Esfahan, we have not got the feeling talking to Iranians that they have any real animosity towards America.  We did find it a bit disconcerting being told by an elderly man we met in Tabriz that 'the English are bad people'.  We think we managed to talk him round to the idea that, although he might not agree with the actions of the British government, that didn't make everyone who lived in Britain evil...  Anyway, he seems to have been an isolated case.  It would be understandable if people here did think everyone in the US evil, as from the little Iranian news we've seen (handily subtitled in English) there's a lot of propaganda being disseminated (one striking example was the 'Papers discovered showing U.S. government backed Hitler to power in order to create independent state for Jews' news story we saw on TV in the Iranian consulate in Istanbul!).  Luckily, most Iranians have access to satellite TV (despite the fact that this is illegal, the authorities turn a blind eye and all Iranian households seem to have it) and/or the internet, so they can read independent news (or at least the other side's propaganda!) and judge for themselves.

After Tehran, our next stop was Esfahan (via Kashan, where we had lunch at the Delpazir restaurant run by a lovely woman from Lincolnshire (!) and spent a couple of hours exploring the beautiful old houses and hammam there), which must be one of Iran's most beautiful cities.  We loved Imam Square (the second largest square in the world after Tiananmen Square, as every carpet seller you meet insists on telling you), with it's beautifully tiled mosques, and had some great conversations with friendly Iranians who had come there to practise their English - as well as a few with carpet salesmen, but they weren't nearly as pushy as those in Turkey so we didn't mind!  We succumbed and bought a beautiful carpet (but not from anyone who accosted us in the street) - finding one we both liked was just too much of an achievement to ignore!

On the social front Esfahan was also a great success as, staying at the Amir Kabir hostel (pretty good exc for the shared bathrooms which are a bit grotty), we met Pat and Helen (www.patandhelen.co.uk), who have been travelling round the world on their motorbike since 2001.  They were heading west (nearing the end of their odyssey) and were able to give us lots of useful tips about the countries we'll be going to and, more importantly, the benefit of their excellent company.  Lizzy also appreciated having another woman to moan to about the trials and tribulations of having to wear a headscarf in temperatures of up to 45 degrees.  The Islamic dress code (i.e. wearing either an all-encompassing chador or headscarf and loose clothing to mid-thigh) has to be one of the least pleasant aspects of travelling in Iran as a woman.  At first, it just felt weird and it was hard to remember to put the headscarf on before leaving the privacy of the bedroom/tent, but as we've gone further east (and the temperature has risen) it's not so much weird as just annoying and uncomfortably hot!

After 3 nights in Esfahan, we reluctantly said goodbye to Pat and Helen and headed for Yazd, where we are currently staying in a gorgeous room (with air-conditioning and a CLEAN en-suite bathroom) at the Silk Road Hotel, a beautiful old converted house.  It's a bit above our usual budget at over 20 euros a night, but worth every cent...  Yazd is a lovely little town with lots of interesting old mud-brick buildings and several beautiful tiled mosques. We heartily recommend...

31st July 2006 - farewell to Iran

We spent three days in luxury at the Silk Road Hotel before reluctantly facing up to the realities of overland travel once more.  After the delicious spicy Indian food served at the Silk Road, the blandness of the kebabs and rather salty stews that typify Iranian food seemed even more unappealing than before and we found ourselves longing to get to Pakistan and India.  In other ways, too, we found that we were increasingly looking forward to moving on from Iran.  Though she tried to resist it, Lizzy couldn't help thinking what a relief it would be to take her headscarf off at the Pakistan border - even though she knew she might have to wear it in some areas of Pakistan to minimise the stares, it wouldn't be compulsory and that would make a huge psychological difference.  Also, our original intention had been to go down to Bandar e Abbas on the Persian Gulf coast, but now we were experiencing 45 degree heat the thought of a five degree increase in temperature and almost 100% humidity really didn't appeal.  We were disappointed to find that after only two weeks in Iran we had so much inclination to leave, so we postponed our decision on this until after we had been to Shiraz, our next destination, but in our hearts we already suspected that we wouldn't be in Iran much longer.

The road to Shiraz took us through some more of the beautiful Iranian desert landscapes and reminded us of how much we were enjoying some aspects of this amazing country.  After driving all day, we reached Persepolis, just north of Shiraz, around sunset.  The tourist campsite near the entrance of the site wanted us to pay $10 (US) for the privilege of camping in their grounds, which was more than we had paid at several hotels, so we decided to camp at a picnic place just across the road instead.  However, just after we had parked we met a lovely Iranian family who invited us to eat and stay the night at their house.  Once again we were overwhelmed by the hospitality of ordinary people to complete strangers, which really distinguishes Iran from any other country we have visited so far.  We put our tent up in the Homayoun family's back yard and they also slept outside, under mosquito nets, as it was cooler than sleeping in the house.  Next day, we visited Persepolis and nearby Naqsh e Rostam, site of the beautiful carved tombs of the kings who reigned at Persepolis, accompanied by Saied and Khadije, two of the Homayoun family's children, who both spoke English and were able to tell us lots of useful information about Persepolis.  Although little is left standing at the site (it was burnt to the ground by Alexander the Great) the carvings that remain are really impressive and refreshingly different from those we have seen at ancient Greek and Roman sites.

After our visit to Persepolis, Saied and Khadije took us to their uncle's farm, where a feast was being prepared as their uncle had slaughtered a cow.  We were impressed to hear that the majority of the meat would be divided up and given to poor families in the area.  We arrived in time to watch the cow being butchered, with about ten members of the family (mainly men) working on it at the same time.  We were given pride of place, with special cushions as we're not so used to sitting on the ground for a long time as our Iranian friends, and enjoyed a wonderful meal with about 40 members of the Homayouns' extended family.  All ages were represented and the children were clearly having a wonderful time splashing around in a pool of fresh water nearby.  Iranians are very fond of children and the youngest person present, a few-month-old baby, was passed round for everyone to cuddle and admire.  It wasn't the first time that we've found ourselves having to explain that it's not unusual in Europe to have been married for two years without having had children.  So far, we have always managed to have a reasonable conversation and explain that things are just different where we come from, although if people really don't get it (or you can't bear to explain it again) there's always the fallback option suggested by Pat and Helen: 'Allah hasn't blessed us yet'...

That afternoon, we made our way to Shiraz and checked into the Zand hotel, which is popular with overlanders as there is a courtyard where you can park.  Other than that, it didn't seem to have much going for it, though the enormous cockroaches that lived in the bathroom do deserve a mention.  We had a wander round the city and had our first (and only) sample of Iranian pizza.  Pizza is enormously popular in Iran, especially in Shiraz, with new restaurants opening all the time.  However, like the Americans, the Iranians have a very different take on pizza from the original Italian model.  The base is quite doughy, rather like a deep pan pizza (not one of our favourites at the best of times), but there is an even more fundamental flaw than that - no tomato!  The pizza we had was loaded with toppings, all wallowing in a thick layer of cheese, which without the contrast of tomato just tasted bland and greasy.  Apparently Iranians cut through the grease by plastering the pizza with ketchup, but this didn't seem to us a very satisfactory solution!

Generally, we were a bit disappointed with Shiraz - we had heard that it was not a very beautiful city but was famous for culture and had a pleasant atmosphere.  Although the atmosphere on the streets seemed relaxed and friendly, with lots of people sitting in the parks having picnics and chatting, we didn't feel this was noticeably different from the other cities and towns we had visited.  After a bit of a debate, we decided to give in to our instinct and move on from Shiraz the next day towards the Pakistani border.  Our next stop in that direction was Kerman, where we camped in the car park behind the Akhavan hotel.  We met a lovely couple from Ivory Coast who were also driving to Pakistan and exchanged some tips with them, but otherwise we felt very lethargic in the intense heat.  As the hotel was a long way out of the centre, we saw very little of Kerman, which was a shame, but somehow we just didn't have the energy or enthusiasm to explore a new town properly.

After two nights we drove south east to Bam, which is well-known internationally because of the earthquake two-and-a-half years ago which devastated the town including the ancient walled city that was one of Iran's major tourist attractions.  As we approached the town, we could see that many people were still living in temporary accommodation.  All along the main streets, shops were operating out of large metal containers instead of buildings and the whole place had a very temporary feel.  Although there was a lot of building work going on, it was clear that there was still a long way to go.  At the walled city, the process of clearing the rubble and piecing it all back together has also started and we saw teams of men working at the site while we were there.  In many restaurants and hotels around Iran we had seen spectacular photos of the walled city before and after the earthquake, so we had been prepared for this, but the devastation in the modern town was much more shocking.  Somehow we had been hopeful that after two-and-a-half years things would be getting back to normal, but it's easy to forget that even with all the international aid the people here just don't have the money to recover from such a disaster with the rapidity you'd expect in the West.  We stayed at Akhbar's Guesthouse, which is famous among travellers because of the charismatic former English teacher who runs it.  The guesthouse was destroyed in the earthquake and for the first year Akhbar and his family and their guests were housed in tents next to the ruins.  The guesthouse now operates from temporary accommodation, but next door the skeleton of a huge new building is being constructed, which will eventually house much more (and more luxurious) accommodation than the original guesthouse.  Despite our dismay at the devastation we saw, it was cheering to talk to Akhbar about his plans for the future and see the fruits of that resilience and optimism beginning to ripen.

Our night at Akhbar's was our last in Iran and a fitting end to our stay in a country that has been, for us, firstly and foremostly about the wonderful Iranian people.  At every stage we have been impressed by their generous, hospitable nature and their cheerfulness and humanity in the face of adversity, whether it be in the form of the restrictions imposed on their daily lives by a government with which many feel no sympathy or the poverty and natural disasters that are common throughout the region.  The next day we set out early for the Pakistani border and crossed without incident.  A new country to explore!