Iran

We had heard a few nightmare stories about crossing the Iran border, but our entry into the next country on the agenda was smoother than expected, which is always a welcome surprise. With all items that could be considered offensive (including playing cards and 3 book covers that showed a female with bare shoulders!) having been removed from the truck, and all alcohol drunk before we left Turkey, a 3 hour wait for our passports to be processed was all that stood in our way in the end.

A lot of the Western world has a preconception of Iran that seems to be out dated by around 30 years. Whilst the country is still a long way from having what you and I would consider to be a modern western society, the revolution that has been active here for the last few decades has begun to make the country more liberal, and has slowly started to redress the equality balance between men and women.

The first thing that struck us as we stopped in the city of Tabriz is just how westernised the city centre and shop fronts are, especially having travelled through a few hours of desert land to get there. The city centre is made up of 2 lanes of traffic travelling in each direction, with neon lit shop fronts and restaurants lining either side of the street.

Mentioning restaurants leads me to the largest problem that I have encountered so far on this trip. Whilst the Iranians have a literal translation of the word “vegetarian”, it has quite a different meaning over here. Rather than suggesting that a person does not eat meat, it suggests that they would like a more vegetables than normal with their meat! It certainly is a minefield here for vegetarians as the Iranians will try to put meat in anything!

The Iranian people are certainly among the friendliest you will come across, and wherever we park the bus we attract a whole host of attention. When we arrived in the town of Ahar we were greeted by a whole host of adults and children all wanting to speak to us and shake our hands. As we walked through the streets trying to find something to buy our lunch the crowds followed us in and out of the shops asking us a chorus of questions and offering us some of their ice cream. While Vicky and several of the other girls were whisked away into somebody’s house to use their toilet (a visit that lasted nearly an hour as they were given tea and watermelon while the lady showed them her wedding albums) I was busy becoming a celebrity in the local ice cream shop. While trying simply to buy an ice cream, the owner of the shop insisted that he should take photos of me to put up on the wall in his shop. During the time that he had his photo taken sitting next to me, a small queue had gathered and each person in the line came in turn to sit next to me and have a picture taken. Eventually I was allowed to buy the ice cream I had come in for some 20 minutes previous, which set me back a total of 5000 Iranian Rial (or a whopping 25p to you and I!).

Spot me among the locals!

The currency here is certainly a confusing issue. At the time of writing there is around 20,000 Rials to one UK pound. However most things in the country are priced in “Toman”, which is a slang word that means a group of 10 Rials, in the same way we say a “tenner” at home. Therefore if a shopkeeper tells you your shopping costs 8,000, you must actually give him 80,000. Some traders also have a tendency to refuse payment when you hand over the money, and will say something along the lines of “you are my guest…for you it is free”. Fortunately the guide book gave us prior warning that this does not mean that they do not expect money, but you may have to offer up to 3 times before they will accept it. If you say thank you and leave without paying you could cause great offence!

The truck is not only popular with the local people, but also with the police as well. Throughout the country there are a lot of checkpoints where vehicles are “randomly” pulled over for paperwork or vehicle weight inspections. However when you travel in a bright orange truck, you tend to find yourself being pulled over at most checkpoints largely just so that the police can have  good look at the truck to satisfy their curiosity. We have on one occasion required the polices attention for other reasons, as a driver whose wife was trying to photo the truck while he was driving took his attention off the road and drove in to the side of the truck. We did not even feel a thing inside, but the damage to the side of his car was the outcome of the error of his ways. After a prolonged stop the police concluded we were not to blame, but did slip in a small fine for “fleeing the scene of an accident” as we had stopped around the corner from where the crash had actually occurred!

It is a surprise that accidents are not more common on the streets in Iran, as there is an equal mix of cars to motorbikes with very few (and not well enforced) rules that govern their usage. The concept of lanes is minimal, and even when you are inside a covered building you can still frequently have to get out of the way of a stray motorcyclist! At night time it is not compulsory to switch on your headlights either making the game of Russian roulette even more difficult. The one thing you quickly learn is that you will never be able to predict what any driver is going to do next in Iran!

Traffic approaching from 3 different directions complete with a pedestrian in the middle. Note although  that you can see traffic lights they all just flash orange to say "take care"

The night after the accident occurred, we camped on a very high hillside overlooking the Azerbaijan border. At the time that we arrived the weather was very pleasant, but as the evening progressed a huge storm rolled in with driving rain and extremely strong winds that nearly ripped the rain canopy off of the side of the truck. Having seen one of the tents be defeated by the wind, we hammered a few extra pegs into ours and climbed in to offer it some extra weight. Within an hour the storm had passed and thankfully the tent was still standing!

The next town that we made a stop at was Masoulah where we stayed for 2 nights. The town is of a curious design with the shops and restaurants being stacked in a shelf like design so that you have to climb stairs between each street. The town is fairly small, and so it acted as a bit of a rest for us from exploring the much larger towns and cities.

The tiered layout of Masoulah

From Masoulah, we spent one night camping in the wild again before heading on to Esfahan which is billed by the locals as the “city of half of the world”. It was given this nickname a few hundred years ago, as it was considered to have many of the greatest looking buildings in the world, but the nickname has stuck to this day. Esfahan is an incredible city full of life and colour, and once again we found that everybody was keen to take the time to stop and talk to us. Saied the owner of one of the local carpet shops is a good friend of the tour leader Polly and the driver Adam as they have visited him before. He was extremely hospitable to us during the 3 days that we were there, and gave us countless numbers of cups of tea as well as help and advice in and around the city. We got to know him and his family fairly well, and he made us feel as if we were part of that family also. By the end of our stay there he had made a number of carpet sales to members of our group, including ourselves, and so hopefully his kindness was repaid in the right way.

Some of the group in Saied's carpet shop with Saied in the back middle

As well as Saied, we also met a number of locals that we had a prolonged conversation with. One kind man who came to fix our hotel light when it was not working invited myself, Vicky and our friend Janet to dinner at his house the next night. We had a fantastic night with lots of interesting conversation, as well as eating far too much food!

Janet, Vicky and I at the electrician's house with his Son in Law.

On one occasion 2 of the local girls latched on to me as a group of us were walking down the road, and they seemed very happy to have found somebody to talk to. After a while they began to compliment me on how beautiful I looked, including that I had a very beautiful nose (probably the strangest compliment I have ever received!). When I explained to them that I was married they seemed a little taken aback, but then invited myself and Vicky (who I had introduced them to at this stage) to go back to their house for tea none the less. Unfortunately we did not have time to go, but we had an interesting conversation in the city square instead. It is considered strange by people for an Iranian girl to approach a man in public, but the fact that it has happened a few times to me has shown that the country is on the way to developing a more equal society.

Me with the 2 girls, joined by Emily and Chris

One very good feature of all of the towns and cities across Iran is the presence of charity boxes that line the sides of all roads, and they appear at a rate of one every 100 yards or so. The hands at the side of the boxes represent a “request for your help”, and all of the money that is donated in the boxes is used by the government to assist elderly and disabled people, along with any families that have lost the mother and / or father of a young child. In the Muslim religion giving to others (especially through charity) is especially important, and so the boxes are very frequently used.

One of the charity boxes that line the streets of Iran

While in Esfahan we checked out some of the most popular buildings of interest, including the “40 Column Palace” (which only has 20 columns but they are reflected in the water in front of the building to make 40), the Imam Mosque and the Ali Qapu Palace.

The “40 Column Palace” was completed in the mid 17^th Century and was used as a reception hall. On the walls in the main rooms of the building are 6 pictures; 3 of famous battles in Iranian history and 3 of gatherings between Iranian kings those of other countries. This was done to show that war and peace are equally important to people in the history of the country.

Vicky and Walter the Bear in front of the 40 Column Palace

The Imam Mosque is the most spectacular mosque in Esfahan, and is used mainly for Friday prayers (Friday of course being the day of rest in Muslim countries and not Sunday as in Christianity). The dome of the building was built very precisely with a twin layer to engineer the best acoustics possible for the call to prayer. When clicking your fingers underneath the middle of the dome you are able to hear the echo 7 or 8 times before it fades away. The dual layer of the dome also keeps the adhesive dry that holds on all of the mosaic style tiles inside, meaning that the roof will be there for all to enjoy for many years with minimal restoration required.

Some of the gang underneath the dome

Next on our tour of the country was Yazd, which is more or less smack bang in the middle of the country. Unfortunately we did not get more than a few hours in Yazd, as this was the point at which we had to split from the group to avoid going through Pakistan, but we did have a chance to get a small tour of the city and take in some of the best seen sights.

Finally we flew from Yazd to Tehran where we were to catch our flight to Delhi the next day. Tehran is the capital of Iran, and as you would expect the city is extremely busy. All of the toads have been a bit crazy in Iran, but crossing the road here is a logistical nightmare, with up to 6 lanes of traffic (not all necessarily going in the direction that they should be) that does not stop. You simply have to step out into the road and trust that the traffic will go around you, at times engineering some space for yourself between 2 moving cars. Whilst “crossing points” do exist the traffic does not stop for them rendering them completely meaningless!

The city itself is huge with a population of around 15 million people, and stretches out as far as you can see as you land in the plane. We have had time to visit both the city’s palace museum, which is as grand as you will ever see, as well as the national jewel museum which is the equivalent of London’s Crown Jewels. Between these 2 attractions it is clear to see where so much of the country’s money had been invested in the last few hundred years.

In conclusion, Iran has been a very special place for us to visit. 


We have felt completely at home, and there has not even been a sign of any danger and hostility that people at home were worried about. As far as I am concerned it will be tough to find another country that is as welcoming, and with such a desire to be appreciated as this one. I would urge more people to come here and visit the country before they judge it, but at the same time I recognise that flooding the country with tourists could spoil some of the things that we hold most dear about it.

Iran, you will be missed. India, here we come :)