Iran
We crossed from Turkey into Iran at Gürbulak. We came in hoping for the best, half-expecting the worst with the other half having no idea what to expect. Overall, the crossing went fairly smoothly. We'd heard and read many stories of being set upon by so-called 'fixers' at the border; guys who make their living by latching onto confused travellers and helping them through, throwing in as many rip off scams as they can along the way. We decided in advance that we would politely decline help. That worked for about 3 minutes. Before we knew it, I'd handed our passports over to some random Iranian guy who I frantically followed around for the next two hours in an attempt to keep our documents in sight. Looking back, I'm sure that it would have taken hours longer to tackle the crossing without him. We visited at least 6 different offices, spread over 3 or 4 different buildings and collected signatures, stamps and head-nods from around 10 different people. At an agreed price of €10, our fixer was a worthy investment as we set foot on Iranian soil in under 2 hours.
Using the Iranian currency has been one long lesson in inflation, mathematics and handling embarrassing moments. At present, one Euro buys you about 35,000 Iranian Rials, giving the millionaire a loot of about €28. They still use notes as small as 1000R (€0.03) so the wallet usually looks like a house brick. To add to the confusion, way back before inflation had really taken hold, Iranians started talking in Tomans, in which one Toman is equal to 10 rials. Once we thought we were paying €6 for a hotel room. Once we'd settled in, showered and let our helmet-baked brains cool off, the old 'this is too good to be true' feeling set in. Sure enough, we were a zero out. The first fuel stop was also interesting with it all being written in Farsi. After a little while, we were confident we were putting the right fuel in so we thought we'd be clever and take a photo of the bowser with the 'fuel symbol' on it. It turns out that this was actually just the number of the pump and didn't help us at all!
Using the Iranian currency has been one long lesson in inflation, mathematics and handling embarrassing moments. At present, one Euro buys you about 35,000 Iranian Rials, giving the millionaire a loot of about €28. They still use notes as small as 1000R (€0.03) so the wallet usually looks like a house brick. To add to the confusion, way back before inflation had really taken hold, Iranians started talking in Tomans, in which one Toman is equal to 10 rials. Once we thought we were paying €6 for a hotel room. Once we'd settled in, showered and let our helmet-baked brains cool off, the old 'this is too good to be true' feeling set in. Sure enough, we were a zero out. The first fuel stop was also interesting with it all being written in Farsi. After a little while, we were confident we were putting the right fuel in so we thought we'd be clever and take a photo of the bowser with the 'fuel symbol' on it. It turns out that this was actually just the number of the pump and didn't help us at all!
We spent our first night in Tabriz - a city a little too far on the large and busy side for us after 8 hours of riding and border crossing antics in 40 degree heat. We wrestled the traffic and found a cheap hotel, at which the owner assured us the bike could be stored in safe place for the night. That safe place was supposed to be the hotel lobby, accessible by riding up a 1 foot gutter, up a step and through a door that the mirrors didn't fit between (no problem when you've got a handy local to bend them out of the way for you), around a tight corner in a narrow passageway only to find the bike won't fit through the last door. So I spent the next half hour reversing this process and left Tez in a parking lot down the road.
We made our way to Zanjan, halfway between Tabriz and Tehran, and then onwards to Tehran the next day. We spent most of our time on the freeways which are surprisingly fast, as it was too hot to enjoy any slower riding off the main roads. Literally 2 out of 3 cars toot and wave as we pass them. They also seemed to like trying to drive as close to us as possible, which is good fun at 110. The freeways have manned tollbooths and are heavily policed for speeding - both of which provided us with some great entertainment and showcased Iran's genuine friendliness and generosity. Some examples of this can be seen in the video.
We made our way to Zanjan, halfway between Tabriz and Tehran, and then onwards to Tehran the next day. We spent most of our time on the freeways which are surprisingly fast, as it was too hot to enjoy any slower riding off the main roads. Literally 2 out of 3 cars toot and wave as we pass them. They also seemed to like trying to drive as close to us as possible, which is good fun at 110. The freeways have manned tollbooths and are heavily policed for speeding - both of which provided us with some great entertainment and showcased Iran's genuine friendliness and generosity. Some examples of this can be seen in the video.
Riding into Tehran was an experience to say the least. The traffic is insane. Nobody uses mirrors and the general approach seems to be to yield to those in front, similar to a ski slope. A three lane one way street usually had a stream of cars 7 abreast with motorbikes constantly weaving between them at twice the pace. With our panniers making us much wider than the standard 125s of Iran, we adopted a half car, half motorbike approach and it seemed to work ok, apart from when we creeped a little too far into the motorbike category and took on a one way street backwards and got stuck between a parked car and a truck hauling fridges.
The main purpose of our visit to Tehran was to lodge our Turkmenistan transit visa applications, which we managed to do on our first morning. After that, we took a cable car ride to the top of Tochal, the mountain range to the north of the city. We worked our way up to an altitude of around 3700m and the views over the city below were amazing.
The family of one of Nat's students from Düsseldorf are from Iran, and we were lucky enough to dine with his parents at a really nice restaurant in a spectacular part of North Tehran which is built in to the steep mountainside. We had a great few hours with Sahar and Bahram and we wished we could have spent more time with them!
The main purpose of our visit to Tehran was to lodge our Turkmenistan transit visa applications, which we managed to do on our first morning. After that, we took a cable car ride to the top of Tochal, the mountain range to the north of the city. We worked our way up to an altitude of around 3700m and the views over the city below were amazing.
The family of one of Nat's students from Düsseldorf are from Iran, and we were lucky enough to dine with his parents at a really nice restaurant in a spectacular part of North Tehran which is built in to the steep mountainside. We had a great few hours with Sahar and Bahram and we wished we could have spent more time with them!
Half way up Tochal
Amazing dinner with Bahram and Sahar! Thank you!
Delicious fruits soaked in sweet or sour liquids...
We then worked out way south and spent a night in Kashan, before a couple of nights in Esfahan. After leaving Tehran, Kashan was a great stopover as it was a lot smaller and much more relaxed. We spent the afternoon walking around some old historical houses, an amazing symmetrical mosque and the bazaar, before heading out for dinner with a couple of Dutch guys. Esfahan was also a pleasant surprise with a beautiful arched bridge, lots of parks and a main square which consisted of a couple of mosques, palaces and the best bazaar we've seen yet (we've seen a lot of these!)
We organised, loosely through Couchsurfing, to stay with a local family in Yazd. It turned out to be an amazing experience. We stayed with Mohammed and his family who generously took us in, fed us delicious traditional dishes and took us on a late night picnic into the mountains out of town with some friends of theirs. We got the opportunity to help teach Mohammed's English class. It was great to speak to locals about their lives and ambitions and it really reminded us how lucky we are to be doing this trip. Mohammed and his wife were unbelievably kind to us and we hope one day we can return the favour!
Mohammad and his lovely family
Doing our best at teaching some English
Picnic in the mountains - a very popular thing to do in Iran
After a later than usual start after the late night picnic with Mohammed, we headed off into the desert just in time for the hottest part of the day. In hindsight, it was lucky we didn't have any problems out there as we were carrying minimal water, it was over 40 degrees and we barely saw shade or another living thing for over a hundred k's. But we made it safely to Garmeh, a tiny oasis village in the desert and stayed in a small family run guesthouse.
From Garmeh we rode east through salt flats and more desert, getting sandblasted with fine sand whipped up by strong crosswinds. We made our way to Tabas which is a major stop for Pilgrims bound for Mashhad. The roads were busy with tiny cars loaded with entire families and all of their belongings tied to the roofs. We stayed across from a massive mosque, which we spent an hour exploring.
We then worked our way north to Gonabad. What an unexpected little treat that place was. We found a park for lunch, and within 2 minutes we were approached by a guy who saw our bike and wanted to show us his motorcross bikes at his home. He didn't speak a bean of English so he rang his nephew who speaks French and handed us the phone. That really cleared things up. Eventually, French speaking nephew, Majid, showed up at our lunch spot and we were invited to his home to spend the night. We had plans to continue north that day but the offer to stay was both generous and persistent, so we conceded defeat. We spent the afternoon visiting Majids uncles place (the motorcross rider who turns out to be number 1 in his province), his friends place (who shared some black market beer with us), his dead parents place and a town in the mountains called Kahk, before retiring to a magnificent home cooked meal with Majid and his family. The generosity shown by Majid and his family and friends, of who we were complete strangers straight off the street to, was unbelievable. Majid even filled out tank for our departure the next morning.
Majid and his very generous family
Amazing home-cooked meal!
We spent three nights in Mashhad, the holiest city in Iran and apparently the second holiest city in the world. We needed to collect our Turkmenistan transit visas and were quite nervous about it as we'd heard recent reports of people getting knocked back. But in just over an hour we were the proud owners of 5 day transit visas.
Tez getting another premium perch. He gets better treatment than us in some hotels.
One of Nat's daily photoshoots.
The Holy Shrine
