In Zanjan we met a 20 year old German biker who had been touring Iran for 2 weeks. I asked him what was his favorite thing and he said “a couple of days ago I met some Iranians who invited me to their home and it was wonderful – way better than all the sights in Esfahan and Tehran”.
A couple of posts ago I mentioned that Turkish driving was crazy. Well, Iranian driving is mentally insane. Basically anything goes. Cars driving in a pitch dark highway without any lighting, cars u-turning in the middle of busy highways, bikes and bicycles riding in the wrong direction, lanes that are completely disregarded, and add to that pedestrians who cross just about anywhere they like. We had to drive through Iran as part of this rally, but you must really be mentally insane or be an adrenaline junky if you choose to drive through this streets as a tourist.
We paid a quick visit to the Mausoleum of Oljaitu and continued on to Tehran. In Tehran we got ridiculously lost and a local who was previously chatting with pals on the streets offered to drive his car in front of ours and guide us in the right direction. We continued on to Sari where the story was repeated as we were lost trying to find a place to eat. Two young guys in the street hopped back to their car and we followed them to a pizza joint. They then offered us for a place to stay in their home and asked us if we wanted to take a dip on the Caspian Sea. We really struggled with this one – on the one hand, our guides constantly repeated that in a situation like this we should just say “yes” since it would be our chance to really witness Iranian hospitality, but our plan was to wake up at 4AM in the morning to try and cross the border to Turkmenistan. After lots of back and forth between us, we decided to turn down the offer.
During the month of August 2011, muslims are observing Ramazan (Ramadan), which means the entire country is fasting during the day. For various circumstances, we have been fasting during this time as well. As we sat on the pizza restaurant, we were extremely hungry (not having eaten since the early morning) so we each ordered a pizza. After 3 slices, we were each full and couldn’t continue eating. I think our stomachs had shrunk (this was the third or fourth day we had been fasting). We asked for pizza boxes, packed them up, and went to sleep.
Once at the hotel, we had realized it had gotten extremely late and it was unrealistic and dangerous for us to wake up at 4AM. We further lamented our denial to accept the young man’s invitation to stay at his house.
The next day we woke up and did some further planning on the route. We got an e-mail from an Italian team that the border crossing between Samarqand (Uzbekistan) and Pendjikent (Tajikistan) was closed. This would be a major setback for us and are still trying to find out whether this is true and how we would go about it.
We continued driving to Gonbad-e Havus where we saw the Funerary Tower. Here we tried to make our way into Turkmenistan through the Inchehborum/Pol border crossing. Despite our understanding that the border would be open until 4:30pm, we were informed that it had closed at 2pm. We decided to keep driving on the Iranian side to make another border crossing the next day.
The Best Dinner
At this point we had run out of Rials (Iranian currency) and gas. Credit cards don’t work in Iran and you can’t take out cash with debit cards so we had to find someone to exchange us Dollars to Rials. After a lot of asking, drawings, hand gestures, and a little Farsi we’ve been picking up, we finally managed to trade enough to fill up our tanks (still at the black market rate since we never quite figured out where to obtain our foreigner ration card – which would’ve been even more expensive anyway). Once here, we noticed a lot of car shops, which would be an excellent opportunity to find anti-freeze. We found a store that sold it but it was closed. No problem, we were in Iran. Locals knew what we were after, and they made some phone calls so the owner showed up, opened the shop for us and sold us a bottle of anti-freeze.
The next thing on our mind: to eat (we had fasted again). We asked around and we were invited to a traditional Iranian restaurant. Once here we were given the warmest of welcomes. Despite our horrible attire (everyone was very well dressed), they welcomed us to have a traditional Ramazan breaking of the fast. The food was delicious and definitely the best we’ve had so far. When we asked to pay, they told us that we didn’t need to pay. We insisted on paying for our delicious 5 course meal, and even then we weren’t allowed to pay for the full amount. I cannot explain how welcoming and wonderful everyone was. This was definitely a highlight of our trip.
Joyriding with Iranian Soldiers
After that delicious meal, we decided to head for the border town between Iran and Turkmenistan, Bajgiran, so we could attempt crossing it early in the morning. When we arrived it was late and we couldn’t find a place to stay, so we drove around until we found what looked like military quarters. There were Iranian soldiers with guns. When we first approached the military post, they got a bit alarmed, guns were raised and they were stepping back. I told Enrique to lower the lights, which he had already done. I stepped out of the car, and said “excuse me” in Farsi. Soon a soldier stepped out of the gates, asked me in English what I wanted, and I said we were looking for a hotel. They soon asked for passports and made sure we were legally in the country. Soon, about 6 or 7 soldiers were outside asking us questions about our trip, laughing with us, and being really friendly. After a while, two soldiers left their guns behind, hopped into the car with us (they crammed themselves in the front passenger’s seat, Mon and I crammed ourselves into the back compartment), and guided us to the nearest hotel, where they translated everything from English to Farsi and back. Once at the hotel we offered them a ride back, but they refused. The soldiers were very happy we were visiting Iran, and one last time we felt the warmth of the Iranian people who weren’t only happy for us to be visiting their country, but were very welcoming, friendly, and continually offered their help.