My god there are mountains behind Tehran
Trip Start
Jun 18, 2007
1
93
150
Trip End
Ongoing
Tehran,
Iran
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Just tried Travel pod for some reason and the Govt isn't blocking it! So this is actually my first post in three weeks, I'll write up the others ASAP and post the pics too.
The train back to Tehran was sooo wonderful compared to the trains we caught in India: on time, no pushing, spitting and I got so many 'welcome to Iran' greetings from the conductors that i thought i was dreaming. My $5 got me a great sleeper in a six bunk birth and I was soon chatting away to one of my roomies who spoke English.
I just keep on coming back to this strange feeling that I'm not in Iran but rather Australia or Europe - I sorta feel rejected maybe I miss the spitting and the smells
We got into Iran station very early and i made my way up to northern Iran to Reza's place, the person who i would be CSing with for one night. What struck me was that there were these huge snow capped mountains behind Tehran. I always knew they were there, but last time i was here they were covered by smog-they looked amazing and i wished i had time to go up there. Reza lived in nor than Tehran, what could be considered the rich area of Tehran- the difference was obvious, bakeries, the apartments and the cars showed that some iranies weren't suffering from being economically 'isolated'.
Of further note was that it has certainly gotten a lot hotter these last three weeks and my huge jumper, beenie and scarf aren't really needed. So I chucked on a pair of shorts and a tshirt and was off - only kidding - my hairy legs will not be offending the women of Iran I promise, though they will need some sun soon
My main reason for coming back to Tehran was to get the Turkmenistan visa in my passport, so first thing that morning I braved the traffic and headed off to the scary world of 'shared taxis', which pretty much involve shouting the name of a landmark or traffic square to passing cars until one stops. Great fun, and indeed after two stops and 6000 rials (60cents) I had gotten to the embassy.
Obviously being a Central Asian embassy it still hadn't opened at 9.40 when its opening hours said it opened at 9.00 but after waiting a while and knocking on the door a head popped out at 10.00 and I was given a form to fill out and was told to come back tomorrow - too easy
My Armenian friend was again at the embassy and offered me a lift - I had the local Tehran times with the president on it and he quickly pointed out that he was a 'monkey' - classic.
You hear about the traffic in Tehran and words like crazy, dangerous and slow are often used. These are all apt. Words really cannot describe how chaotic the city traffic is. Though I'm pleased to say after three weeks I can cross a street irian style i.e. just work across and put your faith in Allah that the cars will stop. I'm also now skilled in holding my hand up to the speeding cars in some sort defensive stance that seems to make sure the cars actually stop. I also learnt from an Iranian that peek hour last from 4.00pm to midnight - just an interesting fact i though i would share with you
After the fun of the embassy and driving through the middle of the city, I just chilled out, walked around and went to the national museum of Iran which was a great way to spend 1.5 hours and only cost me 5000 rials.
The only other thing of note was lunch at a kebab stand (is there any other food?). As soon as they found out i was a foreigner (which was pretty soon after i opened my mouth) they all wanted to now my life story and stuff me full of free food and chai. It was a hoot conversing with them in broken English while eating a yummy kebab and drinking my beer (non- alcoholic of course).
DAY TWO
Picked up my visa and guess friggin what -you can only transit through Turkmen a certain way and not the way I wanted to go. They would not change this, I was told "this country has rules" like yeah sorta like north Korea
After this huge stuff up I just walked around Tehran until I caught a very nice train to Mashhad - again the train station was so nice and they had internet too.
NOT HAPPY
