Blogs from Tehran, North, Iran, Middle East - page 5

I had been wanting to visit Iran for a very long time. Last year as I set out on my cycle trip around the world, Iran featured at the top of my 'must visit countries' list. I had met a few Iranians on my way through Europe and had made some tentative enquiries about what their country really was like. In the early stages, my limited knowledge of Iran was that portrayed in the media. On reaching Istanbul in Turkey, I tried to seek advice from the British consulate on whether everything in the media was being blown out of proportion. The consulate stuck with the party line telling me that they did not advise me to visit Iran. I had read an article on the internet produced by HM Border Agency, which I have to ... read more

Teheran var vild, hektisk, kaotisk, anderledes, meget spændende med meget venlige og imødekommende mennesker. Vi blev budt velkommen af præstestyret i lufthavnen paa store plakater, 2 x Khoumeni. Møntfoden var vanvittig, og vi blev indehavere af 2,9 mill rialer for blot 100 dollar. På hotelværelset var vi sikre paa retningen mod Mekka !! godt for det !! Fru Koudal var hele tiden behørigt indhyldet i gevanter, her ses i nydeligt aften dress. Smukt foto fra Goldenstaen Palace med chaddor klædte kvinder. Over alt i Tehran var der propoganda paa husgavlene, gerne i mange meters højde, både præstestyret, militær og ikke mindst USA. Billeder fra Tehran vartegn samt Milad Tower, hvorfra vi kunne se hele denne enorme by med 17 mill indbyggere ! På gaderne var der indsamlingsstandere til fattige, børn og ældre.... read more

Iran Wednesday 25 September: All morning spent travelling. Picked up at hotel and taken to the airport in Istanbul. Check-in, Immigration no problems – smooth as. After that – well I won’t complain about Sydney International Terminal again. The arrivals area is friendly and airy, the people helpful. Sort of the opposite in the departure area. People (shop assistants in Duty Free) less than helpful and give erroneous advice. Would you believe that there is only one ATM in the whole departure area at Ataturk International Airport and that is hidden away in the HSBC VIP lounge. Doesn’t dispense USD – only TL, Euros and GBP. Had to withdraw in Euros. The Flight I was on was Turkish Airlines TK 0870 and was code share with Iran Air. The departure boards at ... read more

We started from Tabriz in the morning of the 18. September in direction to Tehran. We were happy when we were out of the very stinky exhaust gases of the cars. The highway went through somewhere of nowhere and it was quite seldom, that we crossed a village, or even town. Even to get a petrol station or little shops to get some water and food was not so easy.But we have survived :) But the scenery was amazing, the dry mountains around us! One evening we stayed at a truck stop. The cook could speak very bad English but we think that he was a soldier in the Iran-Irak war. He was quite fanatic. He always made some signs as to shoot at somebody and made "Rat-tat-tat". We didnt feel very comfortable at him. He ... read more

SatJan15 – Shanbe Well, I will keep the long details out of this day’s events. Suffice to say, I went terribly awry picking Reza to be my CS host. I will be much more careful in future. Consequence of this mistake was one long wasted Shanbe in Tehran. One thing of real value learned this day was how to grapple with taxi drivers over fares; the other was how to make use of the Tehran metro. This is clearly the cheapest means of getting around and it costs only about $1 per trip!!! Why use a taxi, except perhaps when lost? With ease of travelling with the metro now in hand, I make my way to the Bazaari district and then on to Golestan Palace; unfortunately, while this is a cheap tourist site, only 33,000IRR, the ... read more