FIRST DAY IN TEHRAN, IRAN

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TEHRAN IRAN February 27.2017

Well after two days of flying, we saw the lights of Tehran. It was about 4:30 am and the sun was just rising on the horizon. As we got nearer to the airport, there was a denser layer of white smog covering the city. The tall mountains north of the city were covered with snow.

As we landed a little car with flashing light on top and a “FOLLOW ME” sign in the back pulled in front of the plane. There were no ground crew holding red lights guiding the plane it. We arrive at the jetway and got off the plane. The plane was not full. Only four people in first class. Coach was only about 1/3 full. The signs leading you in to the officials were clearly marked. There were about 5 or 6 posts for Iranian passports and one for foreigners. About 10 foreigners were in line. Most were single men. There was one woman. They processed the people ahead of us quickly. When we got up to the policeman, he ran our passports through the computer. He then told us to wait a minute. He left his cubicle and came back in several minutes with two sheets of paper which he began filling out. With out passports in his hand he told us to follow him. Now this had not happened to anyone else. So we followed him. He told us to wait standing in the middle of the floor.. All of the other passengers had now cleared immigration. The police officer talked to another officer and the two of them went into a room with a copier and copied our passports and the papers that they had filled out. They then came out and handed us out passports and walked away. We went down stairs and went to baggage claim. Ours were the only suitcases sitting there. I went to pick up mine, and a man stopped me and asked for tickets. I turned to Dennis and said he wants to see the claim checks. Dennis handed him our claim checks and he proceeded to study the bar codes and then said yes we could take our luggage. We left with our suitcases ad were met by our driver outside of the glass partition. He took Dennis’ suitcase from him and I was left pushing my two suitcases. I am getting used to the way that women are treated. Its not that we are mistreated, we are just invisible. But maybe it wad because the only thing I had to use for a scarf was my pajama top from first class on British Air.

We arrived at our hotel to find that we did not have a room reserved even though we had paid for it in advance. However I sat down in a chair and let Dennis and or driver take care of it. It was quickly resolved and we got a room. The room is adequate but warm. It is impossible to get it cooled off. The green arrow taped to the ceiling pointing to Mecca is an interesting touch. We napped and then had a nice rom service dinner. Turned in about 9pm.

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