Road to Mount Ararat, Border Crossing into IRAN

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Salam ! Its been some time since i last wrote something. I Capppadocia and headed towards Dogubayazit. To get there, I had to take a connecting bus to Kayseri where all the bigger buses were. Instead of resting at the Otogar (terminals) for 1 hr, I headed out to explore Kayseri instead. It was a Sunday so I guess many of the shops were closed. Walked through rows and rows of closed shops (mainly car shops) . Had a kind of glummy run down town look. But this was until I reached the city center. There, Everything burst into life and I think i had the best Turkish Ice Cream in Kayseri for only 1 LIRA ! Absolutely tastety, sticky and full of toppings. Woohoo. The streests were crowded with soo many pple. Rows after rows of ice cream shops. Didn't see any tourists so i guess i was kinda like an alien in the town and drew more stares and greetings from the locals more than usual. I guess my trip for here onwards is going to be like this of some sorts.

15 hrs later , after going through the night in the vast roads, armoured APCs and mountains at the sides, i reached the town of Dogubayazit. Imediately greeted with the twin peaks of MOUNT ARARAT. The belived resting place of Noah's ARK. Nearby was also the Ishak Pasa Palace which prob is worth a trip but i decided to leave that one out first. My aim was to go to IRAN.

SO i took a shared dolmus (mini bus) to Gurbulak/ Bazargan border. I actually went there without knowing if I could get in cause I had no VISA but i was really hopeful. Trip there was quick and some dude tried to rip me off with the currency exchange. Good thing I had a rough idea of the rates. Turkish side of the border, was pretty smooth. only a handful of turks and iranianas crossing over. But the immigration officer took quite long to check my passport using another passport as reference in his computer. He questioned why i didn't have a VISA. I had no reply to that. But he stamped it all the same.

Walked on a futher distance, i came to the line which was closed by a gate with an intimidating border guard behind it. I showed him my passport, he said " Where VISA?" i said " NO VISA". He said " NO VISA NO ENTER " and shoved me behind the gate. Heart kinda sank but i kept saying " Maylaysia, Singapore NO NEED VISA"....Technically we are given 15 day VISAS into IRAN but things at the BORDER might be a trickier issue. After a good 5 mins of badgering, he took my passport and went into the office behind him while i was left standing there. And then he came out and open the GATE...... I was in IRAn !

They stamped something in my passport and there i met my first Iraninan Lady friend. She spoke Perfect English and her name is Asraf. She explained the visa thing and took me to her office and gave me maps, currency exchange , information, greetings and everthing. Godsend!
And iran has been great so far. Strongly recommend singaporeans or actually, anyone to visit cause the people have been really forthcoming and helpful...straight from the heart. , The architecture is so beautiful ..its just a different place altogther from anywhere in the world. And things here are relatively cheap so.....think abt it.

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Comments

[haini]

okie so you are in Iran eh....hmmmm.... take care loads k....