Iran pt 2

Salam!
Well Shiraz was pretty rubbish. That is to say that we had a rubbish time in Shiraz. We started by spending over 2 hours in the hospital to get some anti-biotics for Rhona, even though She knew exactly what she needed. It was quite an experiance just not being able communicate with anyone, and trying to understand what we needed to do. Luckily, again an English speaking man called Muhammed who was visiting his brother in the hospital came to our help when sorting things out. He then took us out to an amazing ice-cream shop for ice-creams. Yummy, but he was meant to be showing us where the internet cafe was... The only Internet cafe that was open was painfully slow, and wouldn't let us onto our blog which was quite annoying. We did a lot of walking around in 35 degree sun heat aswell, as unlike Esfahan, the trees here are not very big and don't seem to cast much shade anywhere. We needed to get shopping, but were getting quite annoyed with being constantly ripped off, and not having the knowledge, confidance, or Arabic literacy to deal with it. Hot and bothered, we just wanted to drop it all and get back home to the campsite. There didn't seem to be much going for Shiraz, there is a big fort right in the central square which we didn't have time to look around, but the rest just seemed to be streets packed full of rather camp mens fashion shops.

We decided to stay a third night at the campsite to get our energy back from being pretty much non stop since we left UK, and to do a few things on the van. We went into the local town - Marv Dasht to try again to post the blog, but being a Friday obviously all the shops and the one internet cafe there were shut for prayers. Never mind, we managed to get some supplies and we will try the blog again in Yazd the next day. The last couple of days have definately been a bit of a low point, but we are putting that behind us and are looking forward to Yazd and onward. It was nice to meet other 'overlanders', and indeed quite surreal to think of ourselves as part of this elite group of people. It seems that whilst you are in Europe you are classed as campers, but once you've crossed into Iran you officially become an 'overlander'...! It is really exciting to hear where other people from different countries have been and are going to, and the stories that come out of it. We are a bit worried though as most other people we have seen are all in 4x4 Landrovers, Land Cruisers or even more hardcore vehicles. We are quite smug about the amount of extra space we have in our plumbers van compared to those cramped things though!

Yazd was very nice, but possibly the best bit about it was the hotel whose car park we slept in... Yazd is one of the oldest still inhabited cities in the world, and the 'Silk Road Hotel' is right slap bang in the middle of it. The buildings are all made of sun dried mud bricks, layered over with more mud, so are suprisingly cool inside. it's amazing to think that all these houses made of mud, amoung miles of narrow streets are so old! The hotel looked like a bit of a wreck from the outside, but through the door and along a passage takes you into the most amazing tiled courtyard with a fountain in the middle, plants, and sitting areas under the shade. Very relaxing. It is obviously a bit of a travellers hang out, as there were overlanders, backpackers, and travellers from all different countries staying there. It seems to be a place where people arrive at and then decide to stay for a while, and we can see why. We met more people who have similar positive stories about Pakistan so that was encouraging. The actual car park was a bit grotty though, hot, dusty, and no breeze. There was a very nice air conditioned roof top terrace with internet access though, so we stayed there most of the day.

We mentioned briefly earlier that we thought that the pollution here was bad, but it is actually quite a serious problem for Iran. No one walks anywhere here, anyone who's anyone has an old motorbike which they ride like lunatics around all the cities. Basically, because petrol is virtually free, the cost of motoring is the cost of an old bike and that's it. Cars, lorries and bikes never get serviced, so are horrifically dirty, and the result brings tears to your eyes. The brown smog with a sign saying 'Tehran' next to it was no joke!

For your comprehension we have compiled a brief list of Iranian driving rules (there aren't many):
1. Drive on the right hand side.

exceptions: Motorbikes - please drive on the left hand side

Reversing - it's fine to reverse down the wrong side of a dual carriageway if you need to

Convenience - If it will be quicker for you to drive on the left then do so

2. Beep your horn continually.

exceptions: ...

3. Whoever beeps their horn first has right of way. If both are at the same time, then whoever has the loudest horn has right of way.

exceptions: Lorries have right of way

Motorbikes have no rights, just drive as if they aren't there

4. A red light warns you that you no longer have a clear junction, you now have to push your way through cross traffic just like any usual junction.

5. Try not to let pedestrians out to cross the road, they are very slow and hold you up. If one does indicate intention to cross, then accelerate and swing towards them.

On a side line, but equally as important, Rhona wants everyone to know that she is too hot.

After Yazd we drove to Kerman, and stayed a night there in the car park of of fancy hotel, very pleasant. After Kerman we drove to Bam which was sadly all but destroyed by a tragic earthquake on boxing day 2003, that killed over 31,000 people. We found our way to 'Akbar Tourist Guest House' (with the help of a friendly taxi driver), and were very warmly welcomed with tea and dates. May have preffered ice cold water though as we are down to a mere 1150m altitude and it was 41 degrees outside. The hostel is being rebuilt as it was destroyed in the earthquake, during which 3 of the people who were staying here died, and the temporary rooms are rather basic. We are now in the zone that the foreign office advises against going to, as about 6 months ago a Japanese tourist was kidnapped from his hotel here, infact our hotel as it turns out, and as a result a lot of tourists have avoided the area. Our friendly host Akbar is very blase about it though, ironically as he picks up the phone to inform the police that we are here, and tells us that if we want to go anywhere we have to be escorted by them. We did want to go somewhere as it happens, the 'Arg-e Bam', which is an ancient citadel made entirely from mud. So once again Akbar got onto the phone to the police, and moments later, a battered old police car turned up with no less than 3 officers armed with AK47s! We squeezed in the back, barrels up our noses, at which point Rhona said, "Ooo, I've never been in a police car before, how exciting!", and they drove us to the citadel, walked around it with us, then gave us a quick drive around it before taking us home again! It was rather strange having armed shadows, but we imagined no one would bother trying to kidnap us!

The citadel was quite something, a sight definately rivalling Persepolis! We were very glad that we came out here. It dates back a couple of thousand years, but was also sadly rather flattened by the earthquake. What is left is still a vast complex city with cobbled streets, huge mud-brick walls, intricate houses with domed roofs and arched doorways. There is a fairytale castle in the middle on a jutting bastion of rock which is very dramatic. It has large gatehouses, towers, and steps, passages and rooms running up the rock all the way to the top still remaining. Around the city there are large piles of debris from when walls, houses and archways collapsed, which gives it a bit of an untouched feel, (added to by the fact that we (and our body gaurds) were the only people there). A long drawn out restoration is in progress which could take quite a while. We thought that it was quite an amazing sight as it was, and probably one of the most impressive ruins we have ever seen, but we have seen pictures of it before the earthquake looking so complete, as though it was just built yesterday, it must have been one of the most incredible sights in the world! What a tragedy to have lasted so long and then to be destroyed so quickly.

The following day was a day of utter frustration. We had to have a compulsory police escort all the way to the Pakistan border (about 300 miles), but what that entailed was a police car would lead us to the end of the road then stop us and call for another car to take us a bit further. This process happened 12 times, so there was quite a lot of waiting. Out of Bam city was into the Dasht-e Lut Desert, which at 10AM was 43 degrees C, and the police cars turned in to camouflage Toyota pickups with masked gunmen in the back. We wondered if we would be able to tell the difference between our army escort or the taliban if they started following us... There were some cool sand dunes though. Our plan was to get to the border and cross it that day, spend the night on the Pakistan side of the border, then get up early the next morning to cross the vast Baluchistan desert, arriving in Quetta late that evening. We knew the border closed at 5, so we gave ourselves pleanty of time and left at 7:45am to hopefully arrive at 2 or 3, but only about 50kms from the border, we were stopped for our last changeover, but this time we were kept waiting for 1 1/2 hours in the middle of the day before we were taken on. We arrived at 4:00 to find that the border was closed because it was some public holiday, and all week the border closes at 3:30 instead of 5 as usual, How annoying! Two bad concequences came out of this, the 1st one was that the border didn't open until 9 the next morning, allow 1 1/2 hours to get through it, then add 1 1/2 hours for entering Pakistan time zone, and we won't be able to set off until mid-day in Pakistan, which makes it a bit touch and go to get all the way to Quetta! The second was that Rhona had a phone interview from New Zealand at 9:00 that morning, but we decided that we would have to leave before that if we were to give ourselves a chance of getting through the border that day. Of course we were stopped in the middle of the desert by the police with no signal, and they wouldn't wait around for anything, so we couldn't get the call. We could have just left later and Rhona might have had a job. So very frustrated we waited in the intense desert heat and camped literally outside the passport control building with the dogs! We were joined at one stage by a very large Iranian truck driver who we thought looked like Fred Flintstone, he didn't speak a word of English, but just chatted away to us all evening which was very pleasant. He just wanted to look after us and kept buying us cold drinks, as he couldn't believe that we didn't have air con in our van. The following day he was to be of enourmous assistance to us.

So we leave Iran with mixed feelings, on the one hand, most of the people seem extremely friendly and welcoming, some are astoundingly generous and gracious, and some of the sights are quite spectacular. On the other hand, it is very hot, and bound by strict Islamic law. We saw an official sign by the border saying "We want nothing...except for the enforcement of Islamic law all around the world", and there is a definate heavyness carried by the people because of this. There are also pockets of people that seem to have quite an anti-western mind set, as one of our police escorts to the border told us in no uncertain sign language that English people are the same as Americans and they get shot around here! Nice! We have found the food here to be so-so, and really fed up with that...bread! Just get me a bowl of crunchy nut cornflakes with COLD milk!

So tomorow we are heading into Pakistan and probably the most worrying part of the trip for us. It is also our point of no return, as any point up until now we could turn tail and head back to UK, but once we have left Iran we won't be able to get back in, and there is no other way round. We will have to make it through the Baluchistan desert, and we can't say "I don't like Pakistan, I want to go home" if it gets a bit heavy, we have to get all the way to New Zealand!

Total distance: 6352 miles

Max temp: 44 degrees C