Sunday, January 18, 2009

Iran - the wrap

Highlight
The people. I had expected Persopolis to be the highlight, but I was underwhelmed. Gotta say that Palmyra is way better.

Decent cups of Coffee
0. None. Nyet. Nada.
I've been reduced to "3 in one" Nescafe coffee mix to provide warmth and sustenance.

Amusing events
Way too many. But here's one.
The overnight bus from Tabriz to Kermanshah was supposed to be an "overnight" bus and get in at about 7am. Umm no. At 4am we pulled in to the outskirts of Kermanshah, it's snowing and it's very dark. OK, so need to find a taxi and a hotel, because I am not sitting by the side of the road in the snow at 4am - even in Iran.
Using a taxi involved getting a $1.50 voucher - "seems civilized and fair" I thought. But the chubby faced, smiling, curly haired Kurdish taxi driver insisted on extorting more money out of me - away from the taxi voucher stand, he just pulled over and said "more money" with a smile on his face. "oh well" I thought, "at least he is robbing me with a smile", and because it was in the middle of nowhere, snowing, 4am and very dark I paid up (about $3).
So we went to the hotel. Closed, with no sleeping guard in the lobby (as one would expect). I was happy to sit outside and wait. But my taxi driver (prob feeling guilty for extorting money out of me) insisted that I get back into cab and check out another hotel. Closed. Repeat 4 times. Another extortion of money out me (his guilt must have been running low by this point) and we went to the 4* hotel - not where I wanted to stay but this driving around was getting ridiculous and I figured they would definately have a guard. They did. But he refused to let me in. By this point, completely fed up I got my bag out and sat on my bag, in the snow, outside the guardhouse. This caused great consternation for both the taxi driver and guard - both got very animated in farsi. But this lady wasn't for moving. So, with defeat in his eyes the guard opened the gate and let me into the lobby of the hotel where I kipped on a chair til the staff turned up at 7.

Random moments
Small town, dust everywhere and no-one speaking english I got into a "conversation" with an old toothless guy, and 2 of his mates, while waiting for a bus. This involved, pointing at a map of iran, sharing some biscuits and alot of smiling. Eventually we moved onto where was I from - this is done (generally) by a person pointing at you and saying "Deutsh?, Ingliz?". "Australian" I said. Ah, Australia. The he jumps up and starts miming soccer, then pumps his arm in the air (slowly - he was pretty old) and says "Iran - Australia". "Ah", I realise, they beat us in a soccer game about 10 years ago and he's reminding me of that. Bless.

Best miming effort
The spag bol I had eaten a couple of days before must have had MSG in it. (Go figure?) And I had come up in a terrible itchy rash that I get when I eat too much MSG. My antihistimine tablets were not cutting it so off to the chemist I went. Managed to mine eating something, then pointed to the open sores on my arms and started miming scratching, and put on a very sad face. "Ah" the lightbulb went off in the shopkeeps eyes, and I was sent on my way with some (very effective) creams and tablets for about 50c. Happy backpacker again.


Anyway I had a ball in Iran. Highly recommended.

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