Colourful spices on sale in Tehran
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Our tour guide Hassan joined us at the border he spoke very good English, journeying southeast on the well developed infrastructure of roads it would be impossible to not gain a feel for the vastness of the country, great plains and distant mountains, except for the occasional small domed buildings with a few dwellings nearby the scenery changed little for hundreds of miles; until we neared the cities. It was 8pm when we arrived at the Darya Hotel in Tabriz where we were able to exchange US Dollars for Rial the local currency; $100 could be exchanged for a pile of notes so huge it would not fit into a wallet. Iran was the start of long days on the bus, soaring temperatures, modest dress and head scarves, the boys could wear short sleeves but had to cover their knees, the girls had to cover just about everything including hair, this gave rise to many complaints which did become quite irritating, we were very fortunate that we had been allowed entry into Iran to experience what was a great empire.

In Zanjan we were dropped off in the town centre near the bazaar; the streets were busy and we attracted the usual attention. I went in search of refreshment with two other women, we entered a juice bar causing a little surprise as we entered the men’s side on realising our error we exited and went to the family side, we had to become accustomed to having restrictions imposed on us for a time. We returned to the bus where we waited for the crew, meanwhile quite a crowd gathered around us when I turned around I noticed we were encircled by a large crowd of men, I found this quite uncomfortable probably as a result of my previous stays in Iran during difficult times, when I was encouraged to view everyone with suspicion, to think nobody could be trusted and that I was never really very safe.

We were expecting to spend one night in Tehran but 20 passengers and crew had to obtain visas for Pakistan as they had not been issued in London, so that became two nights and 20 people became subjected to the farcical bureaucracy at the Pakistan embassy; while the rest of us wandered, I went with a friend to find the bazaar after walking in the wrong direction using the inaccurate map from the hotel we decided to get a taxi, as soon as we entered the bazaar we were pursued by a persistent carpet seller we spent some time trying to shake him off in the busy twists and turns. The bazaar was rather disappointing and full of cheap western junk it did not reflect the typical colourful Persian bazaars I had experienced before. Hassan was a very organised and knowledgeable tour guide but was obviously restricted to biased historical information; there was no reference to Shah Reza Pahlavi and no opportunity to visit his palaces, any place named after Shah Reza was renamed following the revolution, he appeared to be omitted from Iranian history! Whilst in Tehran we did visit The Golestan Palace, The National Museum of Iran and The Glass and Ceramics Museum where beautiful ancient Persian glass is exhibited; at last I had seen the ancient goose neck vases that influenced the designs of Louis Comfort Tiffany.

An ancient goose neck vase
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We decided we would have a special dinner before leaving Tehran and so we planned to eat at the restaurant in the Milad tower, a group of us piled into three taxis and embarked on an erratic hair raising drive through the Tehran rush hour traffic that lasts all day long, we thought it was a little strange to see what appeared to be a crane near the top of the tower, when we finally arrived it was to a building site the tower will be completed in 2009; a year late, we did not make a reservation!

We had an early start the next morning and a six hour drive to Esfahan, I had waited nearly thirty years to see this magnificent city with one of the largest city squares in the world, it did not disappoint me!

The bridges were a beautiful site after dark lighted arches and very busy with families out walking. Hassan was taking us on a walking tour of the bridges the next morning we had not gone far when on the Si-O-Se bridge one of the women in our group had an unfortunate accident, she was knocked over by a bicycle that was approaching from behind, she was knocked to the ground and landing very hard she banged her head leaving her dazed, the rapid swelling to her hand immediately indicated a serious injury, our guide was swift in moving helpful on lookers away and calling an ambulance, she was so brave and obviously in considerable pain, Hassan and Viv went off in the ambulance to make all the necessary arrangements for her care. The rest of us continued on the tour our thoughts and concerns were with our friend. The bridges in Esfahan are so beautiful and I wished that we had been able to stay in this city longer but we were scheduled to leave later that day; we did eventually leave but the bus was stuck in yet another coach park. We departed Esfahan with three spare seats!

Esfahan
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News reached us that our friend would be operated on the following day in a private clinic where she was being cared for; following a period of recovery on the advice of the consultant she would be returning home; we already missed her and her special brand of humour.

We were on our way to Yazd and at 9pm we arrived at the most fabulous hotel, decorated with beautiful Persian art, marble and carpets, we had beautiful rooms and some of us had a suite of rooms, sadly we had to leave here at 9am so the luxury was short lived but we did soak up as much as we could in twelve hours; and so it was on to Kerman. I went out for a walk in the afternoon on my own, this was good because I had lived for so many years with the myth that a European female was not really safe alone anywhere in Iran, I felt safe! I needed to send a parcel home with my camping equipment and a few things I had bought along the way, so off I went with a friend to find the post office which was not difficult to find, getting the contents listed and checked for customs was simple but I needed to go to a bank and exchange some Dollars as I did not have enough Rial to pay, not all banks were able to exchange Dollars, while I was sorting out my parcel we were having a conversation with a young air traffic controller from Esfahan, he explained where the bank was that I must go to, then he offered to take us so we accepted (I would not have accepted a lift if I had been alone), he delivered us to the bank, waited for us then returned us to the post office, he would not accept any money for fuel or for his trouble, he was just a kind, helpful young Iranian man and was typical of the people we met there.

We journeyed through barren desert where occasionally through the haze in the distance we would see a small green oasis with a few dwellings constructed of mud bricks; it is hard to imagine living in such a harsh and remote environment, so far from what we would consider essential facilities such as schools, doctors and shops, with temperatures that soar in the summer months and were already around 40°C.

There are power lines parallel to the highways across Iran so I imagine that some of these settlements if not all had a power supply at least. We were fortunate to visit Bam the city that was devastated by and earth quake in 2003, here we saw the re-construction in progress of Arg-e-Bam the ancient mud city a settlement that dates back 2000 years. The walled city was badly damaged and will take years to rebuild in the traditional materials but there was evidence in the remaining architectural features and sections already under reconstruction to indicate what a magnificent place it was prior to the earth quake.

Bam, Iran
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Our Belgian driver had now left us as his embassy would not grant him permission to obtain a visa for Pakistan because a fellow countryman had been kidnapped last year in the region we would be passing through. In Bam we were joined by our armed escort; they would remain with us until we reached the Pakistan border, we were warned not to take photographs of these men as they were endangering their lives ensuring our safety and although their faces were fairly well hidden they did not want to be identified, they wore military style dress but we didn’t know if they were police or soldiers. I don’t think any of us felt concerned about safety we did not feel unsafe but we had reached the stage of the journey when we were most at risk, it was really rather exciting having an armed escort. The guards changed at various military posts along the road and increased in number as we got nearer to Zahedan our next and final stop in Iran. Zahedan is the capital of Sistan va Baluchestan province and by all accounts is rather lawless , the town actually looked quite nice but we were warned to stay in the hotel as people do get kidnapped in the region so only the cooks went out with a guard to buy provisions for the next leg of the journey, the remainder of our escort were guarding the bus, so the most exciting things that happened here were the ‘Germans’ arriving and one of our men getting stuck in the lift, he was between floors and the doors were open so I’m afraid we took advantage of the situation and had a photo session.

The ‘Germans’ were a young couple who had been trailing us for about two weeks, we first met them in Turkey at a camp site and making their way across the world they were very keen to stay close to us on this particular stage of the journey for safety reasons; there was a slight comedy element about their presence, as we moved on nearly everyday leaving them behind, not expecting to see them again only to wake up in the morning and see their camper van parked beside our bus, this was usually the cue for ‘the Germans are here’ it became quite amusing bearing in mind we were living in a slightly surreal world so any opportunity for amusement was not allowed to pass, passing time on the bus involved our Ozbus version of I-spy, there was ‘fact of the day’ and sometimes a quiz, joining in was optional, the laughter was not, as we convulsed at the comments and antics that resulted which were far more entertaining than participating in any quiz!

As we left Zahedan and headed for the border our guards increased in number and they had some serious weaponry; I could see a rocket launcher from the rear of the vehicle; it’s strange but I was not alarmed by this or concerned I think we all felt safe because there was so many of us. The Iranian military presence was greater and more obvious as we got closer to the border; soldiers were positioned on roof tops and were armed with light support weapons. Hassan stayed with us to the border where he said goodbye seeing us safely out of Iran he hoped we would return one day for a classical tour of his country. The ‘Germans’ arrived at the border crossing with us, they appeared anxious as they were keen to get through and stick with us to Quetta.

I was one of only a few people who enjoyed Iran, the lack of alcohol had impaired the pleasure for the many. We had a good experience in Iran, Hassan had ensured we had been served with the best traditional dishes which sadly were not appreciated by everyone, but there is no pleasing some people. The people had been friendly and helpful; I had the opportunity to speak Farsi and was surprised at how much I could communicate after all those years, the reaction of the locals when hearing a western woman speaking their language was interesting. I did not feel unsafe or threatened at any time in Iran and I do have every intention of returning before very long as there is so much more to see.