Driving to Teheran

25/7

After my German friends left I was all alone in this deserted campsite by the Caspian sea. It actually was kind of nice to be by my self for a night.

But that only lasted so long, I forgot that the Iranians have a different rythem and that they leave the house at night and take the family to various parks for a picknic/dinner. Obviously no exception this night and in a few hours it was packed with family’s having picknic and swimming in the sea.

I went down to the beach (50m walk) to have a look around and on my way I met a family that was done with the swimming and they invited me to eat watermelon with them and before we even sat down they invited me to have dinner with them and celibate their sons 14th birthday that same evening. Of course I happily accepted the invetation. When we where done with the watermelon it was time to head off.

Now the third police car of the day(the 4h i had been there) showed up but this time a Toyota land cruiser in stead of one of the domestic cars they usually drive, and the officer that got out of the passenger side hade a much nicer uniform than the previous ones. The police started talking to the owner of the campsite and the manager also joined, they walked over to me speaking farsi with each other, now the men of the family I was going to dinner with joined and the daughter Negar who is fluent in English. A total of 8 people were having a heated discussion (according to my western standards) about me in farsi and I had no idea what was going on. I was asked to show my passport. The discussion went on for about 10-15 min and then the police officer looked at me(for the first time), smiled, shook my hand and said “welcome to Iran” then he left. I still had no idea what was going on but Negar explained to me that I was forbidden to leav the campsite until the next day, for my own safety. So we waited a few minutes befor we left for dinner.

I asked how far drive it was to there hotel and was told it was about 20min, so 45min later we arrived.

I keep forgetting that Iranians live after a different food clock than in Sweden so when we arrived at just befor 9pm I thought it was dinner time. It wasn’t. So I hade time to get to know Negar a bit more and when she was getting reddy for dinner I was left in the care of her mother, grandmother and two aunt’s.

At 11:30 pm the Dinner was served and at 1am the birthday cake was served.

I had a great evening and that night I slept in the locked parking of the hotel.

The morning after I had breakfast with the family and they insisted that I visit them when I come to Esfahan (where they live). I said goodbye to everyone and drove off.

After 15-20 min of driving I realized that I hade several missed calls from Negar and when I called her back she informed me that I had forgotten my passport that I had to leave to the hotel the night before. So I thought it would be a good idé to turn around and pick it up.

Negar and I took a selfie when I picked my passport

Since I was back in town I decided to find a car wash since I hadn’t washed the car since I left Sweden 6500km ago. Finally found one that was open and would wash it for me. After trying to charging me tourist price we agreed on an acceptable amount. They then proved to be the most unprofessional professionals ever, and after refusing the result 5 times and showing them how to do there job I finally got sick of it and wanted to leav, then they suddenly wanted more money from me because it took so long time. I argued that the car wasn’t clean and I shouldn’t pay anything at all, at this time another customer (who spoke good English) jumped in to my aid and at least made sure I didn’t need to pay any more.

As I was leaving a car rolled up and out came 4 young guys who had seen my car from the road, and asked if they could take a selfie with me naturally I said yes. As we were done and they where leaving one of the guys turned around and came back to me and said if I needed any help in Teheran I should call him and he gave me his number. This was very convenient since Teheran was my next stop and I want to fix my AC when I’m there.

Now it’s really about time to leve since I have a minimum of 6h to drive and it’s late afternoon.

The mountain pass on my way to Teheran is breathtaking. What a road!

I love countrys where traffic rules are more of a guideline than actual rules. You know the smal things like right hand trafick, standing at the red light for the entire duration of red or lights on your vehicle, (if you even bother having any at all, even at night) they can be any color you like, front and back and blink in any combination you like.

But the traffic on this road was terrifying even for me, a narrow winding mountain road with only blind corners and there could be 5-10 cars in a line in the opposite lane overtaking, past several blind corners. I knew that soon there will be oncoming traffic and it will be a massive crash!

When I finally came down from the mountain alive and well, it turns out that on Friday evenings (Thursdays and Fridays are the weekend here in Iran) the mountain pass is a one way street to be able to accommodate all the trafick going back to Teheran after the weekend. After a very long drive including quite a few stops for photos and food I finally made it to Teheran, where I got stuck in the 2am rush hour, and then got lost. But eventually I reached my goal for the day Imam Khomeini Shrine and it’s time to sleep at 4am.

Till next time, drive safe!

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