Cycling through Iran, towards Turkey
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Grassy ass!
Showing posts with label Iran. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iran. Show all posts
Tuesday, 24 January 2017
Iran: Cycling towards Turkey
Our Donations page is still open until June if it tickles your fancy to donate to a cause which needs more focus in Ireland.
https://give.everydayhero.com/ie/bikebackhome
Grassy ass!
Wednesday, 11 January 2017
Iran: Hospitable and Hot
I can confirm that August is the wrong month to cycle through Iran! Hot as the flames of hell!
Our Donations page is still open until June if it tickles your fancy to donate to a cause which needs more focus in Ireland.
https://give.everydayhero.com/ie/bikebackhome
Grassy ass!
Thursday, 11 August 2016
Welcome to Iran
'Welcome to Iran' is shouted out the windows of almost every car that passes us. People in the street say it to us too, followed by 'What is your country?'. This question is usually followed with 'How do you like Iran?', an easy question to answer - we love it here. What's not so easy to answer however is when they shyly ask next 'Why do people from the west think we are all terrorists?' Why indeed.
Neither Nick nor I have ever been anywhere where the welcome has been so big, so widespread and so overwhelming in its sincerity. We have stayed in countless Iranian families homes, we have been fed and watered and not a day has gone by where we haven't received something free of charge. The welcome is huge and across the board: children and adults; city folk and country folk; rich and poor Iranians. They seem delighted to have people visit their country and ignore the 'black news', the bad press this country seems to generate in the western media. They do their utmost to help us and leave us with lasting good impressions, to hopefully go home and spread the word. Which we will, we tell anyone who asks. The hospitality and friendliness towards us isn't just a bid to change the country's awful reputation abroad though. It seems to be an inbuilt characteristic of Iranians. They are a family and community oriented people, and if you enter into their community it seems you get treated as part of it. It's not a need or a task they feel they must perform. It's a default response and they seem to get as much happiness and joy out of the interactions with us as we do with them.
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| Our taxi from the airport. 3 people, 3 bikes....no bother! |
Neither Nick nor I have ever been anywhere where the welcome has been so big, so widespread and so overwhelming in its sincerity. We have stayed in countless Iranian families homes, we have been fed and watered and not a day has gone by where we haven't received something free of charge. The welcome is huge and across the board: children and adults; city folk and country folk; rich and poor Iranians. They seem delighted to have people visit their country and ignore the 'black news', the bad press this country seems to generate in the western media. They do their utmost to help us and leave us with lasting good impressions, to hopefully go home and spread the word. Which we will, we tell anyone who asks. The hospitality and friendliness towards us isn't just a bid to change the country's awful reputation abroad though. It seems to be an inbuilt characteristic of Iranians. They are a family and community oriented people, and if you enter into their community it seems you get treated as part of it. It's not a need or a task they feel they must perform. It's a default response and they seem to get as much happiness and joy out of the interactions with us as we do with them.
Saturday, 23 July 2016
Onwards, with a Unfortunate Change of Route
As I wrote in my previous post...
We’ve been in Dushanbe for a week now and have successfully got our Uzbeki and Iranian visas. They are relatively straightforward to get. The Turkmen one on the other hand is notoriously time consuming, and even then, not guaranteed. We’ve to go back to the embassy on Thursday (21st July) and it should be issued to us then but we aren’t holding our breath…we’ve heard plenty of horror stories and loads of people that have just give up on it and re route instead. If we don't get it, our only option will be to fly over Turkmenistan, which we are not particularly keen to do! Just thinking about boxing up the bikes for a flight gives me a headache, so fingers crossed we get the visa and we'll be back in the saddle on Friday!
....and yet here we are, still in Dushanbe, on Saturday.
When we went to the embassy on Thursday, the man made a quick call to someone in Ashgabat to enquire about our visa status, hung up the phone and shook his head. So that was that. No Turkmenistan visa. So we did the only thing we could, which was to book a flight from here to Tehran, which leaves tomorrow.
We’ve been in Dushanbe for a week now and have successfully got our Uzbeki and Iranian visas. They are relatively straightforward to get. The Turkmen one on the other hand is notoriously time consuming, and even then, not guaranteed. We’ve to go back to the embassy on Thursday (21st July) and it should be issued to us then but we aren’t holding our breath…we’ve heard plenty of horror stories and loads of people that have just give up on it and re route instead. If we don't get it, our only option will be to fly over Turkmenistan, which we are not particularly keen to do! Just thinking about boxing up the bikes for a flight gives me a headache, so fingers crossed we get the visa and we'll be back in the saddle on Friday!
....and yet here we are, still in Dushanbe, on Saturday.
When we went to the embassy on Thursday, the man made a quick call to someone in Ashgabat to enquire about our visa status, hung up the phone and shook his head. So that was that. No Turkmenistan visa. So we did the only thing we could, which was to book a flight from here to Tehran, which leaves tomorrow.
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