Day 20 – Turkey – Iran

Friday 5th October 2007

A early start, tents packed for the last time in a while and on the road to Iran. After levelling the playing field for the stolen beers by “borrowing” some napkins, very useful due to the lack of loo roll in this part of the world. Apparently the locals use their left hand and a jug of water, not a custom any of us have opted for yet! We reached the border for Iran and after a couple of hours or so we had changed a few hundred euro’s into a few million Rial and found salt and vinegar crisps for the first time since London then it was back on the bus and into Iran!

Our first day of Iran was to consist of meeting our Iranian guide, introducing ourselves to her, hearing about Iran and the traditions, the girls having to wear headscarves and the boys long trousers and tops. We were told how friendly the locals would be and arrived at Tabriz, our stop for the night.

The hotel was a little run down but offered beds, showers, electricity and other such luxuries so we dropped our bags discussed who had an en suite toilet and who had an en suite squat and went in search of dinner. Now with our guides assurances that this would be a friendly place two of the girls stepped out onto the street to have a look around and were propositioned by several men who tried to get them into their cars and quickly rejoined the main group. Two restaurants refused point blank to serve us and we ended up in a pizza parlour, again! A quick stop at the Internet Café and it was back to the hotel for some kip, tomorrow and Tehran beckons!