In such a short time it seems I’ve already seen so much and yet there is still always down time. That’s the joy of travel I suppose. You can set your own pace. Or at least your dependencies can. But first an update.
The Jewelry Museum (housed in the Reserve Bank of Iran) is incredible. Firstly, just to get in the place is a lesson in extreme security. No phones, cameras, anything. Then three, I kid you not – three, metal scanners. You then descend into a vaulted room underground. All of this is a great prelude to what is ti behold. And that is an absolute stunning collection of jewels in all forms – jewel encrusted swords, a throne, wearable jewelry, crowns… it is spectacular. The diamond in one crown was I think twice the size of the one in Queen of Englands crown and a slightly purplish colour rendering it far more valuable so the proud guide informed us. I’d be proud too. It was an experience worth encountering.
The following day I took in the Golestan Palace. Again, majestic in every sense: one pavillion showing the gifts of other nations, one for paintings, one full of intricate mirrors on the walls and ceilings, one with an historical enthnographic display (so many enthnicities in this region), one with Persian carpets on display (maybe I could have skipped the Carpet Museum after all) and a number of others. Then of course there are the beautiful manicured gardens through which one walks. It was nice to relax at the cafe as tourists, both local and foreign, made their way around the grand complex.
On my walk back to the hotel, I headed via the motoring district. As I mentioned earlier, stores are clumped together according to their wares. Makes sense. Except I made the huge mistake of walking past the lighting stores this evening on my way to dinner. Mental note: only pass them during the day to avoid permanent retina damage. As I was saying, I was in the motoring district. On the hunt for a jerry can to take to the airport to put fuel in my bike ready to ride out of the cargo terminal. I entered a lubricants store and they were most helpful. As it turned out, the owner was there. He also happens to own a factory that produces the Iranian equivalent of WD-40. The packaging is identical except it will be called something like VVD-40 which is quite humourous. Another one was WD-460. Anyway, the kind gent gave me a sample, a container for my fuel and an octane booster (for the crappy fuel quality which I’m still uncertain as to whether it will be an issue or not) all for free. It was a very nice gesture which I appreciated. With that sorted, I felt all set and ready to pick up my motorbike the next day.
The next day. Today. Monday. Ordered a taxi from hotel reception. Even though I had a jerry can in my hand and google translate at my disposal, you can’t begin to imagine how hard it is to explain to people that you are going to the airport to pick up your motorbike and you want to get fuel on the way. Nevertheless, the objective was achieved and my driver and I were on our way.
Fortunately, there is a good sign at the airport saying where the Cargo Terminal is, but from there good luck. I went to the Iranian Air Cargo terminal which seemed to be the only one and it was where I was meant to be as they act on behalf of Thai Cargo.
All signs in Farsi, but found a guy. People everywhere doing random stuff. Staff, customers, who knows. Anyway, being deficient in the local language can sometimes work in your favour. This guy was sitting in a prime spot and being ushered through to him meant I probably saved quite a bit of time. Apologies locals. He spoke English quite well and looked up the system and said it hadn’t cleared customs yet. Said it’s not efficient like the west. Only got in last night so might take 2-3 days to clear. He wasn’t sure. I tried to ask about “express” options. No go. He gave me a number to call them each day and check. Emailed my freight guy Mark in Brisbane and he said he’d check with Thai from his end on proceedings.
Went outside and saw a lone cab, jumped in and we drove off. About a km away, I told him to stop. Thought I would try my luck further. Turned around and went back to the customs building. If the Cargo Terminal was devoid of signs, this was worse. One exception, there was a single sign that pointed to the different offices on different floors, but when you got to them they would only be labelled in Farsi. Anyway, no one there seemed to have a clue. Almost caused more trouble. Had ladies helping me trying to understand. One took me to a manager. He redirected me back to air freight. She thought my situation was irregular with a valuable import. I just kept explaining it wasn’t an import and I had permit etc… she kind of got it. It was like no one had heard of it being done before, which I guess is fair enough. The scary part was their line of thinking suggesting it couldn’t be done!
Walked past my taxi man outside and asked him to wait again. Felt bad. He seemed ok.
Then back in air cargo the woman from customs who escorted me (such a nice lady) knew another woman. Kind of like a private agent. Just ran into her basically. She was gonna help. The first woman pulled me aside and said “look she probably wants to charge you US$100 to help you. I think that is too much. Maybe after you get upstairs tell her you don’t need her help anymore”. I thanked her and agreed. She was so sweet. The irony is that I get the distinct feeling that the other woman might have made the situation worse.
So back we were at air cargo counter. Went and found the same guy. (We were in the vicinity and the last thing I wanted was for my new “agent” lady to make things worse.) Went to him again because he spoke English and he seemed to know what was going on. Apologized for wasting his time and explained how I dropped into Customs to find out how long clearance would take and we ended up back here. He was very nice and polite and said it was ok. Nevertheless, instructions didn’t change.
So got back to the lone taxi and came back to town. At first I was slightly despondent, but then not too bad. Hindsight of course is a wonderful thing. Getting the bike in same day as me would have been fine. But who is to know? The trouble is if it doesn’t clear Wednesday then the weekend is Thurs/Fri so it would mean waiting til Saturday! I’ve basically seen the things I wanted to here and everything is a huge distance away and more expensive than being on the road (Have to get cabs a lot. It’s cheap – $5, but everything adds up. Museums, food, visas, hotel is about $60 I think, so maybe $100+ per day). It’s not the end of the world, but I’m keeping an eye on cash supplies and the time I have remaining to do the ride. After all, dates are critical. The extra days here in Tehran make things more challenging.
Tomorrow I will pick up Uzbek visa (got Letter of Introduction today after a one week wait from online procedure back home). Then I have to contend with Turkmenistan transit visa. That one is a real roll of the dice. I apply here and then hopefully pick up the visa in Mashad. Lots and lots of people are getting rejected! I won’t know for some time… so if it happens then I’ll need to scoot over to Azerbaijan (North West) and get the ferry to Kazakhstan. (Some Aussie guy did it the other day on a motorbike.) We shall see. The hours one spends researching visas is staggering. Fortunately, there are some excellent online forums otherwise I can’t begin to imagine how hard the task would be. Weirdly, it is the single biggest stress right now. Even more than the bike. I think it’s because it is an enormous uncertainty. You can’t go East (Afghanistan), you can’t go South West (Iraq) and so other than a ferry to Dubai (wrong direction), you really only have Azerbaijan as an option if Turkmenistan is off limits (Well, maybe Turkey is an option). Believe me, many, many people get rejected. And then the time is tight. Because my Uzbek visa has set dates, I’ll be struggling if I don’t get the Turkmen visa within the prescribed 10 days. Ah the joys. I will post more specifically on visas and border crossings in the weeks come and I will certainly be providing my feedback to the forums that have been immensely helpful for me thus far. All I can say is thank God for Azerbaijan. It may be my path to freedom. Nevertheless, time for sleep. Need to be rested for the challenges tomorrow may bring!