Desert Update
elyobo — Thu, 28/05/2009 - 7:54pm
After all the visa hassles, it was satisfying to finally see the visa in my passport (this time with a photo included - Iranian visas are going upmarket!). We bolted straight for the bus station, only to find that the 15:30 bus was cancelled for the day. We were redirected to a bus to Agri, about three quarters of the way to Dogubayazit and the Iranian border, where we hoped to get a bus the rest of the way.
The trip east took us along the bottom of wide, green valleys, with mountains rising to either side. Thick clouds piled up above them as we travelled and the setting sun cast the most incredible light on the hills and valleys. It was one of those times that I really regret the budget travel style; having our own transport would have allowed us to stop and try (and most likely fail) to capture the views.
As it turned out, we were stuck in Agri for the evening, so we settled in, hunted down our evening meal of pide and melemen and crashed for the evening. A quick bus trip, stop to post postcards (well, for June to post them), change money in Dogubayazit and onwards to the border. We were lucky enough to arrive at the same time as the Istanbul to Tehran bus (a brutal 40 hour journey, apparently), which took us onwards from the border to Tabriz.
We've followed an abbreviated version of the route I took back in early 2007, as we're limited in our time here (flights out of Jordan are in less than a month now). Quickly through Tabriz, Tehran, Kashan, Esfahan, Shiraz and now we're in Yazd. Inflation here has been the real eye opener for me. It's 25% overall and many things seem to have doubled in cost instead.
We have 27 days until we fly out of Amman now, so the remaining time we have must be spent carefully, given that we need to transit through Turkey and Syria again en route (and would like to visit a couple of things on the way through as well). There was once a Tehran to Damascus train, a thing of legend at around 60 hours, but we're not convinced that it really exists. We'd fly back to Syria, but without visas we probably wouldn't even be allowed to board; that aside, flights in this part of the world (outside Iran, anyway) are expensive, and you miss the countryside along the way.
I've added quite a few more photos for Esfahan and Shiraz, as well as the panoramas scattered around this post. During my six weeks or so of post-holiday recovery in Thailand I'll compile some sort of best of collection. If you want to have a copy of anything, just ask and I'll send through a full size copy (or you can grab it off me when I'm back in NZ or AU).
It's 35 degrees outside and climbing to 39, with 9% humidity. I'm off to hide in the aircon.
