Sorry for the slow blog updates folks! Our blog system has been down, and we haven't had any power on our laptop, so it’s slightly problematic to update you other than via our Instagram, Facebook and Twitter channels.
In this blog post we will try to highlight some of the things that are a bit tricky to take pictures of, but has been exciting to experience nevertheless.
We entered Iran on the 3rd of August. The road from southern Armenia to the border was…. interesting. The combination of heat and heavy trucks had carved a trail in the tarmac that was so deep that our sumpguard hit the middle ridge if we just followed the trail. The solution (one which we are far to familiar with by now) is simply to balance one set of wheels on of the ridges and tilt the car. Not very comfy, but saves the underside of our car!
The border was the longest border crossing we’ve experienced so far. In the early stages of planning the Mongol Rally we decided not to purchase a Carnet de Passage (a type of temporary import license for the car) in the UK, and rather haggle with a fixer at the border. It turns out that bargaining is quite efficient when your convoy consist of 12 cars and 1 motorbike who are purchasing the Carnet’s altogether. In the end we spent 7 hours crossing the border and getting all the paperwork done, but the actual stamp-in-passport was surprisingly hazzle free (took approximately 1 hour 30 min).
Once we got to Tabriz we quickly realized that Iran was a completely different beast in terms of traffic. Trying to convoy 13 vehicles through a city of a couple of million people on a 3 lane motorway (3 lanes apparently means that there’s room for 6 cars next to one another) turned out to be a non-starter. The convoy ended up scattered, and we got to our hotel around midnight. Lights were out instantly.
Two days later, we arrived in Teheran in 46C heat. Trying to acclimatise we’d decided to not use the aircon, so it was windows down with a 100kph on the motorway. Teheran turned out to be as chaotic and charming in it’s own way as we’d hoped, and we watched in disbelief as we walked down one street filled with just lamp shops, another one just with shops selling workshop tools, and a third selling only electronics.
We also experienced just how big an impact the sanctions have on the Iranian economy. Exchanging USD at the official rate in a bank would have given us 40.000 rials per dollar, whilst we by asking a regular shop owner got 118.000 rials per dollar. The reason: the dollar is stable and Iranians are worried that their economy will collapse or at least deteriorate rapidly if the sanctions are upheld.
From Teheran we drove to Qalebala, a traditional Persian village on the mountainside in the middle of a desert. We enjoyed a home cooked Persian dinner on the floor on Persian carpets, and slept under the stars on top of the building.
Lastly we want to mention how incredibly friendly the Iranian people is. No matter where we went, people who were extremely welcoming greeted us. We often experiences Iranian cars (all Peugeots btw) coming up next to us on the motorway, hunk at us and wave happily. Sometimes they would even roll down their windows, and we’d try to have a brief chit chat between the cars. We now also figure on several family photos in Iran – who’d have known?!
The best camping RVs are here.