Day 235 | Entering Iran

Day 235 | Friday November 4

I ended the latest blog on this day before I crossed the border. As I’m out of Iran now I will share all my experiences so from here I pick it up again.

Border Crossing
Crossing the border was actually an easy process. To be honest, the easiest border I had ever passed when there was a check necessary. I arrived around 7pm and it was a little dark. I was afraid that they would got a little suspicious with all me gear and weird stuff (battery pack, cables) in my car. The guard was calling with one hand and smoking a cigarette in his other hand. He asked me to open the rear door, looked at it, closed the door and said it was ok. I had to go inside of the building for passport control and carnet de passage formalities. This was the first time I had to deal with this. A carnet is a document for which I made a deposit of 5000 euro. For the country this is a safety that the car will be exported from the country. If I would leave the car inside the country I will lose the deposit. I got an entry stamp on one form and if I leave I will get another stamp. When this was done I got a temporary car insurance and everything was good. The whole border crossing process took me about 45 minutes.

Into Iran
I’m in touch with Ali for a while. He’s the friend of Madelon, a woman who found me via social media. She had been giving me some tips about traveling through the Middle East and got me in touch with Ali who lives in Tehran. He had been looking for hosts around the country for me and helped when needed. A friend of Ali, Behrouz was waiting for me at the border with his son. We drove to their house in Maku which was just 15km away.

Maku
Behrouz is owner of a oven factory and apparently had been doing very good business. His house was stunning. I could park the car in the garage which had underfloor heating. My car was still full of ice and snow so perfect that it could melt here.

Behrouz’ house had 5 floors and with an elevator we went to my room, which was very impressive. The bed was lit by many colorful lights and I had a private bubble bath, impressive. With the elevator we went to the first floor were the living area was. On the third floor he had a swimming pool but I didn’t see it, unfortunately.

In the living room his wife, 2 daughters and cousin were waiting. I wanted to greet the woman by shaking their hands but they couldn’t do this. A bit uncomfortable situation but thats their religion.

They showed me how hospitable the Iranians are. I got treated with fruit, thee and more delicatessens.

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