Leaving Iran

I’m typing this from a beautiful wooden table in Indy and Nareen’s kitchen looking out over their ecologically designed extension, awesome backyard and their lovely black dog sleeping in the shade. But before I got here we were in Iran.

There are two things that have made this travel experience really different this time. firstly travelling with a man in the middle east is wonderfully relaxing. I was hardly ever approached by anyone wanting anything, I got to contribute to conversations but never had to put in any ground work. When we were together men only spoke to Tristam, and women generally stayed away. Tristam was also approached for all decision making. I was thoroughly looked after for the whole trip, (I might add that Tristam booked all flights, delt with visas and did all that boring stuff I normally have to do y myself) bliss. The other thing that altered my experience was having an Ipod. I got an Ipod shuffle while I was in Sudan, but it wasn't till September that I got it to work. It was loaded up with some of my favorite music. I waited in the Turkey/Iran boarder queue listening to big band stripper music; I crossed the dry northern desert lands of Iran listening to Cabaret, Elvis, Kylie, Scott Joplin and banjo music; I walked down the streets of Tehran listening to All that jazz, and I approached customs in Australia with the theme from the Good the Bad and the Ugly playing in my ears. It really does change the experience.

I ended my last blog saying something about the roads in Tehran being notorious and Allah willing we’ll be ok. Well maybe Allah didn’t will it, maybe Allah doesn’t appreciate being referred to in the blog of an atheist, or perhaps even Allah exists. Tristam got hit by a bus in Tehran. He’s absolutely fine now, but I can’t imagine it was a pleasant experience for him.

Tristam had gone to the former American embassy to see if he could get some photographs of the anniversary of the day American hostages were released from the embassy building. It’s now officially called the “US den of espionage” It’s famous for its walls painted with anti-American images, and is seen the news when there is any US flag burning going on in the city. The street has 4 lanes of very fast traffic going in one direction… I say lanes, but that really just means that there are white lines painted on the road, I don’t mean to imply that the cars were in any sort of formation. The road also has one bus lane; the buses go in the opposite direction.

Tristam was hit on the shoulder and spent the rest of the afternoon in the hospital getting x-rays and such. I was blissfully unaware on the other side of town mulling about the shops and attempting to post packages. The most difficult thing I had to contend with that afternoon (well aside from not being able to post packages cause the customs man wasn't working that day) was the fact that for every women's clothing shop, there was about 6 men's fashion shops. I'm used to the ratio being inverse. with women draped in a black uniform, the men are the peacocks in Iran.

There is a saying in Tehran: if you hit a person with your car, you better drive back over them to make sure they are properly dead. The post-hitting-someone paperwork is pretty intensive. Our last day in Tehran was spent mostly in police stations and at the translators where Tristam made an official statement making no claim against the driver.

The final count of nose plasters seen was 12: 5 on boys and 7 on girls... that's a lotta nose jobs.