In 1998, I visited Iran.This trip was part of a longer expedition, an overland truck trip from Kathmandu to Damascus. You know about overland trucks, right? Remember in Stalking the Wild Dik-Dik, when I went on that Dragoman truck around Ethiopia? Each truck is modified to have bus-style seats for passengers, a small fridge, a card table, a small library, safes, overhead nets or racks, storage space for luggage, camping gear and additional storage on top of the truck, and kitchen gear underneath. Trucks also carry spare parts and spare water/fuel.
Anyway, Americans were not getting into Iran independently or with groups when I signed up for the Kathmandu to Damascus overland truck trip. But I had a plan.
I'd read on this here Internet-thingy (yes, kids, we had Internet in 1998) that the way to get into Iran was to hire a special visa expediter. I hired an Iranian travel specialist in Switzerland and he did it! He got me a visa.
I didn't run around advertising my nationality inside Iran, but I didn't deny it either. Most people didn't seem to mind.
I posted some photos of Iran here and I'll scan in more tomorrow.
4 comments:
The story about Iran that I most remember from your emailed reports from that trip was how friendly people were, and how eager they were to prove that they liked America. The women would show you how they had western designer jeans hidden under their chadors. Oh, and how many women were filling men's jobs, such as driving trucks, because almost a whole generation of young men had been lost in the Iran - Iraq war.
--pvillepeg
I had totally forgotten that about the women working men's jobs.
Maybe one day I'll clean up the text, re-do the images, and re-post that trip diary. By the time I took it down, it was too old school!
Funny, I've just been looking at photos of Bam.
Er...great minds think alike? Or maybe...some people were just working on a story set in Bam, perhaps on the same story even.
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