Travel Tips

Tehran, as expected, was a monster of a city. Horrendous traffic pumping out toxic fumes which caused a grey veil to shroud the heaving metropolous. Bereft of historical sites or arresting architecture, its a wonder how I managed to enjoy the city but, at least for the first day or two I did.

Our first appointment was with the British Embassy. In order to secure our Pakistan and Indian visas we required a 'Letter Of Introduction' for both. Essentialy, the letters verify our identification, which begs the question, "What are passports for?" And at $65 (GBP 34) each are an incontrovertible rip-off.

Since Istanbul we had heard rumours that the embassies were refusing to issue these letters as they did not feel the Iran Pakistan border area was safe. French, Swiss, Italians and others were being told to fly. A German apparently forged a letter. So when the notoriously nervous British Embassy agreed to process our letters without question I was amazed. I handed over my passport. The counter girl looked down at my passport photo and back up at me and burst out laughing. Ive since sent an email to the Consular General requesting that she be dismissed immediately.

At the Pakistan Embassy we handed over completed forms, a bundle of photocopies and letters we wrote explaining why we hadnt applied in our own country. We were required to attend an interview where we received a lecture by the consular about the dangers of the same border area but after waiting two days our visas were approved. Everyone was touchy about the Baluchistan border area. A number of foreigner had been kidnapped there over the previous few years and that week fourteen policemen, who had been kidnapped by drug runners who bring in 90% of the worls opiates from Afghanistan through there, had been executed.

We needed to extend ourIranian visas. All advice leant to 'Do NOT get your visas extended in Tehra as its a nightmare. Go to any other city.' We had run out of time so did not have the luxury of that option, so we braved the terrifyingly labelled 'Disciplinary Force for Islamic Republic of Iran Department for Aliens Affairs'. Lots of disgruntled looking military policemen draggingpetrifiedlooking 'aliens'around, all hand-cuffed together. More form-filling and another interview and lecture on the dangers of the Baluchistan area. Again, we promised not to try and cycle through, which we knew was forbidden. Our extensions were approved , again, in two days.

Our thorn was the Indian Embassy. Aside from the Letters Of Introduction they needed approval from London, entailing a costly $14 each telex charge. I suggested they considered changing their telecom provider.

What should have taken a maximum four days took forever. Each day we checked out of our $12 room, took the metro across the city to the embassy, and every evening checkedback into our room again. It was infuriatingly frustrating, and all the while the temperature continued to fall. People were suggesting Tehran would be under snow within two weeks. Not ideal camping conditions!

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