Dave’s Reise nach Osten

I was cycling for ten days with Chris and Larissa (if you speak Dutch, check out their homepage), from Dogubayazit in Turkey to Ardabil in Turkey. It was good for a change cycling with others. Now they went on to Turkmenistan with the bus. It was a good time and we did a lot of kilometers, but I am also happy to be in my own rythm again.

It seems like my first week in Iran is best told about around the top four challenges I faced. I already had some points in my mind, when something new jumped into first place:

1. Making clear to some village people that you want to sleep in your tent and not in their house

   We were tired and had met a lot of people for a few days, so our only wish that night was to find a quiet spot were we can camp and relax. As it is in those moments, you find nothing. But there were some nice looking trees in distance. We went there and found not only trees but also a field with a man working on it. So we asked if we can camp there. He brought us to a student who spoke somewhat English. He told us to follow him what we reluctantly did and showed us ‘his garden’ – the gras area of the village, opposite their creek. You won’t believe how long we had to discuss and how many misunderstandings we had to struggle with (because of their bad English and our not existing Farsi) to persuade them that sleeping in our tents is what we want and that we don’t need anything else.

   Later the same night, some young men came to our tent, shouting: “Mister, Hello Mister”. First we did not react, pretending to be asleep. But an hour later (around 11!), they came again, this time really waking us up and always shouting “Hello Mister, Hello Tourist” until I protruded my head out of the tent and we had the following dialog:
   “What do you want?”
   “I want to see a tourist.”
   “So here I am.”
   “What do you need?”
   “Sleep! Sorry.”
   “Sorry. Sorry. Goodbye.”
   How stupid are they not to come in the morning?

   In general, we were astonished by how stupid some people here react on us. Take a cheap hotel where they say they have only a room. And that they don’t have a shower. They told me I should go to the Hamam. Because I have already heard that answer in other hotels I tried to find out where the Hamam is and how much it costs. Easy questions, aren’t they? And I could even say them in Farsi. “Hamam how much?” “Hamam where?” But we had to discuss for ages and then they showed me the shared shower… So why don’t you show me that right away when I have a look at the room?

2. Pollution

   I have never seen cars like that. Some of them really send out black clouds the way you expect after Santa Claus jumped your chimney. We even tried to ride with masks for some time.
   
   Beside that, I really like the city traffic here. It is chaotic and everything goes. And by everything I mean everything! It is common to drive on the opposite lane, drive the ‘wrong’ way in a three lanes roundabout and stuff alike. I think it is a very organic way of driving. You just go your way, you take the space you can get, others take the space they can get. But they also let each other drive. And that is the beauty of it. If you cross the street and claim your space, drivers let you go. So if you don’t fear the traffic, then it is on your side. I like it.
   Ou… and sometimes there are even a lot of police officers doing something on the crossing, but you can still drive the way you want. And everybody does. I don’t get it.

3. Making yourself understandable

   Ok, I don’t know Farsi. I am learning their alphabet – slowly. But we just had the impression, people here were acting more stupidly then in other places on this globe. (see also point 1) It could be because of the big brain dead (everybody rich or intelligent leaves the country) or because the difference between ours and their culture is bigger. But I can’t really believe that.

   One scene that is repeating itself regularly is that when you stop in a village some people come to you and tell you where you are. Well, I know the name of this place, it is on my map, thank you. Why do you think I am lost?
   It gets worse if you aks for the way. Often they would look at our map (for minutes!), then point out their village “Sufiyan, Sufiyan!”. So often the call someone else and that one starts to discuss with another man on the street and soon, you have a big crowd discussing … what exactly??? The hell, we have just asked for the way to the next big city! And then it ends with one man pointing this way, the other one the other way. Ironic.

4. Their way of politness

   If there is no big crowd around they can start talking to, they just tell you something. It is very annoying. They try to be helpful, but are too polite/to proud to say: “I don’t know.” Same thing if their English is not so good. They just say “Yes, yes”, even if they don’t understand.

   While searching a cheap hotel in Ardabil (don’t try, they are dirty and/or filled with stupid staff) a man approached us and told us he knows a hotel for only 4 Dollars just 50 meters from here. I gave it a try, followed him, saw the hotel, told him that I already had a look at that one. He told me there is another one right there. We walked and walked. “You said it is right there, where is it?” “There, there”. He pointed with his finger to somewhere, it looked close, I should have left him, but walked with him for another 3- or 400 meters. We went in, he asked for the price: 11,50$. …

I have to admit, this list is a little unfair. We also received a lot of hospitality. The people here are very nice, and the people in the village mentioned in the first point invited us for food and were looking after our tents during the night – very hospitable! But more in other posts…