Amir Kabir Dam, Chalus Road, Alborz, Iran
It’s the Spring Equinox! (In the Northern Hemisphere anyway). A quarter of friggin 2017 gone, and I still think of it as the ‘New’ Year!?!
The Spring Equinox holds great importance to some cultures. In the UAE, it’s Mother’s Day (…can’t miss it when they have a Google Doodle of it, can you?) In Iran, it’s the biggest festival of the year, Nowruz, the Persian New Year. It’s also the New Year of the people of the Baha’i faith (I had a colleague in Malaysia who’s a Baha’i), and the Zoroastrian community (Parsi / Irani) in India.
This time also happens to be the peak tourist season in Iran (so says the guide books and the hotel operators we spoke to in Iran during our recent visit last year). So, here’re some tips on Iran, for those rare people (like us), whose idea of fun are visiting 'interesting' countries like Iran!
Psst, I’m plagiarising my own work… I wrote something about visiting Iran for the Company magazine. They say they’re only gonna publish it in the next issue (and in the process, pay me a lil sum of money, hehe). Meanwhile, here’s a chunk of it!
Reasons to Visit
What's not to like about Iran?
There're lots of things to see - historical cities (e.g. Isfahan, with its beautiful square and unique mosques), ancient ruins (Persepolis, seat of the mighty Persian Empire, nope, didn't visit this trip, maybe next time), beautiful countryside (including snowy mountains where you can ski), and a trove of cultural things (it's the seat of the Persian & Shia cultures after all).
The people are friendly and forthright, once a deal is made, they don't renege on it (the ones we met anyway).
The costs are reasonably cheap.
And best of all (for me), there's still not many tourists around to spoil the experience, haha!
Visa & Travel Insurance
The procedure and cost varies according to which country you’re from.
Malaysians - Can fly directly to Iran and get a 15 day visa on arrival, free of charge! (I love being a Malaysian this way. We can go to so many of the ‘rogue’ countries without a visa! …Too bad Jong-Un killed his brother in Malaysia. Guess North Korea’s off the bucket list, till things improve. Sigh…)
Indians - Have to get a tourist visa before visiting. (What’s new?) We got Anu’s visa in the Iranian Consulate in Dubai for AED 150 (plus err …was it AED 15? For buying a shawl from a nearby sundry shop to cover her hair just so she could enter the Consulate… It’s called the Islamic Republic of Iran for a reason, OK?) The visa took 3 working days to process.
British – I heard would have to arrange trips with some authorized travel agency, before a visa can be granted. I'm not sure. I’m not British.
Americans – Same as the Brits, before Trump. After Trump, …forget about visiting Iran I guess. "You, citizens of the Great Satan!"
Getting a visa beforehand has its advantages though. When we arrived in Isfahan Airport, I had to get visas and buy the local travel insurance for the kids and I for EUR 15 per person. (It’s mandatory for all visitors, and takes …an hour! And yes, they quoted the price in Euros, the only time we saw that in Iran. If we pay in USD, they wanted 20 friggin $! Luckily, we had € with us.) And Anu? Since she’s already got her visa, the officers didn’t even bother asking about travel insurance for her!
So, to save time, you know what to do!
Costs & Money
Iran is not expensive at all. We spent 7,000 dirhams all in, including visas, air tickets, hotels, etc for a 9 days, 8 nights trip for our family of four. But of course, we're cheapskates, flying budget airlines & staying in 3 star hotels, and rented apartments, hehe!
The official currency of Iran is the Iranian Rial (IRR) but for some unknown reason, almost nobody in Iran speaks in rials. Those that deal with foreigners will almost always ask for dollars, currency of the Great Satan. (Guess hell money ain't that bad, huh?) The other Iranians use tomans instead. 1 Toman is 10 rials. Iranians are sensible people. Isn't it silly to tell someone that a bottle of mineral water costs 15,000 something (rials)? 1,500 tomans is umm... more sensible, isn't it? OK, slightly.
Exchange rate - Officially, it’s about 30,000 IRR to 1 USD (according to XE.com or oanda). If you change USD in Iran today (you’ll probably not find IRR outside Iran anyway, especially if you’re in a West-alligned country like the UAE), you’ll likely get close to 40,000 IRR to a dollar. For Malaysians or those from the UAE, this conversion is dead easy, 1 ringgit (or 1 dirham) = 1,000 tomans or 10,000 rials!
In Iran, your international credit cards and ATM cards probably won't work. (If you insist on calling the country that controls the world's finances the Great Satan, do you think they'll make it easy for you?) So, make sure you bring all the money you need in cold hard cash, preferably in satanic currency, i.e. US Dollars. (They fetch the best exchange rates!) Try to have some dollars in small denominations. Isfahan Airport has no money-changer after Immigration, and during holidays, the money-changers in the city are closed! (We reached on a Friday, and ended up asking our hotel to pay for the cab fare and put it on our hotel tab!)
OK, that's all for now folks. Getting too long for 1 post. Will continue...when I find time again. I'm off on a 2 weeks vacation! (No grand plans this time round, back to the family in India. Hey, it's been 2 years since our last visit, OK?)
Meanwhile, here're some photos of Tehran.
Azadi Monument, Tehran - The most well-known landmark of Tehran is actually in the middle of a friggin roundabout, at a very busy intersection. You'll definitely see it especially if you're heading west from the city. At the time of our visit, it's 'beautifully' surrounded by progress - construction works, machinery, barricades, etc. And cars (of course, it's a roundabout, OK?)
Mausoleum / Shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini - humongous place! From the grandeur of the place, you'd think he was some kind of god, if you didn't know better
The Streets of Tehran, Iran
The management of the hotel at Lalehzar Street, Tehran where we stayed for 2 nights. Tehran was something like a stopping point for us to go up the mountains. We didn't actually go anywhere in Tehran, ...except for some shopping (of course, what d'ya think, with the wife around?)
Lalehzar Street, or what I call 'Light' Street - every shop is a lighting shop! Tehran (the part where we were at anyway) seems to be arranged like supermarket aisles, with different streets for different items!
This is the 'Clothes' Alley - Berlin Alley, Tehran
And for ladies' shoes and bags - Bagh Sepah Salar, Tehran
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