The girl in the blue scarf – a short story about fashion

I have to admit, I have underestimated Iranian fashion and weather in all possible ways. Since we were planning to enter the country in November, I was actually worried that it was going to be quite cold. But on the other side I though it would make wearing a headscarf and all the baggy clothes a bit easier. I even had a long sweater prepared just for this occasion. So I thought I was on the safe side. At least until we got to the border.

Though we entered from the north and were traveling through a mountain region, we soon noticed, that it was much warmer than we expected. And I soon realized, that the clothes I considered baggy, were way to short and tight for Iranian standards. So (as most of you have probably noticed on the photos) I have spent the first few days going around in the biggest shirt I could find in David's closet. And it made me feel really bad, next to all the dressed up Iranian girls. Because if you imagine Iranian girls to be all covered in black from top to bottom, you could not be more mistaken. Iranian streets are a live fashion show. Only that the fashion is a bit different to what we are used to in Europe. But it's there to be sure. Most Iranian girls are very elegant and it seems that even the smallest detail of their outfit is thought through quite carefully.

One thing was certain, I was in desperate need of some new, Iran-compliant clothes. Luckily, our new friends from Fuman were more than willing to help me solve all fashion issues. And the clothes themselves were extremely cheap. Unfortunately, I had to accept one fact quite quickly, I am a bit taller than a standard Iranian girl and that put the most fashionable manteaus (light overcoats) out of the question. They were just too short to cover what is (by law) required to be covered. And they did made me look quite ridiculous. The goal was to hide my back and all the curves, that we so much like to expose in Europe and to cover as much of my arms as a standard Iranian size would allow. And that all without making me sweat too much in the Iranian sun. Trust me, it was not an easy task.

In the end I had a few pieces which would help me survive (and not get arrested) during the next few weeks. It was just enough for a tourist to avoid troubles. I was told, that if I tried to enter university in such clothes, I would be surely sent back home to change into something more appropriate. Well, I was not going to try. I was just happy to get rid of Davids old shirt and to have more than one piece of clothing to choose from in the morning. And as David put it: “in worst case you can use it as pregnancy clothes later on.”

The mandatory headscarf is a separate story. Fortunately, I bought enough of them in Uzbekistan, so that I could choose from all possible forms and materials. But it didn't really make wearing one much easier. I would have never though that it would be such a big fight to keep it on my head. It looks quite easy when you watch Iranian girls in all their colorful scarves, mostly hanging only at the very back of their heads, showing more hair than they are actually covering. But it gets a bit more complicated when you try to wear one yourself. For the first few days I kept loosing mine all the time, especially while doing any kind of physical activities. But even sitting calmly would not make the scarf stay were it was supposed to. It does take some practice! And even then it only works when the wind is not too strong. In trickier situations I had to go for a good safe “grandma style”.

Another challenge was to actually remember to wear a scarf in the first place. I was always trying to hang mine somewhere near the door, just to keep it in mind. Though leaving my room without it once was quite a funny experience too. I only got as far as the hotel lobby, but that was enough to create a small chaos. It was really interesting to see people's different reactions to the whole situation. I was totally unaware that something was missing, David and Gerrit didn't notice neither. But the hotel staff did and they were torn apart between not wanting to offend me and make me cover my hear, without drawing too much attention from other guests. The other guests were pretty cool about it though. Only one person seemed to consider my behavior outrageous, but he quickly disappeared between all the friendly smiles. For most of them I was just another poor tourist, struggling with Iranian laws and traditions, which are not easy to follow after all.

But all in all I have to say, I do not like Iranian dress code much. I was missing my normal clothes a lot and I started to hate the headscarf pretty quickly. And I was really getting angry when people tried to tell me that it was all for my own protection and that a woman could only benefit from dressing modestly. Well I don't think I really did. I also found it quite hard to feel very female in all those baggy shapeless clothes. And I simply couldn't look at all the young girls in their school uniforms, as it just made me sad. At this age they should be wearing pink dresses and Hello Kitty T-shirts, not some shapeless and colorless potato sacks. People may argue about the pros and cons of hijab (Islamic dress code), but I believe every woman should have the right to decide such things for herself. And I have no doubts about what I would choose. Especially when the temperatures reach 30 degrees in November. I don't even want to imagine how nice it has to be to travel with a public bus in August, wearing a thick black manteau and a headscarf... Especially when all the guys are walking around wearing thin, tight T-shirts...

Iran is sooooooo beautiful

We had a perfectly planned route through Iran, but it was back when we still believed we will be able to enter from Turkmenistan. Entering the country from a totally different side turned our plans upside down a bit. So far the question we asked ourselves in every land was: where can we find something worth seeing, but in Iran the question is rather: which one out of all those amazing things can we still squeeze into our plan. The country is packed with tourist attractions and you would need at least a year to really see it all, so the choice was not an easy one. We decided to do it step by step and see where it would lead us. And the first step was Masuleh, described by many as Iran's most beautiful village. It sounded promising.

The road leading there was already worth the ride, as the views were truly amazing. And the village itself was supposed to be even better. Small houses in the mountains, one built on the roof of the other, all as colorful and picturesque as you could only imagine. We wanted to take a long walk to explore all its narrow streets and then camp somewhere outside the village. Well, we didn't really get too far... We have only managed to take a few steps and a few photos before our attention was drawn by a group of young laughing people, who were definitely having a good time. They were trying to take a group photo, so we offered our help. And once again before we even noticed we were sitting together, drinking tea, smoking water pipe and discussing our plans for the next day. Masuleh, as pretty as it was, was left behind and we drove with our new Iranian friends back to their hometown Fuman.

There is one thing that most Iranians never understand and that is our willingness to sleep in our cars. We think about Karossi as our home now and we'd rather sleep there than anywhere else, but we never managed to properly explain it to our Iranian hosts. They always insist on us taking one of their rooms and don't even want to hear about any cars. But the thing is, staying in a car is simply more convenient for us, as we have all our stuff there, so we don't have to waste any time packing and unpacking it. And we really feel at home there. Maybe it would be easier to explain if our cars were not in such a mess as they are now. We still didn't manage to wash them after our terrible drive to Aktau and the inside is fully packed with all the souvenirs we bought so far, so for an untrained eye it may look like a total chaos. As our friend Soheil put it: “So you say this is like a house for you? And you'd rather sleep here than in my room? Then please, clean your house!” :) But at the end he turned in and allowed us to stay in our beloved chaos.

Since the next day was a holiday we all decided to take advantage of the perfect weather and visit the nearby castle. The day was sunny and bright and we had a few hundred or maybe thousand steps to get to the top. It was a long climb and the scarf on my head did not really make things easier. But since we were climbing in an excellent company, the time went by faster then we could expect. And I have to say the view on the top of the hill was worth every minute of the climb. The ruins looked absolutely amazing. And what was even better, our Iranian friends prepared a surprise picnic! Iranians are famous for their picnic culture. On a nice sunny day you see families eating everywhere you look. And it's not just a sandwich or a few fruits. There are salads, cold dishes, tea, water pipes and we saw a few people doing some serious outdoor cooking, too. We absolutely loved it! Being a part of an Iranian picnic was my little dream since we have entered the country, so I was happier than ever. We were all sure, that was the best day of our entire trip! But when we said that, we didn't know, that the best part of the day was yet to come...

The moment we decided to climb down again the weather started getting worse, so our plan to visit a nearby lake was soon forgotten. But we were not really sad, as we got invited for a dinner instead! As you already know I love visiting Iranian homes. Especially I like the moment when everyone enters the house. Head scarfs are falling down instantly and you can finally see the girls hiding behind all those long clothes. Sonbol always said “Iranian girls are sooooooo beautiful” and I have to say, after all we have seen, we could not argue with that! And if you ever see them dancing, you will quickly understand why dancing in public is so strictly prohibited in this country. Those girls would make Shakira blush within few seconds!

I also have my second favorite moment, the time when food is served! You just seat on a nice Persian carpet and see all those exotic dishes appearing right in front of you. And this wonderful smell... Sometimes I feel like I could just sit like that and watch it all for hours. But that would be an awful waste, since those dishes taste even better then they look. And on that evening we had a real feast with many dishes, including olive paste, an amazing egg plant stew and a dish that has become one of my personal favorites ever since, the fesenjan, chicken with walnuts and pomegranate sauce. What can I say, Sonbol was right again, “Iranian food is just sooooooo good”.

We didn't felt like leaving Fuman at all. But we already spent nearly a week of our precious visa time in Iran, without really getting far from the border, so we decided it's time for some heavy driving. We wanted to drive to Esfahan, ready to see the biggest architectural attractions of the country.

But first we wanted to visit the famous Iranian caves. Lonely planet didn't really sound too optimistic about them, but we learned not to trust them long ago. And once again it was a great decision, as both caves proved to be awesome! We headed for Katalekhor first and we were the only people around. The cave was great and since we were alone the guide offered to take us through a less traveled path. He did not prevent us that it will be totally dark and slippery and that we will have to balance between all the stalagmites and stalactites in order not to destroy them, but it was fun. And before we reached the end we were sure we want to see the other cave too. Alisadr cave is supposed to be the biggest water cave in the world and from what we heard it attracts quite a lot of touristsTp . But we haven't seen any crowds, just two Iranian families and us. Most of the trip is done with a boat and we found it absolutely amazing. As far as we are concerned it was definitely worth a detour, no matter what our beloved/despised guidebook says.

Photos from Iran

Iran 5 November 2012

Iran 12 November 2012

Iran 15 November 2012

Welcome to Iran

„Hello, welcome to Iran“. We hear this sentence everywhere we go, several times a day, sometimes even several times an hour. We hear it from kids, teenagers and older people. It seems everyone knows it, even if they don't know any other single word in English. And it's not just a slogan they keep repeating. When they say it, you feel they really mean it.

We knew little about Iran before we came here. Back in our flat in Karlsruhe, when we were looking at the map of Asia trying to choose the nicest route, I didn't even want to consider visiting this country. With my head filled with western news about atomic bombs and war with terrorism, I wanted to stay as far away from Iran as it was only possible. At least until we started reading blogs and reports from other travelers, people, who have actually been there and seen the country with their own eyes. You could ignore one or two opinions, but if twenty or thirty different people write Iran is the nicest and most welcoming country they have ever been to, it kind of makes you want to go and check yourself.

Iranians are perfectly aware of the opinion their country has in our part of the world and they don't really blame us for thinking like that either. That makes them appreciate foreign tourists even more. They are simply glad that there are people who still want to meet them and see their country, no matter what they hear in TV. And trust me, once you're here, they will do what they can to show you, how wrong the western media are. And many of them will stop you at the street just to ask if you are having a good time in Iran and whether you still think they are all terrorists here :) As someone told us on our first day “ Mister, not afraid, Iran no bomb, no war. Iran good people, no problem”. As far as we can tell, he was right!

I have written a lot about hospitality in Central Asia. I have praised it so much, that some of you even suggested I was exaggerating. I wasn't! But if you have any doubts I can only recommend you to come and see yourself. Those people are more friendly and open than a normal European person could ever imagine. But still, Iranians manage to take it all to a completely new level. Sometimes we really didn’t know how to react to all their hospitality and helpfulness, as it was more than we have ever faced before. Those people really are fantastic! And you don't need to wait too long to see it.

The border formalities went pretty quickly. It was a first country where we needed our “Carnet de passages”, so we wanted to get it right. We had to leave 5.000 Euro with ADAC to get this document and missing one stamp may mean we're not getting this money back, so we'd rather be extra careful with it. Fortunately there are enough people at the border who speak English and help you sort all the paperwork out in no time for a few dollars.

Driving into Iran was a great feeling. We didn't know what to expect and it felt like jumping into the unknown waters, wondering what will meet us there. But already in the first city people at the streets were smiling and waving, shouting “welcome to Iran” all the time. And we didn't have to wait long for our first local experience. We stopped at a grill bar in a small town, as we were getting pretty hungry, but before we even managed to order anything someone gave us a mobile phone. The person on the other side of the line was Farshid, the local English teacher. He said he will be with us in 5 minutes and we should just stay and wait for him. Before we even noticed we were invited to our first Iranian home. And we loved it!

Being invited to an Iranian house is a wonderful experience. There you can really see how the everyday life really looks like. And most important, you can try home-made food! Iranian cuisine is simply splendid! After weeks of eating mutton and mutton we fell in love with it instantly. And Farshid's mother proved to be an excellent cook. It felt like a whole new world, with a huge variety of different tastes and spices. It is a pity that in most restaurants you will be served only some basic dishes, including a few versions of kebab. The real cooking takes place at home.

Farshid not only provid us with food and shelter, but also showed us around, allowing us to fully appreciate the beauty of northern Iran. I always imagined the country to be more or less a big desert, so that I was surprised to find out how green and full of life this region was. Some parts of it was a real jungle. He took us to see the local fisherman at work, too. And the evenings were spent drinking hectoliters of tee and smoking water pipe. But most importantly we were able to take part in some of Farshid's English lessons, meeting a lot of young, English speaking Iranians from the area.

We really felt sorry when the time came for us to leave, but we knew there is still much to see and explore. We got a few kilos of home-grown kiwis and were ready to meet the rest of the country. Only one problem remained, our car insurance. It was already late when we were crossing the border, so we didn't manage to buy it back then. We thought we will be able to buy it in the next big city, but it turns out things are a bit more complicated. There are insurance companies all over the country, but only some have license to sell insurance to tourist nowadays. And they are mostly situated in the border cities or international harbors. We tried a few others, but at the end they all told us to drive back to the border and buy the insurance there, as we're not getting it anywhere else. Normally it would not have been a big deal, as it was only around 100km, but driving such distance in Iran, without a valid insurance, is a real game of nerves.

I will tell it straight, Iranians are the most crazy drivers we have ever seen! And I say it after driving through Central Asia and Mongolia. They drive as chaotic as people in Kyrgyzstan, but the problem is, they have much more cars and people here, and the roads are better, allowing them to drive much faster. They seem to believe that breaks and blinkers are highly overrated, so they prefer to accelerate in most cases. I have seen more crashes since we're here, than I ever did before. I have read that Iran has one of the highest number of death casualties in road accidents. Well I have to say, I am not surprised. If you see people driving through a village in the middle of the night, with 100km/h and that without even turning their lights on or fastening their seatbelts, you no longer wonder why the rate is so high. Especially if you see all those pedestrians, dressed mostly in black, jumping on the streets without warning. But the worst of it all are the motorbikes. All the time you see a four-person family squeezing on a tiny motorbike, that would be considered too small for two people in Europe. The father is holding the steering wheel in one hand and baby in the other. The woman has to divide her hands between holding on to her husband or the bike, grabbing the second kid and pulling her chador together, which normally flies behind the bike like a parachute. I guess I don't have to tell you that neither of them has a helmet of any kind, not to mention lights or mirrors... But no one seems to care. The police, who could cause you quite a lot of trouble for dressing inappropriately, don't seem to mind speeding or careless behavior on the streets. And as one of our new friends told us, that makes driving one of the very few areas of life where Iranians feel free to do what they want. And they take advantage of it.

There are some security systems on the roads, but we never managed to understand how they work. Or maybe the person constructing them never really understood how they were supposed to work. Cause there are a lot of traffic lights, but they are either completely off or they are simply blinking. Some of them actually seem to be warning you about some obstacles or changes on the road, but some seem to be not more than a colorful decoration. And you hardly ever see them at crossings where you could really need them. But speed bumps are even more fascinating. They have quite a lot of them, mostly unmarked. And sometimes you meet them in places, where you would not expect them at all. Like while driving out of the city. Or on a highway, next to a sign that says you should slow down to 90km/h. Well I guess I would not like to know how it feels like to drive over one of them with such speed...

All in all there has to be some method in this madness, as it works better then you'd expect it to. So I guess as a tourist all you can't do is to embrace this chaos and pray to get out of it without any damage.  

Aktau Baku ferry - lesson of patience and bribing

Aktau is not an attractive city. It has oil, gas and a lot of expats working for oil companies. And it has the Aktau-Baku ferry. But there's hardly anything to do there and the accommodation options are pretty poor too. There are many top end hotels, but unfortunately they were way out of our budget, so that we were left with the low cost options... I will spare you the details, let's just say it was nearly as bad as the road we just drove. We were praying we wouldn't have to stay in the city for too long.

We went directly to the harbor to check for the ferry. Only one person spoke some English and the information he gave us was not a happy one. The ferry has just left yesterday and no one knows when the next one would be ready to leave, but we should come back tomorrow. We already heard about tourists, who were asked to come back tomorrow for two weeks, so we were not in the best moods. We even considered making a small trip around Aktau and skipping the appointment, but we finally decided against it and went to the harbor as we were told to. For the first half an hour everybody simply ignored us. They were speaking to each other, pointing in our direction from time to time, but no one seemed to want to talk to us. And when they finally did, all we heard was “OK, tomorrow morning 6 o'clock you go”. We were shocked! We were not expecting that, so we had to go back to the hotel to grab the money and all the papers do deal with the customs. It wasn't an easy job, I can tell you that. The harbor workers were not much help either. We got some ferry declarations on which we had to collect 5 or 6 stamps and some signatures, but everyone seemed to know only his part of the job, so finding out where to get the next stamp was quite a challenge (especially that the documents were mostly in Russian). And some of the workers after finishing their part told us everything was OK now and we could go home, though we were still missing some signatures. All in all it was one big chaos and we really had to breathe deeply and try hard not to explode. But the thought of leaving Aktau and our hotel was helping us get through it all. And we finally knew the cost as well. The price was nearly 100 USD per person, and for the car 80 USD per meter of length. We had to pay around 50 USD of harbor fee as well. Fortunately it was still in our budget.

We woke up early the next day and came to the harbor at 6, just to find out we can not enter before 9 o'clock anyway. So we parked our cars and went simply back to sleep. At 9 we turned up at the gate again just to be told that we should have come earlier and that we have to park quickly and run back to the passport control immediately. We did it just to discovered that the passport office would not open for the next 20 minutes anyway, so that we started wondering why the hell they told us to come at 6 o'clock in the morning in the first place. We had even more time to wonder about it after we went through, as it took a few hours before we could actually drive onto the ferry. In the end we left the harbor at 8 o'clock in the evening, slowly swimming in the direction of Baku.


The ferry was nothing like the ones we've seen so far. It was made to transport railway wagons and heavy goods and definitely not tourists. Our cars were the only ones they took. There where only three other passengers on board, all coming from the region, traveling for business reasons. At the beginning they wanted us to sleep on the chairs in the waiting room, but since the tickets were not exactly cheap, we argued till we got a room. And it was quite a nice one, comfortable enough to spend a nice day in it. If it wasn't for all the unwanted guests... We heard Azerbaijan had some serious problems with corruption and we experienced it shortly after getting on board. A few of the workers offered to testify that our cars were shorter than they actually are, if we paid them 50 USD. Already at the beginning of our journey we decided not to pay any bribes if we can only avoid it, even if it means wasting some of our precious traveling time or our money. We have sticked to this rule so far and were not willing to break it now. And to be honest the deal wasn't good anyway. They wanted 50 USD to help us save 10 or 15, so we weren't even tempted. We told them we didn't approve of bribing and want to pay the correct price. That was more than they could understand. One after another they were knocking on our door telling us that we didn't get it and that we would actually save money, so it is not a bad thing to pay them. We tried to stay polite, repeating that we understood everything perfectly, but were not willing to do it anyway. Finally we lost our tempers and told them to get out and leave us alone, as they're not getting any money and it's final. They left smashing the doors, so that we were a bit scared they may try to make our day on the ferry as hard as possible, but it was not the case. And surprisingly, from that moment the rest of the crew and the other passengers started showing us a lot more sympathy.

The ride took around 20 hours and we spend most of it reading and talking. We also got quite a nice food, which was included in the price. I have never been on a ferry for such a long time, so I was excited like a kid before Christmas, enjoying every minute of it. But we were still happy when we finally reached Baku, especially that we were able to see it by sunset. The view was splendid. It still took some time before we could drive out, since the wagons had to leave first, but it went quicker than we thought. We were supposed to pay for the cars when we leave the boat and to our surprise the guy who sold the tickets was not relying on any papers he got from the crew, but came to check the length of our cars himself. And he actually insisted they are both 5 meters long, so that we had to measure them to prove him wrong. He was not in his best mood either, as it was already late and I guess he wanted to be done with us and go home. And here we stand insisting upon measuring the cars and getting a receipt before we pay him any money at all. He wasn't happy about it. He got even more angry when the border officials told him we have to deal with customs before we can go to his office. He started yelling and threatening that he would go home and leave us at the border and we wouldn't be able to leave until morning, but we told him we didn't care and could sleep in the car if necessary. That made him really furious, but David showed him we can yell too if we need to and suddenly the whole border personnel was there trying to calm us all down, telling the guy to leave us alone and wait for his turn. And so he did. We went to his office as soon as we could, got the bill for the money we paid and he even actually apologized for everything, telling us he simply lost his temper as it was late and he was working the hole day already and still had to go to another harbor. Finally we were free to go!

Baku felt like being back in Europe. They had street lights, roads without holes and although it was late there was actually some life on the streets. There was even quite a lot of it. And there was a McDonald’s too! We haven't seen one for months, so we couldn't miss such a chance! The city itself was quite impressive. We got the feeling they have way to much money there and are running out of ideas on how to spend it. Splendid buildings and decorations are one thing, but marble sidewalks and subways seem a bit too much. Especially compared to the standards of living in the country. We didn't have much time to explore it, but one thing is sure, the people are extra friendly. Though they try to be as European as they can, they know how to show real Asian friendliness and hospitality too. We didn't really understood the political situation though. It is supposed to be a democratic republic, but when I mentioned it to the locals they started laughing so badly they could hardly breathe and told me I should try living there if I really believed that. And I have to say I found it suspicious that they had photos and quotations of the president and his father all over the country, in every office, most shops and even on big billboards around the highways, which is not a typical thing for a democratic country. It looked pretty scary to me, but I guess you need to spend some more time there to be able to judge it. But I would leave it to others as we were anxious to get to our next stop, Iran, the expected highlight of our trip, where the political system was certainly even more complex then what we have seen so far.