I woke up a bit dazed and confused, sure that it would be another 6 hours of crap sleep on the overnight bus before I arrived. Alas, I was wrong; I was in Tabriz. The snow mountains in the distance confirmed my destination. The friendly Iranian staff had my bike and panniers safely off the bus and I was ready to go, before an Persian girl demanded my attention. As it turned out she was 20, a university student, knew barely a word of English and within the space of a 20 minutes she wanted to take me home to her town 100km away. It didn't quite match my itinerary, direction or style so we said goodbye. Two hours later arrived the sms "I am in college. I love you very much". It was the second time in a week this had happened to me.
A beautiful tailwind and downhill allowed a mighty speedy exit from the big city, even though I was a bit rusty from a 6-week rest, and tired from the long bus trip. It wasn't long before the roads were quiet and I was riding through the middle of a dry salt lake. Although the map showed a direct road between Tabriz and Orumieh, the signs (and locals) indicated a different story. A minor 29km detour.
No matter, I stopped for lunch and met my first Azari in Iran. While Persians make up the majority in Iran, the Azaris account for a fair 25% chunk of the population. The kind Azari man provided me with a lunch of bread and a gas-heated can of tuna. Along with another can of tuna, I should have been charged about $3 (3000 tomans or 30,000 rials). Fortunately, he engaged in the Iranian custom of etiquette called "t'aarof", one aspect being that the merchant will refuse payment. Unfortunately (for the first time in Iran), I was stung in the ass and after playing along and saying "no, no, I really must pay", he 'reluctantly' asked for $5. Only a few minutes earlier, he had asked about a work visa to Australia and then later offered that I stay for the night. It was perhaps the only time I had been asked for a visa while in Iran, and the first time I had been cheated. Despite this incident though, Iran had been a welcome change to Nepal in almost every way.
The 29km detour just prior to lake Orumieh was very scenic and very green in comparison with southern and central Iran, although just a taste of what was to come in the following two weeks in Kurdistan. A 25km ride along the bridge and causeway over the salty lake Orumieh was beautiful but tiring. My 6-week break from cycling wasn't working out for my legs by now.
My first encounter with dogs for many many months occurred immediately after the lake, in Kurdistan. They weren't too intimidating though, and the sound of a zap from the Taser was enough to stop them in their tracks. With every dog so far in Kurdistan, stopping and getting off the bike has been enough to discourage close contact. I suspect the dogs in Turkey won't be so easy from the stories I've heard from other cyclists. After some very close encounters in China and Nepal, I've had dreams of 'dogfights'. I won't hesitate to rip a dog apart from limb to limb to save my own ass. Throwing a rock or two (while stationary) should be more than enough to discourage most dogs though.
After about 150km, I finally navigated my way past numerous packs of dogs and arrived in Orumieh at night. A $15 'splurge' on a nice hotel was much needed. As usual in Iran, the staff were more than happy to help out in any way, and escorted me to a restaurant down the street and waited until I was finished, then offered to pay!
No comments:
Post a Comment