Tehran 1

The murals painted on the walls of the old US Embassy or as its better known "US Den of Espionage"...I think I look quite well in this photo



Main round-about into Tehran...it was like demolition derby trying to get on and off the bloody thing.

After driving in and out of Istanbul I thought I had experienced the worst driving im likely to see along my trip.....what a fool I was. Lonely Planet description sum's it up perfectly: “Almost anything goes on these roads and often does. Its not unusual to see motorbikes weaving between pedestrians on the footpath in an attempt to escape the gridlock or cars reversing down the highway at speed along an expressway to reached that missed exit The sheer volume of traffic can be overwhelming and makes crossing the street seem like a game of Russian roulette, only in this game there are few empty chambers”. And seeing all this on the first night I thought for sure the car had reached its final stop as there was no way it could get out alive or at least without some major plastic surgery. Our car is no Ferrari but compared to the local shit boxes it might as well be.

An interesting facts about Tehran that I bet you didn't know. Apparently Tehran is the plastic surgery capital of the world. It is reported that more than 90,000 nose jobs are carried out each year and in Tehran alone there are 3000 plastic surgeons. This is not a joke and is really evident on the streets around Tehran. The funny thing is because the operation is so expensive for the locals, between 3000 - 4000 and with the average yearly wage far less than that, it has become a status symbol to walk around town with your nose bandaged up.........to the point where people who couldn't possible afford such an operation walking around town sporting there new bandage for no reason at all.

My first thought of all these noise jobs was that there were pointless until a girl tried to explain to me why it was so popular. Her reasoning being that when you are completely covered up by the Hejab and the only thing anyone outside your family sees is you face, your going to try and make it look as perfect as possible......fair enough but unless you have a noise like Mike Tyson or Alan Gilgar I still think its a waste of money.

The good bits of Iran so far...

Iranian women are hot and really do look quite western but should come with a hazard warning while in Iran. We heard a story about a German guy who had sex with an unmarried Iranian woman and was caught...dont know how he was caught but he was given a death sentence (wonder what would have happened if she was married...killed twice maybe). After serious negotiation they apparently released him back to Germany after 2 years in prison
We heard another story about a tourist who seen kissing his Iranian girlfriend in the back of a moving car by the police....they locked him up....down with that sort of thing Ted.

The Iranian people are by far the welcoming nation I have ever come across. People just walk up to you in the street or on the metro and say hello and shake your hand. A lot of the time they just ask where are you from and then quickly say “Welcome to Iran” and walk off. They respect your space and don't just stand there staring at you like in Turkey. If they speak English they try and make conversation with what ever English they have and to be fare a lot of people are well educated and can speak a reasonable well. But when you do have a proper conversation with an Iranian they always want to know what you think of the country, will you come back, will you tell your friends that its a good safe place to visit. We always advised to never believe what the media says about Iran. For me the people just don't match the government.........