Starting in Seattle, I flew to Dubai to spend a few days around the United Arab Emirates and Oman’s Musandam Peninsula before leaving for Iran. On the return, I flew from Tehran to Abu Dhabi, then to Los Angeles, and finally Seattle. After a few days in Tehran, we flew to Shiraz to begin our cross-country roadtrip.
Once in Shiraz, we would drive around 1,000 miles across Iran over 10 days, stopping in some major cities, small villages, and the middle of nowhere.
The Iranian visa. Traveling to Iran on a US passport means having to request special authorization from the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs before applying for a visa. You submit a rough itinerary (usually developed by a tourist agency who applies on your behalf) and receive an authorization code. Then you can submit visa paperwork to an Iranian visa office. The nearest to Seattle is the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington DC. For US citizens, an Iranian visa will cost you $90 in person or $120 for return shipping service. With visa in hand, I was allowed to board my Emirates flight to Imam Khomeini Airport (IKA).
Woman dressed in a traditional chador
Imamzadeh Saleh Shrine
Palace dining room used by the Shahs of Iran Reza Shah and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
First restaurant visit for traditional food
After lunch, our first of many ice cream stops
Delicious saffron ice cream in carrot juice
Bakery in Tehran
The Tehran Metro. This photo got me yelled at by police during heightening security against ISIS.
Imam Khomeini, the first leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iran’s first Ayatollah. On the opposite side, current Ayatollah Khamenei.
Schoolgirls
Golanstan Palace from the Qajar era
Tehran’s Grand Bazaar
Lunch on Day 2. Kebob with saffron rice.
Azadi Tower in Freedom Square
After 2 days in Tehran, a flight to Shiraz on Iran’s flag carrier to begin the cross country roadtrip. As is typical with Iranian airlines, we were delayed about 2–3 hours.
Pre-embargo MD-82. As part of the recent nuclear deal, Iran Air is allowed to purchase spare parts, manuals, charts, and engine repair from Boeing. Nevermind the average age of Iran’s fleet is over 20 years, the flight went smoothly. Iran Air still operates one 747SP.
The cabin was reminiscent of older, better times for this airline. Legroom was generous though, and service was very good.
We were served a meal for the 1 hour flight to Shiraz: Chicken Biryani, yogurt, a roll, chocolate bar, and orange juice.
One of the few traditional hotels on this trip, Niayesh Hotel. Each hotel room in Iran contained a Quran, prayer rug, and prayer stone. Some of the hotels had unsafe drinking water and questionable plumbing, but heating and wifi were mostly always available.
Kids and their teachers at Shiraz Botanical Garden
Pistachio ice cream
Quran Gate
City of Shiraz
Tomb of Iran’s most famous and revered poet, Hafez. Some visitors would come to pray next to his grave.
Kebob for lunch
Shiraz’s Capital Citadel
Vakil Mosque
Nasir Almolk Mosque
Narenjestan Palace
Persepolis, the ancient capital of Persia
A variety of meat and vegetable stews
Impromptu canyon hike near Necropolis
Tomb monuments carved into rocks in Necropolis
Officially, the currency is the Rial, but almost all transactions are done in Toman, which is rials divided by 10. This caused confusion for a few days while we had to figure out if a price was written in Toman, or if it was just a really good deal.
In a random toy store in Shiraz, I saw some model airplanes. Naturally I had to take a picture of Iran Air’s wishful A380. When the shop workers saw I was interested in the plane, they took it off the shelf and put it together for me.
The night we went to this flower shop was extra memorable. Our Iranian guide Afshin invited us to his home to meet his family, so we decided to pick up flowers as a gift. We took a taxi from our hotel, and when we told our driver (man on the right) we wanted to stop for flowers, he took us here. Flower making in Shiraz takes about 20 minutes while the florist really puts effort into the presentation. As we waited, an old man came in and started talking to us. Where we’re from, etc. Afterwards, he left only to return about 10 minutes later to gift us with three huge, warm pieces of fresh bread.
With flowers and bread in hand, we took this taxi from hell.
As expected, the taxi promptly broke down on a bridge surrounded by busy traffic. Our driver fiddled under the hood and has us back up and running in only a few minutes. We were impressed. Our driver also had a thing for British and American 80s love songs, though he didn’t understand much English.
Afshin also invited us to his family’s house to celebrate Arba’een, a Shia Islamic holiday honoring Imam Husayn
Hiking around the desert, these two guys appear out of nowhere. They wanted to make sure we weren’t digging for archaeological treasures. After they realized we were only tourists, they posed for a picture.
A stop at the Human Rights Cottage, a house converted into a hotel run by a man dedicated to saving Iran’s brown bears.
Preparing lunch. After we ate, we filmed some testimonials about what we thought of Iran for the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations Convention held in Tehran in 2017.
Lots of good food. This was our first home-cooked meal in Iran.
In Iran, Cheetozis a brand of potato chip
Continuing the road trip through the south deserts on the way to Yazd
A stop at the Yazd Zoroastrian Tower of Silence. It’s easy to forget Islam isn’t Iran’s only religion.
At the top of the mountain was a Zoroastrian fire temple
