Dave and Rhys registering at the Pakistani Army checkpoints
By about lunchtime, we reached Taftan, the grim and isolated border town between Pakistan and Iran. This place is an absolute hell hole and we all agreed that it was probably the worst place we’ve been to in the world so far!
Rhys on the long desolate road through the desert!
Luckily the Pakistani customs formalities were relatively painless and we weren’t stuck in this dusty mess for too long.
Finally arriving into Iran
Upon entering Iranian territory, we immediately encountered the beast that is Iranian bureaucracy. Army officials demanded through broken English that we have an escort of two armed guards with us in the Hummer while in Iran’s Sistan Province. This is actually standard procedure for western travelers given the recent history of kidnappings in this near lawless South Eastern region of Iran.
From the border, we had no choice but to let two young soldiers into the Hummer with us. They were also trying to take our passports but we wouldn’t let them. To say the least, none of us were too happy about this forced invasion into our ‘home’! We had no idea how long they’d be in the car with us as they didn’t have any English. At first we found this situation quite novel but it began to wear on us as every 20 kms, we were forced to stop for long periods at army checkpoints where our passports were taken by seemingly overcautious soldiers. Who were we to argue though? They were the guys with the Kalashnikovs!
The young army soldiers we had to squeeze into the car!
At most of these checkpoints, loads of young soldiers came out for a look at us and chance their arm at getting any free stuff from us such as western music or movies. Two guys in particular were keen on Chuck's sunnies!
The Iranian army men try on Chuck's sunnies at a checkpoint
Low on fuel, we had to make our first fill-up in Iran where we were told the petrol prices were ludicrously cheap in comparison to most of the places we’ve been. We were directed to a petrol station and had no idea of the ordeal that was about to unfold. First of all, there was a huge queue of cars in the petrol station. We found out that this was because Iranians are given a ration card for fuel where they can obtain a monthly allowance of petrol, where each litre of petrol costs only 1000 rials (€0.07!). Compare this to € 1.20 cents a litre back in Ireland! But since we were foreigners and didn’t have a ration card we would have to pay a standard rate of 4000 Rials / €0.28 which still wasn’t too bad a deal!
Soldiers still onboard, we arrived in Zahedan, our first stop in Iran. With 75% of Europe’s opiates passing through this region from Pakistan and Afghanistan, Zahedan is a major focal point of this drug trade and obviously very dangerous. We were told by the local army officials for our own safety, to remain in our hotel until the morning where they would come to escort us again!
1 comment:
Hi. nice trip.. may I ask which country you entered Pakistan from? Afghanistan? Did they cause any problems from Afghanistan to Pakistan? Did you have any additional documents of the car along with the registeration?
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