Iran not without incident !!!! I am in Dubai after two days of mayhem trying to leave Iran.I decided to take the shorter of the two crossings to Dubai but it meant taking a coach 200 km,it was packed and I ended up sitting next to someone constantly being sick.Not an ideal situation for me.Got to the port 4 hours before departure as required to clear passport control etc,it was due to leave at 9pm.The place was packed and at 8.50 pm a guy came out and shouted something which was met by almost an instant riot,he had said the sailing was cancelled due to a problem in Tehran he did not know when it would sail and everyone should leave,they all went mad,the police were called and we were all herded out of the terminal.I had a met a young guy called Hassan who spoke a little English,he managed to convince the management to let us sleep at the port and take a bus back to Bandar Abbas in the morning to catch the 9pm ferry from there.There was only one bus in the morning and it was full ,Hassan managed to get my bike on and when had to sit in the stair well.This time it seemed like everyone was being sick !!!!. We got back to the other port again with the 4 hour buffer to clear passport control.Hassan went ahead of me and his bag was searched,they found a set of playing cards in his bag,this is where it starts to get ridiculous,IT IS A CRIME IN IRAN TO HAVE PLAYING CARDS !!!! they took him away for about 40 mins,he eventually returned looking very worried and was speaking on the phone to a friend who was a lawyer,he spoke to me and said the only way around this to make it less of a problem was if I told the police the cards were mine and I had given them to him.I had to help him I thought that as I was leaving the worst they could was deport me so it made no difference,so I went with him to the police.They searched me asked loads of questions took my passport and left me there,I was thinking that maybe I was wrong about the worst they could do to me.After 40 mins they returned and told me to sign a piece of paper I could not read,I refused and they left again.Eventually a guy came back with a translation so I signed it.They told me to go through to the next room for departure I asked for my passport and they said I will get it later.I was now on the boat with no passport.Hassan was fine but I was not sure if I could now get into Dubai.With about 1 hour to go before Dubai the captain turned up with my passport oh and my knife they confiscated.So I am now in Dubai and about to leave for Dehli to go to the Himalayas,I will be pleased to be back on my bike.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 07:21:22 +0000
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