I spent my last morning in Teheran in a taxi looking for Uzbekistan Embassy. Two hours looking for a building, hidden, until I found it. My first visa from a Stan. The Stan are the five countries of the Old Soviet Union in Central Asia, I will cycle through: Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kiryiguistan and Kazahastan.
To get a visa you need to know the city well and to know when exactly you want to enter that country. If you make a mistake you get stuck. If China does not let me in I will have to go round Russia or find another way round. It seems that after Olympics China will start giving visas in October. At that time I hope to be cycling to Tibet, Nepal and India. In December I will be in India.
Not much to do in Teheran, so I went to Isfahan. It is in the south and on the way of the Silk Route, with one of the most beautiful squares in the world leading to Jame Mosque. The biggest and most misterious mosque of tthe Muslim world. At night, families gather around the square, with their gas cookers, blankets, sweets and ice creams. The moon shines from one of the corners off the square, the only lady that shows her face in whole Iran. In Isfahan I met again Daisuke in Isfahan, he is the Japonese guy who has been cycling the planet for ten years. I wrote an article about him for Bike a Fondo. See article
I also met Salva, a guy from Granda, I will cycle much of the Silk Route with him.
Shiraz has another hidden beauty: the city called Persepolis. Dario started to build it but did not know that his son would finish it. It used to take longer to do things because people wanted to do it well. For just half a dollar you can see the beauty. There is little foreign tourism and locals prefer to take pictures off me.
Bargaining is important at the local markets. Nice ice creams and sweets all around, until sunsetting. Prices have gone up lots in the last year and you cannot buy much for 3 dollars. Backpackers are not here yet so there aren?t many cheapy hotels in the country of Homeini.
On Monday I will go back to the visa business, Turkmenistan, Tuesday to rest, Wednesday Tayikistán, and so days pass by in one of the most overwhelming areas in the world: the Pamir highway.
