Project VELAIA

Due to too many delicious fruits, the extreme heat with often over 40°C in the noon and early afternoon and due to distances over 100km I got really bad stomach aches the following three days. I tried to get them away with fasting and eating only very soft meals but in the evening they most often came back even harder.

But despite these problems cycling through the brown and dry Iranian landscape – for me it often seemed quite desert like – was a real pleasure. The roads here follow vallies as far as they can and don`t take unnecessary hills like many roads you will find in Turkey.

In the evenings I found places next to the street because I wanted to get to bed quite fast and not have hours-lasting conversations that would make getting up early in the next morning quite difficult
In Tabriz I visited the monumental grave of a famous Iranian poet and author and went to the tourist office where I met Nasser Khan, a “Bunter Hund” speaking eight languages and taking care for all tourists coming along the way. He manages a really interesting guestbook and a book exchange where I left 2 books and got 2 other books in exchange. He will even exchange $ and € to the actual exchange rate without provision! (picture follows)
I had found a host, Saber, in Tehran to host me during the time I have to wait for the Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan visa in Tehran and told him I would arrive in Tehran on Monday, leaving the bike somewhere on the way to pick it up after the applications and ride into Tehran. But I was very very weak due to the stomach problems with food processing (got no energy from it) and decided therefore to take a bus into Tehran together with my bike – the Iranian visa lasts only 30 days and I don`t want to risk anything.

So I got 3 tickets for the bus, 2 for me and one for the bike, so that I had enough room to sleep during the bus transfer – and it was really cheap: about 8€ for 3 tickets bringing me the about 450km to Tehran that were still left.
On the bus I meta really helpful student of agriculture who helped me to contact Saber by phone and so I was picked up at 3am from the western bus terminal in Tehran.
On Monday I immediately went to the Turkmenistan embassy – but it had moved. I found the new location quite quickly and after that I met Narges, a girlfriend of Saber, and we went into the city center to apply for a Uzbekistan visa at a travel agency (200$), get a book about China and also a map. Narges then left me for her English classes (she is an English teacher) and I went into the street where the outdoor shops are located to get a small and lightweight 1kg biwak tent for the more harsh climates in front of me. By the way: (for travelers coming my way): The new Turkmenistan embassy is located near the Azerbaijan embassy:
Str. Farmanyeh Vatanpour Str. Barati 5
Tehran
Tel. 021-222 06 306
The next day was spent researching the internet for visa information, contacting friends and relatives in Germany and doing many smaller jobs. In the evening I met Saber and some of his beautiful girlfriends at a nice rocky valley at the foots of the 3000-4000 meter mountains in the north of Tehran. We had dinner and some interesting conversations together but unfortunately they had to work the next day and therefore had to leave quite early.