Steve's Cycling Blog

Look what I found in the hotel desk draw – to be expected I guess 🙂

Prayer rug and Quran in our hotel room

Sleeping, breakfast and then bike maintenance to start the day – nothing major I just needed to give the drive train of my bike a proper clean, it’s had plenty of wipes with rags, but hasn’t been properly cleaned for a couple of countries now!

From there Michael, Ruth and I set off for a wander. First stop was the former US embassy – they’d not been there, and it was conveniently close to a metro station which would get us to eh bazaar. I took a few more pictures

From there it was o to the metro. As you may expect there’s a woman’s only carriage on the trains, and it turns out the platform as well

Women only on the yellow seats!

Ruth went in the woman’s carriage yesterday for the ‘cultural experience’ of it but decided she’d be okay in with the men, who were ever so polite and insisted that not only she, but I also, sat down – we decided a selfie was the best response

Ruth and I on the Tehran metro

Michael and Ruth were returning to the market to try and close a deal on carpets each of them were interested in and it rapidly became apparent that the carpet salesmen of the Tehran bazaar are as ‘in your face’ as you might expect. As we have a firm ‘no more ***** carpets’ rule in our house I wasn’t buying and therefore decided to go off and explore other areas of the market and left them to it.

This bazaar is similar in design to Istanbul with vaulted ceilings, only significantly larger, and no less crowded and chaotic. I spent a couple of hours wandering and following alleys and lanes and stairs and ramps through out.

By now it was time for lunch so I sat in the main square and had the worlds largest chicken sandwich – very tasty – and watched the world go by. I have no idea what these groups of men are buying or selling – or even if they’re buying or selling, but it rather looks and sounds like the trading floor of a stock exchange

How many cabs in New York City

Paul Kelly, Careless

Clearly I have no idea about that, but I’m prepared to wager that it’s fewer than in Tehran – every second vehicle (that’s trying to run you down) seems to be a yellow or green cab. Clearly I’m not much of a video maker as this street seems way more hectic when you’re there than it does in this video

By now it was getting pretty hot and I’d had about enough wandering so I jumped back on the metro to get as far back towards the hotel as possible.

One thing I discovered on the metro is that for an Iranian I would be pretty short. On the tube in London I can see over pretty much everyone in the carriage, in Tehran I’m looking up at more people than are looking up at me.

And if you think that shaving is expensive in your country, try buying razors in Iran, half a million Rial for four!

Ouch! That’s almost $15 USD

On the walk back from the metro to the hotel I spotted a piece of art in a gallery which I really liked which appeared to be 6,500,000 IRR (so about $175), however when I went in to enquire further it seemed that all the zeros were playing tricks on my eyes and it was in fact 65 million (and thus $1750) so sadly it’s staying right where it is – it’s nice, but not that nice!

Back at the hotel and it’s been ‘arse about on the internet afternoon’, as well as a little bit of work, and putting this post together.

As on the way in to Tehran we’re being bussed out again tomorrow, and for quite a long way as well. The remainder of the coming week also looks somewhat gentler than last week was, with less climbing and on-average shorter days.

The riding week ahead

I’ve also just updated my tracking spreadsheet and as-at getting to the bus point coming into Tehran I’d done 10,006 km climbing 70,710 m in the process. This means we’re 77% of the way there and have just under 3,000 km to go – we’re getting closer but it’s still a fair way to go!

I’d seen a nice looking cafe down the road yesterday and Roger and Phil tried to go there for lunch, but couldn’t find it and ended up at another which they highly recommended so Michael, Ron, Rob and I have just been there for dinner – it was indeed good. One of the staff spoke excellent English and they even had English on their menu both of which make the whole process of knowing what you’re getting to eat so much easier.

And the food was great too! As was the bill when it came – 1.77 million IRR for four of us to have dinner – talk about living the high life 😉

On the way back to the hotel se stopped in at the local shops to pick up a few things and also spent some time watching the chaps in the bakery making flat breads – check out the photos below – the oven is gas-fired and it was well into the 40s in the bakery. They were turning out about four flatbreads per minute in a pretty much constant rotation.

Now I’ve sorted bags, had a shower and am about ready for bed, though we’ve a late start and then plenty of opportunity for snoozing in the bus as we get out of town.

Update

Michael had made a video of the bread making process in the bakery so here’s what it looks like

View from my tent

So I was also asked what I could see out my hotel window – here’s the answer

Nice view huh!

Other riders have a significantly better view – this is what it looks like from Roger and Ron’s room, though apparently it looked even better yesterday when there wasn’t a sand storm blowing into the city.

A much better view – some have all the luck