Iran Trip 2009 from Adam Teale on Vimeo.

In February 2009 I was fortunate to spend 3 weeks traveling in Iran (a.k.a Persia).

In those 3 weeks I got to explore Rasht, Tehran, Shiraz, Persepolis, Maybod, Yazd and along the way I met by some of the most friendly & welcoming people I have ever met.

Iran thank you very much for this incredible adventure!

Music: Iranian musician by the name of Homay (Saied Jafar-zadeh) – http://www.last.fm/music/Mastan%2B%2526%2BHomay

28 Comments

• At Sun 7, February 2010, Ben wrote:

  I didn't want that video to end - loved it!

  I find out tomorrow if my visa application has been approved or rejected. If successful, I'll arrive in Tehran in April. Any travel tips?

  Thanks.

• At Sun 7, February 2010, Mohanad Abrahim wrote:

  Amazing , saw your tweet and say hey lets see Iran

  May be i should visit there sometime .

• At Mon 8, February 2010, Adam wrote:

  Thanks guys!

  @Ben - best of luck with your visa application, I am sure you will be fine. Out of interest how much is costing you? I paid €55 in Istanbul a year ago.

  Travel tips - hmmm, i wish i'd spent more time up in the north west. I highly recommend the Trans Asia express train from Istanbul to Tehran - 3 days and is incredible.

  Make sure you take cash into Iran, a mate of mine didn't but luckily a random Iranian dude on the train leant him €400!

• At Mon 8, February 2010, arnika knight wrote:

  awesome video...going in April and really looking forward to it, especially after that video, going to take the train as well, which looking AMAZING in the winter. nice work

• At Tue 9, February 2010, Ben wrote:

  I live in Korea so I applied through a visa agency, which cost me 35 EUR. It'll be more on top paid at the Iranian embassy in Seoul, and I'm anticipating something higher than your 55. Anywhere up to 100.

  Thanks for the tips. I've decided to follow your advice and fly into Istanbul from Kuala Lumpur after the SE Asia leg of my trip, then catch the Trans-Asia express to Tehran as you did. I love train journeys. I heard about the cash situation, I'll be prepared.

  Cheers Adam!

• At Tue 9, February 2010, Anna A wrote:

  Fantastic video! I'm headed to to Iran for 3 weeks over Norouz and cannot wait (first time). Thanks for sharing!

• At Tue 9, February 2010, Adam wrote:

  Thanks Arnika! I hope u have as good a time as I did! The Trans Asia express is fantastic, check out http://seat61.com - it's got all the good info. Let me know how ur trip goes!

• At Thu 11, February 2010, fran wrote:

  I am so jealous! two trips to Iran and nothing I made is as good as this. So happy you loved the country as much as i do. thank you.

• At Fri 12, February 2010, Lior wrote:

  Hey Adam!

  im Israeli, and therefor can not go to Iran, unfortunately. even more sadly after seeing your great video!

  but, i do study about Iran in the university. im doing a research about tourism in Iran/ Shiraz, and would love it if you can help me with that. seems like you had quite an experience, and i could use your advise.

  if you would like to help me, please contact me at lior_laufer@yahoo.com

  Thanks a lot!

  Lior

• At Sat 13, February 2010, taariq hassan wrote:

  I loved Iran except for the food and would love to go back and see some of the NW and NE rather than the centre . Koshon was a real highlight esp. the day I woke up and it had snowed on the hills in the desert. That town was exactly the way I imagined Persia to be like.

  Shame about the Govt. They are just evil barbarians, unlike the people who are fab . and the language is beautiful.

• At Tue 16, February 2010, Parisa wrote:

  Hay Adam !

  I really enjoyed watching this video, and I am so happy that you have enjoyed visiting my country, Iran.

  It is so nice that you recommend visiting Iran to others.

  Bests,

  Parisa

• At Wed 17, February 2010, Amir wrote:

  Amazing amazing video.

  Other than the wonderful experience you've shared with us, those portraits at the end of the video give me goosebumps, awesome. I couldn't thank you enough for these.

  P.S. If you don't mind let me know what did you use to edit the photos ?

  Cheers

• At Wed 17, February 2010, John wrote:

  Hi Adam -- video incredibly well done. Had to see it again back-to-back. And your music bed is extraordinary. Thanks for info on that. You truly understand Iran. Will be there in May 2011. We hope something very good happens to you resulting from this production. -- John

• At Thu 18, February 2010, Adam wrote:

  Wow thank you all for the positive feedback!

  @Amir - thanks! All my photos were RAW and processed in Aperture 2 & Photoshop CS3.

  @John - thank you! I definitely understand very little about Iran! But I was lucky enough to keep my mind pretty open whilst I was over there and I think that helps being in a place that is so heavily judged from the outside. Pretty much every person I met over there was incredibly helpful and friendly and curious about my opinions on Iran. Would love to hear about your experiences when you get over there. Have a great trip!

• At Mon 1, March 2010, Piet Osefius wrote:

  Hi Adam,

  Your video is fantastic, good work! It's a nice example to show the quality of your magnificent Lumix LX3 travel companion. I'm running a LX3 blog for Dutch speaking people and I published your video. I hope you don't mind.

  Best regards,

  Piet

• At Mon 1, March 2010, Adam wrote:

  Hey Piet!

  Thank you very much!

  Thank you for reposting my video on your blog, I really appreciate it!

• At Tue 23, March 2010, Maria wrote:

  Hi Adam

  My boyfriend have been trying to convince me to go to Iran for a while and I just wouldnt have any of it. Beeing Danish makes it a bit worse though.

  But after he showed me this amazing video I have been less reluctant and we are now planing to go very soon.

  Thank you :-)

  Maria

• At Sat 3, April 2010, Alex wrote:

  This video was nice and it was showing enjoyable moments that I hope you liked it, but apparently this trip was not showing the real face of Iran this was arranged for a lower class trip for student type tourists. The video and music was incredible and you did a perfect job!

  Please watch this video to see the True Iran!

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3dMnIbZ6q0&feature=related

• At Sat 3, April 2010, Alex wrote:

  Life is too short just see beautiful things, think calm and relax, live to generate enjouyable moments remeber we can not fix anything, what do you see behind this face in the first shut of your video.....

  ++Kish Island, Iran..... Flower of the East

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnBcdwzRrFQ&feature=related

• At Sat 3, April 2010, Adam wrote:

  Hey Alex! Thanks for your comments!

• At Sat 3, April 2010, Adam wrote:

  Hi Maria!

  I hope you make it to Iran and have as good a time as I did!

  Please let us know about your journey wen you get over there!

  Happy travels!

• At Tue 6, April 2010, maryam wrote:

  HI

  I got really happy that you enjoyed so much of your trip and made this wonderful video. I need your permission to post this page on my facebook profile.

  thanks

  hope to c u again in Iran

• At Sat 10, April 2010, ola wrote:

  amazing video. Its mean there live normal people just world shows them in bad light. Better for us who wanna see still pure Iran :) Im going next week there. Cant wait!

• At Mon 12, April 2010, Sandra wrote:

  Hi Adam!

  Friend of mine introduced me to your Jakkayarn video and got 'lured' here. :)

  It's a really awesome video. Did you take the stills with the LX3 as well?

  Hope to see more of your creative stuff!

  Cheers!

  Sandra

• At Fri 18, June 2010, hitesh wrote:

  lovely video

  iran looks very very beautiful

• At Fri 25, June 2010, Louis wrote:

  Thanks for sharing your trip with us Adam,it puts a very human face to country which receives so much unnecessary negative press in the west.

  I`v visited Turkey on a couple occasions and the hospitality shown by the people there is amazing and i`m sure this is the case across the region.

  Louis.....

• At Thu 2, September 2010, Tablets brand fioricet. wrote:

  Tablets brand fioricet....

  Tablets brand fioricet....

• At Sun 12, September 2010, Craig wrote:

  I've applied for an invitation from the Ministry to visit Iran, and your video makes me even more excited about the trip. Hopefully I will hear back in the next few weeks and go in late October / Early November.

  Your video is great, and your portraits are really well done. Thank you for sharing this.

I took the overnight bus from Shiraz to Tehran, checked back into the Mashad Hotel on Amir Kabir street and spent the day checking out the Golestan Palace and the Grand Bazaar.

The museums in the palace are definitely worth a look – you can either pay per museum (about 4000 rials each) or get a ticket to see them all. I have never seen such a reflective bunch of rooms – so many mirrors! Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to take any photos in the main palace part (sorry forgot the name!), but did get some in the other museums.

The grand bazaar is indeed grand, couldn’t say if it was on the scale of JJ market in Bangkok, but it could be. I met some guys who owned a carpet shop but wasn’t forced to buy one. I think I might actually have some basic knowledge of person carpets now after the amount I have seen

I only spent the night in Tehran and jumped a bus from the east terminal to Rasht. Why Rasht? To go see the Caspian Sea. I had intended to check out the town of Masouleh which I’d heard a lot of good things about but in the end ran out of enthusiasm to get there. I met 2 lads in my hotel who were keen to show me a bit around Rasht and took me to check out the Caspian Sea. We also stopped in at Bandar-e Anzali which would be a great place to spend some time in the summer.

I was lucky enough to catch up with Tim who I met in Yazd – he’d been exploring a fair amount of the NW of Iran and also managed to get taken in by the police for taken some photos (he said they eventually let him go and it was just a formality!).

After Rasht I bussed it to my last stop in Iran – Tabriz.

Tabriz is cool.

I arrived in Tabriz at about 4:30am and most of the cheap hotels were shut or full so I splashed out and spent 4 times by 50,000 rials/night budget. Money not well spent.
Whilst checking some emails I bumped into Yann the Frenchman who had ridden his $300 mountain bike 18,000+ kms from Singapore to Iran and was continuing on back to France. What a journey!

I ended up meeting 3 great people by the names of Babak, Reza & Amir – Reza runs the cafe net and Babak & Amir are his mates. Pretty much spent my whole time in Tabriz hanging out with these chaps. They took me out the see a bunch of places, got up early to meet me for breakfast at the local breakfast place, and didn’t let me pay for anything! When they make it to Australia one day I said I’d get the bill.

After a few shoddy hours sleep in the Hotel Mashad(50,000 rials/bed) i poked my head out to Amir Kabir street and saw the opposite of what i saw on arrival. A lot of traffic. Not to the level of Bangkok/Delhi but still pretty busy.

I befriended Joel & Tobi – 2 cool dudes who are making their way east. Joel, a frenchmen who quit his job in Quebec and is travelling until his cash runs out, and Tobi, a german who is making his way to Nepal to teach. Both are trying to get visas for Pakistan. Tobi says he wants to hitch hike a boat ride from Bandar Abbas to Mumbai!

Despite taking the metro to north Tehran and watching the folks get into their fitness activities around the park, I only spent time in between Ferdosi & Imam Khomeini square. I’d planned to check out the Bazaar (meant to be massive – biggest in the world?) but never made it. I blame the Tehranians! 10 steps down the street and there we are having a chat

Probably the most interesting person I met in Tehran was Aziz Ahmad – a gentleman from Afghanistan who was on holiday from his town Herat. He spoke English very well and told me how Afghanistan used to be a very popular destination for people heading Nepal from Europe. He said it was so safe that travellers used to sleep on the street. He said up until the Russians entered Afghanistan he used to run a very successful handicrafts/furniture business that exported to a lot of countries. When all the trouble gained momentum the travelers were less and it was harder to export his products. So, after a year of not working, he somehow made his way into importing tyres and eventually Mercedes Benz spare parts. Also I think he said they only got electricity & running water 10 years ago.

I asked Aziz about the current situation in Afghanistan. He said something along the lines of the US are supplying weapons to the Taliban who kill Afghan people, whilst in the background the US mine for resources. For some reason I haven’t heard that side of the story on tv. Oh yeah, he said Osama Bin Laden is in Pakistan.

I’ll most likely head back to Tehran on the way to Tabriz, and will try to make an effort to see a little more.

Now, the late night train to Esfahan!

4 Comments

• At Tue 24, February 2009, Phil Soliman wrote:

  Lovely photos Adam. Get me in the mood to go 'proper' travelling again :P

• At Wed 25, February 2009, adam hussey wrote:

  Awesome dude, keep it up ...

• At Wed 25, February 2009, Lucy wrote:

  Are these pictures really pictures that you make????? Really beautiful!!

• At Thu 26, February 2009, Adam wrote:

  thanks a lot guys!

  shooting some video too so will make an effort to get a clip up when I finish up in Iran.

  cheers!

5pm, 12th February, 2009

I made it. Well at least onto the Trans-Asya Expressi train that is. From here, Kayseri (Turkey), it’s a 49+ hour journey to Tehran. Today turned out to be pretty cool. I managed to wakeup as planned @ 6.30 this morning, the bus from Goreme was only 30 mins behind schedule. When I got to Kayseri I a shuttle bus from the otogar took me to the wrong side of town. 3 kms walk later I made it to the train station, got a ticket (82 Turkish lira or thereabouts), met a french dude, Joel, who is also going to Tehran. For the remainder of the wait I was fortunate enough to be befriended by a bunch of Iranian emmigrants who were saying goodbye to their parents – they said the current regime in Iran isn’t too fond of the folks who are of Baha’i faith).

Should be an interesting trip.

4pm, 13th February, 2009

Last night I was lucky enough to meet Farbod, a funny guy from Tehran who just finished a trip with his wife to Istanbul, He tried to educate me on a little of Farsi and explain the difference between Shi’ah and Sunni Islam. He said that he likes to drink beer and that Iranian girls are far prettier than Turkish.

I woke up today and looked out the window to see snow that covered the ground to the horizon. Wow!

10 cups of tea later here we are in Tatvan. At some point here I think we and our train get onto a ferry that will take us across Lake Van to Van.

My cabin mate, Ali, seems like a really nice guy. From what I could understand he is involved in IT and has something to do with networks between Turkey-Iran-Azherbaijan.

Watched 2 excellent movies – “Zack & Miri make a porno” & “the curious case of benjamin button” – if u haven’t seen them make sure you do!

3am, 14th February, 2009

We arrived in Van and got onto the Iranian train. A bit of a difference. The trains are dressed with some nice Iranian upholstery and the staff seem to speak more English than the guys working on the Turkish train.
Today was cool. Met so many lovely folks. Pretty much everyone has been very friendly – asking about where I’m from, am i married, what did i study, what do i think of Iran and Iranian people, why am i visiting Iran, etc… I am really hoping this will carry on into Iran. Will see!
From what i have heard/read this seems to be the case.

Beware! Forget about all the xenophobic, anti-Iranian propaganda dominating the media. What they say about terrorism and your life being in danger in Iran is absolute hogwash (I have no idea what that word means, but I like the sound of it: hogwash…). If anything, all that Iranians can be accused of is excessive hospitality. So, when traveling to Iran, beware of innocent looking situations which could turn into the experience of your life. Kind of like walking into The Twilight Zone.

source: http://www.digitalroom.net/index2.html

Passport control – entering Iran was a far quicker than exiting Turkey. Smooth.

6.30pm, 14th February, 2009
Apparently 5-10mins from Tehran!
This has been an excellent adventure – recommend it to everyone!
Amazing countryside to see!

How I discovered this train? The man in seat 61 – http://www.seat61.com/Iran.htm

Now to see what Tehran has got in store…

8 Comments

• At Thu 19, February 2009, Lisa wrote:

  Im so jealous!!!!!!!!!! do you think i could fit in your backpack?

• At Thu 19, February 2009, Lisa wrote:

  really nice photos too

• At Fri 20, February 2009, Bart Verkoeijen wrote:

  I like the posting. Great that you kept a day-by-day log, so we can feel your excitement along the way. Much better than a review. Keep on going, have a lot of fun, and keep on virtually writing to us! :-)

• At Fri 20, February 2009, Adam wrote:

  @Lisa - haha! thanks! ummm, my bag is kinda full, but maybe when it gets warmer i'll chuck my jumper out and that might leave enough room?

  @Bart - cheers dude, am a little behind with my blog/pics so have some catching up to do. The net in Iran is pretty average, and no WIFI so far! help!

• At Fri 20, February 2009, Bart Verkoeijen wrote:

  Haha, back to the 56k era where you can plug your notebook in every widespread telephone jack. Who needs WiFi? ;-) Or get a super hi-tech advanced ultrasound satellite network connection. Down-link only, and you might never know (newsfact) if the Russians or Europeans crash into another satellite to break your connection... Modem over GSM/GPRS would be cheaper anyway.

  Or it's another good reason to go to an internet café and get a beer while surfing. Or.. er.. a malt beer? ;-)

  P.S. I really wonder if you have some insider facts on whether people in Iran brew their own liquor and if it tastes good. :-)

• At Sat 21, February 2009, warwick wrote:

  simply excellent!

  my few days in tehran were also full of excessive hospitality. it's wonderfull you can get around N see it all in Iran

  post some more stuff

  yeah it's a pity those septics and CNN post and report so much bullshit about these places

  enjoy and report!

• At Wed 16, June 2010, Travel Bucket List: Trans Asya Ekspresi | All Is Optional wrote:

  [...] Because my obsessive behaviour precedes me, here are some people who have already taken the journey: Crazy Guy on a Bike News from Above: the Trans-Asya Expressi [...]

• At Fri 10, June 2011, Travel Bucket List: Trans Asya Eskpresi | All Is Optional wrote:

  [...] behaviour precedes me, here are some people who have already taken the journey: Crazy Guy on a Bike News from Above: the Trans-Asya Expressi This entry was posted in Travel and tagged alternative travel, international travel, Iran, [...]

If all things go to plan I’ll be catching the first thing smoking (the Trans Asya Expressi train) from Kayseri (Turkey) to Tehran (Iran) – a 2 to 3 day journey over what should be some very interesting countryside.

I am currently in Goreme taking it easy and cheaply after covering a fair bit of ground the past few weeks. Not much happening here except for the occasional stroll to the local shop and some decent time playing around with my new camera and photoshop. So what’s the plan?

Well on Thursday (today = Monday) I will head to Kayseri early morning and hopefully be able to get at ticket on the Trans Asya Expressi train which begins its journey in Istanbul. The folks up at one of the tour places said it should be easy to get a ticket seeing as it is low season – fingers crossed. I have thought a lot about what route I will take and this is where I am at:

Kayseri-Tehran-Kashan-Esfahan-Yazd-Kerman-Shiraz-Bushehr-Tehran-Rasht-Tabriz-Turkey

If it goes smoothly and I have surplus time I might try fit a detour to Mashad out in the east to have a bit of a look.

The Lonely Planet Middle East book that Lisa got me (thankyou Smalls!) has come in very handy to get some ideas on what to see. Also a lot of time abusing google!
Hopefully my budget of €30 is well over what i need and sees me through the max 30 days I have!

My expectations of the weather are low (has been pretty shite in my travels over this part of the world so far!) but hopefully the excursion to the Persian Gulf will heat things up

Looking forward to meeting the Iranian folks, trying some new food and in general just some interesting adventures!

I hope i make that train!

Inspiration for today: Check out this amazing adventure 2 cool folks did – 15000kms! – Bremen to Seremban – http://noplanes.wordpress.com/

4 Comments

• At Thu 12, February 2009, Lisa wrote:

  you're welcome!

  think of all the cool Iranian friends you will make with fun Chuck Norris facts.

  I hope Iran is cool after all this!

• At Thu 12, February 2009, Adam wrote:

  for sure, but i just hope it doesn't scare/excite anyone too much.

  Chuck Norris has two speeds: walk and kill.

• At Thu 12, February 2009, Adam wrote:

  hey what's with the little flag next to your name? Did u somehow find ur self in the US?

• At Thu 26, February 2009, Lisa wrote:

  i dont know how that flag got there and how to get rid of it! i dont like being American :(

  Maybe its there by default cos Chuck is American?