Killing time in Yadz, central Iran. No Pakistan visa means most passengers are flying over via the Gulf. Me and my 3 travel pals are getting a train to Tehran and a direct flight to Amritsar, India.

$250 all in. Bargain. Some people have paid nearer £500 and up to 4 flights…

We are killing time because we need to know if the truck gets into Pakistan on it’s transit visa before we fly. If it doesn’t – all bets are off. Still, it’s cheap here and non alcoholic lemon malt beverages (aka beer) are tasty…

Booking the flight was an adventure in itself. Limited online booking options especially if you wanna fly direct to India.

We searched out the travel agency from Lonely Planet. Walked passed it, asked a police man, missed it again. Then the local fella you see in the first pic below pulled up and asked if we needed help. After much map pointing he said “get in”. And he took us to the door. If I take just 1 thing from Iran it’ll be how often people are happy to go out if their way to help a stranger. It’s brilliant. If you see a tourist looking lost in Blighty today, lend ’em a hand!

We explained what we wanted with some debate. Our flight is new and the agents didn’t know about it. They thought we has to connect in Mumbai. At the moment we are the only 4 passengers on Mahan 5075. Hope there isn’t a good reason for that?! :-/

It came to paying and turns out it’s cash only. The 4 way bill was $1000 and we only had $600 between us. No problem. Chris was told to jump on the back of the owners lackey’s motorbike. No helmet of course and off he went tearing thru the wattle and dawb side streets of Old Yadz.

When he returned he described the ride as “exciting”. I suspect he changed his pants when he grabbed the cash…

To quote Boltonian philosopher Peter Kay we:

“Booked it, Packed it, F’d off” Iranian stylee.

Loved Iran and its wonderful people.