Travel Asia - Camping in Iran
Ali Baba and the 40 robbers
by Peter van der Lans of Bicycle-Adventures.com
Not many people know it but Iran is one of the best countries for traveling in the world. A few years ago I spend some months there. I found the nicest and warmest people imaginable. I know, the press in the west is against me but ask any traveler who has been there, they know I am not lying.
It was seldom necessary to camp when I cycled through the country. Many days I was invited by local people to stay in their houses, share the food, the alcohol (which I had to refuse since I don't drink) and there was always a room for me.
But this night was different. I was in the south, in reach of the Straits of Hormoz. The land here is wide and open, not many villages around. The reason to camp out now was that the surrounding was so beautiful. Close your eyes and imagine: wide open land with green trees, some sand here and there and a road that goes on forever. Here was nobody. That was at least what I thought.
In the last village I had taken enough water and food to help me through the night. So I set up my camp. Close by I found more water so I could even have a shower.
To shower on the road I carried with me a 2.5 l. Coca Cola bottle which I always let empty until the end of the day. Therefore I had always a "portable" shower with me.
I showered and made me some coffee. The evening falls quickly in the desert. And beautiful it was. The sun went in a few minutes down. Nothing was to be heard. Or was it? I imagined I heard voices. A few minutes later it was not longer my imagination. In front of me there were about 40 kids. Some of them were not even 10 years old. But one of them was around 20. He had a machinegun with him.
He ordered me to stand up. I thought I finally had found the legendary Ali Baba and his 40 robbers. Not knowing what to do with me he ordered me to sit down. And to stand up again. It became amusing especially since he was very nervous. The guy spoke to me in Farsi, the language of the Iranians. I didn't understand a word. But after a few times sitting down and standing up it became comic.
Fortunately, a land-rover showed up. A man in his 40's stepped out of the car and asked me in broken English what I was doing here. I told him I was planning to sleep here. I showed him my tent, mattress and my stove. He looked very puzzled. Then he ordered the guy with the machinegun away. He explained to me the guy tried to convince me to stay in a hotel in the next town but couldn't explain since he didn't speak any English.
He offered me to bring me to the town and stay in the hotel. I refused. The evening was so beautiful, I felt like sleeping under the bright sky.
He looked at me with a frown, not understanding why I would prefer the bare circumstance of the hard ground instead of a comfortable hotelbed. But he ordered everybody away.
The man excused himself for the behavior of the kid with the gun. The guy was just in the army service and wanted to show off to his friends. "That can happen", he said. Camping in Iran is not well known, not necessary too and the people are not exposed to it.
As a present he give me some fruits he had in his car and waved me goodbye wishing me luck. The group of kids disappeared in the dark and I haven't seen them since that night. I made some coffee and dinner before I fell in a dreamless sleep.
Scary it was, and it was my only scary experience in all the years I've traveled, and in all my international camping.
Something about the author:
Peter van der Lans is a long term traveler who traveled as a backpacker and a cyclist since the mid 80's in Europe. In the early 90's he shifted his attention to Asia. Peter cycled from Holland to China, spend months in Iran and Pakistan, about a year in India and Nepal before moving into China where he cycled for more then a year. At present date, mid 2006, he has cycled over 68.000 km and it's unlikely he is willing to give cycling up as it became a way of life for him.
After the SARS in 2003 he moved to the UK for a while. Peter now lives in Malaysia. He has settled himself in Sitiawan, a little town near Lumut, the gateway to the little tourist island Pulau Pangkor. He likes Pangkor so much he decided to make a website about it: www.pulau-pangkor.com. While working on that website he slowly started working on a second and extensive website about his adventures when he was on his bicycle (which b.t.w. had been baptized Jim). The bike website is a large and ongoing project www.bicycle-adventures.com.
