Jan | Chaos roaming the world

“My name is Darius, King of Kings, King of the Universe”

Persepolis. I have known this name for more years than not. Capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire under Darius and Xerxes. The way we travel, we usually only learn about what there is to see a week or so in advance. There are a handful of places though that stand above this. Places like Uluru, Borobudur, Angkor Wat … and Persepolis. Today we went just there.

Teamed up with Jan for this day trip which is a good opportunity for riding pictures

We joined up with Jan, who we had met on the ferry, for this day trip, as he is also in town and keen to do the trip. The site is an easy 60 km from the center of Shiraz along the road to Esfahan. We arrived there by 10 am and parked the bikes right at the entrance car park to get changed (small mistake, more later). The admission price for foreign tourists is steep, at $10 NZ per person, given the average meal costs us about $5 for two.

The site itself consists of several structures in varying states of conservation or reconstruction. All this is set on a massive level platform, half cut out of the hillside, half build up with massive stone blocks. When Alexander the Great burned the city to the ground and looted the treasury, there was still room to spare for a palace or two. As a bonus, behind the platform up the hillside are two huge tombs cut straight into the rock face.

This represents about the level of care taken at this site …

Overall, we both were a bit underwhelmed by the site and the presentation. It is always amazing to stand in the presence of such an historic place, but we felt clearly lacking in information. The sparse signs, some of them missing, had barely more information than half the guidebook entry on the site. By the looks of it, most archaeological work had stopped in 1979 and not much has changed since.

Maybe the Persepolis Museum housed in the badly restored “harem” of Xerxes (think AC’s visibly sticking to the outside) held some more solid info, but another $10 each were too steep for us to be tempted to try. So we left, with all the great photos of this epic place we could wish for, in search for food.

The remainder of the second gate

We did, literally, pay the price for not negotiating the price for parking before we went in. At first, they asked for a ludicrous amount – 10x of what was on the sign (in Farsi) for cars. In the end, both Jan and we paid more than we should have and were a bit frustrated with ourselves.

Jan was keen to visit Naqsh-e Rustam, a necropolis cut into the rock about 12 km from Persepolis. We failed to find food on the way, but did find a minor site with some bas relief carvings instead. At Naqsh-e Rustam, we turned back once more at the entrance due to the steep entrance fee. $20 to see the tomb of Darius the Great? Maybe 3 months ago, but now … we can’t get ourselves to pay that. Funny how we are developing the same kind of attitude that we frowned upon in other travellers a year ago …

We made our way back home alone then, leaving the tombs to Jan to explore. Food is still hard to come by for Nina. After two tries, we gave up and bought supplies for a picnic. There were some nice spots overlooking Shiraz on the way. When we got back there though, it had started raining once again. We went, with picnic supplies and all, back to our room and collapsed for a while.

Nina was not feeling so well, so we stayed in for the rest of the day and did some overdue homework instead, updating the blog and checking our emails.

: Teamed up with Jan for this day trip which is a good opportunity for riding pictures

: Even from far away, it is grand…and full of tourists

: Brits can’t behave themselves…find something and deface it with their name… =P

: ….okay, Germans do the same…but they’re very meticulous in their defacing…

: The official Farsi text

: What is left of the guardians of the gate…a mix of horse, eagle and a man’s face

: Not much left of the actual face

: The remainder of the second gate

: Griffin capitell

: A look along all the remaining gates and pillars

: Scrambling up a hill to get an overview

: Mountain side tomb of Artaxerxes I…showing a fire ritual, we think

: Note: The door has been broken open but it’s forbidden to go in

: Xerxes holding court

: Trying to revive the old art…chiseling a face

: Another hill for a view

: We are unsure who is buried here

: It’s quite a big lizard!

: Just the bases of the pillars remain

: The pillar pieces just lie around

: Friezes on a stone block

: Cuneiform

: Courtiers waiting for an audience with the king

: Emissaries from tributary kingdoms paying their respects

: Don’t look a gift camel in the mouth …

: Quite eerie

: Time gets even the mightiest lion

: looks a bit like molten wax

: One of the restored palaces

: Old Persian, Neo-Babylonian and Elamite text in cuniform script

: The sign is about the size of the site 😉

: A tomb mural at Naqsh-e Rajab

: Just a look from afar…too expensive for our tastes

Sunrise equals breakfast time 🙂

All of the reports on Horizons Unlimited are full of descriptions about the shipping to Bandar Abbas and they all had their story to tell about the Iranian bureaucracy. Flo was dreading it and we had scheduled for a whole day in the port just trying to get Rocinante out of customs. If possible, we would hire a fixer to help with the paper work.

For now, when the lights came on on board of the ferry, there wasn’t even land in sight. Half an hour later, breakfast was served at which point I went back to reading…nothing would happen for a while. Land came in sight, we docked and yet still, we were sitting around on deck waiting for anything to happen.

Close to the port now

Finally, Jan and Flo rode the bikes out of the ferry to the immigration terminal. There, the only English-speaking officer of the port welcomed us and helped us through the dealings to get the passports stamped. It involved a bit of paperwork already, including giving a rough itinerary and a section about your thoughts on Iran. Maybe half an hour later, we had our passports back and could start with the process of the temporary import of the bikes. Well, almost. Flo had left the carnet with the bike and while it was just outside the glass wall, we were locked into the building. It took an officer to unlock a door for him to quickly grab the carnet.

With our passports in hand, we left the immigration building and were immediately brought in contact with a fixer who spoke nearly no English. Not wanting to negotiate a price AFTER he had rendered his services, we negotiated now and got an amazingly great offer of US$15 per vehicle. That was even cheap enough for Jan so we went through the process together.

First picture after all the paperwork was done

Or rather through the waiting time. While our fixer knew almost no English, he definitely knew the process of importing bikes well. Thus he walked around, made copies of the carnets and passports, collected stamps in multitudes and got us through. Mostly, it involved him walking to the next building, us sitting down in the waiting area and then moving on to the next building once he said so. In the meantime, the paperwork in his hands took on epic proportions (about three trees had to die for it, would be my guess) and it became clear that we would have had no chance getting through it ourselves. Plus, the customs office would close at 3 pm before which we really wanted to be done.

At 2 pm, everything was done. We were good to go…once we had paid. Our fixer had two other people working for him as well at this point. One of them showed us the break-down of the costs: US$70 for fees, copies and legal things that they had paid for us already and then another US$70 for their services. Well, we had negotiated a price of US$15. Once we wrote it down to make absolutely clear what we meant, horror dawned on our fixer’s face. He clearly thought we had agreed on US$50 per vehicle. Also, the others didn’t seem too happy about the pre-arranged price. In the end, Flo paid US$70 for the legal stuff and US$30 for their services while Jan stuck to the original price. In the end, he paid US$19 for their services.

Jan talking to the locals in search of a currency exchange

DONE! Good to go! I should have mentioned earlier that it was incredibly hot, most likely 40 degrees. Now, back in all our motorcycle gear, we were cooked. Jan only had dirhams with him so we had paid his fees in US dollars in the port. Thus, we were looking for a bank now so he could exchange his money. Everything was closed though. Once Jan started to ask locals for help, they all said that it’s siesta and things would open up again later on. However, one of them led us to a currency exchange which was also closed but opened up just for us.

Having sorted the money, Flo and I now looked for a hotel. The same helpful local recommended a budget hotel for us which we checked out. It was slightly pricey for our budget but close to what the Lonely Planet described what the lowest price around. While we checked into Ghods Hotel, Jan used the wifi to check up on his couch surfing for the night. So we parted. Flo and I had a little nap in our room, sitting out the heat and waiting for the shops to open again.

So much choice! This is just one of two counters

At 6pm, we went out. The extremely helpful staff of the hotel sent us to “City Center” to buy a local SIM card. We got 5GB for a month now and it worked without an issue. From there, we just grabbed a bite to eat before I saw a confectionery shop which I HAD to check out. In the end, I left with a box filled with four different types of sweets…all of which I had to try immediately in the hotel room. 🙂