Our personal experience crossing the border from Turkey to Iran, and getting Iran Visas in Turkey.
February 2011 Update: If you are looking for info on the visas and border crossing itself, Chris has posted about that here. We were both still sick, but nonetheless on Wednesday, June 16th we bought bus tickets from Van, Turkey to Orumiyeh, Iran. I must admit that deep inside me I was a little uncertain. The bus left Van at 9:45 am. Tired, a bit hungry (because I’m always a little hungry) and still sick, I struggled to keep my eyes open. I don’t know what it is about buses but they’re always rocking me to sleep. When I managed to keep my eyes open I saw a wonderful landscape unfolding before me. Fields turned into shrubbery-covered mountains that, for some reason, reminded me of the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan. Perhaps it is from photos I have seen. We got to the border at 2:00 p.m. Immediately when the bus…Continue Reading
I was concerned before entering Iran that it may be rather similar to Turkey in many ways. Not that there’s anything wrong with Turkey, but after spending what amounts to over two months there, on two separate trips, Laura and I are both looking for a change. Luckily for us, Iran feels like a whole other world, and we’ve only been here 24 hours. The landscapes have been unique, like crossing the giant, salty Lake Orumiyeh. According to the Lonely Planet it has salinity levels like the Dead Sea, with the same you-can’t-sink-effects. Unfortunately, we were flying across it’s long causeway in a taxi and couldn’t test it. The house architecture is different. In Turkey almost all buildings are concrete-framed with cinder-block walls. Here, houses we’ve seen are strangely tottering affairs, made of brick (mud-brick?) and ornamented with pillars often on the second and third storeys. Infrastructure seems better too,…Continue Reading