We are Rock Stars!

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CURRENT LOCATION: Upper right corner is my Delorme inReach Explorer satellite tracks provided by SPOTwalla. When activated, it provides a real time track of my travels. The tab “All-Star Motorcycle Circus & E” opens for more options. “Adjustments” enables the viewer to select more days of the tracks.

The tracks are archived back to my arrival in Heidelberg, April 16.

Use the zoom slider on the left to open up the map to see our entire route. The two tabs in the upper right “Map/Satellite” switches the map illustration with satellite photos.

GlobeRiders has it’s own BLOG “Silk Road Adventure 2015 LiveJournal!” There is a complete description of the excursion, rider bios, updates of the ride, and an active satellite location link.

Day 18, Wed, May 20, 2015

Start Location: Astara, Iran

End Location: Rasht, Iran

Distance: 167 km (104 miles)

Hotel/Pension: Hotel Kadus, Manzarieh, Rasht, Iran

Money Conversion:

Iranian Rial: $1 USD = 28,349 Rial or Rial 1 = $0.000035 USD

Money Exchange

I exchanged $100 USD into Iranian Rial and got Rial 3,200,000. The difference was the exchange was made on the black market.

Arrow on the Ceiling

Our hotel room has a little red arrow on the corner ceiling.

At this hotel, each room has an arrow on the ceiling indicating the direction of Mecca.

Breakfast at 7Am, On the road by 8AM. The Astara area is rice country.

The whole area around the hotel is rice fields.

Close Supervision & Control

Here’s something to think about. Iran has been closed to travelers for many years. This year is the first time travelers have been able to get VISAs to enter Iran. Most tours are buses with a Iranian guide who keeps the group together and in control.

Then you have the GlobeRiders. Each rider has a general route indicated with GPS tracks. We also have GPS waypoints to do “GO TO” with auto routing for historical & tourist stops, mid-points, lunch recommendations, and end-of-day hotel location. We are not riding in a convoy. At any time there are single riders, small groups on 3-4 different roads and some times they come together then split up into different combinations. Some stop for gas at end-of-day. Others gas at the beginning of the day. Our guide has no idea or control of where we are or where we go. We see him at breakfast and dinner.

Today in Masuleh John and I were walking through the bazaar in our stripped down riding gear. When we approach an Iranian man he knows we are tourist and in perfect English asked us where we were from. “American” is our response. He turned out to be a tour guide for another group and was shocked that we were totally independent of our tour guide.

We must be Roack Stars!!

The two lead riders stopped to have tea at a sidewalk shop. Immediately the riders and motos were swarmed with locals. These were truly friendly, curious locals who rarely see large motos and riders wearing All-The-Gear-All-The-Time.

The tea shop owner wouldn't take any money until he was talked into it.

Next door was a bakery. The riders went in and tried to purchase a tray of cookies. The lady at the counter give them the tray and would not take any money.

After each one of us riders going into the shop to try and pay, she never budged from not accepting any money.

As more riders pulled in, the crowd got larger. The teashop operator was now overwhelmed with 8 riders and the he wouldn’t take any money from us. After much discussion he finally took some payment.

In route to Rasht, we went to visit a picturesque village of Masuleh. Founded in the 10^th century, Masuleh is the oldest continually inhabited village in Iran.

Now Iranians are asking us if they can take a photo with us. Either we’re monkeys in a cage or Rock Stars!!!

Each house's roof was the above house's walkway, laundry drying area, front porch area.

A young couple wanted to take a photo with us.

I asked this group of ladies to take a photo and they said no. Then changed their minds and they took many combinations with me.

This gentleman showed us photos of his Harley collection and invited us to visit when we get to Tehran.

Tomorrow … Tehran – Iran’s capital. And possibly the worst traffic of the trip.

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big Steve

May 20, 2015 at 2:20 pm · Reply

Dean you’re diffidently a Rock Star not a caged monkey. LOL Ride on .

Brother Tom

May 20, 2015 at 2:22 pm · Reply

Dean…sounds like a very interesting day in Iran. Makes me think again about why our two countries seem not to get along. Could it be the politicians on both sides that cause all the problems?….Nah.