The Tehran Jail

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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 21, Sat, May 23, 2015

Start Location: Tehran, Iran

End Location: Tehran, Iran

Distance: Tourist in Tehran Day

Hotel/Pension: Laleh International hotel, Dr. Hossein Fatemi Avenue, Tehran, Iran

Money Conversion:

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

Just a pre warning! Internet WiFI service is limited in Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan Kyrgystan and western China. In some locations I may not be able to post so patience is a virtue. By following my Delorme inReach tracks you can see where I am with a 20-minute delay.

No Credit/Debit Cards in Iran Because of sanctions against Iran, we can not use our credit/debit cards here. With gas being our major expense, our $100 USD = Rial 3,200,000 goes a long ways.

Laundry is an everyday ritual. All my clothing is synthetic quick-dry – LDComfort shirt, shorts, & Techsoxs.

When I check in, I ask for 4 large bath towels and 8 clothes hangers to be delivered to the room. After a hot, sweaty day I get into the shower with my riding under clothing to soak the T-shirt, shorts and socks. Toss them into the sink, add hot water & the free hair shampoo and do a vigorous hand wash then rinse. Each piece is hand wringed to get all the water out, then rolled up in a towel to suck out most of the water. Normally the wet clothing is dry in 4-6 hours.

Tourist
Today we put on our tourist hat and rode a bus to the Archaeological Museum which displays Persian antiquities, art and artifacts.

Tour guide Ali explains history of Persia/Iran on huge relief map.

Iron works weapons for early Persia.

Paying homage to the King.

Tigers from

Bull sculpture for column

Early Persian man preserved in a salt mine

Then we walked thorough the Sa’ad Abad Palace, the former residence of the deposed royal family of Iran.

Palace main entrance

The Sa'ad Abad Palace mirror entry

Amazing mosaic tile art

We walked through the Tajrish Bazaar. I was shooting motor scooters and motorcycles to show various examples. Big motos are not allowed in Iran. Not sure where the limit is but our guide said 250cc.

A working man's trike.

Small moto's are the main source of cheap transportation.

Notice how he is protecting his helmet!

Economical carpet delivery

This is a windshield for a scooter. The main body is plexiglas but it has a glass porthole with manual windshield wiper!

When we first entered Iran we were told not to take photos of military facilities, utilities, government buildings, etc.

I was with all the riders and our Iran guide walking out of the Tajrish Bazaar towards the bus. I shot the windshield wiper on a motorcycle in the bazaar. I walk pass an old, well used blue 250 moto with a similar funky windshield. I stop and take a photo. All of a sudden someone is screaming. I look around and it’s a policeman and he’s screaming at me! He grabs my arm and starts to pull me to police hut 25m away.

But before we take a couple steps, our Iran guide Yuriy Kim steps between us and a vigorous discussion takes place between the policeman and Yuriy (which sounded like a big argument). I was unaware this beatup motorcycle was a police bike.

The final disposition was Tehran police vehicles cannot be photographed and if I erase the photo of the police motorbike I wouldn’t have to go to the Tehran jail.

Azadi Tower (Freedom Tower)

The empty US Embassy. A major history event during the Carter Presidency.

Tomorrow is Saturday in Tehran. I’m choosing to leave the city at 5:00 AM to avoid even worst traffic than our Thursday arrival. Our destination is Gorgan, Iran.

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John Pultorak

May 23, 2015 at 10:26 am · Reply

Some amazing pictures and history! What an adventure! Your laundry technique is the same as mine was when I was a bachelor……………or maybe I was just to drunk to get my clothes off in the shower……………………..