Tabriz was cool. It has the swagger of a city that has seen empires come and go, millions of travellers since the antiquity pass through its gates, builders and destroyers try their hands at it… yet it stands. We loved it.

We didnt love its traffic.

Crazy is putting it lightly. If you are stuck in the rush hour, it may take a while to get to your destination. We were thanking our stars that we arrived here during the off season and not during one of many holiday weeks where masses come to visit.

After a couple of days, we had also arrived at a conclusion to what the rest of our route would be.

Two major factors played a part. The first one would be easy to guess. Hira was just about managing it. She was now up to 8 pain killers a day (as per doctor’s advice) and still barely making it through the day. The saving grace was that the condition was stable, otherwise we would have found a way to get her home by air. She insisted she’s fine to carry on by road, my protestations were ignored.

We had also arrived in Iran at a time of a major natural disaster. Severe rains had caused flooding and widespread damage in some parts of the country. Many people had lost their lives and many more their homes. The areas affected included the cities of Isfahan and Shiraz. These two, perhaps the most famous Iranian cities, were on our list of must visit places but it did not feel right for us to go there, just days after these floods had severely affected so many lives. We had spotted many trucks from the neighbouring countries bringing in emergency supplies for the affected areas. Even though the floods had receded and life was returning to normal by the time we were in Tabriz, we were certainly not going to do the touristy things in an area the locals were struggling to get their lives back to normal.

We learnt that in these times of emergency, the effects of the sanctions become all the more pronounced as the country isnt able to invest in rescue vehicles and aircraft that would have certainly helped in providing relief.

So we chose Yazd as the next stop on our drive. Since it was roughly 1150 km ahead, we decided to make an overnight stop in Tehran.

The wonderful staff at Hotel Shahryar in Tabriz (a brilliant tip we got) was kind enough to not only recommend us our next hotel in Tehran, but also called to make sure there was a room available for us when we got there.

The Espinas Grand Hotel is Tehran (negotiated a double room + breakfast for €70, our most expensive accommodation on the whole trip, bar Istanbul but it was worth it) is one of the finest establishment that I have ever stayed at. It’s location and height meant we had a fantastic view of the city. We reached there well before sun down and were able to take some pictures before going out in the city for a gentle walk and dinner. You could party in Tehran, if you knew where you were going.

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The next day (after a splendid breakfast, fit for a Shahanshah) we headed off to Yazd.

The roads in Iran had been a mixed bag so far. Some sections of the motorway are well maintained and pretty smooth. Others, not so much. Large potholes and uneven surface for miles on end test the very wits of the car and its passengers. Another issue to be mindful about was the quality of the fuel itself.

Since Iran cant upgrade it’s oil infrastructure, most of the fuel available (Iran only allows petrol powered cars, diesel is only reserved for trucks and busses) is of poor quality, low on octanes. Since most cars in Iran are running on quite old technology anyway, this is mostly a problem for visitors or those very few in possession of modern cars, often smuggled into the country or imported via 3rd parties at great cost. The hazardous exhaust air, poisoning the Iranian cities and making the people ill is like a slow choke of a whole nation over years. The solution for visitors is to use octane boosters that help elevate the quality somewhat. These are not always easy to find so if you find a place that stocks them, buy enough to last you the trip to the next big city plus some reserve.

The Iranian people, contrary to the popular belief in the western media, do not shy away from expressing themselves when it comes to politics, both local and international. Sure, the sanctions and the foreign hostility against the country is always like a sword hanging above you but most people we got talking to, have lots of local issues they care about a lot. Inflation, corruption, air pollution (every city has air quality monitors, with reports displayed on giant LCDs at major intersections in and outside the city), unemployment and so on. People criticise the government and its policies but are mindful of the dangers that foreign interventions bring to a country. After all, history and their immediate neighbours have served well as warnings of any such approach.

Like Turkey, we were received with warm smiles everywhere we went and found help and assistance whenever we needed it. I believe often the biggest (brief) disappointment to people we met was when they expected us to speak Farsi but we couldn’t. Google Translate App really was a life saver in most situations.

So much of Iranian language, culture, religion and history is intertwined with that of India, specially North India (what is today Pakistan and beyond), that it makes you wonder, why we have such a schism today, when it should really be peoples united by the shared heritage and common interests, instead of divided by borders and short-nearsightedness of the successive governments?

Anyway, back to the drive…

We reached Yazd in late afternoon and headed straight to Hotel Dad (no, not that dad!). I had already stayed here on a previous visit to the city when I visited Iran for work. To our surprise (we really should have been better informed), this was high season in Yazd. This being an area in the middle of two deserts, April is their peak season. Plenty of European travellers in the hotel and out in the city could be spotted.

After an evening stroll and dinner of samosas and falafel, we were quite content to settle in for the night to continue our tour of Yazd the next day.

In the next episode, we’ll show you around some of Yazd’s landmarks (that means loads of pics) before we steadily keep moving towards the Pakistan border.

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