Arriving in Bandar Abbas on the coast early in the morning we decided against a taxi (as always) and walked into town to get the ferry across to Qeshm Island. It was flipping long walk in the wrong direction in the hot morning sun. By the coast it is usually warm and sunny which had my coat off and me drawing stares getting increasingly bad tempered and hungry. The heat and stares made it feel more like Syria than Iran, not very pleasant.
We eventually found the right point for the boats leaving for the island and got on a crowded ferry along with half of Iran. Getting off an hour later, pushed and shoved out of the way as well as off the boat we called several different hotels none of which spoke English and hung up on us. We made our way to an upmarket hotel and slept for a good five hours before hunger woke us and we walked into the centre to get some food.
The next day was Christmas which we celebrated with a boring breakfast of thin chewy bread with butter and jam and a pot of tea. We then spent the day in bed watching films and being lazy, none of the films were particularly Christmassy or even good spirited and of course there wasn't a drop of brandy in sight let alone a turkey.
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| From Qeshm Island, Iran |
We managed to get out of bed the next day and hitch-hiked to a small town at the other end of the island famous for building boats. People out there didn't seem to understand the spirit of a free ride and although most people gave us one they couldn't conceive of other people giving rides for free. We managed it, just and it didn't take us much longer than an hour or so before we reached the town. We wandered round, past goats, cows and young boys doing wheelies on motorbikes to impress their friends as much as us.
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| From Qeshm Island, Iran |
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| From Qeshm Island, Iran |
We ended up in a boat building yard and just beyond a huge partially constructed boat there was a big flock of flamingos which made my day. I spent a good half an hour creeping up on them while they sidled off before I got bored and chased them so I could take some flying shots. Happy that I'd managed to get a few half decent pictures we walked back along the shore and hitched back to civilisation.
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| From Qeshm Island, Iran |
We had the most delicious dinner at a seafood restaurant. The little restaurant/shack served the best food on the island we were reliably informed by the manager of the island (never heard of an island manager but it's a free trade zone so who knows...) who then bought us dinner and got extra food sent out to us. We feasted on salad, bread and the most deliciously spiced crab and big prawns, it was the only spicy food we ate in Iran. The island manager allows us a photo with him and then gives us a lift to our hotel in his personal car. The generosity blew us away (as well as the food we ate by the sea) and we spoke about it for a while, it seemed to sum up the Iranian mentality very nicely, we weren't invited to go there and yet he insisted we were his guests and went out of his way to help us. All the Iranian's we met were so keen that we like their country it was humbling, I only wish that we would show foreigners the same warm hospitality that we were shown, it puts everyone else to shame.
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| From Qeshm Island, Iran |
The next day still full from our gifted dinner we decided to go to a different island where there are dolphins, so we hitched to the point where big tin metal boats shipped the pitifully small number of passengers across to Hangam island where we were informed that the mild sea was too rough and that there wasn't any dolphin spotting.
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| From Qeshm Island, Iran |
We walked along the glittering beach up to a quiet spot where Djalma stripped off to his trunks and went for a dip while I rolled about on the sand trying to take a picture of a small shell with a waved coming up behind it – I wasn't very successful. We walked back along the shore, decided against lunch which looked and smelled like day old fish in the sun (which is exactly what it was), got back on the tin boat to Qeshm Island, hitched back to Qeshm town, slept and then packed and left the following day for Bandar Abbas on the mainland.
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| From Qeshm Island, Iran |
We arrived in the evening and took a taxi to Omid's flat who hosted us that night. He was a small eager-to-learn-American-English Iranian who wanted to go to Australia or the US after finishing his mastering degree. We didn't see much of him as he had to work and his flatmate was very quiet until Djalma got him talking about our little film collection that we transferred to his computer.
We spent the next day talking with Omid who only needed a couple of hours sleep, he and his other friend cooked us a delicious lunch – stew of course which we had with rise and the crunchy bit at the bottom (I must learn how to cook rice the Iranian way, the crunch bit at the bottom is divine). We talked about many things but the best piece of advice we received was that it was totally unnecessary to brush your teeth more than once every three or four days, this was issued through teeth bejewelled with a matt orange yellow crust and on foetid breath – not a shining example of dental health. We, well mainly Djalma gave him a good English lesson and we both told him to study more to have the best chance of a life overseas. We left early evening to get an overnight bus to Shiraz and said our goodbyes at the station, arms full of crisps, sweets and fizzy pop which he gave us as a farewell gift.
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