Travel Insurance

In an earlier post I listed some companies providing travel insurance. In general, no company had any problems with Iran as a destination - they applied no extra surcharges - but did point us to the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office Travel Advice Unit for exclusions pertaining to Iran. In short our policy doesn't cover us if we travel to within 100km of the Afghanistan border or within 10Km of the Iraq border.

In the end we went with the VHI's annual Multi-trip policy, which cost €106 for the two of us. We already have healthcare cover from VHI, so it made sense to get our travel insurance from them.

What we're reading, part 3: Lonely Planet: Iran

Lonely Planet: Iran
Originally uploaded by rastapopolos

Lonely Planet: Iran, 2008.

The guide book which leaves the others in the shade. Aisling gives out to me for my reliance on this publishing house, but I've seldom been let down by their guide books in the eighteen years I've been using them.

The Iran guide is particularly useful for the information it provides on the culture and mores of Iran. Apart from that, you'll have a superb amount of completely practical information at your fingertips: Where do I get the bus from? What's the routine with taxis? (...arrange a fare, take the ride, feel like you got skanked - it's the same all over the world!) What can I eat? How do I say "Help! I've lost my wallet!" in the local language?

Lonely Planet guide books have become more visually pleasing in the last few years but haven't diverged from their original dense, information-packed two-column layout for the sections on travel in the country - this layout is superb for rapid scanning. The sections on context are in a more familiar single-column layout for reading and absorbing at a more leisurely pace.

The two things about these guide books which have caught me out before are the maps which almost-but-not-quite match the layout on the ground; maybe LP include trap streets on every map? Certainly feels like it sometimes.

The other point, unsurprisingly, is prices. Often you'll find that prices have inflated by a substantial proportion since the guide book was published. As inflation in Iran is currently running at over 24% for the first four months of 2008, it's probably safe to add another half again to any prices you see in the book. We'll report on this as we go.

What we're reading, part 2: "Iran: Everything You Need To Know"

img_8113
Originally uploaded by rastapopolos

"Iran: Everything You Need To Know by John Farndon, 2006, 128 pages, large type.

This is a short, light history of Iran written (as far as I can tell) without too much of a slant. It's especially useful for the quick summary of recent Iranian history and the structure of the political system. You'll read it in a couple of sittings. Useful for getting a quick overview of the country and its history.

I picked this up almost as an afterthought while buying a bunch of other books on Iran from Amazon. I'm glad I did; It's cheap and accessible, even if history and politics aren't your thing.

Visas have arrived!

Ben's Iran visa
Originally uploaded by rastapopolos

Contrary to expectations, applying for a visa was a very straightforward business. The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran on Mount Merrion Avenue in Dublin processed our applications in less than one day. The cost was €50 each. More information on how we filled out our visas shortly.

It's also possible to apply for your Iran visa online - this isn't the approach we took and I have no idea how successful this approach is.

Comparing travel insurance policies

Picking a travel insurance policy for Iran is a bit trickier than choosing one for your average holiday destination; here are a few that I've had recommended to me, that I've used before or that I'd consider using for a trip like this.

• Trailfinders Travel Insurance
• AIB travel insurance
• VHI travel insurance
• SportsCover Direct

I'll report on which one is best for our purposes soon.

Itinerary: Part 1

Planning the itinerary has fallen into my hands; so far it looks like this:

• Tehran - ugly concrete, crazy traffic, outstanding museums, fabulous palaces.
• Qom - Ayatollah Khomeini's birthplace; the beating heart of hard-core Shia Islam.
• Isfahan - the sublime Imam square and stunning mosques.
• Shiraz - the cultural soul of Iran; ornate mausoleums, ancient mosques, gardens and palaces.
• Yazd - a peaceful mud-brick town on the edge of two deserts.

...and maybe Bam, but that's a bit too near the Afghanistan and Pakistan borders for comfort. We'll see how the situation looks when we're there.

Travel in health

Aisling and I dropped into our local Tropical Medical Bureau this morning to get our jabs. By pure chance the doctor who administered our jabs was born in Iran. He left the country in 1983 and is less than complementary about the theocratic regime. I mentioned the meddling done by America to protect its oil interests (in particular, the CIA coup against Prime Minister Mossadeq - more on that later) but our doc insisted that Iranians can't blame foreign influence for the state of the country - he reckons they've brought the current system upon themselves. I didn't even feel the needle go in.

The guide book indicated that we need inoculations for diphtheria, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, polio and hepatitis B, but we only needed a typhoid jab (which cost €36.00, plus the €40 consultation fee.) Our doc also prescribed two courses of the antibiotic Flagyl in case we get a dose of some bacterial infection. Hope we won't need it.

Other than that, the usual rules apply; don't drink the tap-water, peel fruit, only eat cooked food, don't eat salads or food that's been cooked and left to cool. Second nature to old India hands like Asho and me.

What we're reading, part 1: "Shah of Shahs"

Shah of Shahs - Ryszard Kapuscinski

I'd picked up this book on the recommendation of a friend, Fiona, before Aisling and I decided to visit Iran. I saw the book in Fiona's reading stack. It caught my attention because Kapuscinski had recently died. Fiona let me know just what a powerful writer he was and recommended this particular book to me.

It's a slim book, written almost like a meditation. Kapuscinski sits in his hotel room, in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution of 1979. He brings the reader on a journey through the previous few years of Iranian history.

The Shah attempts to buy his country into modernity by profligate spending on military and petrochemical hardware and contracts to foreign specialists. The ordinary people of Iran see no benefit from any of this; they are cowed into submission by the vicious secret service. Disenchantment grows and grows, spurred on by the violence the Shah uses to suppress the population. Politicised Imams are the rallying point, and it's they who take the reins of power as the Shah's regime collapses and he and his family flee Iran.

What we're watching

There are plenty of fascinating documentaries about Iran. Two that Aisling and I have found especially interesting are Transsexual in Iran (aired on BBC2 earlier this year) and Prostitution behind the Veil (aired on BBC4).

Transsexual in Iran opens with the following text: "In the Islamic Republic of Iran, sex change operations are legal. Homosexuality is punishable by death." Two young men who are planning to have sex-change operations open themselves up to the film maker. During the course of the documentary, it becomes distressingly clear that these two young men are not transsexuals, but simply gay - yet they don't describe themselves as such. In order to be allowed physical fulfilment, they subject themselves to the physical ordeal of gender re-assignment. A top-ranking mullah pronounces that because the Koran makes no mention of sex-change operations, the procedure is permitted by Islam. Homosexuality, on the other hand, clearly condemned in the Koran, is a capital offence.

Prostitution behind the Veil covers the lives of two heroin-addicted women, who undergo temporary marriage (permitted under Sharia law) in order to sleep with their clients. They bring their children with them. The film was made by a Swedish-Iranian director. Powerful stuff.

Flight times change...

Just got notification from Trailfinders, our travel agent, that the departure times of our Amsterdam to Tehran flights have changed; this is quite a common occurrence for long-haul flights.

This alone is a good reason not to book you own flights online for a trip like this.

Trailfinders have kindly moved the Dublin to Amsterdam leg of the journey; we haven't had to lift a finger and there's been no penalty for changing the Aer Lingus flights to Amsterdam.

Learning the language

I reckon it'll be worthwhile to have a smattering of Persian while we're there; Persian is an Indo-European language, so it can't be that hard to learn, right? (...especially as I speak a bit of Dutch too).

I'd picked up Lonely Planet's Farsi Phrase Book and Teach Yourself Modern Persian, but I've found Pimsleur's Farsi to be the best of the lot. The lessons are well-paced and short. I was delighted to be able to understand a very simple conversation after half an hour of practice. It turns out that Persian grammar is a bit like Irish and the guttural 'kh' sound is just like the Dutch soft 'g'. I think it sounds quite posh.



No, I don't know what he's saying either - yet.