Went back to Hong Kong for a long-awaited trip, a chance to see Iran. When I was first invited by my mom to visit Iran with her, my initial reaction (like many of my friends) was, “uh, why do you want to go there? Is it safe?” And like many of the other trips or instances where I doubted, I was proven wrong. It’s safe in Iran just like any other country in the world, in my opinion.
We did have a tour guide and traveled in a relatively large group of nearly 40 people, but we did have the chance to walk around on our own after the day’s itinerary was done and we didn’t sense too much danger. Yes, we got lots of stares but people continue on as normal. And those that came up to us were more interested in having a photo with us and asking us about how life is where we come from.
I was blown away by Iran, it showed me some things that I never expected to see, and at the same time, it also reconfirmed some things that I had heard/read about.
DEPARTURE FROM HONG KONG
We flew from Hong Kong to Dubai on Emirates and then transferred to another flight to Tehran. The Emirates plane and service were just as expected, I had heard a lot about this airline being one of the best in the world. Their airplane had beautiful starry ceilings when the lights were turned off (left photo) – I wonder if this is a ‘Middle East’ décor style because I remember the flight on Turkish Airways having nice ambient lighting as well. And THE SEATS, oh my! They felt spacious compared to other airlines’ economy class seats – the plane looked newly renovated and modern but it didn’t feel like they made the seats smaller to fit more passengers.
When we arrived in Dubai, it was teeming with people as there are lots of transfers that go through this airport. We had to really stay alert to not get lost or follow another tour group.
We didn’t get much time between our transfer so no time to explore. We just got a bit of food because we were quite hungry after the flight – I don’t remember clearly, but I think we only had one meal and the other was a simple breakfast or something like that. So we ordered butter chicken and rice. The people who work in the Dubai airport are from all over the world. There are some Indians, a lot of Filipinos, some Chinese. We would hear them speaking their native language with each other.
DAY 1: Arrival in Tehran > Golestran Palace > Royal Jewel Museum at Tehran Central Bank > Milad Tower
Getting ready for the trip to Iran, the most nerve-wrecking thing was getting the visa. Reading about it online, it sounds like you have to get a pre-approval from Iran before you can apply for a visa – but then you have to get it only within 3 months of your departure, so you can’t do it too early. I started the process in July, and it wasn’t until the end of September when I got the pre-approval. They issued something like an e-visa approval and you would think that it looks like a visa. Why do they need to do that and then also make you get a visa?
To be on the safe side, I then went to a visa application centre in Vancouver and they also took a photo of me with a scarf around my head as they wanted to be on the safe side so they made me tuck in all my hair and wouldn’t approve any photo that showed even one strand of hair…
They sent off my application with the e-visa and when I got my visa sticker in my passport a few days later (it was a lot faster, they had initially put down something like 10 days), the photo they used was a photo that I had taken at home a few months earlier – no scarf needed.
The application for Hong Kong passport holders is much more simple – my mom just had to get the visa approval in Hong Kong and it was an e-visa on a sheet of A4 paper. They didn’t stick any visa in her passport and when she went through immigration in Tehran it was not a problem at all. I probably could have tried to use the e-visa pre-approval, but didn’t want to risk it. Apparently in Sep 2018, Iran had changed to an e-visa system….. but I cannot verify if that actually works for a Canadian passport.
When we were waiting in line to go through immigration, the lines were pretty short. We got through pretty quickly, and then heard the sound of a brass band. As we descended the escalator to the luggage claim area, we saw that there was a welcome home celebration for some judo athletes who had gone abroad to compete. It was quite funny coming down the escalators because they were all gathered right at the bottom and we had to walk through their group while they were taking photos.
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| Inside Tehran's airpot, just after we picked up our luggage and left customs |
Oh, something I forgot to mention. The moment the plane landed in Tehran, all the women on the plane had to take out their head scarves and wrap their heads. If we were wearing t-shirts, we also had to cover our arms and not wear tight fitting clothes. Our tour guide scared us when he met with the group before the trip to prepare them and said if we are not wearing the right type of clothing then we would be sent back to our hotel rooms to change and we would not be able to leave until it’s up to a certain standard. This applies only to females, males did not have to follow the same guidelines to cover up their body.
I found that in Iran, especially Tehran, it’s already not as strict. The young females we met they wore leggings-like pants and had a large, loose-fitting top, but it’s not as billowy as you would imagine. Of course, there are also some people (usually the older generation) who are still very conservative and would point out when one of us showed our hair – because our scarf slipped off or we forgot. This happened to my mom. She got off the tour bus and was standing waiting for the rest of the group. A group of three old ladies came up to her and started pointing at her head. They looked quite stern, and when my mom realized they were telling her to cover her head, she laughed and covered her head. They then also laughed with her and kept gesturing.
above: They have a street that I saw that sold mobile phones,
reminds me of Asia where they have a "electronics centre/area"
below: these rows of air-conditioners also remind me of many Asian cities
So after making our way out of the airport, we went for lunch – I didn’t take much photos of food, because like in Turkey, the food was mostly buffet style, and it was mainly rice, lamb curry, salads, yogurt, fruits etc. The food once on the plate doesn’t look that great as it’s all brown stew looking.
After lunch, we went to Golestran Palace (palace of Flowers), the oldest historic monument in Tehran. This palace was built in 1576, so it has over 400 years of history. The unique thing about this palace is that it shows the official city colour – every city in Iran has it’s own colour. Tehran’s colour is yellow so most of the decorative tile use yellow as the main colour.
above and below left: handpainted tiles
below right: interior of the main palace
There are lots of things to see in this palace and the great thing is that it’s not overrun with tourists. That might be because not many foreign tour groups go to Iran, but we did see some small groups of Europeans (usually 2-3 people) and also there were some Korean and Chinese groups, but our group looked the biggest. Many of the places we visited, we saw a lot of local Iranians – which is rare to see in other countries, usually the locals avoid tourist sites.
above left: young Iranians visiting the Golestran Palace,
they were very into posing for photos that look like something you might see on instagram
After the palace, we went to the Royal Jewel Museum which is located inside the underground vault at the Tehran Central Bank. The tour guide again scared us and said we’re not allowed to take photos and cannot bring anything in with us – even told us that ladies cannot bring in their purse (which usually have your money, phone and passport). This is something that I find a little strange in Iran. Are they afraid we will bring in something dangerous?
And this wasn’t so much a scare tactic, the security there really had us leave all bags and stuff in a locker.
right photo: security often had men and women split up to use separate entrances. Sometimes if they do (not) have a electronic scan machine, they will pat you down.
right photo: security often had men and women split up to use separate entrances. Sometimes if they do (not) have a electronic scan machine, they will pat you down.
I don’t think this place was that interesting. It’s like seeing lots of diamonds, pearls and rubies. With so many it just becomes boring. Plus it was super crowded in there and they group behind would be pushing another group in front to keep moving, so in the end I don’t even know which one is the biggest diamond, and which one is the most impressive. It was much more interesting to see the bank with the old wooden panels and windows. I don’t think it’s used much as a bank now as it’s just overrun with tourists waiting in line to get to the vault. - No photos here as we're not allowed to bring cameras!
above: Milad tower
below: view of the city of Tehran
Before heading to our hotel, we made a visit to Milad Tower. Every country’s major city must have a TV tower (or some tall building where you can get a view over the city), and Tehran is no exception. Milad Tower is 435meters tall and the 6th tallest in the world. The view at the top is nice but nothing stunning, but when we came down we saw a beautiful rainbow!
above: people looking at a display of a model of different towers across the world,
top 10 towers.
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