Monthly Archives: October 2015

  • Shiraz, Persepolis and a negative couchsurf reference

    I’ve been neglecting my duties of late and for this I hope you will forgive me.  This is due in part to recent world events, of which more anon, but aside from this and for reasons I know not, I have recently lost all my mirth.  I’ve been having a very interesting time in Iran, …

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  • Turning 36 and cruising for chicks – Iranian style

    “Dad, how did you meet mum?” “Well son, it was like this; I yelled at her through the windows of a moving car while doing 40 mph in heavy traffic until she relented, pulled over and we could talk in front of her girlfriends and three lads I was with.” So the story must go for much …

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  • Visas, cloud forests, thieving bastards and going back in time

    Tehran is a rather large city. I’ve been here about a week and I still can’t get my head around it. Not only that, but it’s filled to the brim with Iranians. There’s around 8 million of them, but they seem to take great pleasure insisting that there are much more. It’s a city with …

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  • Hitchhike to India leg 45: Zanjan to Tehran

    After due consideration (and owing in part to spending far too much time hanging out with good people here) I have decided to turn directly for Tehran. Hitching north was proving something of a difficulty. As yet I had no confirmed couch-surf host, it wasn’t a direct route, the weather was pretty bad, and from …

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  • Zanjan, Rohan, Salt Men and Iranian toilets

    I’ve spent the last couple of days being shown around the wonderful town of Zanjan by my couch-surf host Roham and his friends. It’s been a joy. Ever apprehensive as to whether or not I’m on the same page as the people I stay with, sometimes it takes a little time to get to know …

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  • Hitchhike to India leg 44: Tabriz to Zanjan

    There’s no rest for the wicked or indeed on one’s laurels, and when you’ve only got thirty days to see the 18th largest country in the world, you’d better get your skates on.  So I depart post, post-haste. I’ve spent the previous night attempting to catch up on writing about the insane hitch from Yerevan, …

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  • Tabriz

    I’ve slept the sleep of Hypnos, so much so that when I wake for a moment I don’t know where I am.  My eyes adjust, and I’m sleeping on the floor of an Iranian family’s guest parlour.  I think parlour is an apt word for it, with plush sofas and chairs, a chandelier or three, …

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  • Hitchhike to India leg 43: Yerevan to Tabriz

    It’s a good job I didn’t leave it until the last second of the use by date of the Iranian visa, as I would have ballsed it right up. I’ve been running around Yerevan trying to lift a suitable amount of money to get me through the next three countries, as they don’t have an …

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  • The apocalypse

    After behaving in no less than the utter depravity that you would come to expect of me dear readers, I have finally admitted that it’s time to move on.  Living la vida licentious loca has been taking its toll, and I’ve not had a proper sleep, healthy lungs or successful visits to the bathroom for …

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