We were driving through the desert and out of nowhere about to start looking for a camp site, there was a flash flood. Not even joking, the roads were turning to rivers!
So the next town we found, we managed to find a hotel. Great news, or so we thought!
The hotel was in a town called Bam and unfortunately some 10 years ago there was a major earthquake that killed thousands of people and flattened most of the place. One key tourist attraction was damaged but they have rebuilt sections of this ancient city.
Parts of the town had been rebuilt but I'm not sure how it really affected the hotel. We got to our room and we don't think anyone has used that room since the earthquake. There was a layer of dust everywhere but that's to be expected in a hotel in the middle of the desert that regularly probably only has 2-3 guests at a time. So when 25 people descended, they thought they had won the lottery.
Gill needed the loo and was presently surprised with the label that said "cleaned especially for you". So moved that, opened the lid and wow. Just look at the photo.
On further inspection, there was a dead cockroach in the bath and brown water coming out of every tap. On the brought side, at least there was no bush camping!
Later that evening, we were all sitting down for a nice meal when, at one end of the table, there was a sky-splitting-scream and Linda jumped out of her seat. This was following by a Mexican wave of people jumping up and squeaking. There, running across the table, was a ginormus cockroach! So once the waiter had kicked it across the room, we were all able to get on with our food.
Later that evening, we gatecrashed an Iranian wedding.
The men and women were split up and in the men's side, the groom was taking turns to suit on everyone shoulders and get thrown up in the air while people throw fistfuls of money at him. All fun and frolics until Jay tried to take a photo and then there was a scrum to wrestle the camera off him and the security guard had to break it up. We thought we had probably outstayed or welcome so we quickly left!
The next day, temperatures broke 50 degrees and were all getting very hot and bothered. We were driving to the boarder and kept getting stopped every few kms by police or army checks. The worst bit was that none of them spoke to each other. They all wanted the same info and to see our passports. So we obliged every time, until, after waiting at one particular roadblock for over 3 hours, we were told to go and make a nuisance of ourselves so they got irritated enough to let us through. This was in the middle of the desert and on a very narrow road. So all 25 of us got out and went and started pestering the armed guards for water, or the toilet and just saying it was too hot to be sat in the truck. Then Karen got the gas out and started boiling the kettle of the side of the road to make a cup of tea for people!
They got very grumpy at all of this so refused to let us through and forced us under escort and holding our passports hostage, back to the nearest town for the night. Although irritating, it did mean we missed out on another bush camp and got to stay in a hotel. This all sounded great except that our air con broke during the night and we nearly died of heat exhaustion. I had to get up and have two cold showers during the night to keep me sane.
On the bright side, at least there were no cockroaches!
Written on 10/8/13
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