LEAVING IRAN

By: Kambiz Taleghani

20080925

The next morning, 8 August 2008, we left Tabriz for the Turkish border.

On the way all the petrol stations were out of diesel fuel, except one.    ... and that one required a written permission from one of the government ministries in order to dispense fuel!    I half-jokingly told the attendant that if I had enough fuel to go back to Tabriz to visit the ministry, I could just as well get to the border which was a shorter distance and wouldn't really need fuel from him! 

I pleaded with him.  

Finally, he said "look, wait for that foreign TIR truck to get in front of the pump.  I'll give you 20 liters of his allocation.   His tank is so big, hopefully he won't notice".  That truck had Uzbekistan license plates and his fuel tank was BIG, the size of a small tanker.   Because of almost-free price of fuel in Iran, some foreign truckers have installed very large fuel tanks.  A small tanker, actually.   It seems they try to fill their tanks (at less than 5Cents per gallon subsidized price) before leaving Iranian territory and delay $12/gallon prices in neighbouring countries.   I wonder if there is limit on how much fuel they can buy in Iran.  No wonder we could not obtain fuel.    It seemed the government had dug itself into a deep hole that it could not come out without inciting riots.       Note the fuel guage in the above picture: "Empty!"

So, we were able to get 20 liters (5 gallons) of diesel fuel.  Paid about 25 CentsUS for 5 gallons (20 litres)!

This was the only fuel we were able to get in 3 days, and the last one in Iran before crossing the border into Turkey.    Thank goodness for our external auxiliary fuel tanks. (I had a 1300 Km range, using all my fuel tanks!).   I eventually used all our auxiliary tanks' fuel and made it to Turkey.  Did you know that Iran is among the top 2 or 3 oil producers in the world?    Ironic.   They obviously have not built refineries to meet the domestic demand.   Actually the Iranian government has to purchase processed fuel from abroad at market prices and sell it domestically at a subsidized 5 Cents per gallon (that is about 1.5 Cents per liter) for diesel fuel.  Oil and gas is a government-owned and operated business.

Excellent roads.  Beautiful scenery.   This part of Iranian Azerbaijan is very beautiful.   Mostly farming communities. Surrounded by mountains.   Some dormant volcanic areas.   I would have loved to have had a chance visiting some of the villages and stayed a few days.   They had nice horses (and donkeys, we were not choosy!).   The fishing looked good as well.    Fresh air, Fresh food, fresh vegetables, fresh bread, delicious ripe fruits, and, of course, the good company of villagers.  I love sitting with the locals over a cup of tea, and listening to their legends, songs, and stories... and answering their sincere (sometimes hilarious, to us) questions about life in the U.S.  What an experience it would have been, especially for our daughter Leila to be with the local children here.   Unfortunately, we had booked a container and had to rush to Georgia, put our car on a ship for U.S. (the ship is leaving shortly), and make our way to China before the Olympics ended!!    That was the first day of the Olympics!   We were already 2-3 weeks behind schedule.  Maybe during a next visit. (At the time we did not know that Russia was about to bomb Georgia the next two days, where we were scheduled to take our car, and force us to change plan yet again and drive all the way back to Istanbul!  We still made it to the last 4 days of the Olympics, though!  Click here or go to story of Aborted drive tab to read about it).

Eventually we reached the Iran-Turkey border, Bazargan.  Leaving Iran required by-now familiar rituals of most Asian border crossings.   It took us 3-4 hours of mostly waiting before we could leave the country.  

Finally just as we reached the last iron gate and were about to leave, someone yelled from behind to the border guards to stop us from leaving.

The guards yelled back, "but they have all the stamps and permits required to leave.  They are okay to leave"   

The source said, "no, send them back to me".  

I intentionally left the car in front of the exit gate so it would block the traffic and walked back to the man. (My feeble attempt at putting pressure on officials to let us go!)

To make the story short, he wanted a bribe before he would let us go!

He said someone at the entry port "forgot" to charge us $150USD that he now had to collect it.    I protested.   He started citing all sorts of rules and regulation, which he was "obligated" to enforce!   I told him I don't have the money and would have to check and see what my wife had.    This gave me an excuse to get back to the car and ask the senior officer at the gate if this "levy/fee" was real.   He looked puzzled and said that was the first time he heard this, and as far as he was concerned, we were okay to leave.  I went back to the man and said, "look I know your procedures, give me the "form" and I'll go back to the bank in town and deposit the money in the government account and come back with the receipt".  I called his bluff, I thought.

"Oh no, sir, we don't want to bother you with such formalities and trouble you with going all the way back to town.  You are our honoured guests and must not be bothered with such trivialities".

"I don't mind it is only a 15 minute drive", I said.

"Well, that would be okay, except the banks are closed today"

I was stuck.    I Could not get away from this dude.   He knew his routine a lot better than I!

"I tell you what.   I don't have the money. We used all our cash to pay the hotel in Tabriz.  Why don't you look again at your regulations and see what you can do"

He pretended to shuffle some papers.

"Well, I see here that if I declare your car as gasoline-powered you will get a break and have to pay me only $42USD."

Okay Kambiz, I told myself, we're getting there.   Actually I was in a hurry to get to Turkey, if for no other reason than to get in front of a television and see the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics (we eventually got there too late and missed it!).  Opening Ceremonies began at 8 p.m. on 080808, a lucky number for Chinese!  All patience, a necessity for bargaining in this part of the world, had left me.  I told him I have to empty my pockets and see what combination of currencies I could come up with.    Adding everything, it came to about $39USD in multiple currencies, which I had intentionally left in my pocket when I went back to the car to see "if my wife had any money"! (We both knew very well what game we were playing.  ...and each of us was fully aware that the other knew exactly what was going on!   We each just kept the appearances, acting our roles-- and pretty well too, I might add!).

He reached into his pocket and said, "look, you seem like a nice and respectable gentleman.  For that, I will add $3USD from my own pocket to the money, to make up the shortage, and take the entire cash to the bank for you when they open again tomorrow morning".   He actually opened his wallet took cash out and placed it on top of my pile of multi-currency bills!

Now, I had to thank him for his generosity for contributing his own money to pay my "fine"!!

"Thank you very much, that is very kind of you".

"Not at all.  We are all here to serve you, and other dear tourists like you"   Right!

Of course, he could not produce a receipt.   "Obviously"!

That was our last hurdle.   Ten minutes later we were in Turkey.

 ... As the Iranian border gate closed behind us, the Turkish border gate opened in front of us and we entered Turkey!  

(for the account of the eventual difficulties we encountered as a result of a typing mistake made by the Turkish Customs officer during the next hour into this story, Click here or go to the Story of Aborted drive tab.)