Back to minab and jask adventures
Trip Start
Oct 15, 2006
1
15
27
Trip End
??? ??, 2007
Jask, Iran
Sunday, December 31, 2006
somehow it ended up being late afternoon when we arrived back in minab (i think it was the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy reality field again) and a local guy, javood, invited us to his home. we said no coz we really wanted to get to jask that night, so he helped out and took us to the savari station for jask.
it looked like a while to wait for other people to fill a taxi so javood asked if we wanted to stay with him again. after decided we didn't want to arrive in jask at nine pm with no idea, we accepted.
wow........
ANOTHER night of amazing iranian hospitality. javood is a shrimp farmer, so guess what we were treated to that night...
i think the best meals and best night sleeps in iran i had were only in persian people's homes.
i can't beleive iran. just being there is like a warm embrace from a close relative. thanks javood.
ok, off to jask after a huge breakfast with javood. the drive: amazing alien landscapes, dust storms and even a glimpse of indiana jones being chased by some pre-historic monster.
jask: a stinky, isolated, seemingly deserted (it must have been friday again, after all, it was friday only 2 days before.) fishing outpost on the coast of the gulf of oman.
after a few hours of wandering around, a bit of surf spot recon, and an expensive meal, alessandro and i were approached by a couple of blokes on a motorbike who claimed to be police.....
they were out of uniform and very quick in flashing their I.D. a familiar smell....rat.
anyway the walked us to the outsde of some kind of compund and asked for our passports.
aless had a copy ready and i had mine firmly inserted in my ass where i usually keep it (just kidding, money belt). we were told to be back at the compound to spend the night by 4.30 pm or else. we said we were going back to minab. they said savaris to minab 'em shab nadara '(tonight not have).
not wanting to spend the night in a compound, or anywhere else but the (no vacancy) moserfakhune, i talked alessandro into walking to the savari stop in the 35minutes we had before 4.30. we made it there to find plenty of savaris. we told the fellas there in our limited farsi (they spoke NO english), they asked us about the cops' ID. eventually they hailed some real cops going past on a motorcycle who made a couple of phonecalls, said they'd sort it and or come back, left and didn't return.
fuck this said we, and jumped in a savari back to minab. the driver had got his license from a generic label packet of cornflakes- i don't think he could distinguish between that and the better quality Kellogs variety of driver's license. but his driving was nothing.....
from minab back to bandar, we got in a far too powerful car with a far to young-and -fearless driver. the 7 of us in this small family car were chatting idly on the way through minab, but when we hit the highway, the conversation made a prompt exit.
the driver was totally certifiable. we hit 185km/hour several times on this normally hour long trip. we did the trip in about 37 minutes flat. my knuckles were beyond white, my left armpit sweating wildly. i think i left fingernail holes in the uphostery. he didn't even slow down when we hit the traffic in bandar, he kept on driving a felon in lethal weapon being chased by annakin skywalker in an x-wing.
after getting out of the car, it was nice to be able to, while still shaking, tell the guy in english which he didn't understand 'you are a complete idiot and an asshole and u should be locked up for driving like a total fucking maniac'. looking back, i still think this was possibly the single most scary experience in my life.
so 9pm on new year's eve and the moserfakhune didn't want us so we had to over pay for a hotel room.
i celebrated the new year with a milkshake and a chocolate bar, glad to be alive.
