Iran - first impressions

We departed on Qatar Airways from Singapore. There was a long nearly an hour wait for takeoff because of "sector congestion" to the Gulf region. The newish A350 was very uncomfortable seats – hard seat and even harder and bulky head rest, with seemingly less room than the A380 and 777 we were more used to. The entertainment system was very good (hard to use touch screen and control for Tetris) and inflight wifi free (though we did not use). It being a night flight didn't help (no choice), for we hardly slept. Maybe we were too used to SIA, we subconsciously waited for peanuts and drinks on takeoff, and stewards and stewardesses fussing over us. With Qatar, it was a quiet solemn flight with few of them to be seen in the entire 7 hour flight, and hot towels were replaced by cold wet ones.

Landed in wet Doha. Large glitzy airport, (why the Gulf states like Dubai and Doha go for glitz?) we meant we walked and walked to our transfer gate. Only 1 hour to Shiraz, the smaller A320 was much more comfortable even though the flight was bumpy nearly all the way. 

Shiraz airport was small and basic, so we thought we could get through quickly but no such luck. Queued at the short "Foreign Passengers" queue only to be told we needed first to get our visa (which we previously applied for online through our tour operator) from a different counter. There we were quizzed on "insurance" which the clerk quickly accepted without reading when we showed a printout from QBE. We then had to go to another counter to pay, but no one was there. Eventually someone came and took our money (75 euro for me, 145 euro for Kay, had to be paid separately). We then had to go back to the first counter, but the man was kind enough to bring the passports to us, complete with the appropriate visa labels. Personalised service! After that immigration was a breeze.

We wondered what happened to our luggage all this time – not to worry, the other passengers were still waiting for theirs to turn up. We were met by a hotel guide, a nice lady (in head scarf just like Kay by now),  and equally nice driver (with a Peugeot). It was a short trip to our hotel, a journey that reminded me of our arrival at Kochi in India: dark wide main roads with low rise shop buildings, some new road constructions along the way.

Zandiyeh Hotel where we will be staying for 4 nights including the first early morning arrival was impressive like any 5-star hotels anywhere else in the world.  Lots of marble finishing on walls and floors and no life forms are depicted in decorations in accordance with strict Islamic tradition, just geometric patterns, which reminded me of Uzbekistan. Our room was very comfortable but on closer examination, finishing was shoddy in parts, like crooked wall power points and bathroom telephones. Everyone was polite and friendly, that's important. When we found our room stuffy because the airconditioning (only heating) did not provide sufficient ventilation they quickly unlocked the windows for us to led the outside (sub 10 deg) air in to cool.

First breakfast in a strange land is always a challenge. The sausage was a strange meat, and there others that we will need the next few days to work through.