Cheap way to get to Tehran

Hi all,

I have heard that road traffic is about horrendous in the country. I
have also learned (second hand) that physical attacks are very rare
except close to Pakistani and Afghan borders perhaps.

True, the traffic is crazy in cities: cars bumper against bumper, very
difficult to cross a road for a pedestrian. In the countryside, people
drive fast but then the roads are usually quite good. A driver took me
from Tehran to Ispahan at 130 km/h and I did not feel unsafe. Even the
roads in mountainous regions were really in good shape, like Northwest
of Shiraz and to the Damavand volcano.

Do not miss the Emam mosque in Espahan early morning, before all the
visitors come. It was one of the most beautiful things I've seen in my life.

--
Philippe Noth, Clarens/Montreux, Switzerland

Spehro Pefhany wrote:
Pan wrote:
Spehro Pefhany wrote:
Malaysian used to fly from JFK to KL via Dubai, which is just across
the strait of Hormuz from Iran, but they seem to have dropped that
route after 9/11.

Maybe so, but I flew Malaysian Airlines from _Newark Airport_ to Dubai
and Dubai to KLIA in July-August of 2003. We even overflew Iran on the
way to Dubai. It was a starkly beautiful country from the air, and we
flew over Isfahan, which was gorgeous. I want to go to Iran some fine
day, but not now.

Argh. You're absolutely right, it was Newark (EWR), and not JFK.

The Newark flight now goes through Stockholm. Haven't taken it yet but I'm
curious about how well they're able to fill it. The Dubai-EWR segment was
usually about half-empty, except when I flew that way during the beginning
of the 2003 Iraq invasion and the plane was full of evacuating American
expats.

I don't see Dubai (or anywhere else in the ME) on their list of
destinations now, though.

Malaysia flies to Cairo, Beirut, Jeddah, and Dubai.

Whether any place is a good place to visit depends on what you think
could happen. There are a couple of countries that they border which
are now probably off limits for the forseeable future for all but the
most adventurous (or stupid) visitors.

Hey!

miguel
--
Hit The Road! Photos from 36 countries on 5 continents: http://travel.u.nu
Latest photos: Queens Day in Amsterdam; the Grand Canyon; Amman, Jordan

On Sat, 10 Sep 2005 08:27:18 GMT, Markus Weiss wrote:

Pan writes:

way to Dubai. It was a starkly beautiful country from the air, and we
flew over Isfahan, which was gorgeous. I want to go to Iran some fine
day, but not now.

Iran is no problem, one of the safest countries in the world.

There is a small danger that Bush will attack.

Less now, because the occupation of Iraq is such a bloodbath, but it
would be hazardous to underestimate the stupidity, incompetence, and
evil of Bush and the rest of his Administration.

But Iran has a good
defense, including modern cruise missiles. So no real danger to go
there.

You're not a Jew or an American, though, are you? (If you are, then
some of what I write below may or may not apply to you.)

Besides, there are reasons other than safety why a person might choose
not to go somewhere, such as because the officials who really run the
country are responsible for the deaths of something like 300 of your
co-religionists in bombings in Buenos Aires. When these mullahs are no
longer in power, I would like to go to Iran. This is personal. And if
any of you would like to respond by telling me to boycott my own
country on the basis of its government's depredations, please restrain
yourself. For better and worse, I'm already here in the U.S., and have
the responsibility to continue fighting against the perversion of my
country, but that doesn't have much to do with the reasons why I am in
no rush to go to Iran now. If any of you would like to boycott the
U.S. for principled reasons, as one of my Australian friends is doing,
I would respect that, but that's no reason for me to put myself in
possible danger to go to a country ruled by unelected individuals who
have murdered my people.

Michael

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