One last mountain and then: just rolling down to the Persian Gulf (ok, with some small hills inbetween). The landscape around the pass was quite spectacular: huge and very rugged mountains on both sides, sometimes with plantings of date palms or orange trees on its slopes.
At one point on the downhill the road entered a tunnel. I do not like going through tunnels too much, but until now I never had any serious problems. But this one was pitch black inside: pretty long and without lighting. I only realized that when I was already inside - even my bicycle lights weren't enough to make it safely to the other end - not because I feared being driven down by a car, but because I simply couldn't see where I was going! Fortunately I could get out my head light quickly and roll down to the end of the tunnel.
Soon after the road went through a wide plain. At times there were some nice old water reservoirs, seemingly used for cotton fields. Shortly before sunset I had crossed the plain and wanted to hide my tent behind some trees. As there were some guys working nearby I wanted to be nice and asked them if it is ok to camp here. I feel kind of unthankful and antisocial writing this, but: I wish I had not. One of the guys, Karim, called an english teacher who immediately wanted to talk with me 'about my country' - I would just have to cycle back 5 km to his city Mansurabad and wait at Karims place. I raised some concerns that I had not seen any city for far more than 5km, but he would not listen. After a long discussion I finally thought that no matter how far it is it might become a nice evening, so I followed Karims car. It turned out that the city in question was not the first one on the road - in fact it was 18km away! After I had went half of it got too dark to find another place for the tent, so I had no other choice than to go for the full distance. I was not in the best mood when I arrived - I knew I would have to go back again all the way tomorrow morning and even without that little extra I had already planned for a big stage. But Karim was a nice guy and it was not his fault so I tried to relax at his place, drinking tea and playing with his child. My mood however worsened when the english teacher appeared after letting us wait for some hours and it turned out that his interest was neither in me nor in my country, not even in practising english but in only one very specific thing: how could I help him and his family migrate to my country (or anywhere else in Europe, he didn't care). Later in the evening he wanted me to come to his home, which was even farer away, in Juyom. I declared that I am neither willing nor able to cycle anymore today, so we drove there - also during the drive and at his home only one topic: "I want to migrate to Europe and now that I have a friend there it for sure must be really easy". I always tried to stay diplomatical (i.e. not saying 'You are not my freaking friend, an hour ago I did not even know you!'), but after doing that huge detour just for this I had a hard time staying calm. I asked him if he had already checked the migration regulations of Germany: 'No, but now that I have a friend,...,and you must certainly know about all this regulations'. I tried to explain him that I am not a very good person to ask about that as I certainly never tried to migrate to Germany and that he should take action and start researching the regulations himself - he was very disappointed by that reply. When we arrived at his place I saw that he lived in a very nice big house, something that he certainly could not afford if he would really make it to Europe. I actually do think that he is far better of in Iran than he would be in Germany - in Iran he is a respected member of his community and he can make a good living for his family as an English teacher despite his less than perfect english. I do understand the desire to live in a more free country - but I did not have the feeling that this was the reason why he wanted to go to Europe (in fact I do not understand what is his reason). I carefully tried to explain them that there might be some culture shocks waiting for them in Germany - they weren't aware of such things as unmarried people living together and even having children or men that are able to do cook or do their laundry by themselves. As I said, I feel kind of unthankful writing this - after all his wife and his daughter were very friendly and they gave me food and a bed for one night - though unasked for. In this case I just felt as if I wouldn't have been welcome if I came from a less desirable country to migrate to. This plus actually tricking me into cycling back a long way by telling me a completely wrong distance made me long for a nice relaxing night in the tent.
No comments:
Post a Comment