Statistics Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Iran

I have some time to kill (waiting for the Indian visa & rest phase of Marathon preparation) - so finally here are the statistics of Turkey, Georgia, Armenia and Iran:


Turkey:

Days spent in country: 64
Cycling days: 44,5
Restdays:  19,5
Distance cycled: 3246,46 km
Average km/day: 50,73 
Money spent: 2230,12 €
Average €/day: 34,85
Accomodation:
- Couchsurfing 7
- Hotel/Hostel 39
- Wild Camping 14
- Official Camping 3
- Airport 1
Things lost: 1 underwear in Antalya, 1 melon somewhere along the Marmara sea
Things lost & found: Joergs wallet, my mobile
Things regained: cycling socks (forgotten in Bulgaria, thank you Hanni !!!)
Things broke: 
- torquing support (Drehmomentstuetze): quick fix with zip ties, later repaired with angle grinder in Trabzon, 
- 1 Pannier (slash through the front): thank you Joerg for letting me use yours !
- 1 more underwear
Repairs done in Trabzon: replace chain, turn sprocket, replace bottom bracket, grind torquing support in shape



Georgia:

Days spent in country: 6
Cycling days: 5
Restdays:  1
Distance cycled:  312,46km
Average km/day: 52,08
Money spent: 133,39 €
Average €/day: 22,23
Accomodation:
- Hotel/Hostel 5
- Wild Camping 1 
Things broke: front carrier, cycling gloves (during an ironing accident, still usable though)



Armenia:

Days spent in country: 15
Cycling days: 10
Restdays:  5
Distance cycled: 615,47 km
Average km/day: 41,03
Money spent: 402,91 €
Average €/day: 26,86
Accomodation:
- Couchsurfing 1
- Hotel/Hostel 13
- Wild Camping 1
Things broke: front carrier (several times)



Iran:

Days spent in country: 55
Cycling days: 35
Restdays:  20
Distance cycled: 2802,57 km
Average km/day: 50,96
Money spent: 1065 €
Average €/day: 19,36
Accomodation:
- Couchsurfing 5
- Hotel/Hostel 41
- Wild Camping 8
Things broke: front carrier (again and again, broke less often after fixing it with some door hinges)

Day 192-193 Bandar Abbas - Sharjah - Dubai

Khoda hafez Iran, hello shining plastic city of Dubai!
Today the ferry ticket booking system problems were gone, so around 10 I had the ticket. I had a lot of time - the ferry was supposed to leave at 9pm, checkin at 6pm. Except for shopping for smuggled goods there is not much to do in Bandar. I just relaxed at the hotel and the waterfront. Nevertheless I managed to be a bit late for the ferry check-in: just when I was about to leave the hotel Internet came back to Bandar, so I quickly wrote to some couchsurfing hosts in Dubai. After the 8km ride I arrived around 6.20 at the port. There two other cyclist were also waiting for the ferry: Iranian Mousa and English Dean, along with Italian backpacker Giorgio - all of them more or less on the way to India.
Some minutes after 9 we could board the ferry - which was very nice! We locked our bikes at the car deck and went up to the passenger deck, which had 3 areas: one with soft benches (good for sleeping), one with comfortable Airplane-style chairs and an open area with more seating. The ferry was not full at all - one of the two car decks was empty and on the passenger area everyone could easily find a bench for sleeping on. On the bench area dinner was served.
Mousa had a Ney (kind of flute) on his bike - around 10 we left the port while playing music.
Between Bandar and Qeshm many ships were anchored - very atmospheric in the night with the quiet sea and all the illuminated vessels around.
We had a lot to talk and some music to play, so it was long after midnight when I tried to find some sleep. I slept a bit, but woke up a few times to look at the nearly full moon over the sea - it was just too nice to sleep. Around 7 breakfast was served - I had it outside, combined with the sunrise over the sea. Travelling by boat is just so beautiful - I really don't want to take an Airplane to get to India, but I fear there is no other affordable way.
We arrived in Sharjah around 9 and that is were the trouble began:
10:00 we could leave the ferry and followed a police car to the immigration hut.
10:15 all Iranians were sent to an 'eye-check', which was not necessary for Europeans - I have no idea what this was about
Then a long time nothing happened
11:30 two cocky Emiratis appeared who:
- looked like they had way to much opium last night
- really seemed to hate their jobs
- thus were very busy smoking and keeping their agal (that black thingy holding the headdress) in place
- finally started to stamp a few passports until
12:15 their computer broke down - they had managed to get maybe 10 passports stamped until then
12:30 after some discussion the Emiratis just left and nothing happened for some time
13:00 a bus appeared, brought everyone to another passport control building. Here everything went surprisingly comparably fast.
14:00 We could finally collect our bikes and get on the road!
We had the following objectives: money, food, mobile internet, beer, place to sleep - it took us some time until all of them were accomplished. Both Dubai and Sharjah look like a big disneyland, quite a difference when coming from Iran! It took us some time to get to Dubai - theoretically it is only about 25km, but as we wisely decided to the highways it was more than 50km for us. While waiting for our Emirati mobile to get activated we searched for and finally found a beer, the first one for two months - and, as it is Dubai, pretty expensive: 5€!
I could finally check my mail to see that couchsurfing did not work out. Furthermore, the couchsurfing website is blocked in the Emirates! I guess it is seen either as a dating site or more likely as something unwanted in a city relying so much on up-price tourism.
We all had different plans, so we decided to split: Dean would be collected by a friend, Mousa did not want to spend more than 10€ for a room (impossible in Dubai) so he went searching for a place to camp, I wanted to have a bed and a safe place for my bicycle.
I tried to go to the Dubai Youth Hostel about 10km away, but heavy traffic incl. road construction and tiredness made me turn back and search for a place to stay in the Deira, the old town of Dubai. I was very happy when I found a room at Al Uruba Hotel in the middle of the gold souq - only 170Dirham (more than 30€} /night, that is cheap in Dubai!
The room and hotel staff however are very nice. That was the point when I actually started to find some likable things about this crazy city: the gold souq area has some athmosphere (if you can ignore the constant fake-watch offers) and there are many Indian restaurants around. Fully veg.! And real Indian! Very tasty and very spicy! That is were I met again Yannik - he had taken another route from Yazd to Bandar and has been in the Emirates for some time already.

Day 191 Qeshm - Bandar Abbas

Started late, rolled down to the speedboats, after some waiting lifted Arthur and all my stuff into the boat, feared for most of the ride that a big wave would hit and one of the panniers would drown in the Gulf, but everything arrived, quite a lot of ship traffic here, checked in at a nice hotel, tried to book the ferry ticket for tomorrow, not possible because all of Bandar Abbas is cut off from internet today, tried at 3 travel agencies, no chance today, hope tomorrow everything works out.

Day 190 Qeshm

Lazy day: I just had a walk around Qeshm town in search of the boats to Bandar Abbas - wanted to check if they are big enough to take bicycles. As I first went into the completely wrong direction it became a quite long walk. A lot of construction is going on here. And there are some very rich people around, proudly driving their Hummers and Mustangs around the block. On the way I came across Qeshm Geopark museum, including some interesting and some scary exhibits (siamese and two-headed goats). It also had many bird species on display, but I couldn't find the one small bird I have seen jumping over the street many times for the last days - it looks more or less like a sparrow wearing a paper hat. Most of the day I just relaxed on the hotel terrace, watching palm trees and the sea, eating and chatting.

Day 188 Tang Dalan - Laft

I arrived at the Persian Gulf! It was not as easy as I had thought. Of course it went down, but I once again realized that the wind is usually blowing from the sea. In this case the wind also brought a lot of sand from the deserts of Arabia. This made things very hazy.
After my two flat tires yesterday I had another one today - less than 2 km before the gulf! I decided that this time I would not only change the tube, but also the tire - so now I am still running on my first front tire but my third back tire already, after 10000km. Yep, I also completed my 10000st km, let's celebrate !
With my new back tire I entered the ferry to Qeshm island which was packed. Really packed - I could barely move! Nevertheless I made some fun with 2 little boys in a nearby car. Once I arrived on the island I just had time enough to organize some supplies (non-alcoholic pineapple flavoured malt beer for the 10000-celebrations!) and find a place for my tent. Places on the beach were not very suitable as they looked too much as if the tide would come in and take me and my tent to a journey into the wide wide ocean during the night. After crossing the very atmospheric fishing town of Laft I found a nice hidden place a bit inland and prepared for a cozy night - it was warm and I camped on sand, perfect. In this climatic conditions even the Iranian 'beer' makes a lot of sense, especially when cycling.

Day 189 Laft - Qeshm

I am very relaxed now! The weather is perfect - were it not for the Iranian dresscode, I wouldn't even have to wear a shirt. And I have enough time - the next ferry from Bandar Abbas to the Emirates goes in 3 days and I only have to cycle about 70km across Qeshm Island and organize the boatride to Bandar Abbas until then. I started the day respectively relaxed with a long breakfast. Once on the road the ride turned out to be not too exciting - most of Qeshm Island is deserted. But I finally saw camels! Yeah! Since somewhere after Qom there were a lot of camel-warning-signs on the streets, but there never was one of the beasts. Here on the island the camels can mostly roam free. In the villages the many women wear very specific face masks - some multicoloured and covering the whole face and some black and strangely looking like moustaches!
At some point a yellow VW bus drove by - Simon, Anette & Siggi whom I had met in Pasargad! They gave me the news that it was a good idea to take the direct road from Shiraz to the Persian gulf. I had thought about going to Bushehr and then go along the coast to Bandar Abbas - they said most of this road was very very nice, but it also had a very very strong headwind!
Once I arrived in Qeshm town I needed 3 tries to find a hotel which had a decent room for a decent price. Other than in the rest of Iran it is high season down here - winter is the only time when this part of the Persian Gulf coast has survivable temperatures - in summer it can go up to 50°C here! The hotel I found turned out to be a perfect choices - it has very helpful staff who even showed me a place to wash Arthur - I didn't even ask - my bike surely must look very dirty after thousands of kilometres of desert.

Day 187 Lar - Tang Dalan

Sooo, now I really just have to roll down to the sea. It was an easy ride through a very deserted landscape - I went 100km and except for one police station there was no settlement on the way. Especially in the afternoon it all felt a lot like cycling on the moon. The only problem I had: flat tire. Twice. While fixing the first one 2 cars stopped and asked if they could help me. The second one happened shortly before sunset. I just started pushing my bike and entered the next small dirtroad in search of a place for the night. Once I found a not perfect but decent place I checked why the tire got flat again. It turned out that the brand new tire had kind of exploded right at the valve - how can that happen ?! Anyway, now it is fixed again, I had a good dinner and I feel that I am on a much lower altitude now - the night is very warm, I could nearly sleep without sleeping bag in the tent, feels like summer, yeah!

Day 186 Juyom - Lar

After a short night I woke up at the english teachers home. I played a bit with his little daughter who was as nice as ever. He himself however was much cooler - he must have realized that his attempts of befriending me weren't very successful. He drove me back to my bicycle at Karims home and I started to cycle back all the way I had already done twice yesterday. I was still in a bad mood for all of the day as I did not have enough sleep and I was often thinking how far I could have been already without yesterdays detour. Even worse at some point I got a nasty headwind followed by a very steep uphill.  On the way there was not much green and nearly no settlement around. The city of Lar however turned out to be unexpectedly rich - a splendid modern bazaar, some very western shops (Apple & Co.) and hotel prices which I had to negotiate down to an affordable level.

Day 185 Jahrom - Juyom

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.