Ozbus11 in Iran - Strangers in a strange land

“We share the grief of all the downtrodden and support the oppressed people of the world.”
Iman Khomeini – founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran

It was Day 19 of the 92 day leg to Sydney and having said goodbye to the coach and our amazing Latvian bus driver Martin it was time to play the border game. The winning time was 2hrs 25mins guessed by Elli. No kissing Charlie this time – just Ozbus pride as the prize. It was also time at the border for us girls to get scarved up for the first time. I was quite looking forward to wearing the headscarf and as Phil our leader (we must follow him) tried to put us youngens at ease, he said to try and pretend to be in some Broadway show for a week. Well I wanted to walk out of that show at the interval – but choices I had were none.

After a day or so of the scarve I was not into it. Maybe it was the heat and my scarve was particularly long. Maybe it was the reality of an image I'd been used to in London. Or maybe it was the fact that I was in a country as a tourist where I didn't have a say in my outward appearance due to my sex. In our hotel in Tehran a sign welcomed us in English reading “the headscarf is a beautiful part of Iranian culture, please respect it.” Which I found jovial because I don't remember being disrespectful by not wearing something. In fact I would have thought it would be incredibly disrespectful to have a certain appearance for something you don't believe in. Like wearing a crucifix because Dolce and Gabbana put it in their latest campaign when not believing in Christianity.

Islam is an incredibly beautiful religion – however I am not religious – so why should I have to make a religious statement? But taking personal beliefs aside – and recognizing that this is the country of Iran and just life out here, should make it easier. Yet I was not eating local meals with local people either. I came into the country on a tourist visa, stayed in a hotel charging me tourist prices?! The whole country just didn't make sense to me. Forget about the difference between sexes, or the differences from the western world to the east. I found it a little contradictory. We managed to catch BBC World in some of the hotels before the channel mysteriously disappeared. They were reporting on a second Nuclear site being found just outside Estafan where we were staying for two nights, a contradictory country for sure.

Culture shock issued – in my opinion there wasn't much Iran had to offer the tourist in the way of culture. We visited a lot of Mosques. These were beautifully decorated and lovely to see but perhaps a little variety from the country would be nice. There were a few Mausoleums The most famous of these was just outside Tehran and approaching from the highway was something like approaching a Muslim 'Willy Wonka' chocolate factory. Girls and boys entered through separate entrances. We took off our shoes, got searched, had electrical items taken away from us due to religious reasons. Bad news for Rob 'the Geography boy' as the resident Ozbus11 photographer. The girls came to a dead end in 5 minutes of visiting the half constructed building but we figured out eventually that we were allowed into the bigger Men's section. Whilst we were there a group of Army veterans or volunteers were marching and celebrating something inside. Turns out it was an anniversary and they gave us all army scarves. Not sure if that will ever be making it's way out of my bag – more research has to be done into the Army's story for that.

It was only going to be a flying visit to the Mausoleum but unfortunately a few of us girlies got inquisitive and started chatting to the Mausoleum authorities. They gave us info in broken pointed English and prayer stones. We gave them the 'where we come from speech' and then they wanted something from England which I gave them in a form of a box of mints. After I had wandered off some of the girls were given more treats such as sweets and the official propaganda book and then when they tried to leave – the officials wouldn't let them. Fortunately the guide plus Bernie the crazy 'beep beep' Frenchman, Bernie, intervened and they were set free.

Mostly Iran was made of the colour beige, in the scenery, black, which all the women were wearing and blue in the domes of the Mosques. The best thing about Iran was the Archaeological museum in Tehran. It had archaeological bits in. I'm really trying to be positive about the country but it was just a little bit of a drag. The food was rubbish, the culture was rubbish because the country isn't allowed to have one apart from the obvious. As a tourist I felt like I was only allowed to go to certain places deemed suitable for a tourist. For example a few of us would have loved to have visited the US Den of Espionage where the CIA organized the coup but there wasn't enough free time for things like that. It was Museums, Kebab houses and more Mosques oh and a spot of Carpet shops. Go to Iran if you're interested in the dawn of mankind as there is a lot of civilisation history to be found here. But maybe I'll return when the regime is over and I can see Iranian art.