Hi,

Nothing really new but two of us bikers have had the same thing a day or so apart. A third is coming through in a week or two and I've warned him. We'll see how he gets on.

On the Iran side at Bazargan passport control is fine, it is the customs helpers who are the problem.

Firstly, they might well be quite efficient at getting the paperwork stamped and signed but then they operate two systems:

1. they take you down the hill from the main crossing to a semi-deserted building where they explain that you need to pay EUR50 for the terminal. I guessed they meant the Iranian Petrol rationing card. Whether you're legally meant to have one is moot you can quite easily get by without one. They will pester you and point at a dusty board saying cars and trucks pay much more but just say no.

2. they then take you (they have your paperwork so there's not much avoiding it unless you avoided them in the first place) to the insurance shop -- it's clearly sign-posted Iran Insurance on a sky blue sign on the left side near the exit. The poor lads in there looked intimidated and were unsure what to do but I was asked for EUR100 for 30days 3rd party insurance. I was shown no prices or paperwork and was at a bit of a loss so had to cough up. Matt refused and was taken outside the border to another Sigorta where after arguing left with only 2 weeks insurance for EUR40.

Learn your Persian numerals (it's very easy, 2&3 have fallen over and have a tail, 4&6 are upside down, 7&8 are a V and an inverted V, 1&9 are normal, 5 is an upside down heart and 0 is a .). They read L2R as in English.

The precise figures are written on the computer printed document (six tear-off sheets). In the top left sheet, fourth line down, right hand side is the price in Rials: 215,400 in my case (ie. about EUR18).

On the bottom two sheets are two dates three lines up written as yyyy/mm/dd and are listed L2R as to and from (in Persian they'd be reading the whole piece R2L so it would be from/to to them). The year is currently 1389 and in my case 30 days starting in September means that the dd part remains the same and only the mm changes by one.

They might show you a yellow sheet written by hand in English. This is simply rubbish. Mine has a child's attempt to overwrite 30days and 18EUR with 70days and 50EUR. I think they would have shown me this "proof" had I argued. It's made up rubbish and in my case laughably made up. The problem being they didn't show me any of this until I'd paid up.

The proof is on that orangey-pink computer printed sheet. Demand to see that and check the numbers.

My hotel man here in Tehran (at the Parasto Hotel) very kindly phoned up Bazargan (I only asked him to double check which numbers were which) and got hold of the main man who naturally said that I had paid these helpers for their service, his office had only received the IR215,400.

Anyway, nothing especially new but at least you can now check the document for the precise figures and tell them where to go!

It's a real shame as Iranians are the friendliest people and I can't fault them. Except their driving is crazy.

Cheers,

Ian

Thanks, Ian, I'll set this aside for my summer 2011's trip to Iran or Samarkand (via Iran).

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Nick and his 2010 Yamaha XT1200Z Super Ténéré

Good post – great detail.
Border touts make a living by blatent lies mixed with a real understanding of the often mind-boggling border bureaucracy. Personally I try to brush them off, but in most countries where they can operate freely there is a kickback to the border officials, and they don’t like loosing their little bonus.
I went through Bazargan oktober ’08, and then it was the customs officials themselves who were asking for handouts, they asked for Euro 20 after doing nothing for over an hour, reckoning I must be an easy mark by then. The resulting explosion of rough language resulted in my papers being stamped and counterstamped at record speed, they wanted me out of there as fast as possible. Not a method I would recommend everywhere, but these guys fold easily. The booth at the bottom of the hill just countersigned the internal receipt, to make sure you had actually been processed, and not just weaselled your way through.
Insurance is probably a good idea, but the petrol card was a waste of time and money – nowhere did I have any problem with fuel, if they had any in the pumps I was pushed to the front of the queue. Overfilling, splashing several liters of high octane on a hot engine was definitely a more serious problem, as was the “inshallah” driving and “me-first” pushing-and-shoving in queues.
Security of you, your bike and luggage is taken very seriously, they say there is no crime in Iran, and then help you lift your bike into a hotel reception, up three steps. I was unfortunate enough to attract the attention of the counter-espionage agency, and was interviewed twice, as well as being followed, so I was probably safe from normal criminals. There is a bright side to everything.
If you are travelling east in the Baloch area you may have military escorts, they are usually a pain in the ass, but we will never know if they were really necessary. They are very trigger-happy, and sloppy weapons-handling is always dangerous. One soldier shot into the ground near my feet because I took too long drinking water whilst waiting for other tourists at a checkpoint, and another shot in the air to make Swiss-Marco turn his bus around. That was counter-productive, to say the least. Otherwise the average Iranian is very friendly, and helpful, though I do wonder if all the people I spoke to were actually who they said they were, and not informants for the Iranian Stasi.
In ’08 there seemed to be some sort of food rationing, even in mid-range restaurants most of the menu was “off”, but the kebab is available everywhere. Tap water is not safe to drink, and bottled water is available everywhere.
Safe travels
Peter, in Oslo

Hi Ian

Thanks for this information, very handy!
Cheers
Adastra

Thanks Ian ; this is exactly the kind of helpful detailed post which makes HU the place it is. Thanks also to GSPeter, for the detailed followup.

Thank you for that informative post Ian. We are hoping to cross from Turkey into Iran in a few weeks, currently underway in a rainy Germany

My impression is you are better off without the helpers altogether? We have never done a proper big scary land border crossing before so it could be interesting...

Keep it between the hedges.

Neil

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Belfast to Kathmandu on a Diesel motorbike 2010/11 www.suckindiesel.com

One more question,

what types of ınsurance are you able to get at the border? Sınce the traffıc ıs crazy ın Iran, I'm thınkıng of gettıng all-rısk/full casco, ıs thıs possıble or only the one where the other party gets money when you hıt them (I don't know the Englısh term).

Thanks for the ınfo!

We yust cros 4 days ago the border at Esendere/Serou with no problem at all. We have carnet de passages.

Chers, Zoran and Tamara, curently in Qazvin

Thanks Zoran and Tamara,
Dıd you have to buy a dıeselcard or are you drıvıng petrol? How about the ınsurance? and lıcense plates?
Thanks agaın!

I suspect getting full risk 'comprehensive' insurance will be a bit of a dream in Iran or anywhere on the road - or it will be very expensive. Better to drive/ride carefully.

Chris S

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Morocco Overland 4 (2025) • Trans Morocco Trail

Wow, lots of info. Thanks for the İmages Ian, they should defınıtely come ın handy ın a couple of weeks.

Ian you mentioned the problems ın Iran, and I keep hearıng of people shıppıng around, rather than goıng through. I´ve been somewhat out of the loop for the past month but from scannıng the net I can´t fınd any recent developments ın political relatıonshıps or otherwıse that would cause above usual concern ın thıs area? Just the usual bloody cold weather in Eastern Turkey ın the very near future and polıce escorts through Baluchıstan area of Iran\Pakıstan. Have I mıssed anythıng? Apart from hopefully the snow?

Cheers
Bryn

We are using petrol, but my friend who was last year in Iran with his car, usually got the card from truck drivers.
We didn't nead special insurance or license plates, yust carnet du pasage.

Good luck, Zoran and Tamara

Hi,

Came through the border at Bargazan a couple of days ago and wanted to add my experience to this thread. We had read that the road from Van to Esendere was not great with multiple checkpoints etc. We had been over a lot of bad roads in Turkey and thought it would be easier. The road from Van was certainly well surfaced and apart from a few wild dogs and kids with stones was fine.

As per Ian's experience it was all fine apart from the Iranian customs side (the last bit). When we came over to the Iran side the first official showed us to the "Turist Information" office where a friendly and honest man helped us through the procedure to get our passports stamped into the country and jump the queue in the process. Its a shame we could not have spoken to him later...

After this bit we went through to the customs hall where we again showed our passports at a booth on the left and then went through the customs to get the bikes in. The main problem here is that the customs officials have no uniform or ID so it was hard to tell them apart from the fixers who were mixing in.

The process was to take carnet to a well dressed (non uniformed) official standing outside who wrote some stuff on the back of the bottom carnet slip (to say he'd checked the bikes matched up to the Carnet) and then back inside to the admin office. Here they stamped up the carnet and took the bottom part off. They gave us a white chit (A5) size also stamped which we took back into the customs hall and handed to the non-uniformed customs guy standing at the big desk nearest the exit. He signed this off and then back outside to the bikes where we gave it to the first guy to sign again. The (presumably) police guy on the other side of the road also wanted to see this bit of paper and asked where we were headed. The fixers mixing around in all this spoke some english and had pointed these people out to us although we had not asked for their help.

As we left one of them asked if we needed to get insurance to which I replied yes I'd get it further down (I should have lied and said we had it but didn't know what was about to happen). We stopped on the way out to gather ourselves and headed down the 2km road out of the customs area to the final gate. The "Iran insurance" building is beside this gate. The fixers who we had seen before were already there milling around a small portakabin outside and beckoning us over. We parked up and they started talking about "Terminal" and to go inside their portakabin first but I went to the insurance office.

Several of them followed me in and one showed me a calculator and told me it was 70eur per bike. Much arguing ensued over the course of around 2 hours. The most effective thing seemed to be when we threatened to leave and went over to the customs gate where they followed us in. Over the course of this the price went from 70 to 60 then changed into dollars and then somehow became the price for 2 bikes. We ended up paying 800,000 Rial or roughly 40USD for each bike which is still more than others but at least not 140eur.

During all this I repeatedly asked if various people worked there, if they were officials etc. Of course the answer was yes but when asked what their jobs where I was given some varying answers such as weighbridge, lorry driver or road tax. Only at the end when the boss man from the Insurance co came in did I get some straight(er) answers and yes they were basically fixers. I told them I didn't want their help, had not asked for it, would not pay them and asked them to leave when the one big thug out of them (who I presume was getting the commision from this one) pushed me. It was all very intimidating but when my wife went to get the police outside they basically shooed her away. I specifically told the insurance guy the money was for insurance only and not for the fixers and he told me it was "my problem". At one point this insurance boss guy wanted to write something in my passport about me needing to trust people and intimated that I was somehow dishonest for not believing him. (of course since he is not an official he had no business even asking for my passport)

We told the younger guy that we would pay the price printed on the insurance document itself and lickity split it was printed but had the roughy 40usd price on it. Although saying that it was tricky to tell from the quality of the dot matrix printout what some figures were. So perhaps they can change these figures so beware. I did however manage to get a receipt although not sure if there is anyone I could write to about it?

Their main tactics are -
- you won't get out the customs gate without the insurance (questionable)
- don't drive in Iran without insurance (had no intention to!) or police will get you/if you have accident there would be big problem
- the price of insurance is government set (despite asking repeatedly I was shown no price lists and the price changed)
- the indication is that the young guy in the insurance office does not speak english (necessitating a fixer), but we later found that he spoke some and seemed to understand what we were saying just fine

Basically the whole thing is tied up and it seems everyone is getting a cut. I am not sure about the border gate official guy (who was wearing uniform) who seemed to be less bothered and get the impression he would have let us through and perhaps checking insurance was not part of his job. All that was needed for him to open the gate was the A5 white chit we already had from customs.

If I were to go this crossing again then I would take the road to Esendere. Failing that I'd go straight to the final customs gate and give the A5 white papers to the guy in uniform and do my best to ignore everyone else. There looked to be an insurance office in Maku anyway (green sign on the left about 600m before you come into the centre). If the guy at the gate did indeed stop me from leaving I'd probably take a taxi into town and get the insurance elsewhere just to stop these other guys getting anything out of it even if it cost more. However, it would mean leaving the bike there (better if you are in a group)

Stay safe out there and please don't let it put you off visiting Iran. The people here have been the most friendly and welcoming you could possibly imagine and would be worth the higher entry price anyway.

Neil

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Belfast to Kathmandu on a Diesel motorbike 2010/11 www.suckindiesel.com