Day 03 - Still Waiting

Day 03 Tuesday August 16 

We wake up to encouraging news that the AO team has left at 7.30 am to clear the cars from the port.

We had breakfast and waited for the message for us to go there. There is no update till noon and we have to check out of our hotel. So we bring our bags in the lobby and wait.

Some of us decided to have lunch at a restaurant called Borkah. Our bill came to an astounding 1,63,35,000 rials

We came back to the hotel and still no news about the cars. All of us are by now discussing if we will be able to start our trip today. There is a sense of helplessness but no one is upset or disturbed. Finally we got a message at 7 pm.

All of us under whose names the car is registered reached the port at 8 pm to pick up their vehicles. 8 cars are out of the containers and ready to roll except for one document, the gate pass. This took another hour. There are 2 cars in one container and unfortunately the car in the last one would not start. The battery got discharged due to non use for more than 3 weeks. As a result the car in front of it also could not be taken out. Sanjay & Tushar along with the guides and other participants tried many things but to no avail.

Finally at 11 pm it was decided that the cleared cars would leave and we would come back tomorrow morning with some help. As we were getting out of the yard we found that of the 8 gate passes that we had, 2 of them were for the stuck cars. So only 6 cars could leave. Mr. Pawan's and my car's gate pass would be issued tomorrow morning.

We had to pass through 3 security checks before we could leave the port premises, which in itself cost us 2 hours. We finally came out at 1.30 am. The next hurdle was fuel. In Iran petrol is sold on a ration card to local passenger cars. Only commercial vehicles run on diesel. So we had to buy diesel clandestinely.

Our one point of contact in Iran is a very resourceful guy called Mr. Aarash. By the way petrol costs 80 paise per litre. One participant is thrilled as his is a petrol vehicle, he filled up a full tank of 100 litres in his Land Cruiser Prado for INR 80. Coming back to the story Aarash took us to a petrol pump where obviously we cannot get diesel. This shady pot bellied guy with unkempt hair wearing a ganji was sitting on a small table. Now money is a great lubricant and can set the wheels of anything in motion. He agreed to give diesel for our 5 cars for USD 200 irrespective of the quantity filled. Apun bhi Indian hisaab kiya. For Rs. 3200 we were getting a full tank of minimum 70-80 litres per car, we said go for it. 

He took his truck and asked us to follow him to a big compound nearby. After all the cars got inside, he locked the gate. Then he disappeared leaving us feeling uneasy and trapped in an unknown place in the middle of the night where we do not know the language and have no options. He came back after 15 minutes and said that now he wants USD 300. We said OK. 2 cars followed him some distance away on a kacha road. There was a small makeshift tent. In it were a few barrels, some plastic pipes and an electric pump. Now he says I want 100 dollars for filling the cars. We said OK. One by one all cars were filled under the moonlight and cell phone torches. Later we found that the fuel tanks were only three quarters full. Tired, hungry since 7 pm and swindled we reached back to the hotel at 3 am