| > vassilis' home+sitemap "The Iranian Experience" (a travel disaster) |
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| Passport photo taken in Kerman the day after the fire by local photographer using an old big format camera with glass negative planks...he was funny but not more than me looking like a real psycho in this snap... |
| this is what happened to the chartered bus on the way from Shiraz to Kerman on 15Aug03.... in my opinion it occured as combined result of different factors,i.e.high temperature 35-40oC, nonstop airconditioner operation even during bus stops, long steepness of particular road and most likely, vehicle's poor maintenance.... altogether did put the bus engine into exessive and permanent charge, causing overheating and eventually ignition of fire... |
| ... sitting in back seats of the bus when with another traveller we smelt burnt stench and warned...driver stopped aside the road and "trip attendant" jumped out to check engine in backside...there were flames coming out and we were asked to evacuate... fire was still in primal phase inside the engine compartment likely controllable by an extinguisher but there was none while driver and attendant were squabbling about what to do with two plastic buckets of water they had on the bus... as a result the fire was totally out of control (not even one extinguisher was available on any other passing by vehicle stopped for help,,,) while passengers' luggage were left into the locked booths...there was a couple of explosions and a composition of flames and smoke in a variety of colors ....to cut the story short ,most travelers were stripped of clothing,money, valuables,credit cards etc --locked into suitcases for -supposed- more safety-- while three of them -including me- lost passport and visa too.... |
| ...having been nearly four hours at the incident scene after local police finished taking testaments etc ,a local bus arrived to transfer us to a nearby cement industry plant where we were offered an Iranian worker's meal each....a couple of hours later another chartered bus -much older than the burnt one- arrived from a nearby town to continue the route ...it had no airconditioning but open windows and natural ventilation ...probably a less fire risky vehicle it turned to a rather suicidal drive at 100kms/h and above during the night in narrow -one lane per direction- roads with heavy lorries and long vehicles overtaking each other on the edge...Kerman however was finally reached about midnight without any further mess-ups....in any case incidents of this oddity, though not impossible (engine on fire - lack of extinguisher) especially in countries with poor safety standards,is unlikely to happen compared to other barely obvious risks connected with driving and travelling in Iran.... from this side i consider the whole incident a lucky wrecking as far as statistics on traffic accidents, place Iran among (if not on top of ) countries with highest traffic accident death rate in the world and despite the fact that the total number of vehicles in Iran is relatively low for a population of about 70 millions....but statistics is not necessary for one to notice that driving in Iran is like a "mission impossible" if not a suicidal one ....either on high ways and provincial roads or (and especially) in Teheran,a chaotic city in state of permanent traffic frenzy,heavy atmosphere pollution --sufocating -compared even to Athens' worst- when combined with high temperatures--,hosting more than half of all Iranian vehicles on it's roads and a population of 12million people ...no one seems to obey traffic signals and lights in operation as if they should not exist at all....drivers do not stop at red lights to let pedestrians cross but in exceptional cases while priority on the road is to be claimed by each driver from the others according to an undisclosed ...<driving behavior protocol> which nevertheless allows continuous flow of traffic to and from all directions at the very same moment amazingly without major problems (..well apart from those recorded as traffic accidents and first cause with 55% in the total of unintentional deaths ...or in other words,according to a recent edition of Iranian News,causing one death every 24 minutes all over Iran...actually during my whole trip i saw at least three topled long and big vehicles and much more badly collided cars left aside the roads)............. |
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| as far as the incident occured Friday -dayoff for muslims-,trip schedule was followed unchanged on to Kerman,Bam & Yazd where finally we caught the one hour IranAir flight back to Teheran late Sunday afternoon...(thus the rest itinerary from Yazd to Esfahan on to Teheran was missed...hopefully another time to be combined with a trip in N.Iran & Caspian Sea).... authorities were notified about the issue by Greek embassy & urged to to ease procedures ...thus Iranian Foreign Miniistry & Foreign Police did relatively,compared to normal, fast thanks also to local agent who joined at all bureaus as Farsi translator during a three days <go, wait & come again> route to various offices ,,,finally an exit visa was obtained on an emergency passport the day before departure. ...though not desirable the episode was kind of an <iranian inside experience> thus whole tour was anyway not regrettable especially as far as there was not any major problems like physical injuries, extended delays etc.... |
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