The foggy 1000-year old town of Masuleh in the north west of Iran near the Caspian Sea is nestled into a steep mountainside of the Alborz range. Masuleh’s draw is not its clean crisp mountain air but its unique architecture and grey weather. The village climbs steeply over 100-metre incline, it is this elevation that necessitates the buildings to be interconnected. The step-like structure climbs abruptly with the roof of the building below acting as the courtyard of the building above. The resulting roofs and courtyards function as pedestrian areas and streets. Due to its unique layout it is the only city in Iran where vehicular traffic is completely prohibited. Typically the exterior of the buildings are coated with a yellow clay, apparently this allows for better visibility in the fog. Traditionally the buildings were constructed from adobe mud-bricks, timber rods and clay, a dense layer of dried fern is applied between the mud and wood timbers in the ceiling to insulate against the cold and wet. Masuleh’s moisture heavy weather is created by a constant supply of warm air blowing across the Caspian from the expansive steppe of Kazakhstan, the temperate air hits the Alborz mountains creating heavy precipitation. The locals kept reminding us that the slightly depressing damp cold weather was just like England! Strangely, for many Persians this area is the most desired part of the country due to its ‘great’ weather! Thousands of Iranians flock here from the nearby cities of Tehran, Rasht and Qazvin to experience ‘the damp’.
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The Tehran Derby, FC Persepolis vs. FC Esteghlal, is one of the most infamous in football history. Also known as the Red-Blue Derby it’s certainly something an English supporter can relate to. Being a Manchester City supporter I was slightly pained to attend the Derby with a red shirt wearing Persepolis supporter. Due to its notorious history I opted to wear a nice neutral grey colour and play it safe, not that my pasty complexion and English accent was fooling anybody.
Unusually, considering the teams are competitive rivals, they share the 90,000 capacity, Azadi Stadium in the western outskirts of the city. Arriving at the stadium we are promptly separated from the blue flag waving Esteghlal fans who are directed to the other end of the pitch. The stadium looks like it is over capacity with thousands of people standing in the walkways around the top of the arena; from here the red/blue split is glaringly obvious. Traditionally Persepolis was seen as a working class club whilst Esteghlal had close ties to the ruling establishment and was supported by the upper class of Iranian society. During the 70’s Persepolis was much more popular, now the fan base for each team is split fairly equally, although on derby day the percentage looks slightly in favour of Persepolis. One Persepolis fan, to the jubilation of the crowd around us, takes a blue Esteghlal flag and with some derogatory chanting (probably about Esteghlal’s 6-0 defeat in 1973) promptly rips it up and stamps on it. Thankfully a fairly large buffer zone and riot police are keeping the two factions apart. The fixtures reputation comes from it’s tarnished past; in 1995 angry Persepolis fans stormed the pitch after Esteghlal scored 2 goals in quick succession, one as a result of an apparently biased referee decision. Many fights broke out between fans and players. From this game onwards international referees were used. In 2000, Esteghlal’s goalkeeper punched a Persepolis player in the face; a massive fight broke out on the pitch and after the game match hooligans rampaged through the streets completely destroying 250 city buses. During the mid 2000’s the game was plagued with match-fixing accusations. The speculations climaxed after a very deliberate looking handball in stoppage time in 2009 resulted in one of six 1-1 draws in a row. The allegations were not helped by the fact that the same person owned both teams. Due to previous violence many believed match fixing was being used by the authorities to keep the peace between the fans. From this game onwards Iranian referees were used again, implying international refs couldn’t be trusted. When the Persepolis players took to the pitch they immediately started to work the already feverish fans into a frenzy by throwing their tracksuits into the crowd. Sat amongst the 45,000 charged-up, tea-drinking, sunflower seed eating, hooter-blowing Persepolis fans it’s easy to get caught up in the passion. Before the game a huge Number 24 shirt was held aloft by the fans, the name ‘NOROUZI’ emblazoned across the shoulders. Just a month earlier, Hadi Norouzi (#24), the Persepolis captain died of a heart attack in his sleep. As a sign of respect for the duration of the 24th minute of the game all the Persepolis, and some Esteghlal, fans chanted his name. The first half was fairly uneventful and finished 0-0. During the interval the supporters around me discovered I’m English and started shouting the names of English players at me, interspersed with the odd cry of “Englistan I love you” and numerous ‘thumbs-up’. Annoyingly and much to my amusement being a City supporter, the name-calling culminated in a chanting of a chorus of “David Beckham, David Beckham, David Beckham” by about 20 Iranians. Four minutes into the second half and Esteghlal score the first goal and the blue end of the stadium erupts into chanting and cheering that lasts for about 10 minutes whilst the red supporters at our end of the arena sink quietly back into their seats. 10 minutes later the heavens open and the second half of this damp Red-Blue Derby is all too familiar. This match could easily be Man City vs. Man United or Liverpool vs. Everton, the only difference being there are absolutely no women in this stadium, if there were, they probably would have bought umbrellas. Towards the end of the second half someone from the Persepolis crowd throws what I can only describe as a stick of dynamite onto the side of the pitch, the resulting explosion shook the concrete stands and reverberated through the stadium whilst the massive cloud of smoke gently floated up. The large detonation marks the introduction of more riot police around the base of the stands. In the 95th minute after a relentless, but futile attempt by Persepolis to equalise we start making our way to the gates to beat the crowds. In some kind of Manchester United-esq stroke of luck the ball ends up in the back of the net in the 96th minute and Persepolis equalise. The stadium goes mental and for once I’m happy the reds have managed to sneak in a cheeky goal in extra time! The Paykan, which means "arrow" in Farsi, might not be a car model most people in the UK would have heard of, but in Iran where two million of the five million cars on the road are Paykans it is truly deep-seated into popular culture. When we first arrived in Iran I kept on spotting the classic design that had a startling familiarity, but for the life of me couldn’t quite put my finger on what it was. The rear end looked like a MK II Ford Cortina whilst the front end had a hint of Triumph Toledo to it. When I dug a little deeper it all fell into place… The Paykan is essentially a 1967 Hillman Hunter. A classic British built car from an era of vinyl seats, mock wooden dashboards and steel sports wheels. One year after production began in the UK the Iran National Motor Group which later became Iran Khodro started producing their own version of the Hunter. What is remarkable about this is that the 40-year old design was in production until 2005. Originally in 1967 two models were available, the Deluxe and the Standard. Later, six models of Paykan were being manufactured: Deluxe, Pickup, Standard, GT, Taxi, and Automatic. In the mid 1980’s the Hillman engines were replaced with Peugeot units. The Pickup also known as the “Bardo” is still in production although it does not achieve the required safety standards like having ABS and an Airbag.
Due to its prevalence, price, parts availability and simple mechanics it has been adopted by Iranian customised car enthusiasts as the ‘go to’ car for modifying, the Pickup model being equally as desirable to aficionados as the saloon model. The classic styling lends itself to the American ‘Lowrider’ look, with the suspension slammed to the floor, whitewall tyres and chrome spoked wheels. On a daily basis we spot at least 3 or 4 modified examples of the classic “Arrow”. The Pickup model offers not only street cred but is still a useful functional vehicle for taking your sheep to the market. After an astoundingly long production run the manufacturing rights for the Paykan have now been acquired by the government of Sudan, production of the Paykan is expected to restart in the next year. We can’t wait to visit Sudan in a few years and see how they modify this British classic! Travelling overland in Iran and working on a documentary it seems incredibly apt to write a blog about two of the most inspirational adventurers we’ve come across, Issa and Abdullah Omidvar. During the mid 1950’s two valiant brothers from Iran, with $180 between them, decided to go on an adventure that would take them around the world. A daring journey that would carry them through some of the most challenging terrain. Initially setting off on two British 500cc Matchless motorcycles armed with photography and film making equipment the brothers headed east through Pakistan, India, South-East Asia and Australia. They crossed the Pacific from Japan to Alaska, headed to the Arctic and then south through Canada and the Americas, travelling the entire length of the Andes, to finish with a trip to the Antarctic. Their homeward stretch took them through Europe back to Iran after a 7-year adventure of a lifetime. A brief stint at home saw the two young brothers catch a bad dose of ‘itchy feet’. Refuelled and raring to go in their newly donated Citroen 2CV van the brothers headed across the gulf to Mecca and then on to complete a 3-year anti-clockwise lap of Africa including the arduous task of getting through the Ituri rainforest in the Congo. Their eagerness to immerse themselves into other cultures as they travelled led to the pair shooting incredibly perceptive anthropological short documentaries about the tribes people they set out to encounter. It is this defiant attitude towards the unknown that leads to remarkable encounters. For us the most memorable stories have come from diving headfirst into the unknown! Throughout their 10-year expedition they had the opportunity to make films about Congo Pygmies (the short ones), Nilotic peoples (the tall ones), Amazonian cannibals, Polynesian islanders, Aborigines and the Eskimos living in the frozen lands of the Arctic. The films document a time before globalization and outside influence where countries of pure beauty existed before being tainted by the industrial invasion from the west; countries where the people seem less jaded and weary of foreigners, happier and more comfortable & self-assured. British Pathé newsreels and other documentaries of the time were produced from a belittling western perspective with an air of colonial conceited arrogance. The Omidvar brother’s films offer a unique counterpoint where respect and a willingness to learn are the basis of kinship. This simple value is epitomised beautifully by their motto hand painted across the front mudguards of their bikes "All different, all relative". This affinity with the people they met often put them in a unique position, not of an outsider, but of an accepted member of the tribe. Issa and Abdullah produced and edited the films on the road. As they travelled from town to town they would deliver lectures and screenings in any establishment that would take them from small village halls to big universities. As a result various newspapers wrote about their explorations leading to a certain degree of fame. To quote Issa “We had the opportunity of visiting, and holding talks with most presidents, prime ministers, kings and cultural personalities of the world”. Their autograph book is testament to this. In the late 1960’s their adventures were broadcast as a weekly TV show gaining them near celebrity status in Iran. In 2002 a prominent museum dedicated to their travels opened in the Gate House to the Green Palace in the Sa’d abad Cultural complex. The museum is a fascinating insight into the lives of the two brothers and features their camera equipment as well as many of the artefacts and photographs, collected and taken from 1954-1964. One of the most interesting and macabre items is a human shrunken head that was gifted to the brothers by the Jivaro Tribe in the heart of the Amazon. Visiting the museum and marvelling at the amazing photographs made us realise one thing in particular, it is the photographs that convey the passing of time that are really interesting! Culture, lifestyle, fashion and ‘the everyday’ change faster than a timeless landscape! As we travel around Iran it is clear that the Omidvar’s ethos of friendship through mutual respect and understanding is a value that is still fully ingrained into Iranian culture.
Unfortunately the inclination to ignore preconceived typecasts and a willingness of openness, acceptance and understanding towards strangers is not practiced to the same degree in western culture; it is a lesson that many of us could learn from. It is this simple characteristic that opened many doors for the Omidvar brothers and the wisdom of their learnings as intrepid adventurers is summed up simply by one word painted on the rear of one of the motorcycles “Peace”. The inspirational story of the Queen Farah Diba Pahlavi’s life is a complex one of fairy tales, politics and tragedy. A commoner and young architecture student, she was chosen to replace the King Shah Mohammed Reza’s second wife, Soraya Esfandiari Bakhtiari, after she failed to produce an heir to the throne. Their engagement in November 1959 was announced to the world via the cover of Life Magazine where the glamorous ‘soon-to-be’ Queen was pictured wearing a stunning dress by Dior. One month later, aged just 21, and 19 years the Shah’s junior, Farah Diba married Shah Mohammed Reza garnering worldwide press attention. Dressed in a gown designed by Yves Saint Laurent and wearing a newly commissioned Diamond Tiara designed by Harry Winston their marriage announced the arrival of possibly one of the most loved, stylish, forward thinking and inspirational royals to have ever reigned. Just 10 months after the wedding she gave birth to a son solidifying her position; the occasion was marked by dancing in the streets. A succession of children followed; another son and two daughters. After the birth of the Crown Prince the Queen was free to dedicate more time to activities that interested her. As time progressed the she became much more involved in government affairs. Using her husband’s influence and proximity she drew attention to causes that concerned and interested her, particularly in the areas of women's rights and cultural development. Over time she became one of the most vocal and highly visible figures in the Imperial Government and became the patron of 24 educational, health and cultural organizations. Her significant contributions to social reforms and her influence in the emancipation of women played a vital part in bringing Iran into the modern era. During her reign women played an increasingly important role in public life and occupied important positions in all areas of administration; parliament deputies, senators, ministers, ambassador, lawyers, judges etc. During the early 1970’s, her humanitarian role earned her immense popularity. She travelled a great deal within Iran, visiting some of the more remote parts of the country. Wherever she went, people cheered her and struggled to touch her. She would meet with local citizens earning her the title ‘The Empress of Hearts’. Her popularity was not just confined to Iran, it was told that Charles de Gaulle liked her more than any other first lady, even more than Jacqueline Kennedy! The Imperial Government in Tehran was aware of her popularity this was exemplified when she was crowned as the first Shahbanou, or Empress, of modern Iran. The naming of a woman as Regent was highly unusual for a Middle Eastern or Muslim Monarchy. Visiting the former Royal Palace of Niavaran the Queens love of architecture becomes blatantly apparent. Designed by Mohsen Foroughi and finished in 1968 the building mixes traditional Iranian architecture with 1960’s contemporary design. The huge eccentric electric retractable roof has a hint of James Bond baddie lair about it whilst traditional Iranian furnishings bring the design back down to earth. Located nearby, in a beautiful piece of 1970’s contemporary architecture, is the Queen’s personal library. The interior is designed by Aziz Farmanfarmayan and consists of three levels: the main reading room, a balcony and an underground basement for storing artefacts and paintings. Untouched for over 35 years the library is a fascinating time capsule, the collection of over 22,000 books reveals and typifies the Queens interests. Mainly comprising of books about art, philosophy and religion, a quick glance across the shelves reveals a sneaky peak at how Iran’s future could have turned out radically different had the royal family not been ousted. Books about Islam share shelf space with titles like ‘Eastern Religion and Western Thought’ and ‘Western Modern Art’. The library also houses a fascinating collection of autographed books, including a Walt Disney signed book presented to the young Prince, that highlight the relationship Iran had with the U.S. at that time. Amongst her many patronages she supported the often controversial Shiraz Arts Festival which ran from 1967 until 1977. The festival featured live performances from Iranian and Western artists including avant-garde performances by John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen. The Queen’s interest in Contemporary art is also expressed throughout the entirety of the palace although the majority of the collection is now housed in a designated gallery. Impressive works by Warhol, Dali and Picasso share wall space with a fine collection of Iranian contemporary art from the 1960’s and 1970’s. Her love of contemporary art was exemplified in 1976 when Empress Farah commissioned Andy Warhol to do her portrait after they met at a White House dinner hosted by President Ford. In the summer of 1976 Andy Warhol spent a week in Tehran to photograph the Empress with his Polaroid camera. The Empress’ most enduring accomplishment was the founding of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. In the early 1970’s the Queen began assembling an absolute collection of modern and contemporary art, from the Impressionists (Monet, Pissarro, Renoir) right through to the cutting edge minimalists of the 1970’s (Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd, Dan Flavin). The Empress took advantage of a depressed art market and led a panel of experts who toured European and American auction houses in order to build the prestigious collection. More than 300 significant works were purchased, reportedly for less that $100 million. The collection was seen as a gift to the people of Iran. The museum opened in 1977. Two years later Ayatollah Khomeini deemed the collection to be unfit for Islamic eyes and the newly formed anti-western Islamic Republic promptly put the collection into storage where it remained mostly unseen for 25 years. The collection which includes prominent works by Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso, Braque, Miró, Magritte, Dali, Pollock, Johns, Bacon, Warhol, Hockney, Lichtenstein, Stella and Richard Smith, who I had the pleasure of working with in 2002, is estimated to be worth as much as $5 billion. It is considered the most comprehensive collection of modern art outside of Europe and the U.S. The Queen was not only interested in contemporary art she took an active interest in promoting traditional Iranian art and culture to the world. Under her direction and through her patronage numerous organizations were formed to promote Iranian heritage inside and outside Iran. She oversaw the return of hundreds of historic Persian artefacts from foreign institutions and private collections and built national museums to house the recovered antiquities. During her reign Queen Farah Diba Pahlavi was the epitome of style, the essence of sophistication and an embodiment of how far women had come under her husband's reign. Her significant contributions to social reforms and the emancipation of women continue to be associated with her name. She was an intellectual and stood up for the things she believed in, the quintessential Queen.
The Last Empress of Persia is now in her 70’s and has lived in exile since the Iranian revolution in 1979. Historically due to its climate, geography and distance from the sea Central Asia’s arid landscape has never been conducive to agriculture. As a result the nomadic inhabitants had little to trade and in return few major cities developed in the area. The Mongol invasion in the early 13th century led to utter destruction of the few settlements and a near complete massacre of the civilian population. As a result of Genghis Khan’s foray and its nomadic history most of Central Asia is lacking sites of historical interest. After the historical overload of Turkey, Georgia and Armenia this lack of sites left us wandering what there was to see in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. With one exception in Kazakhstan it wasn’t until we reached southern Uzbekistan that we encountered any buildings of historical significance. The Registan in the heart of the ancient city of Samarkand was build between 1417 – 1660; traditionally a public square where people gathered to hear royal proclamations and watch public executions. The square is flanked by 3 Madrasahs which are stunning examples of Arabic architecture. Unfortunately it was closed for the week when we visited due to a music festival. Further south and located on the Silk Road is the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bukhara with over 140 buildings of historical importance. In 1920 during the Russian Civil War many of the buildings, including the Ark, were destroyed or damaged, many have been restored. The Kalân Minaret, also known as ‘The Tower of Death’ due to criminals being executed by being thrown to their death from the top is probably one of the most impressive. With 10 metre foundations, including stacked reeds as primitive earthquake proofing, the tower reaches skyward for an impressive 45½ metres, an impressive feat of engineering for 1127. Genghis Khan was so thunderstruck by it’s enormity that he spared it from destruction. Kalân Mosque at the base of the tower is able to accommodate 12 thousand people, reinforcing the importance and size of the city. During Soviet times the building was used as a warehouse, it reopened as a place of worship in 1991. The picturesque Char Minor is hidden away down a maze of backstreets. Some believe this modest sized building was the gatehouse to a larger and long-gone Madrasah. The massive Ark of Bukhara is the oldest structure in town, occupied from the 5th century right through to the Red Army invasion of 1920. About 20% remains intact and operates as a tourist attraction housing several museums. During Genghis Khan’s rampage of Central Asia the inhabitants of the city found refuge behind the impressive 20m tall exterior walls, much of which still exists today, until they smashed through the defences and ransacked the fortress.
Central Asia is fast becoming one of the ‘go to’ destinations for many overlanders, more specifically overlanders are heading east to drive the infamous Pamir Highway and it’s slightly bigger brother the Karakoram Highway in China. For us the holy grail of Central Asia was the notorious Pamir Highway. The M41, as it is officially known, is the world’s second highest international highway and travels through Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan reaching an altitude of 4,655 metres. Just to put that into context the highest mountain in the UK, Ben Nevis ‘peaks’ at a mere 1,344 metres. The area is notorious for landslides, rock-falls, earthquakes, floods, high winds and frequent political unrest; all these factors rate it quite highly on the ‘World’s Most Dangerous Roads’ list. Traditionally the road formed part of the ancient Silk Road route linking trade routes from China to Europe. The area is stunning and remote, so remote in fact that buying and carrying enough diesel for the entire route can be problematic. The beautiful Wakhan Corridor offers 220-miles of spectacular driving along the bank of the Pamir River, literally a stones throw across the water is Afghanistan. During our 2 weeks on the Pamir Highway we heard machine gun fire, experienced an earthquake and narrowly missed mudslides and flash flooding. Just two days after leaving the M41 behind us the Tajikistan government declared the whole area a natural disaster zone after glacial snow melt had flooded 3 villages, many valleys and destroyed large sections of the road leaving the local population without electricity. A truly wild place.
Getting stopped by ‘The Fuzz’ has become part of our daily routine as we travel east. Our running total has now reached more than 40 times in the last 12 months alone. In most Eastern European countries the police have a bad reputation for stopping tourists and collecting bribes. This can be incredibly frustrating when so much bad driving is going on around you unpunished. Emma and I have a strict rule that we will never pay a bribe, and up until now we have stuck to this and not parted with a penny! This kind of low-level corruption should never be encouraged; paying backhanders only makes the police expect subsequent payments from your fellow overlanders. Obviously this is for ‘made-up’ charges and false accusations, if you actually do the crime you should pay the legal fine. Surprisingly Russia wasn’t the worst offender, as we’d heard, we were pulled over at least 10 times but never actually asked for any money. On the one occasion they actually stopped us legitimately, I was made to sit in the back of the smokey police Lada, and much to my surprise the officer showed me a photograph on a laptop of our car travelling at 72kph in an apparent 50kph zone 5km back down the road. Once he learnt we were heading to Mongolia he called us crazy and sent us on our way. Checkpoints are a fairly regular occurrence in foreign countries; we had them in Morocco, Russia, Ukraine and all the ‘Stans. Most of the time they have police control buildings at the side of the road, normally located just after a succession of decreasing speed limit signs crammed into a 50m stretch, making it virtually impossible to slow down in time. In the Ukraine we got stopped by a rather over-zealous speed gun operator stood next to the speed limit sign (90km down to 30km). He wanted to see all my original documents and took me into his little room where he placed his gun on the table and basically tried to get me to pay $200. After playing the dumb tourist (which Emma thinks I’ve mastered), a long wait and a refusal to get into his police car to take us to the nearest ATM, we left without paying a thing! The secret to avoid getting stopped at checkpoints is to avoid making eye contact, helped enormously by a right-hand drive vehicle! That tactic worked up until Kazakhstan where the police stopped us a whopping 17 times. On one occasion I apparently broke 4 laws in the space of about 30 metres when I pulled out from a petrol station. Most of the time the police, waving large orange sticks and whistle blowing excessively, are generally just curious about Bee-bee and her number plate. Again, this discrimination is incredibly frustrating when complete lunacy is going on all around you in cars that are totally unfit for the road. In the former Soviet countries the police are generally pretty useless at patrolling bad driving, ironically the ‘sleeping policemen’ are more effective at controlling the traffic. The permanent farcical wooden police car cut-outs are also a poor deterrent to discourage bad driving. The police do however like inspecting paperwork. Being tourists you do have the advantage that most of the officers have no idea what they are looking at when you hand over documents. Give them colour photocopies in the first instance unless they strongly insist otherwise- once they have the originals the bribing ball’s in their court! Much to our amusement most of the police we encountered looked like the comical sculpture we spotted in Finland 4 years earlier, only the police in the ‘Stans having disproportionately larger hats. We soon learnt that if we stopped far enough down the road past the typically portly police in their elasticated-waist uniforms, their laziness would prompt them to wave us on rather than walk to our car. On the few occasions they did make it to the window (normally the passenger side) we used our over-the-top, non-stop friendly English accents and diversion tactics like showing them the shower and solar panel to charm them/confuse them into letting us go. If you are calm, polite, patient and show them you have all the time in the world to wait they normally get bored of you and can’t be bothered with the hassle of continuing to extort money from you. Even if you can speak the local language, stick to your own because they don’t have the patience for this either.
It's been exactly one year since we hit the road on this stretch of our trip, here are a few 'stats' from the last 12 months. Days on the road = 365
No. of countries visited = 23 No. of border crossings = 22 Longest border crossing = 4 1/2 hours (Zhanaul, from Russia to Kazakhstan) Highest point = 4,655 metres (Ak. Baital Pass, Tajikistan) Distance travelled = 17,546 Miles/28238 km Fuel Station Stops = 110 Best MPG = 24.35 Worst MPG = 13.01 Highest temperature = 42°C (Turkistan, Kazakhstan) Lowest temperature = -4°C (Niksar, Turkey) Capital cities visited = 11 Repairs to Bee-bee = 14 Punctures = 1 Overlanders met = 20 Times stopped by the police = 29 Bribes paid = 0 Earthquakes = 4 Snake Encounters = 8 Most days between showers = 16 Photographs taken = 20,093 Following on in our ‘Adventure Annoyances’ series we look now from the surface of the roads to those driving on them, specifically the Bad drivers. Every country has atrocious drivers; only some have more than others, the worst offenders we have found being in Albania, Turkey, Russia and Georgia. Tailgating is a huge problem in all countries, with cars literally less than 2m from your rear bumper at speeds of more than 50kph. The Georgians & Russians in particular have a unique style of overtaking, which involves passing as close as possible to your vehicle; behind, along side and in front. We have witnessed vehicles overtaking vehicles that were already overtaking other vehicles. We frequently see people being forced off the road by on-coming overtaking vehicles, usual accompanied with a kind, informative light flash which states “I’m coming through, even though you have right-of-way and I’m going to have to force you to brake and swerve”. The hard shoulder, when it exists, is also a valid lane for ‘undertaking’. We rode in several Taxis in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi and not once did I see the drivers use their mirrors. One driver purposefully inched sideways todays a lady driver to intimidate her and another reached out his window and snapped off the wing mirror of another car who refused to move out his way. Outside of Europe no one uses baby seats in cars, it’s not unusual to see children playing on dashboards, sat on laps (without seatbelts) and standing in the gap between the two front seats. In Bishkek (a city renowned for it’s chaotic, fast traffic) we witnessed a 5-year-old boy steering the car from his fathers lap whilst dad sat back and ate a sandwich. On one occasion in Armenia crossing an icy, snowy pass we encountered a white Lada on its roof being retrieved from down a steep verge. 30 minutes later the same white Lada overtook us on a blind bend! Seemingly it doesn’t matter what the driving conditions are, the drivers don’t seem to change their driving habits. We had several near misses in fog because other drivers failed to use their lights; rain, snow and ice also have no effect on drivers speed or care. Bright sunshine in your eyes? Just cover your driver’s window completely with a towel, shading your eyes and also obscuring your entire peripheral view. Why just drive when you can multitask? - Combine it with messaging on your phone, reading the paper or eating your dinner? The condition of the cars also doesn’t fill you with confidence, bald tyres, broken windscreens, no lights and often completely overloaded (and that’s not just our car!), sometimes to the point where you are swerving to avoid tumbling items from the truck ahead; from rocks and gravel to onions and potatoes.
One positive side to all of the bad drivers (excluding taxis!) in the countries mentioned is that these motoring misdemeanours are rarely carried out in an aggressive fashion. People seem to accept each other’s stupidity, dangerous manoeuvres and blatant disregard for human life as all part of normal, daily road use. Horns are beeped cheerfully to let others know you’re about to do something reckless and stupid, rather than as a hostile reaction to others foolish and careless driving. Narrowly missing a head-on collision at 60kph on a blind bend from an oncoming, overtaking pickup with windscreen obscured by the tons of hay precariously piled on top… a wave and a big happy smile from the driver on the phone with his baby on his lap and it’s all OK. |
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