An Iranian Visa At Last!

Islamabad, still waiting for word on our visa, we have moved into the pleasant Flamingo Guest House, with AC, cable and wifi - nice!

Each day the routine consists of checking emails and the news, downloads, breakfast, calling the Iranian embassy to hear them tell us there was no news and 'please call back at four', watch a crap a movie, decide what to do for the rest of the day. Amongst other things we went shopping to the car market and caught up on the car jobs. Anticipating a 'no' from Iran we also researched the processes and costs involved in driving through China, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Russia, locating and visiting all the embassies to find out about visa requirements.

By now thoroughly sick of the CDs in the car, we made the most of the wifi and got bittorent going to download a new music collection. However this meant we needed an mp3 player. The choice in Islamabad is limited to say the least. So we ended up selling out and getting an ipod, and getting it to synch without itunes on Linux was a pain, but is all now working.

We also worked our way around quite a few of Islamabad's better restaurants. Interestingly McDonalds is really expensive, the cost of two value meals (about 700 rupees) is the same as eating at a pretty good restaurant.

On the morning of Wednesday 19th Mr H at the Iranian embassy finally told me that the MFA had returned an answer of 'no' to our appeal. I thanked him and asked him to pass on my appreciation to the ambassador for their time and patience, and hung up the phone. Considering we first applied back in May, it was a bit of a relief to hear an answer, instead of just 'please call tomorrow.' I told Andrew and we decided to drive to the Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan embassies and pick up the visa application forms. 10 minutes later the guest house phone rang and Mr H asked me if I would be able to get to the diplomatic enclave with our passports. 'Just you' he said.

Within an hour of waiting, I was holding our 2 passports with Iranian visas stuck inside. They may have only given us 7 days, but after many rejections and 3 months of trying, we were more than pleased, and frankly very bloody relieved. Mr H hinted that a meeting I had with the ambassador on Monday may have helped our cause ...

With a new and improved job list we are hurrying around Islamabad finishing all we'd been meaning to for the past week. A spare oil filter, some traditional bangles, a hair-cut, all so we could jump in the car first thing head to the Iranian border, yay!