Now about to leave Shiraz. Such a difficult time we have had already. In a nutshell, we had a pax die in Esfahan! Just what you need in country without an American Embassy. She was a 77 years old woman, traveling with another – rather frail looking and both of them probably should never have come, as they were tired and grumpy from day one. I managed to escape the whole drama by having left Esfahan the night before, to be in Shiraz the following morning for their arrival. The woman had been feeling unwell that day and not gone on tour – the MD had looked at her and found her dehydrated but OK otherwise. Later she contacted him and admitted that she had some blood in her urine for a few days and he whisked her off to hospital, where she just went downhill rapidly and died at 5am, basically of massive internal bleeding. We found out from the friend that the woman had undergone some large scale internal surgery, at Stanford of course, a few weeks before and should never have been rushing off on a trip like this. The doctor said that even if she had been in the US, it would have been impossible to save her.

Calls were made to the insurance agents in the US and they actually had an agent in Esfahan (amazing) and they got in on the act. along with the Swiss Embassy in Tehran which represent US interests. And thank goodness for Swiss efficiency.  They probably had a manual for “Dead American’ and swang in to action, like a proper Swiss watch. Of course, all this was happening 3 hours before everyone was leaving, so it was difficult, to say the least. The traveling companion is half way home as I write and being hotly (or hopefully, coolly) followed by her friend. Our agents here (selected by TVG) were just fantastic and spooled up wonderfully well. They had everything under control immediately and we owe them a great debt of gratitude.

Apart from that drama, all went well! The weather behaved this time so the sightseeing was good. Persepolis is the reason that any foreigner comes here and it does not disappoint. Wonderfully out in the middle of nowhere, the site is vast, so it never has that ‘invaded’ feeling of other major tourist destinations.  It dates right back to c550BC and has some of the most enormous stone pillars, around 15 of them, which give you an idea of just how vast the buildings must have been. The bas reliefs are just amazing in the their detail.

Driving here is like nowhere else I know. 2 lane highways become 3 at a flash and 3 can become 4 just as easily. Everyone is king of the road and somehow, they all just circulate around each other with balletic ease and you see few accidents. It is considered totally normal to change lane by cutting across one or two to another and of course only the nerds indicate. The rule of the right is ruthlessly in force, so ancient bangers lurch out into busy traffic and no one minds at all. After a while, it all becomes normal but the mind boggles if an Iranian was to get off a flight from Tehran in London and hire a car at LHR – he wouldn’t go far!

Our group found that the Iranians, at street level, are just as friendly as anyone anywhere in the world and they were quite blown away by it all. Some of them, apparently, had been expecting to be stoned.  Despite the wall posters in Tehran, if an Iranian asks you where you come from and you reply ‘the USA’, they respond with the standard ‘You are welcome here’. Stanford does produce a better level of interest and knowledge and they all come to the lectures and sit up and ask sensible questions (so I am told – I miss  most of the lectures…too busy checking out the dining room etc etc). Will be good to get on Emirates tonight and have a DRINK – we sure could have done with one (or more).