Iran - Andrew Burke [270]
For food, there’s the usual range of utilitarian kababis, pizza, barbeque chicken and sandwich joints.
Getting There & Away
Mahan Air flies between Zabol and Tehran on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Arriving from Zahedan by bus (IR10,000, three to five hours) you’ll stop at the new bus terminal, off Rostam Sq (look for the giant statue of Rostam on his trusty steed Rakhsh). Buses leave here for Mashhad (IR60,000, 12 to 15 hours) and all manner of other places, including Tehran. From Zahedan, you’re far better off taking a savari (IR25,000, two hours, 216km) if you want to be back in a day.
Savaris leave from Zahedan for Zabol every half-hour or so from 50m west of the Abuzar Hotel, and in our experience the drivers tend to take a disturbingly fatalistic approach to driving. You must bring your passport; if you don’t bring your passport the driver won’t take you. And there’s a good chance you’ll have a police escort the whole way.
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CROSSING THE PAKISTAN BORDER AT MIRJAVEH/TAFTAN
Crossing the border between Iran and Pakistan at Taftan is a relatively painless process – the painful part is the trip to Quetta. Getting to the border from Zahedan or Mirjaveh is simple, but be aware that Pakistan is 90 minutes ahead of Iran (or maybe just 30 minutes if Iran reinstitutes daylight-saving in summer), meaning the border closes at 4.30pm (Iranian time) in winter, sometimes earlier (1½ hours before sundown). The border usually opens around sunrise Iranian time (about 7am).
Travellers get preferential treatment on both sides so the whole process rarely takes longer than an hour. American travellers might have to undergo a brief but polite interview about their itinerary. People with vehicles have reported similarly smooth crossings.
To change money you will probably have to deal with one of the sharks who circle around both sides of the border. If you don’t know the exchange rates you will be ripped off, so check them before you arrive or ask someone crossing in the other direction.
Taftan has been described, not unfairly, as hell on earth, especially in summer. On the upside, it’s no worse than Zahedan and you don’t need a police escort everywhere you go. Buses for Quetta (350 rupees, 617km) leave in the morning (usually before 10am) and afternoon (between about 3pm and 6pm), or whenever they fill to bursting point. If all goes according to plan the bus takes from 11 to 16 hours, so the later evening buses are best if you don’t want to arrive in Quetta in the middle of the night. Readers suggest the buses waiting around the square in Taftan are better than those parked at the border itself. A Toyota taxi makes the same trip in 12 to 15 hours for 4000 rupees, or 1000 rupees a seat. From Quetta, most buses depart between 2pm and 6pm.
Coming into Iran, once the paperwork is finished a free shuttle bus will drop you at the edge of the border compound, from where you wait for a pik-up/minibus/savari to fill and leave for Mirjaveh or Zahedan. You’ll be asked for about IR40,000 per seat in a savari to Zahedan.
If you get stuck at the border, staying in Taftan is preferable to Mirjaveh. Taftan’s Tourist Hotel charges about 600 rupees a night, and another hotel costs 150 rupees.
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KUH-E KHAJEH
The flat-topped mountain that is Kuh-e Khajeh rises out of a wide, flat expanse of Sistan that is desolate in winter but swathed in green in spring and summer. It’s then that water from the Hirmand River feeds into the lake bed to become the attractive Lake Hamun, though when we last visited only a fraction of the lake had filled. Locals blame water-intensive opium production operations upriver in Afghanistan for ‘stealing’ their water, and by consequence the 200 or so migratory bird species once found here.
The main attraction is the remains of an ancient town, the crumbling mud-brick dwellings stepping steeply up to the top of the mountain. The town was originally built during the Parthian era, but what remains is thought to date from Sassanid