Getting there: What to take + Net Cafe info

You're going to Bandar Abbas. Take:

Sun lotion
After Sun lotion
Sun glasses (shades)
Cap/hat
CD-Man/Mobile mp3 player/USB mp3 player
A CD containing the following software:
Skype, MSN Messenger, Google Earth, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ Lite, AOL Messenger,
Firefox/Mozilla, Some music to refill your mp3 player etc...
ATM Cards (for Iranian travellers)
Your Shenasnameh (Iranians) or passport/ID (foreigners)
Swimming shorts (Women cannot swim, sorry !)

During 4-5 days I was in Bandar Abbas, I tried several different net cafe's, called Coffee Net in farsi. Only one had Skype, half of them had Google Earth, and none had MSN messenger installed, while Yahoo messenger was installed on all of the computers. Also, none had firefox, so I had to install my own. Taking a USB memory device could save you a lot of time and energy trying to download the right software. You can copy the above software to it and install on the machine you are working. Sometimes, you are not the administrator so you may have to ask the guy in charge to install your software for you, but most of the time, you are admin. Bear in mind: always connect your USB device to the back of the computer. Never in front. If the front USB extension wiring was done improperly, you could end up with a dead device/memory !

Most net cafe's had 256k adsl connection. Some had 384, however with 6-8 users sharing that connection, it's just good for normal browsing and skype.
Charges are from 9000 rials to 10'000 rials per hour (about $1/hr), CD Writers are usually installed only on the server and you could arrange with them to copy your camera memory (bring a reader with you) to their computer and then to a CD. Burning a CD costs around 5-10 thousand rials.

Net cafe's can be found in large shopping centers or hotels.