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.
Monday, January 1, 2007
Getting there: costs and durations
As I said before, getting to Bandar Abbas via plane is the easiest, yet most expensive way.
My one-way return ticket from Bandar Abbas to Tehran cost me 480'000 Rials (devide by 9250 to get dollars) which is almost $52. Very high for a domestic flight.
It took 1 hour 50 minutes and the flight was booked 2 days earlier. I was flying with iran air.
www.iranair.com might provide you with some information, but unfortunately I have yet to discover a *working* air travel website that does not come up with some kind of SQL error when I try to find a flight. Don't waste your time on Iranian Airlines' websites. Instead, do it the old fashioned way: Go to a Travel Agency and ask for flights going to Bandar Abbas. Trust me, it saves you more time.
Trains;
We wanted to travel with train. So we went online to www.rajatrains.com
On this website, everything works as it should. You could find availability of seats, travel routes, and even book a ticket, provided you have one of two cards mentioned on their websites: Saman Bank Card (www.samanbank.com) or Parsian Bank Card (www.pec.ir). Bear in mind that your credit cards don't work in Iran ! If you absolutely need to take money from your visa card, you may do so if you go to central bank of Melli and they will do it, it might take some time though.
In the agency that we got out tickets, we were told that there are three rations of tickets !
Certain number of seats are available to travel agencies for sales, certain number of seats are available to buy in person, in the train station, and few others exist as online purchase. While your travel agency could not sell you any tickets, you may still be able to go online and buy them via above cards. Still, you could go to train station and buy tickets in person.
Two trains are available for Bandar Abbas;
Normal train
Ghazal Train
Normal train ticket from Tehran to Bandar Abbas is around 90'000 rials, Ghazal train costs around 220'000 rials. Normal train goes everyday, and every cabin has 6 seats/beds while Ghazal has 4 and goes every other day. We could not find anything 2 days earlier except Ghazal, so we travelled with that.
From Tehran it left on schedule, 15:40, however the arrival time of 9:50 was a bit off. We got to Bandar Abbas at 11:40 ! Train was clean and bought off a chinese company 5 month ago. Prices for water/juice/chips/food on the train was equal to your average grocery store/restaurant. So I wouldn't recommend packing lots of food with you before travelling with Raja trains.
Busses;
Tehran has a few bus terminals, Arjantin, Tehran Pars and Azadi. Azadi being the largest, and therefore all destinations are supported, Arjantin is in mid town, and has busses going to most major cities. There are two major bus operators. Seir O Safar and another one !
I got above numbers from a websearch, not sure if any of them work, you can always have an Iranian call 118 (information) and ask for the number. Or just travel to one of the terminals and ask around. If you go a couple of hours earlier, chances are that you can definitely find some bus going to the destination. In other towns, especially the smaller ones, you might only find one bus per day that goes to Bandar Abbas. Sometimes, you need to take a bus that would take you to a larger town before you can find a bus that takes you to Bandar Abbas.
Busses to Bandar Abbas would be 90'000 rials or less, kind of the same price as the train, while travelling a lot slower ! This should be your absolute last resort. I do NOT recommend taking a bus when you have to travel more than 500 km. It is extremely tedious.
My one-way return ticket from Bandar Abbas to Tehran cost me 480'000 Rials (devide by 9250 to get dollars) which is almost $52. Very high for a domestic flight.
It took 1 hour 50 minutes and the flight was booked 2 days earlier. I was flying with iran air.
www.iranair.com might provide you with some information, but unfortunately I have yet to discover a *working* air travel website that does not come up with some kind of SQL error when I try to find a flight. Don't waste your time on Iranian Airlines' websites. Instead, do it the old fashioned way: Go to a Travel Agency and ask for flights going to Bandar Abbas. Trust me, it saves you more time.
Trains;
We wanted to travel with train. So we went online to www.rajatrains.com
On this website, everything works as it should. You could find availability of seats, travel routes, and even book a ticket, provided you have one of two cards mentioned on their websites: Saman Bank Card (www.samanbank.com) or Parsian Bank Card (www.pec.ir). Bear in mind that your credit cards don't work in Iran ! If you absolutely need to take money from your visa card, you may do so if you go to central bank of Melli and they will do it, it might take some time though.
In the agency that we got out tickets, we were told that there are three rations of tickets !
Certain number of seats are available to travel agencies for sales, certain number of seats are available to buy in person, in the train station, and few others exist as online purchase. While your travel agency could not sell you any tickets, you may still be able to go online and buy them via above cards. Still, you could go to train station and buy tickets in person.
Two trains are available for Bandar Abbas;
Normal train
Ghazal Train
Normal train ticket from Tehran to Bandar Abbas is around 90'000 rials, Ghazal train costs around 220'000 rials. Normal train goes everyday, and every cabin has 6 seats/beds while Ghazal has 4 and goes every other day. We could not find anything 2 days earlier except Ghazal, so we travelled with that.
From Tehran it left on schedule, 15:40, however the arrival time of 9:50 was a bit off. We got to Bandar Abbas at 11:40 ! Train was clean and bought off a chinese company 5 month ago. Prices for water/juice/chips/food on the train was equal to your average grocery store/restaurant. So I wouldn't recommend packing lots of food with you before travelling with Raja trains.
Busses;
Tehran has a few bus terminals, Arjantin, Tehran Pars and Azadi. Azadi being the largest, and therefore all destinations are supported, Arjantin is in mid town, and has busses going to most major cities. There are two major bus operators. Seir O Safar and another one !
Seir-o-Safar: 88732535, 88734669, 88743417-8
Seir-o-Safar (West): 66058484
Seir-o-Safar (East): 77865696
Taavoni No. 16: 66054060
Taavoni No. 3: 5557843
Taavoni No. 8: 77523851I got above numbers from a websearch, not sure if any of them work, you can always have an Iranian call 118 (information) and ask for the number. Or just travel to one of the terminals and ask around. If you go a couple of hours earlier, chances are that you can definitely find some bus going to the destination. In other towns, especially the smaller ones, you might only find one bus per day that goes to Bandar Abbas. Sometimes, you need to take a bus that would take you to a larger town before you can find a bus that takes you to Bandar Abbas.
Busses to Bandar Abbas would be 90'000 rials or less, kind of the same price as the train, while travelling a lot slower ! This should be your absolute last resort. I do NOT recommend taking a bus when you have to travel more than 500 km. It is extremely tedious.
Getting there: choosing the right transport.
There are three ways to get to Bandar Abbas from Tehran:
Plane
Train
Bus
If you are in other towns in Iran, you may try any of above. Planes leave from larger cities... the smaller the city, less often planes fly to and from there towards Bandar Abbas. If you are in a larger town, you might want to try to see if you can travel by train. However these have to be reserved at least a couple of days earlier, otherwise normal rules of waiting list may apply.
As for busses, there are bus terminals in almost every town, you may go there and ask if there are any available tickets. Bus rides are tiring and long, so I wouldn't recommend it if you are travelling more than 500 km, unless this is your absolute last option.
Sometimes you can find busses that go to a larger town, there you may be able to catch a train or plane to take to you Bandar Abbas.
Plane
Train
Bus
If you are in other towns in Iran, you may try any of above. Planes leave from larger cities... the smaller the city, less often planes fly to and from there towards Bandar Abbas. If you are in a larger town, you might want to try to see if you can travel by train. However these have to be reserved at least a couple of days earlier, otherwise normal rules of waiting list may apply.
As for busses, there are bus terminals in almost every town, you may go there and ask if there are any available tickets. Bus rides are tiring and long, so I wouldn't recommend it if you are travelling more than 500 km, unless this is your absolute last option.
Sometimes you can find busses that go to a larger town, there you may be able to catch a train or plane to take to you Bandar Abbas.
First Post
Recently I travelled to Bandar Abbas - Iran.
This blog is intended to give future travellers guidelines for surviving or getting best out of Bandar Abbas. Hopefully not repeating mistakes we made (I travelled with two other guys from Estonia).
Here you should be able to find:
Information about hotels and motels, exchange shops, bus terminal, airport, train station, taxi's and transport, roads and safety, shopping, eating out, going to Gheshm Island, leisure, Net Cafe's, travelling around, places of interest, swimming and many more.
Before travelling I could not find anything online about above matters. Hopefully, this page will fill that gap.
This blog is intended to give future travellers guidelines for surviving or getting best out of Bandar Abbas. Hopefully not repeating mistakes we made (I travelled with two other guys from Estonia).
Here you should be able to find:
Information about hotels and motels, exchange shops, bus terminal, airport, train station, taxi's and transport, roads and safety, shopping, eating out, going to Gheshm Island, leisure, Net Cafe's, travelling around, places of interest, swimming and many more.
Before travelling I could not find anything online about above matters. Hopefully, this page will fill that gap.
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