Persian gulf we are coming

We were supposed to meet Mohsen aka our Brother aka Master Mike at the bus station in Shiraz. He was going to travel with us to the South and show us some places there. As a student of tourism he knew a lot about the country. I was surprised by the amount of tourist guides for almost every place in Iran. Unfortunately, they were mostly available in Farsi or Arabic language, but still just looking at the photos you could create a picture of this amazing country in your head. Some of our friends advised us not to go to the South in summer, but we decided to go anyway. For the future references, we don't advice anyone going there during summer :-)

Waiting for Mohsen, we found a nice green spot in front of the Station. Some time later Mohsen showed up and we moved into the station building for ticket hunting. Ticket hunting is pretty popular sport in Iran. There is a lot of bus companies who are selling tickets for various destinations with various prices around the country. We just wanted to get to Bandar-e 'Abbās, old port city on the coast of Persian gulf. The city remember even Darius the Great and Alexander the Great too. Nowadays it's still important as a major Iranian port mainly for imports and touristic layover for these who wants to visit Qeshm and Hormuz islands.

We spent one night in a couchsurfer's house. He was Mohsen's friend who actually wasn't in the city but his brother let us in.

There is one rule valid for all bathrooms in the South. In every bathroom there is at least one reptile which size is directly proportional to the size of bathroom where it lives. When we were passing by public bathrooms we joked there is a crocodile living there. At the beginning it's uncomfortable to share bathroom with small reptile but after first use of bathroom you realize why they live there.

The reason are huge cockroaches living in the hole serving as a toilet. Some of them are even jumping when something is falling down to the hole which is so strange and creepy. Especially if you don't wanna miss the hole, you have to come pretty close and this small bastards are jumping up to 20 centimeters. Getting bit from them is something what could bring you nightmares and fear to use toilet again. They have a big antennae which are used for exploring. I don't know how they are hiding in the hole but they could survive everything. :)

Despite all creatures living in bathrooms you are safe. During summer day people are not walking on the streets if they don't need to. Mostly sitting in cars where various unit of air conditioning is a must. Temperature is not falling under 26 °C during the night and keeping around 40 °C during the hottest part of the day. For someone living in the central Europe this temperature is devastating.

We didn't know that until we got off the bus in Bandar-e 'Abbās. It was around 4 o'clock in the morning and we almost experienced thermal shock. The temperature outside was 33°C, while in the bus there was only 16°C (you gotta love air conditioning!).