Muscat, Oman, to Shiraz, Iran

23 - 25 May 2008

No shiraz in Shiraz

A taxi drove us about 10 kilometres out of town to the Yord Restaurant for dinner. Our guide book had raved about the ‘fantastic’ Iranian food served in this colourful yord (tent) so our expectations were high. Well, the tent was certainly colourful with all its Persian carpets but it took about an hour before they would even take our order and the choice was just between chicken, beef or lamb kebabs. The delay had something to do with the fact that a taxi drove into a ditch just outside the restaurant and all hands were occupied for quite a while trying to lift it back onto the track. Like a group of Dutch tourists, we were about to give up and leave when a young Iranian customer who spoke excellent English (having lived for 10 years in New Zealand) persuaded us to stay. He said he would make sure we got some attention from the waiters and, sure enough, things started happening rather rapidly after that. A small band even started playing classical Iranian music, using the tar (similar to the Indian sitar) and outsized tambourines called daryereh. Unlike in Oman where women are hardly ever seen out, in spite of their compulsory dress, Iranian girls seem to have much more freedom. We saw a few of them at a nearby table and one was even smoking a water pipe.

25 May. Flemming took a taxi to the airport to inspect the engine oil leak, which had got worse since Salalah, while Angela worked on the internet. Although the terminal manager in the domestic terminal was very helpful, it took an hour, many phone calls and visits to three different security offices before I got a security badge and permission to enter the apron. Soon the cowling was off, and I discovered that the right magneto was loose and was the cause of the oil leak. But the nuts are not easily accessible, and I did not have the right tools. Soon a friendly mechanic, Mr. Ahmed Esfandiary from CATC (Civil Aviation Technology College) came along and saw my need for the special spanner. Within minutes he came with the needed tool. The magneto timing was adjusted and checked, the nuts re-torqued, and the magneto was firmly in place again. They also came along with a compressor, so I could pump up the tyres, which were pretty low since Reunion.
To save time for our departure the following day, I also went to the briefing office in the new tower 2 kilometres away to file the flight plan to Esfahan and pay the landing and parking fees. The good news was that due to the low weight of the aircraft, landing, parking and navigation fees were only 47 US$.
In the afternoon, we visited the Bazar-e Vakil, the Vakil Mosque, and the Arg-e Kharim Khani fortress. Just before sunset, we took a taxi to the Quran Gate north of the city. Our friendly taxi driver not only drove gently, he also spoke good English and we enjoyed chatting with him. Berzat is of the Baha’í faith and teaches English when he is not driving for his father who owns the taxi business. Afterwards he dropped us off at the Shater Abbas Restaurant, where we’d had dinner the first night, which appears to be about the only good restaurant in Shiraz. We arranged for him to drive us to the airport the following morning.