Back at the Silk Road Guesthouse Karin and I packed our gear and I paid the account. The accommodation and meals for the 2 days came close to 200,000 rials. All but 40,000 was for the lovely Indian and Iranian meals and accompanying rose and mint waters.

A taxi ride later and we were at the train station. For a city so old, Yazd is surprisingly spread out and distances are relatively large.

At the train station entrances we were both waived through our respective luggage checks. As promised, the gorgeous lady and the man at Information had come up with the tickets to Tehran (35,950 rials each for 2nd class).

The train was a long, all-sleeper train completely full of Iranians. In the 2nd class compartments 3 beds fold out from each side, making 6 beds in total. Prior to dinner in the dining car, there were 5 young Iranian men in our compartment.

For dinner we were recommended the chicken. We ended up with the mixed chicken/lamb shish covered in rice with half a lemon, an onion wedge and a butter portion on the side. Vegetables? If I remember correctly, the diner cost more than the train ticket!

A man and his son asked if they could sit next to us. The man was kind of weird so we were happy when they left.

When we returned to the compartment an old, friendly couple had replaced the 5 men. The compartment was hot. Do train compartment come in anything but hot or cold?

We folded out our beds on the top row. Despite the heat, the sleep that night was very good. At some stage the ticket inspector woke me up to check the tickets. Of course, as the man, I have the tickets and I am the one woken up!

04 September 2004

Just before 5am the old man also woke me up as the train was travelling through the suburbs of Tehran.

I was very happy to take at least 1 train journey in Iran. Next time I’d like to take more, particularly during the day.