Iran Through the Eyes of a Woman Traveler

So honestly, like, going to Iran didn't cross my mind.

It was not in my original plan when I was planning my Central Asia backpacking trip.

It was gonna stop in Afghanistan, actually.

And then why, when we were about to enter Afghanistan, um, I saw Aquatrip, which is a travel agency, and they were having, like, um, a sale or something.

Like, they were like, um, "If you wanna travel to Iran, you can do so at, uh, X amount of, like, money and, uh, we'll sort out everything for you." And I was like, "What if I just go?" And then I also convinced another solo female traveler I met.

She's from Australia.

Her name is Annie.

And I was like, "What if we go together?" [laughs] And she was like, "Uh, I don't know about that, 'cause I don't know, uh, what they think about Australians over there." But I was like, "I think it should be fine." And we started researching about it.

I was like, "I think you can, you can go with me." And then she was like, "Okay, let's go together." So we went, and, um, Iran has been like a, an very interesting experience because as you said, like, it has a lot of, uh, like, a negative light in the West.

And how we portray Iran is so different from actually being in Iran myself.

I had such a contrast experience because I, I, I actually didn't know what to expect, to be honest, when I was there.

Um, I do know that Iran has a really, really long history and very rich culture and, like, their hospitality is something, something that everyone takes pride of because we really experienced it ourselves when we were there.

And so after, like, crossing Afghanistan from Uzbekistan, we then crossed the border from Herat, Afghanistan, to Iran by, uh, by a taxi.

So we just, um, asked the locals there, like, how can we get to, uh, how can we get to the border of Iran, and then we book a taxi with them.

And we were joined by two Afghan sisters on, on that taxi, which was a very interesting experience, to be honest, because, like, you can see the difference of their personalities from they were in Afghanistan and then crossing in Iran.

So they were, like, very, mm, reserved and, uh, not really talking a lot when we were in Afghanistan.

But right when we crossed the border, like, in Iran, they were, like, super bubbly and they were like, "Turn up the music." Yeah, it was so interesting.

Like, we blasted the music and everyone was, like, having so much fun.

And it was like, whoa, like, this is, like, our first few seconds of the country.

[laughs] Like, this is actually crazy.

And also the, the military, like, the border police officers were also very, very nice, and they kept asking where they're, where are we from, and then welcome to Iran.

And we're like, "Jesus, like, this is Iran." And then, um, we ...

Like, I just entered there, uh, with an open mind, ready to learn everything about Iran and get to know their culture and their people.

And then after that experience, I boarded a, a train mash, uh, from Mashhad to Tehran, the capital city of Iran.

And on that train, um, people didn't, still didn't know that we were foreigners, uh, because we had hijab on.