Hi everybody,
Judging from lots of useful information I found in previous threads this is the right place to ask questions about Iran. In 2 weeks or so we'll be heading there with my wife. I have couple of questions and I hope somebody knows the answers:
(1) When exactly does ramazan begin this year - Sep 1 or Sep 2 ?
(2) Is it bearable to stay in the desert during the day? I know that during the night it's quite bearable but I'm rather sceptic about going around during the day. I was thinking of going perhaps to Garmeh or/and around Kerman. Any specific experience with these two areas in summer heat ?
(3) Is the first week of ramazan thought to be high pilgrimage season in Masshad? (we would probably be there during the week not on Thursday or Friday)
(4) Has anybody had any experience with going to the nomads esp. in Zagros mounains in the vicinity of Shiraz ? We still need to decide whether to go for three days or so to Kordestan (on our own around Sanandaj, possibly Howraman valley) or to try perhaps to book some local agency's trip to nomads. Or would it be also easily doable on our own (dont speak Farsi unfortunately) ?
thx in advance for your answers!
I guess this forum should be both about giving and taking so I guess I can share my visa experience with you. With the Brussels embassy it was dead easy after we got the code. But getting the code was quite a nervous and long endeavour. We chose iranianvisa.com which didn't prove to be particularly good choice. Their website looks great but their service much less so. On their website they promise the code to be delivered in 7-10 working days. You wish. It took almost 4w (after the payment). But that's not the main problem. Hamid (guy behind iranianisa.com) seems to have a bit of a communication problem: it took ages before he managed to answer and usually after his answer I knew just as much as I had known before asking him. In one of previous threads he claims he always answers in 24hrs unless the time difference is involved. I seriously doubt that even he himself believes what he wrote there. I certainly don't. Anyway, after sending a threatening e-mail he finally gave me some kind of a decent answer and in couple of days code was sent. I don't think my threats worked; most probably we just had pure luck. So, if you have plenty of time & patience iranianvisa.com might be just fine for you. I certainly wouldn't use them again. It's not about not keeping up to website promises it's simply about being left in complete darkness throughout the process. Well, at least we have the visa in our pockets now.
Cheers, Bostjan