nano encounters

The wait in Doha, Qatar was a long one and there wasn’t much to do. The duty free shop was ridiculously expensive and there wasn’t anything I needed to buy. I ended up helping non-English and non-Arabic reading people by directing them to the toilets or WCs. Signs everywhere were in only those two languages. I really think they should add Urdu and Hindi, considering they get hundreds of travelers from Pakistan and India. How did I land that job? Bored and with nothing to do, I became a social observer and started to pick out confused passengers. The rest of the time, I slept.

The flight from Doha to Mashhad, Iran was a large aircraft, but it carried very few passengers. I think 99% of them were Iranian. I was impressed by the service on Qatar Airways and found it comparable to Emirates and Gulf Air, at least as I remember them from some years ago.

I studied my Farsi book and looked out the window as we flew right through Iran. Miles of dessert and very hilly terrain. Brown everywhere with not a green tree in sight. As the aircraft descended and I could see the outskirts of Mashhad, an occasional tree popped up and yellowish brick buildings came into view. Then came Mashhad – one huge city as visible from the sky. From where I was seated, I couldn’t see the most prominent structure, the Imam Reza Mosque, but I knew there was plenty of time for that.

Just before we landed, those women who needed to, put on their headscarves and coats. It is compulsory in the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, what and how you wear it varies; show more or less hair, or wear a more or less colorful headscarf or coat, is up to the wearer. I had on a black coat with a brown headscarf. Going totally black seemed kind of depressing to me.

We landed and my heart started to beat at an insane rate. I was excited and nervous all at the same time. As I descended the stairs I noticed a man holding a big white and black sign with my name written in Farsi. Pointing to myself, I told him it is me and he led me to a mini bus. Two other gentleman got in and we were driven to a small airport building.