The Iran Air flight landed at the Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA), or Emam Airport (Parsi: Farudgah Emam), as the Tehranis call it, almost on time....
With me were three young Malaysians....in turned out that they were working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The PM is coming to Tehran...they came to do some arrangements for the VIP visit....One of them was working in the Embassy in Abu Dhabi for 4 years before going back in mid-September.
After exchanging business cards...we parted companies. My "driver" was waiting for me. It wasn't the usual Mr Ghafari.....I was told that Mr Ghafari's car broke down and this friend of his is taking over for today.
As I walked out of the terminal....cold breeze welcomed me....it appeared that winter is here already. It's cold....I checked with one of the on-line weather services that the temperature in Tehran will hit 0 degree Celcius this week...and that's during the day.
On the second day, I think it got much colder, because the small pond outside the building was covered with a thin layer of ice.....but I still dared to walk outside the factory with just 2 layers of clothes.....hehehe....although I could only stand it for a few minutes.
There's a thin layer of ice in the pond.....
Since there was a lot to be done with this new model, we stayed back on the second day.....When I went out to the prayer room to perform solat, I saw these tiny white particles coming down from the sky....it's snowing already.....
Tehran's snow-capped mountains as viewed from my hotel room
On the way to Ekbatan to catch a cab....we saw there were some vehicles had been covered with some hints of snow on their roof and trunk....I said to myself..."next week, Tehran will be all white....I'll bring my H50 next week".
The taxi driver, who's been quite familiar with me now, told me in broken English that the Public Holiday (Wednesday, 17th Dec is Iran's Public Holiday) and the winter had changed the traffic direction in Tehran. We were stuck initially on the way out of Ekbatan and on the Tehran-Karaj Expressway (I think...), because people were going out of Tehran for the long weekend (some are going back to their hometowns and some are going to spend the weekend in the Caspian sea area, North of Tehran).
When we turned into Hemmat Expressway, there were not many traffics....Hemmat could be one of the worst roads when it comes to traffics jams. The same also goes to Kordestan Expressway going North and the Syahid Khodammi St in front of the Hotel. But it took us almost 1.5 hours to reach the Hotel from Ekbatan....it is only about 20 km or so between the Hotel and Ekbatan...imagine that...
Once arriving at the Hotel, the cabby said that in normal circumstances....considering the weather an the traffic conditions, he will charge up to 70000 Rials.....but since I'm a regular customer, he'll only take 50000 Rials...an extra 10000 Rials from the usual fare. Fair enough....he's a nice guy anyway....and I respect him.
I think it's trying hard to survive the winter.....what a pity...
The snow was still falling when I got out of the cab.....walking to the Hotel lobby, I managed to snap a photo of this red rose with some white fresh snow on top of it.....
Well, I'm leaving Tehran tomorrow...but I'll come back next week...there are still some works to be done....before the end of the year.
Reminder for next week: My H50, more warm clothes, a more suitable pair of shoes, supplies of food (I don't think I'm going out at night in this type of weather) and body lotion....(dry and cold weather makes my body itchy)....
To be continued.....
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