The Train to Mashhad - Ramadan Starts
Get private car-type taxi down to station and stung for 50R. Better than missing the train. 'Sandwich' and Canada Dry Orange 20R and onto platform. The train is leaving at 6:30pm (not 20:25) - only just made it. Where is my seat? Well the railway staff are quite useless, even I could see it was ٤٤(44), but they sent me to first class, then back past dining car! Into another carriage and finally into the correct one. The porter seemed dissatisfied with 6R for carrying my "luggage" from the carriage door to the compartment. Even then they tried to put me in the wrong compartment. You'd think they'd never seen a ticket before.
In retrospect I am utterly amazed at how casual and last minute the arrangements were for changing the car money into US dollars and catching the train to Mashhad after the bus had left, but I don't remember feeling any panic. The confidence of youth!
Though by no means speedy the train seemed quite good, and my fellow travellers were friendly. Today is the first of the 28 days of Ramadan so they were all eating madly as we left Tehran station after sunset. The seats were comfortable enough - there were only five of us in a compartment for six. At bedtime (ie about 11 o'clock) we slid the seats forward to meet in the middle making a flat "bed" the width of the compartment and slept with our feet in each other's faces - a strange experience. Slept moderately well, waking now and then.
At about 5:30 it was beginning to be quite light, dozed till 6:20 or so, when there was a mass waking up and sitting up. Bread and cup of tea, then later the second of my choc milks with a bit more of the sweet bun. The sun was shining down brilliantly by 6:20, and got more powerful, nevertheless the air has that ski-resort "nip" in it when out of the sun. It's not really very hot. There was quite a heavy frost along the side of the railway, and snow-covered mountains not far away on either side. The north-facing slopes had snow almost down to the level of the plain, in fact as we travelled on there was a fair covering of snow on the plain beside the tracks. No wonder it was cold last night!
Two of the others in the compartment got off at Neyshabur at about 8:30 or so, and the train arrived in Mashhad on time at 10:00 averaging a bit under 60km/hr for the 900km journey. It rarely seemed to be in a hurry, except on occasional downhill stretches. Mashhad station is most impressive. A huge hall with very fine colonnade in front of it. As I came off the platform I was "caught" by a taxi driver who could speak English but I assured him I'd prefer to walk.
An old man attached himself to me, he obviously wanted a free ride to the Darbandi. (I can find no reference to a Darbandi Hotel in Mashhad now.) After a while we got a taxi to the hotel where I was told to meet the bus, which cost me 10R. Checked in, despite the cost of £1 a night and left message for Brian, then asked about my visa. It expires on Saturday (15th) or Sunday. Anyway, paid 5R for taxi to Afgan consulate where they said they could do nothing till the day before I leave. Walked back from consulate buying bread and had some lunch in the hotel room, before having a couple of hours sleep. Woke at 4:40 and was surprised to find it almost dark. Spent the rest of the day chatting to some people off a Penns bus and having dinner of chelo kebab for 35R and 5R of sticky bun. Retired at 10:30, still no sign of our bus.
On the way the train stopped at Garmsar, Yatri Pa'in, Semnan - sleep - Sabzevar, Neyshabur (or Nishapur - location of the Mausoleum of Omar Khayyám) and Mashhad. It took 14 hours. In 2019 they have a 7-hour service. Omar Khayyám was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and poet who died on 4 December 1131. I am surprised to find that the population of Mashhad in 1969 was just under half a million. I remember it as a small place. The population is now over three million, and it's the second most populous city in Iran.
