Day 31 Tehran

Stuck by the road in Tehran - we are waiting for Henry to get his Pakistan visa. Cannot help feeling that this whole trip is pretty badly organised, and getting worse by the day. Anyway it means we get a second day in Tehran; Simon and I saw an interesting thing today: the former US embassy: clearly now not an embassy, rather a potent focal point for the enmity between Iran and the US. I pulled myself up onto the wall and peeped through a hole in the security fencing: grounds and gardens well maintained...but I am not sure what the building is used for now, but I suspect that the former US embassy building is now used by Iran's government. Apparently, taking pictures of the embassy, including the outside walls is illegal. The former embassy covers a surprisingly large amount of land.

About midnight: we eventually left Tehran around the middle of the afternoon (got lost - after a good hour we were driving back past the point we set off from!); a long drive through much arid, desert landscape. Staying at a hostel in the city of Esfahan (استان اصفهان), the old Persian capital. Rice and chicken for supper. Tomorrow is set aside for site seeing; then (hopefully) climbing the next day, for a couple of days.