taftan border

because the process was so quick, we decided to just try to cross the border that same day. we went to the taxi stand looking for a shared taxi to the border, when we met anna from ukraine, who had the same plans and joined us. an hour later at the border, elias and anna were both accepted through the border. not me though. the guy at the embassy had made a little mistake and entered the day after as the entry date for pakistan.

here's the thing: the 3 day escort we would be getting from the other side of the border only departs a couple times a week in the early morning. the next day was one of those departure dates and i would have to wait multiple days if i missed it. the guards told me that it wouldn't be a problem if i crossed the next morning and that i could catch the escort on the other side. i still had to spend the night on the iranian side of the border though.

on the parking lot there, i luckily met a couple from the netherlands who were also waiting there with their jeep. they allowed me to sleep in their side tent, charge my stuff and even cooked some dinner for me. later, we were joined by an old german man in a sprinter, who, at 68 years old, turned out to be the possibly most seasoned traveler i've ever met, even if his classical retirement home attire didn't make him seem like it. he had a lot of fun stories to tell of travelling in "his days".

the next morning, we got ready to cross asap, when elias texted me, saying that the police convoy wanted to leave in a couple of minutes. the border office on my side still showed no sign of life. about an hour later, it finally opened and i rushed through as quickly as i could. elias, meanwhile, was holding his ground, now being in a screaming argument with the police to wait for me. on the pakistani side, i was luckily allowed to use my western privilige to skip the whole queue. an officer made a phone call to the escort police to hold out five more minutes, loaded me onto his scooter and got me to the departure point just as they were already leaving. one minute later and i would've missed it. sadly, nothing more could be done for the chaps i had spent the last night with. i was still more than relieved though.Read more