Intermezzo in Kerman

We had some urgent business to complete in Kerman. Christoph had a big windscreen damage that needed to be taken care of, I needed to get money changed and transferred to my friend in Shiraz so he could order a new fridge for me to replace my old one that had taken its last breath. Once done I just needed to get my groceries restocked for our planned rest days in the Lut Desert.
I am driving along in a roundabout, in the outermost lane as I am about to exit, when a car, from I don't know which lane he was coming from is just cutting in in front of me and rammes my bullbar. Happened before in Dushanbe, but the driver continued to drive on. This one in Kerman actually stopped to my biggest surprise. But had I thought he would apologise I was wrong. He now accused ME I had run into him and wanted to call the police! My anger soared. He again spoke no english, which I couldn't care less, I flooded him with words, gesticulated wildly, stared him down. Eventually he gave in. All I wanted was him to get the broken bullbar part welded back on. Not knowing the city nor the language finding the appropriate workshop can be a major problem. And at the end it was: as the bar is made out of aluminium, not every workshop can weld it. But at the 4th attempt we got lucky. I would have been lost by myself, but on that day it turned out to be a great experience again. Apart from trying to follow the car of a frantic driver, who cannot decide which lane to take , does not have an indicator and pushes himself into gaps that don't exist I got to know a lot of nice people, visited one of the biggest building projects in town, got the traffic of a four lane highway stopped extra for me so I could cross the street where there was no crossing, got nearly rammed by a car who slipped through on the 5th lane, was provided with tea and cake, lunch, and more tea and cake, and rode in an elevator with no walls or handrails. It was very entertaining, interesting and I learned a lot about the current economical situation in Iran.Leggi altro