Why Iran?

I get this question sometimes.  Why the Stans?  And the best answer I can come up with is something like "I don't know much about them, and yet, I'm not likely to die of a tropical disease or meet bugs bigger than my head."  There are not a ton of countries like that.

But there's a little more to it when I think about Iran.  I guess it's partly so that I can pull a personal trump card in the left-vs-right or east-vs-west or consequentialism-vs-deontology debate; I want to have proof that Iranians are regular people, just like us.  I guess it's because I have arguments like this:
Someone: well we have to be invading Iraq and spend extraordinary amounts on our military because if we don't, the terrorists will get us.
Me: no we don't; if you want peace, work for justice. (pope quote bonus!)
Him: that's not true.  The terrorists hate America.  They hate our freedom or our prosperity or something.
Me: even terrorists are not born as crazed creatures who want to kill America for its own sake.  Where does that mentality come about?  Radical education.  Why is there radical education?  Because some radicals want things to really change.  Why do they want this?  Because their lives are not so good.  If their lives were better, they wouldn't become radical in the first place.
Him: I disagree.  They are fundamentally different.
Me: No they're not!
(the camera zooms out to reveal that we're both driving in a car.  pan to a road sign that says "Welcome to Loggerheads!")

So I guess it'd be nice to say "I've met some Iranians, and they're fundamentally the same."  Not just so I could win that argument-- well, okay, maybe just so I could win that argument.  Say I have that argument three times; if I do convince three people that we're better off helping foreign countries instead of bombing them, maybe that's three (or more) votes that might change in some election someday, and so some concrete good would come out of it.

But it's not about votes, really.  It's about compassion.  I think I would be the happiest if I had the most compassion for everyone.  And knowing people builds compassion.  Finally, my compassion can increase others'.

For example: say I call tech support at a big tech company, and get a guy who sounds like me.  If he's helpful, great; if not, I'll probably think "well he's just having a bad day, I can imagine myself having a bad day too."  If I got an Indian guy a couple years ago, and he was unhelpful, it'd be a little harder to just laugh it off; I might be more likely to think he's a dumb or mean person.  But now I know two Indian call center workers, and they're great guys, so I'm more likely to think "this might be my friend, and I can imagine him having a bad day, no worries."  And then, say I talk about visiting my friends and how they're great guys, and so MY friends gain empathy for Indian call center workers too.

Iran Iran Iran.  Maybe I can build some links of empathy between the US and Iran.  This seems worth doing.

(inspired a lot by Rick Steves and his Iranian-American producer Abdi Sami. This interview is pretty on-the-money, except the tourist-berating is a little obnoxious, more on that later.  This essay sweats Europe pretty hard and feels a little naive in parts, but I also mostly agree with it.)

Unfortunately, Balochistan is one of those places they warn you about.

My plan was India/Bhutan/Nepal/India-Pakistan-Iran-Caucasus-Turkey-etc.  As mentioned earlier, you can indeed go to Pakistan overland, at Wagah between Amritsar and Lahore.  Today I tried to figure out if you can go from Pakistan to Iran overland.

Here's the deal, fellow armchair travelers!  You most certainly can.  Take a look at this map and follow along.  Cross from Amritsar to Lahore, get yourself to Quetta (about 1/3 way up the Pak/Afghan border); things are reasonable up until there.  Then you have to get to Taftan (zoom in one click on the map; it's on the Iran border and called Kuh-i-Taftan on Google Maps) in order to cross to Iran.  It's a 24-hour train ride that leaves twice a month, or a 15-16 hour bus ride that leaves daily.  This crosses a province called Balochistan.  Once you get to Taftan, you cross over to Meer Jawe (/Mirjawa/Mirjaveh), then on to Zahedan.  Here are some links that make it seem quite possible.

Here's the other deal!  I don't think I will.  I'll take a flight to Iran.  Balochistan is described as "lawless", "tribal", "dangerous", and "even Pakistan police don't go there."  I exaggerate a bit for effect, but I get the feeling it's a notch or two above US-State-Department-dangerous (which is not actually dangerous).  You particularly don't want to be there at night, and if the ride takes at least 15 hours, and the border is probably not open at say 8pm, how do you not-be-there-at-night?  Furthermore, to be in Iran I have to be part of a tour (because I'm American; more on this later); how do I meet up with them in any reasonable amount of time?  (Here are some links that make it seem rather dumb.)

Or, I shouldn't say dumb.  I should say, it's certainly possible, and I'd probably be perfectly safe, but I think it's above my threshold of risk.  Even more: it's above my investors' threshold of risk.  Is that a fair way to put it?  I've got a lot going for me, and a lot of people have made it that way.  My family, friends, educators, etc. have been investing in me for a while, and by now I'm a figurative pre-IPO Google.  They each own a piece of me, and should something terrible happen, it's not just me who goes bankrupt.  So avoiding this crossing is, at the very least, a gesture of goodwill towards my metaphorical stockholders.

It's not easy, though!  I have a bit of shame about this, a bit of disappointment in missing out on the bus trip of a lifetime through places nobody goes, and a further bit of disappointment that I'll have to say "I went all overland*".  I think that the "I want to tell a really badass story about this" angle is foolish, though, so discounting that, the scales tip in favor of flying.

Besides, I'll have a ton of other badass stories to tell!

Trip planning, now more organized

In an effort to get myself to actually do some things, I've set up Pivotal Tracker and Workflowy.  The first is a project-managey software, the second is a big outline on the internet.  I think Tracker is made for software, so I'm not sure how well it will work for this.  I like Workflowy, though; it's pretty minimalist.  Just a huge collapsible/expandable outline.  Tree-structured thoughts.  Well, time will tell how well they both turn out.

At any rate, I've started actually doing more, which at this point still consists of "looking things up."  things I've learned include:
- you can get a 6-month India visa for something like $70 or a 5- or 10-year one for $150.  (who would get the 5-year?  I guess I'll find out more things when I apply.)
- apparently, you can go from India to Pakistan, and even at the Wagah border near Amritsar (and therefore near the Wagah Border Ceremony).  However, this is kind of too bad.  (I mean, bad that they were hurting themselves in the first place, not bad that they're stopping this amusing-but-painful exercise.)

EDIT, 8 months later: Workflowy has been great. I recommend it for everything. Pivotal Tracker was indeed too heavyweight, and they started charging, so I dropped that.

The weight of packs, the importance of shoes.

When I was taking a shower at the Googleplex in Mountain View (seriously, you could live there), I noticed a scale.  And I had my bag, which contained a fleecey sweatshirt, a full change of clothes except pants, a toothbrush and stuff, my work laptop (macbook pro) and cord, and a book.  Maybe a bottle of water too.

Weight: 14 lbs.

Comfort: middling.  It's a messenger bag.  I think messenger bags in general are just worse than backpacks.  They slide around you.  And they are either too loose and hit your legs while you walk, or they're too tight and it's a chore to get it over your head.  Plus, this one is not super easy to buckle/unbuckle.

Computer: strike one.  At 5.6 lbs, plus the transformer, that's a big fraction of the bag's weight.  And you can feel it too.  Granted, when I travel around the world, I'd have a much smaller laptop, but still, it's heavy!  I guess the question is, do I think I'll actually want to program anything while I travel?  I'm leaning towards no, which would mean I could cut the bag down to about 8 lbs.  That's exciting.  At that point (and if it's actually a backpack instead of a messenger bag), I almost wouldn't even notice carrying it.

Shoes: my beat-up clogs are not doing it for me.  I ended up walking about two miles a day for various reasons, and my feet hurt for a couple days after.  My light-hiking shoes would have worked well; plus, they're waterproof.  However, having worn them in India, they're clunky, hot, and awkward in hot places.  (and ugly.)  I guess the ideal is shoes and sandals, but the #1 rule of packing light is not to bring 2 pairs of shoes.  Hmm.  I guess the sandals don't take up that much space, and I could always just wear the shoes while I travel... this is still not sounding awesome.  Hmm hmm hmm.

Bon soir, de la Mision

The first rule of business trips: plan them how you like, do what you want, and don't take no guff from nobody. Instead of a soulless box in a Marriolidilton in Mountain View, I'm sitting in a super deluxe B&B with nice owners in the Mission District in San Francisco.  For less money!  It is too bad that all of Silicon Valley is so so so far from San Francisco; otherwise, I might actually live here.

And I'm on my own, which means this is the slightest taste of Big Trip 2011-2012.  And as I walked around said neighborhood tonight, I realized that this is going to be The Biggest culture shock.  And life shock.  I mean, I was feeling kind of out of place and intimidated in my own country.  In a very similar city to my own, where we all speak the same language and have the same cultural norms.  Good grief.

At the very least, I will have to come out of this trip with more ability to handle myself when I am a fish out of water.  (otherwise, I will implode.)  That's... actually, really exciting!

Circumnavigators, pilgrims,

I just finished watching The Long Way Round, starring Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman, and reading The Size of the World by Jeff Greenwald.  Riveting stuff!  In the former, these two guys ride motorcycles from England to far eastern Russia, then Anchorage to NYC.  In the latter, this guy goes one better, and gets all the way around the world on buses, trains, boats; anything but airplanes.  I recommend them both!

The Long Way Round was pretty intense and also Hollywood.  Throughout Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and eastern Russia, the roads got increasingly worse, and here they are with two motorcycles.  Roads are scarce, there are bears, and there is not much else.  Two men and their bikes against the world!  Well, not just two men: also Claudio the cameraman.  Well, not just three men: like 15 men if you count all the support crew who helped them clear all the borders and trailed behind them.  Plus the probably dozens more who helped make the film happen.  Okay, fine.  I'm sure with every filmed thing like this, there's a hidden Hollywood behind it all; at least they were pretty honest about it.  For a show about a couple of movie stars going traveling, it was a lot less glossy than it could have been.

And, quibbling aside, it was pretty epic.  They found themselves in the middle of nowhere many times, and in pretty hopeless situations: broken bikes, injuries, bridges that don't exist.  They got angry, depressed, homesick, exultant, excited, the whole gamut.

(and there was one super awesome scene where the police are pulling people over and Ewan goes "these aren't the bikes you're looking for, move along." :D)

The Size of the World was also pretty intense, and not very Hollywood.  The same deal: everything went wrong, they got stuck in the Mauritanian Sahara for days on end, he had to take a last-minute shady little boat from Dubai to Karachi, he spent weeks schlepping through China, and then it was almost impossible to find a boat to take him across the Pacific.  I found it even more interesting, as he wrote about his mind's workings even more.  His internal debates about whether he should take the outside chance at a bus/boat combo, try to bribe his way into a visa, or just break his rules and fly.  His further debates about, well, if he flew, who'd be missing out?  Who cares?  What's this journey for, anyway, besides a whim?  His reactions to places he visited: some of the "this is primitive but wonderful", some of the "this is primitive and awful."  Exhaustion after months abroad.  Uncut, unvarnished, very believable.

I guess there's probably something in there about how he CHANGED, because it's a JOURNEY therefore CHANGE, as we learned in high school.  Yeah, he did.  How?  I couldn't put it into words.  Why did he even do this?  Why did Ewan and Charlie take their trip?  The less reason I know, the more intrigued I am, I guess because I can relate.  Why am I going (mostly, partially, etc) around the world?  Beats me.  No big insights here, just kind of wanted to toss these recommendations out there and also record how I'm feeling at this point in time.

New passport new passport

Complete with RFID!  (woo??) (those ?? are like you put in chess notation when someone makes a real blunder.)  Looks like I'll actually invest in some kind of tinfoil passport holder...

Mine was expiring in 2013, but it wouldn't have had enough free spots for all my stamps.  And more pages costs like $80 while a new passport costs $110, so, meh?

Incidentally: $80 for more pages?  Come on.  Is this 1839?  (incidentally incidentally, I hear you can get more pages in US embassies in other countries for free.  I'll be making a few embassy stops anyway, so hey, there you go.)

But anyway, this trip is now slightly more serious than it used to be, because I have spent honest cash on it.  And now I can start applying for visas.  ... after I figure out where I'm going and when.