Short trip outside the city...

We hit the road to a city in the southwest of Tehran. It took us about four hours to get to Arak, and though we had to leave shortly after 6AM, I was happy I could sleep in the car to gain some resting time for my body. The research we did in Arak was not very fruitful, but not completely incompatible for our coverage, and all I could do is decide to take the offer and go... I hope this will work out... I really do... because there's no other option!
It was just before midnight when we reached Tehran... There was a bombing in the instable southeast province of the country, but I asked my colleague in Tokyo to write about it, as it was too late for me to start the process.

Photos of the day...

a rest area we stopped by in the morning...


view of the city of Arak...


chai and...


rest area we stopped by later at night


and the burger I had!

Fighting our way back...

We finally reached our hotel in Isfahan just before 2AM and I was really sleepy! I tried to stay awake during our trip so whoever was driving won't get drowsy. Thank God we reached without any danger!

We started the day later than usual though I has a request to get to the venue of our meeting a little earlier. Since with so many things to cover back in Tehran, I wanted to return by today and to have my driver in good health, it was my only choice to give him some rest.
As we started filming in the afternoon, things just went by so quickly, I really had no time to evaluate if I had done the right things. I just have to pray to God that I have done so!

Filming the wide view of Isfahan... it was supposed to be a nice view...

but it was sadly a smoggy day!

After finishing the least of what we had planned, we left the city at around 4:45PM. I was hoping we could get home with under 6 hours of traveling...

We stopped at the usual rest area!

we got here 3 hours and a half after leaving Isfahan... not bad!

fried chicken!

at Mahtab Fast Food

We got back to our office just 10 minutes earlier than the expected 6 hours. It was 10:35PM that I finally was able to sit in my chair and after 11PM that I could see my wife. I had to report to Tokyo about the filming we had done in Isfahan, but I was so tired that it was very hard for me to concentrate to even start my task...

Start of a long and winding road...

We started the day at the interior ministry where the candidates for the Presidential Election were to register for running. There were no major candidates running, but I decided to write a short story about it.


registration starts... watching the monitor set at the press room...

I also rushed to a university in northern Tehran to meet a Japanese expert of Middle East architechtural history for a future report I was trying to make right in the middle of the chaotic and busy coverage for the elections.
After finishing both the story for the election and the filming of the meeting at the university, it was much later than I expected that we finally leave for Isfahan...

We finally left at 7:40PM!

but there were many obstacles waiting especially the traffic in Tehran!

We stopped at the familiar rest area...

it was two hours after we left our office that we finally got here!

to get a burger!

We were miles away from Isfahan when it was a minute before midnight...

getting some gas at 11:59PM at the gas station on the highway!

Bad memories in the old capital...

I wanted to wake up early to wander around the nice city of Isfahan, but sadly I was too tired to do so. I finally woke up just before we decided to have breakfast, and after having a bite, it was time to leave the city.

We left the hotel at around 10:45AM, and it was only minutes after we left the central part of the city... I don't have any good memories of this city. It really sucked! I hope next time I can come for vacation hopefully with my wife to stay in a better hotel and walk around the beautiful park along the river...

Another tough thing is that we had to return to Tehran by land... We took the same route, back through Kashan and Qom, and after stopping briefly at the rest area where we had always stopped by after visiting Qom, we finally arrived in Tehran at around 4:30PM.

I was very tired and took a bath right away, but the sad reality is that I have to return to work right away from tomorrow... Oh, life sucks here!

Pics...

the bridge at the river... I didn't have any chance to even take decent pictures of the city!

It was a beautiful day though...

for a drive...


still some snow in the mountains...
it was cold here in Isfahan too!


nice views of the mountains!


rest area... for gas!


the familiar rest area!


lunch time! chicken kyabab with mushrooms!


they brought me these flags...


souvenirs for kids are same all over the world...
Disney!


back in the capital... welcomed with heavy traffic!!

Bad day... as expected...

As we were told to return to get our equipments at 3PM, my staff had all day to have fun by themselves in the old capital, but I stayed in my hotel working on my report, that I have no idea I will have broadcasting time or not... Actually I was told that I would depend on what will happen at the nuclear facility today and who knows if Tokyo will be interested in anything that happens here anyways!

Arriving at the facility earlier than 2PM, we waited for something to happen with many of my colleagues, especially of the foreign media, hanging around together. It rained adding some winds to it from time to time and we had to evacuate in our cars. We finally went inside at around 4PM and started filming after 5PM... There was a ceremony that followed at around 6:30PM and finishing before 8PM... It was after 9PM when we finally got to our hotel to start working on our report! It was while we were moving to the ceremony venue when I was informed finally that I would be given some broadcast time for a report, but time was running out so quickly that we had to rush to finish our jobs!
There was no time for dinner and the night passed by very fast!

PS
Maybe the best time of the day was when I was having lunch...

some fried chicken near the park along the river...

Change of plans!

We were supposed to leave for Isfahan tomorrow by plane (which I've already bought the tickets...), but we were told we have to hand in our equipments for filming by 11PM tonight!
Too late to cancel the plane tickets, and no flights available today...
The only decision I can take is go by land... taking our car!

Time ran out so quickly and it was time to leave the office so we can get to Isfahan by 11PM. We left just before 4PM...
Right after we left the office, it started to rain... By the time we were leaving Tehran, it was quite heavy! They say it always rains like this when spring arrives, and it was not fun at all to hit the road in this kind of stormy weather!


quite heavy!


going past the familiar holy city...

We stopped by a rest area at around 7PM...

fast food restaurant of the rest area...

getting some burgers!

but we weren't that hungry so we just ate the fries and kept the burger for later...

Passing through Qom, Kashan, Natanz, we finally arrived in Isfahan before 10PM. We wandered around to find the designated place to hand in our equipment and it was just before midnight, we finally arrived at the hotel...