TAKING THE FERRY WITH RANGEELI | S05 EP.07 | PAKISTAN TO SAUDI ARABIA MOTORCYCLE
I think they are gonna load everyone's luggage first. My turn will be after that. Assalam Alekum and Good Morning Everyone from Bandar Abbas. After my road accident, I have been relaxing here for last few days. I got here with the assumption that it was only my hand that got injured. But I woke up to find sore muscles in my neck as well as legs.
And I think one of my protectors hit me on my back which caused a lot of pain. So I thought to forget everything and just relax here. The food here is delicious and I can all three meals from this hotel. The name of my hotel is Hotel Atilier. It is located right in the city center so I don't have to go out.
I only went out for short walks. Thanks to Allah, I feel much better now. I can move my hand easily now. But I still can't use to lift any weights.
So, we are gonna take good care of it for the next few days. So that it may get fully recovered. Guys ... Bandar Abbas is famous among tourists for its islands. Some of the more well known among them include Qeshm and Hormuz. I'm quite excited to visit these two islands. In fact that is what has brought me to this area.
Today we are gonna visit Qeshm Island and for that we'll have to take a ferry from here. I can take my motorcycle along with me. The duration of the ferry ride is about 1 hour 15 minutes. I'm done with my breakfast so I'm ready to leave. I leave most of my stuff back here because I'm gonna return back here in the evening.
I'll only carry necessary items with me that I might need along the way. The motorcycle is parked downstairs in the parking lot. Let's get it and get going. Bismillah ... In the name of Allah * Prayer for the journey * Which way to go ... ??
I asked the guy at the hotel and he told me I could go this way. So, we are heading towards Qeshm port now. Not gonna take more than 5 to 7 minutes. Since that was a one way street, so I had to go over to take the correct road. Getting a hotel in the city center really helped. Therefore, I could reach the hotel without any trouble.
There are a number of good restaurants right across the street. The city center is also right beside. Another thing is that I was able to get my money changed very comfortably from here. I almost changed all the money that I had. The 'sarafi' offered me very good rates. 'Sarafi' is the local word used for money exchange guy.
The best thing is to visit a sarafi whenever you need to change money. I think I'm on the wrong side although I was told that I could go from here. I better ask someone from here. I think motorcycle are allowed. Because I can see other people's motorcycles parked here. That's the city center, guys.
Every evening, people come here, spread a sheet on the ground and sell whatever items they want to sell. You can come here and buy all sorts of stuff that you need. Shoes, clothes, carpets, hand-made bags ... and many other items. We are out of there now ... and the port is straight ahead on this road. The golden rule here is not to stop along the way.
Just keep going on whatever vehicle you are on. Be it your car,, motorcycle or bicycle ... Salam Qeshm? Tourist? Yes. Passport? Ok Salam Hassan, Abrar Pakistan .... Germany German Passport I don't know how to explain to them. They seem confused after looking at my face.
There's always some explaining needed. The guy with a Pakistani face but a German passport. Good Lord Okay. Thank You.
Qeshm Hall .... Terminal ... Transit Hall ... Ticket Terminal I better park Rangeeli here and go and ask them myself. That's a fairly large building. Shows that a lot of tourists come here.
In fact, people do live on the Qeshm island as it's a big island. I wrote to him that I wanted to go to Qeshm with my motorcycle. I think he's translating what he has to say. Passport .. I've got the ticket for 125 thousand tomans.
Now how much is that in dollars or rupees ... Not too much obviously .... Hardly 3 or 4 dollars. At first they told me that I can't take my motorcycle.
But then the other guy, who seemed nice, allowed me. Need to go to Gate # 8. Have to ask someone where exactly is that. There it is. The ferry is already there.
The benefit of being on a motorcycle is that I won't have to wait in a line. Salam Control What are they saying ?? O they mean 'Control'. These are Police guys. They will check my passport and then I can leave. They check your passport for everything. You wanna stay in a hotel ... The Police takes your passport for that.
Wherever you want to go, the Police checks your passport and ensures all the legalities. The system is really strict here. And people do follow all the rules. Especially when foreigners are involved.
Here we are! Here's our Rangeeli ... on a ferry ride ... for the first time. Wearing and removing the gloves again and again .... Don't wanna hurt my hand anymore.
Thanks very much guys. We are finally in Qeshm. These were Policemen. They check all the documents of the motorcycle. I may have to get them checked once more. Where's the EXIT? There it is.
I'm glad that I kept all the documents of my motorcycle with me. Carnet and the motorcycle documents. An officer just asked me to show them. Could have been a problem if I hadn't had them on me. Qeshm is not a tiny island.
It's almost 200 km or so in length. Let's just stop for a moment and see which places we want to visit. I've already short listed a few places. The rest we can see now. Let's get in the shade over there.
No one coming from this side. I have just devised a route plan for myself. There are 4 to 5 top tourist places on this island. I'll make sure we visit those places properly. We'll start from one side of the island and go all the way to the other.
And at that point, we'll get another ferry and return to the main land at Bandar Pol. From there we'll do a 1 hour ride to Bandar Abbas. All these cars that you can see on this island come from that route. That's because the ferry only takes 10 minutes from that side. So people use that route to get their vehicles transported to the island. Bandar Abbas is the largest port in Iran.
That's the point from where the Iranian Navy controls the Persian Gulf. It's more like their hub. If you observe its location on the map, you can see that it's very close to Dubai.
So, we can also get to Dubai by taking a 1 day ferry from here. There is ferry service here that you can use to carry a motorcycle or any other vehicle with you. To Dubai and Sharjah. But it's closed these days because of Covid.
You can send your vehicles via ferry but you have to take an airplane for yourself. So it's the shortest route if you want to go to Saudi Arabia or Dubai. You can go from here as well. We hope that it will be opened soon.
Let's go and explore Qeshm Island together. Our first stop will be Kharbas Caves. It's almost 15 km from here. You can see how well developed this island is. It's not some ordinary place. One reason for that, is that the government has allowed free trade on these islands.
It's to promote local business here. Apparently the plan is working well. Tourism and trade go hand in hand. And it's location is significant because it's very close to places like Dubai and Oman.
The Portuguese were the first to take over Bandar Abbas and these islands in the 15th or 16th century. Following them, came the Dutch and the British. It also stayed under the control of Oman for some time after that.
Eventually it came back under the Iranian control. Qeshm, Kish, Bandar Abbas, Hormuz and other islands .. There are a number of relatively smaller islands. Oman even controlled Gwadar in Pakistan.
They controlled this whole region for almost a century. It's funny that I was worried if I would get petrol here. That made even the guys back there laugh. One of them told me to just go and see the island myself. And now I finally got what he meant. 4G Internet LTE service is really amazing here. And not just here but in the whole of Iran.
You can say that 90 - 95% percent of all the areas that I have traveled here, had 4G reception. If Iran Cell is not working somewhere, it's covered by Hamrah e Aval. I have purchased a package of 70 GB in 7 dollars. Both companies offer package at similar prices. And I upload my YouTube videos using a VPN on the same network.
It really works well with mobiles. Hardly takes 25 - 30 minutes to upload a video. I had to face a lot of difficulty in this aspect in the beginning. Can't appreciate enough the level of development here.
This is the main highway of this island. It goes around the whole island in one complete circle. That's our first destination of the day ...; Kharbas Caves O ... it looks like it's closed ...
C'mon .... That's really bad. These are the caves that we wanted to visit. But the premises are closed for some reason. Now I remember having read it somewhere on the internet that the caves are closed.
There are so many caves inside this mound. It's quite possible that they may be doing some renovation work. Or it could be some temporary issue. That could be reason. Let's hope for better luck for the rest of our destinations today.
They'll be open I mean. It actually appeared to be an interesting place. That's the reception. I think they have mentioned it outside the reason why it's closed. Anyways ...
Beaches here are really awesome. Somehow they are quite similar to the ones in Dubai. Or they may be even more awesome ... because of the tiny mountain in the backdrop. The road goes towards .... Sitara e ....
I don't know what they call a valley. Okay .. in English it's called 'Valley of Stars'. It's gonna be a couple of kilometers into the area. There were some really good reviews about it on Google. So I have high hopes. I mean ... beside everything else ... just this ride on this road is so enjoyable.
A ride by the beach on such wide roads .... And such nice people .. I mean even if I don't find anything else ... just this beautiful ride is enough on its own. Worth each penny. In fact ... it's already more fun than what I have spent today. Tour operators bringing in tourists ... by the dozen ...
Just the number of cars in this area shows how famous this spot is. However, that's the overall situation in this region because it's the tourist season. The weather here is very nice. The northern regions are quite cold these days, so there are more tourists here. Salalm I'm a foreigner. I don't understand Persian.
Where should I park the motorcycle? In front of this building. Ok And then you can go. Ok. So we are gonna park the motorcycle here. This valley is not so big but the special thing about it is these amazing rock formations. These are naturally made formations, made by gradual erosion due to rain water. There is a nice looking natural path made here for the tourists.
You can get on it from the parking side and you can go all the way to the end on this path. Once there, you can go up and enjoy a great view. I also walked the path, went up the formation and got some drone footage. I took permission from a security guard on duty. However, he warned me not to fly it too high because there are military areas nearby.
Lets get going from here now because it's too hot. There was at least a cool breeze back there. But the section inside the valley can get really hot. The place is reminding me of my own village.
Quite a weird looking shape. Really amazing place this is. Didn't expect this to be so great. I was mainly here to see those caves. But this off road is so good .... So so good.
And the best thing is that I don't have any luggage on me. That's why this off road is not troubling me at all. Otherwise, it would have caused an extra pressure on my already hurt hand.
And I would have gone extra carefully then. I'm riding quite comfortably at the moment. I'm even able to enjoy the sights around me. Also there's no one else on this road .. Seems like I'm the only one here. Every one else is back there at the beach or somewhere in the more urban part of the island. What a magical landscape this is !!! WOW !! And they are in really bright sunlight at the moment.
Possibly, when the color of light is gonna change after some time ... it will make these mountains look even more mesmerizing. I also need to keep in mind that I have to go back from here as well. Still another 3.5 km to go. Another 10 minutes.
I'm standing outside a cave .. after coming back from inside the cave. Honestly ... it is one of those places .... where internet tells you something else ... but you go there and find a totally difference place. In my opinion, it looks more beautiful in pictures ... more colorful ....
One can always play with color and saturation in the pictures. That's why it is much more beautiful in videos. Let's see how it turns out in our videos. It was pitch dark inside and we had to keep a light on in order to see something. It was written that it's the world's largest cave ... I don't know the context.
Since the sea is not too far from here, the seawater has seeped in and made salt formations. I found it more beautiful from the outside .... That's possibly because of the contrast between the red color of the rock and the white of the salt. I honestly think that Salt Mines in Khewra are much more beautiful.
Time to go back. Have to go back using the other route about which I don't know much. And the sun is about to set. I don't want to get into any trouble in the dark on the off road. Also there isn't much traffic here, so one should avoid traveling after sunset ... So lets get going.
Salam I wanna go here. It's 5 km asphalt. Okay. Thanks
I'm glad that I asked him because I was thinking about going towards the other direction. And that would have taken me back to the previous route. And that would have meant to do all that 25 km patch once again. In the meantime, I better plug my mobile phone into to get it charged.
This road is much better in comparison with the previous one. I think that's the route that most of the tourists must be using. This is in fact an amazing place. I think nobody has asked us to stop .. Indeed.
That's our ship. Sitara Bandar What did he say ... I think he said something about the motorcycle.
Didn't get a word. What's the matter? Do you speak English? Yes. I just wanted to ask what he did say.
It's not for you. Actually he said that they do not allow motorcycles. So am I gonna go there. Please wait for a bit. Ok. Thank you so much.
Where are you from? From Pakistan. You just wait here for a bit. Ok I'm having a conversation with these guys. Let me show you something interesting.
This thing right here is a door that needs to be closed. They tried to close it for 10 - 12 minutes but failed ... Then they decided to leave it as it was ... It will have to be opened anyway when the ferry reaches its destination ... so lets leave it open. I hope we reach our destination safely. But I think it's their routine job .. so it may not be the first time that the door couldn't be closed.
Must have happened before as well. How can I push it backwards ... You'll have to push it backwards. We need to find a nice restaurant. What was the name of that restaurant .... We were just going on without stopping.
Restaurant Sea Food ... The food was so delicious. I couldn't wait anymore so I immediately ordered a meal.
I asked the waiter to serve me the best fish item on the menu. However, the sauce that he brought with the fish tasted like it had spinach or some similar vegetable in it. It was too good .. Amazing ... I think I have hardly paid them 4 dollars. That's less than 1000 thousand rupees. And it's a normal thing to get good food in such cheap price.
I hope you guys must have enjoyed this vlog. I think I had a great ride today. I personally enjoyed it a lot. Mostly, the ride that I myself enjoy, is loved by my viewers.
Let's end this vlog at this point. I'm going back to my hotel. We'll leave for Shiraz tomorrow, early in the morning. I'm very very excited to go to Shiraz.
It has been a long term dream for me to see Shiraz. So in the next vlog, you are going to see what we explored in Shiraz. That's all for today.
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2022-03-14 06:30
