Bushehr Travel Guide

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You can stroll around old city. Lonely Planet says it has traditional Bandari (indigenous inhabitants of Persian Gulf) architecture. The houses there are not restored, but for me it is much interesting - i can see that city is very old. The people are still living there.

From Ahvaz I took a bus to Bushehr at 7am. As everywhere in Iran I just needed to get to the bus station and already outside I was met by some agents of bus companies, asked where I want to go and pointed to the right office. The cost of ticket was 45 000 rials for Mercedez bus, but it had some airconditioning and video movies, so maybe it was supposed to be Volvo class, but with small space for legs). It took 7 hours to get to Bushehr. The bus was full and I felt lucky I had bought my ticket on the previous day. From city center you can get to the bus station by shared taxi. The price for shared taxi was 1000 or 2000 rials. The shared taxis to bus staion are going from Salman-e Farsi street under the bridge crossing Shar'iati street. The taxi drivers will shout out "Serah, serah" which means they are going to Serah Khorramshahr (where the bus station is located). Also 3 fingers shown by shared taxi drivers means the destination is Serah Khorramshahr. I went to bus staion by private taxi (dar baste) and i had to pay 10 000 rials when I went from under the bridge and 15 000 when hotel reception called the taxi for me. The bus station in Bushehr is not anymore in city center,
so you have to take a taxi as it is too far to walk to city center.

There is a small older bus station in the centre of Bushehr, and that’s where I went to buy a ticket for the 13.00 bus to Shiras. It was an air-conditioned Volvo bus and the ticket was IR 25 000 (July 2006). The bus left from the big bus station outside town (Terminal Bozorg). To go there I paid 10 000 for the taxi.
On the bus I got a seat next to a man, which surprised me. I said I thought men were sitting next to men and women next to women. They said they were going to sort it out when the bus was leaving, which they didn’t. The bus left the terminal 13.30. Once the bus stopped for the passengers to get something to eat or go to the bathroom. The bus journey took about 5 hours. In Shiraz the bus arrived at Amir Kabir Terminal and from there I took a taxi to the hotel. The taxi driver wanted IR 15 000 ( I hadn’t negotiated about the price before arriving to the hotel, which I should have done).

The day I arrived to Bandar-e Lengeh I went to the bus station to buy a bus ticket for the next morning. There was no bus before (or after) 10am I was told. As I came to the bus station the morning after I was told that the bus was leaving 10.30, and it finally left 10.40. For the ticket I had paid IR 30 000 the previous day, but just as the bus was leaving the man collecting money from the very few other passengers wanted to have IR 5000 more from me. As I showed the price on the ticket he changed it with his pen to IR 35 000. The bus was an old Mercedez bus without air-condition, but it was okay as the windows were open and I didn't sit on the sunny side.

The bus stopped only once (except when the staff filled up with water and ice) and that was for lunch. I was invited by the three staff to share their lunch in a small shop, bred, some sauce and Fanta. The man having the shop also gave me some peach drink for free as we left.

After 9,5 hours (when we were getting closer to Bushehr) the bus suddenly stopped and they said this was the place for me to get off. I was not prepared for this but gathered my things in a hurry, and there I was by the road, it was dark and a sign said Bushehr 15 km. But it was along the main road and the driver had spoken to a military man standing there before the bus took off and he stopped a minibus for me. The last passenger to get off the minibus asked some people on the street for direction to my hotel, but they couldn't answer. The driver drove to another hotel to ask and then drove me to my hotel. And he refused to take any money.

In Bandar-e Lengeh I paid IR 10 000 the first time I took a taxi to the bus station from the hotel and IR 5000 the second time.