By Kamal Ali 

When I bought tickets for my first ever visit to the Iranian capital, I expected to see an exotic Middle Eastern city, enjoy Persian art and the best cuisine in the world. 

What I saw upon landing at Tehran airport was quite the opposite – old and noisy motorcycles and persistent grey smoke of carbon dioxide in the air. I realized that Azerbaijan did the right thing to ban the import of old vehicles.

At the start, there were only a few motorcycles driving along the old Peugeot that picked me at the airport. But they grew in numbers as we approached to the city. Then they were everywhere, around the Balour hotel where I stayed for a couple of days, and in the streets I went out for a walk. I would always hear the sound of their horn – day and night. They would never stop.   

There are mostly old and cheap models of French and Korean cars in Tehran. Yet they did not make that much noise. The bikes were just disastrous!  Crack and fume. 

Wind is a rarity in Tehran. Thousands of vehicles emit carbon monoxide at the same time, terribly polluting the air. My eyes started to water as soon as I got out into the street.

It was only in the hotel, in museums and mosques that I could breathe somewhat clean air.

Motorcycles, mostly mopeds and scooters with up to 150 cubic centimeter motors, can be seen in the streets of Tehran. There are also bikes for rent – I saw them near the old bazaar – but few people use them. That’s probably because Tehran is located on a fairly steep slope of a mountain range, making it difficult to bike. 

You also have to bike two, three or even four people with you. Imagine a father driving, a mother in the back seat, a baby on the tank and a teenage daughter seated in between the parents. And no one is wearing a helmet! The traffic police driving their old Mercedes cars do not stop them for this violation of traffic rules.

By comparison, traffic police is omnipresent in Baku with their new BMWs. 

I am sharing with you some photos I took while in Tehran. 

Bakudaily.Az