Ali Habibi

The only places that you can’t go in Iran by bus is across the deep waters of the Caspian Sea in the north – the Shomal area if you will – and south of Bandar Abbas shores, into the crystal-clear briny water of Persian Gulf, to the strait of Hormuz and famous Iranian Islands and free trade zones like Qeshm and Kish; only because long-tailed sea bridges like Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau mega bridge are not yet a thing in Iran and not because the Iranian bus drivers aren’t qualified for the job or their beloved coach-buses aren’t up to the task; trust us when we say they even face a fictional journey into the salty seas riding a long-hauled coach with a “can-do” attitude while repeating the phrase “Inshallah” all the time – meaning if God wills it, it will happen! These guys are professionals and that’s what makes bus rides in Iran an unbelievable example worldwide.

Chalus Road or “Jade Chalus” or any other transit route to the north of Iran, or how Iranian call it “Shomal”, are not just candy-twist steep paths and highways through the long stream of Alborz mountains isolating the north of the country from the rest of it, they are green pathways to scarcely touched Persian (Iranian) heavens with traffic jams over the holidays that could make you feel the hell that was prophesied in the Great Testimony and Jesus warned us all about.