A night in the Police Station

After spending 12 hours on the bike, travelling from Northern Iran to the middle of Iran, I arrived at the city of Qom at 1am and in need of sleep. I thought the local park full of sleeping pilgrams was a great place for a few hours sleep. Qom is the home of the ruling hardline Clerics, religous students and a steady flow of pilgrims.

My greeting to Qom was a watermelon thrown from a passing motorbike, just missed me but broke over the back of my bike - I immediatley felt a warm welcome to the city!!! A local called the police who immediatley said its too dangerous for me to sleep in the park and escorted me to center of town with about 8 bikes following us. The plan was to sleep in the square, in front of the mosque with other pilgrams but the onsite police called me into their office and once again said it was too dangerous for the bike and I. They escorted me to the main police station where I slept in the secure car park.

Happy to be able to close my eyes at 2.30am, I was woken at 3am by the station boss who insisted I start the bike for him to rev the engine - who was I to refuse! 15 minutes later I lay down to sleep and at 5am I was woken up and told to move on. I don't think the police liked me there. Exhausted, I continued south.