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Watch out when somebody says a ride is for free: it might in fact not be. Tarof is an Iranian custom of saying a white lie, which is understood by both parties. This enables everyone to keep face. For example, at the end of a taxi ride, the driver will say it's free, because tradition dictates you should be extremely hospitable to guests. If you reply with "na" (no), he will quote the real price. While you could ignore this, it can cause offense, as it is an integral part of Iranian culture, whether you like it or not. One of the more useful phrases is "Tarof nist?" (it's not Tarof?) with a rising intonation at the end. When the answer is no, you can probably expect the offer to be genuine. Maybe the answer is another instance of tarof, but you can probably stop playing the game at this point.

Iran has borders to [[Iraq]], [[Turkey]], [[Armenia]], [[Azerbaijan]], [[Turkmenistan]], [[Pakistan]] and [[Afghanistan]].

== Getting in ==

You can't rely on it completely but if you're not American you can probably get a code through [http://iranianvisa.com/ iranianvisa.com] that you can use at Iranian embassies (this process can take up to 5 weeks). People successfully managed to get Iranian visas in [[Istanbul]], [[Ankara]] and closest to the border, [[Erzurum]]. Some hitchhikers received their visa in [[Trabzon]] without the expensive code the same day they applied for it.