Kish Island

Recently I happened to visit Kish Island.

I must admit that I had never heard of this place before. I'm sure most of you would also be as unaware of Kish Island as I was.

So how I ended up there?

Let me start form the beginning.

I got a job offer from a hospital in UAE. They wanted me urgently so they accepted to let me join on a visit visa from Saudi Arabia. But soon the status had to be changed to employment visa. That required exiting the UAE and re-entering on the newly issued employment visa. Now this "visa run" is quite well-known in the UAE. The usual destinations are either Oman or Iran because of close proximity to UAE. However, a recent change of immigration rules meant Oman was unlikely. So the choice was to exit to Iran. The two most-frequented areas in Iran are Kishim and Kish Islands.

So it was actually suggested by Joseph George in HR department to go to Kish and there was no special reason for the choice. He arranged a return ticket to Kish with the return date kept open (usually kept open until visa is received). It was expected to take three to four days for the visa to be issued. They told me the hotel offers free first night stay and subsequent night stays, if required, have to be paid. The Kish Island requires no visa to enter it as long as the visit is expected to be less that 14 days. However, for visits more than 14 days or if the stay extends beyond 14th day, then the visa is needed to be applied. Quite amusingly (and thankfully) I thought for a moment that it could one of those territories in the world that could be counted on the fingers of one hand only where Pakistanis don't require a visa to enter.

I researched a little. A small island in the Persian Gulf in the south west of mainland Iran. It is an Iranian territory but they want to develop it as a Free Trade Zone not unlike Dubai. I just had a notion that both Iran and UAE would be very much interested not to let our Gwadar Port develop.

So, on September 7, I arrived in Dubai Airport to get the 2pm Kish Airways flight only to find it delayed. Hmmm... Nice start.

Eventually we flew at around 4:15pm. It was a rusty-looking Fokker with almost all the passengers travelling with the same intention of Visa Run. The actual flying time was hardly 25 minutes. I was already bored and looked forward to more. The first view of the island from my aircraft, however, captured my attention.

The first glimpse of the island

Not bad!
And as the aircraft flew over the island I got a view of the city with its lush green trees and bushes with some high-rise buildings and under-construction malls. Not bad for a country plagued by economic embargo for such a long time.
Kish Airport appeared quite simple and small. And it was so hot and humid as we alighted. The airport was quite the opposite of what I read in the internet that the Shah of Iran had wanted to make this airport capable of handling the supersonic Concorde.
The immigration process didn't take long but they assembled all of us 'visa-runners' in a hall in the airport until the last person finished with his immigration and baggage claim. Then they hoarded us into waiting buses. We were taken to a main 'Visa change' hotel in the city center where a plain-clothed immigration officer introduced himself and requested to hand him our passports. That's how it goes there. The passport stays with the hotel management eventually. After that we were taken to another hotel, Khaatim hotel for lodging.

The hotel seemed as rusty as the aircraft that brought me. As they asked us to fill some forms at the reception, it dawned on me that free accommodation came with a price. That 4 to 6 persons were supposed to share a room didn't appeal to me at all. So I requested the man at the reception to give me a single room. He was a bit surprised as probably he was not used to this request from a visa-runner. So when he found out that I was a doctor he started to understand. He informed me that I would no longer be entitled to the free first night offer. I nodded in agreement. But the price was too high and we eventually settled for AED 200 after much negotiation from the ever-chattering hotel manager that receptionist referred me to.
I was taken to my AED 200 single room and the only good thing I found there was a nicely working split AC. It was not worth any star with four iron beds and faded blankets and a miniature toilet-cum-bathroom with a microscopic sink. I happened to say a small prayer at that moment that my visa would be stamped soon.

It was already past sunset and I was really starting to feel so bored. My UAE SIM was on roaming but soon I ran out of credit. Fortunately, the hotel was offering Wi-Fi for sale. 50MB data for AED5. It was a lifeline that had to be taken. At least, I was not lonely anymore.

After 8:30pm the hotel restaurant opened. Probably, the food was the only good thing about that hotel, of course besides the lovely receptionist girl. The chef was Mr. Hayat from Chiniot, Pakistan. And I had chicken curry with crispy hot parathas. That meal was superb.

Mr. Hayat the fantastic chef at Khaatam Hotel

Afterward, I went out of the hotel for a walk around the block. I found a street named after our great poet Allama Iqbal.

It was too hot and humid and I was sweating profusely. I badly wanted to take a shower but I couldn't make up my mind to take shower in that bathroom. I returned to find an American movie "The A-Team" being projected on a screen. I bought a cup of tea and watched the movie for a while. But it was too uncomfortable so I returned to the cool comfort of my room and slept.

Next morning I woke up early. I had decided before I slept to see the island a bit before it got too hot in the morning and try to find rubber slippers and towel from any shop. So off I went for a walk. Sun wasn't up too much and it was warm already and humid.

There was a huge mall being constructed just opposite the Khaatim Hotel. I could see the steel framework being built. That and a lot of other construction works amazed me.

I walked until I could see the coastline. It was still early and there weren't many people or vehicles moving. The view was great. I came to a sort of pier and I saw some men fishing. I could see corals beneath the shallow clear water with fish playing hide and seek among the corals. I could see ships on the horizon. That seemed to be a sort of highway for ships - between Kish and the mainland Iran.



In the pier I saw a metal artwork of a fisherman catching his prey. It was a bit rusty because of exposure to atmospheric conditions but still worth-seeing.

After that I started my trek again. I was sure there were sandy beaches somewhere. I tried to stay as close to sea as possible. I saw a beautiful mosque on my way. Nice calligraphic artwork on its walls.

I looked around to find some sort of a shop but whatever kiosk I could find was still closed. The time was around 8am and sun was rising and it was expected to get warmer and warmer. So I changed my plan and decided to walk towards the main road away from the coast. I saw some buildings and Kish campus of Tehran University on the main road.



I saw something like a shopping complex across the road. To cross the road I saw a pedestrian bridge. As I approached it I was pleasantly surprised to see escalators on both sides. To be honest, I have never seen escalators installed in pedestrian bridges not even in Saudi Arabia. So as I was crossing the road, I got a chance to take pictures.

However, my trip bore no fruit as I found out that this shopping complex, called the Paras Khaleej Bazaar, would not open until after 10am. So I hurried back to my hotel as it was getter warmer and I was getting more and more sweaty. Fortunately, I found the cafeteria open at the hotel and serving our complimentary breakfast of a boiled egg, half roti with small packs of jam and honey and black tea. Afterwards, I slept for sometime and at around 11am I was back at the bazaar. I found and bought plastic slippers, towel and a hair brush. Back at the hotel, still I could not persuade myself to take shower in that microscopic bathroom. I had decided by this time to move to another better hotel.

In the afternoon, I had lunch. This time it was serving deep fried fish and I had it with rice. I must admit that it tasted fantastic yet again. Hats off to you, Mr. Hayat!

After I rested for a while, in the late afternoon, I started my sojourn to find another hotel. somehow, I couldn't make any taxi stop and as I walked I came across wonderful views.

The statue of Sheikh Saadi

I found a lot of statues erected at various roundabouts. Some of them are of Shiekh Saadi. Here is one of the statues.

A windmill I saw on the way. May be it is just used to see how windy it is at a given time.

I found a good looking hotel after sometime and they had a single room for almost the same price but it seemed at least a 3-star hotel. I returned to my hotel and requested check-out. They were surprised that I was checking out. They summoned the ever-chattering hotel manager who insisted to know why and where I was going. I just told him that I couldn't possibly stay in that room for another minute and moving to Aftab-e-Sharq Hotel. He was 'surprised' to know that I didn't have a television in my room and that I didn't get towels and that the room was not liked by me. But he agreed to let me check-out but I had to bring a 'letter' from the new hotel to them. Now what was this arrangement I had no idea about. They just told me Afteb-e-Sharq Hotel is not a visa-change hotel and so this was needed. Moreover, if immigration department got wind of this both the hotel and I would probably be in trouble. I couldn't care less. I went back to Aftab-e-Sharq hotel and requested the letter and brought it back. I had my dinner first and then I checked-out. As soon as I checked-in in Aftab-e-Sharq Hotel and reached my room, the first thing I did was to take the much-needed refreshing shower. There was nothing much to do and so I hung inside the lobby where there was free Wi-Fi. Still no progress regarding my visa.

Good thing about this hotel was the complimentary breakfast was much better than at the previous hotel. Till afternoon there was no news of visa from UAE. I decided to visit the ancient underground city called Karez.

It is like a maze of underground tunnels along with waterways that used to collect whatever rainwater it could. The nature of this labyrinth of tunnels could be gauged by the map of this facility.

Next day around midday I got the news that the visa was issued and in afternoon I received the email. So I rushed to Kish Air office in downtown to book my return flight. Unfortunately, I couldn't get flight the same day but the next day at 8:45pm. So I had a whole day to spend again.

So I went to visit two more places. I visited the Greek ship. They say it ran aground in the sixties and abandoning sailors set it on fire. So its there ever since. The cabbie who took me there was a talkative burly man, Abdul Majed. He reminded me of a character in Jurassic Park-I who stole the dinosaur embryos only to be killed by a dinosaur later. And he also spoke almost the same way as that character with a thick voice. He was so happy when I told him that his English was good. It was part-truth and part-flattering.

The Greek Ship

Beautiful sunset at the site of the Greek Ship

Mr. Abdul Majed the cabbie

Next morning, since I visited the other place. It is called "Darakht-e-Sabz" or The Green Tree. It is a banyan tree said to be hundreds of years old. Surprisingly, I found the Iranians highly superstitious because I saw lots of charms tied to the branches of that tree. Not unlike what we see in our shrines. And all that time I thought we were the only "weak-faithed" people.

The Green Tree




The charms tied to the tree



So with that, my trip to Kish ended. I had uneventful journey back home where Mr. Saud was there at the Dubai airport to receive me. As the car sped back to Al-Ain, I looked forward to a hot shower and a good rest that night and thinking will I ever return to Kish or not.