From Tehran to LA

The journey to LA from Tehran is a real adventure, a long flight and meeting several people. My departure from Tehran was not really pleasant as I was leaving my family, add to that the stress I went through when I was informed by a flight inspector that my check-in suitcase was bigger than acceptable size. So, I guess I keep on thinking of my departure day at IKA airport as a bitter experience.

I first had to fly to London by BMI. Sitting next to my right was a middle aged lady and to my left a middle aged Azeri man who lived in Manchester. There was no delay by the way. I had chats with the gentleman and he shared his experience of living in England and his trips to California and some other states in US. I bored myself watching a movie with Richard Gere as the lead actor, don’t remember movie’s name though. I flew at 8 a.m. from Tehran and landed at 11 a.m. in London (local time). It was the third time I was in London’s airport, Heathrow. It is huge and organized. Lots of shops and antique ones indeed. Somebody told me that every 20 seconds one plane either lands or takes off in Heathrow. I had to wait about 4 hours before getting aboard the BA plane from London to LA.

At 3 p.m. we boarded the plane. A boing 747. Huge and nice. I was at 50th row close to the window. Next to me an empty seat and beside that, a tall American gentleman. Steve. He was very social and started a conversation by making joke about my musical instrument which appeared like a machine gun in its case!

We quickly started chatting as I sat. He opened up easily, typical of Americans. Curious about his residence, being a South Californian, he said that he fell in love with a British lady and now lived in Lake District. We talked about many things, and lost track of time. There was a problem and plane’s engine did not work. It was a drag. Flight attendants sympathized that we would fly soon, but no good news after long waits. We evacuated the plane and waited in Heathrow for 5.5 hours. People exhausted and irritated. However, it was a long flight ahead of us and we wanted to be safe in the end. At 8:30 they fixed the problem and passengers tired, got on the airplane. One beautiful scene is watching Greenland during flight which was missed because of the delay and that we took off at night. Plane was ok. A bit chilly. I watched Las Vegas from the plane, very beautiful. You could see the Casinos I guess with their colorful lights.

LA was foggy when we landed and this caused another delay. I lost touch with Steve when we got off the plane at LAX. As an Iranian, I went through some security delay and when I exited the airport I could only get a van to take me to Ramada Plaza Hotel in West Hollywood. At 2.5 a.m of 25th February I arrived at the Hotel. Surprised to see gay couples at this time of the dark morning. One young man helped me carry my suitcases to the lobby without me asking him, unlike my own country that usually you have to ask or even beg!
Welcome to America!