After travelling all the way through Iran from North to South, we finally arrived to our final destination in Iran, the coastal city of Bandar Abbas. From here, we’d proceed to our next stop, the United Arab Emirates. We could have easily taken the plane to Dubai and arrive in only one hour but hey, that would be too easy, right?
So we decided to go by boat. We knew about the existence of a ferry boat between Bandar Abbas and Sharjah, but couldn’t find much information about it on internet. It took some serious investigation to discover that the boat departs three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday from Shahid Bahonar Port at 9PM. It should be possible to get tickets at the port itself, but we were rather safe than sorry and got them at a travel agency.
On Wednesday morning, we went to Bala Parvaz travel agency located at Imam Khomeini Blvd, in the center of Bandar Abbas. Over there, we easily purchased our tickets for departure on the same day. Price tag: 3 150 000 Rials or around 80 euros. When you get your ticket, make sure to bring enough cash Rials and very important, your passport. With our boarding passes in hand, the only thing left to do was to wait until check in time, which is 6PM. Why this time is set, no idea, because things didn’t start to move until 7:30 PM.
The process is quite easy. You first put your bags through a scanning machine, before proceeding to the desk where you check them in. Over there, you show your passport, you give your backpack, suitcase or chest of dades, and you get a label in exchange. Now you wait again until passport control and body check starts. First, all women go through, next all men. As a foreigner, your passport might be taken for fifteen minutes, but no need to worry about this. What happens next? You wait again. Sure you got that one.
Around 9PM, the boarding starts. There is one deck of chairs divided in two areas of which one is for families and one for solo travelers or groups of friends. You search for your chair number and take a seat. Before the ship takes off, you get a meal consisting of SURPRISE SURPRISE, rice and kebab, and a coke. Really, don’t book this trip for the meal guys. Also make sure to bring some drinks you like, since there is only water and tea available in the shop. Meanwhile an Iranian movie is playing and around 10PM, the ship takes off. Next, it’s time to make yourself a comfortable bed. The seat you’re in is comparable to the one in a luxury bus, so not too comfortable to sleep in. But we were lucky, not even 15% of the capacity of the ship was taken. This meant that everyone had an entire row of four seats for themselves, which made a pretty comfortable bed.
After a surprising decent night of sleep, it’s totally worth it to wake up early to see the sunrise. The deck is open all night and you can go on it (and even have a cigarette) whenever you want. So around 6:30AM, grab the opportunity to go outside, sit down on one of the benches and enjoy your view. It’s not every day you get to see the sun rise in the middle of the Persian Gulf. About two hours later, breakfast will be served. You get a piece of flat bread with a bit of cheese and jam. It’s not a bad idea to bring some extra food if you need a real breakfast. After having our last Iranian meal, we took our last views from the deck, as the ship was planned to arrive at 9AM at Port Khalid in Sharjah.
But of course, 9AM was just too good to be true. For a very annoyingly long time, the ship kept on circling in front of the harbour, which gave us a three hour delay. Luckily we didn’t have anywhere to be on time, so we relaxed a bit more. After finally setting foot to land, time was there for the last part of our exciting boat trip; getting through customs. This, once again, was a time consuming process. First you take the bus to the terminal, where the waiting can begin again. First all women get checked, then men, and after this it’s time to get your stamp. This process takes about 1,5 hour. Last but not least, the only thing remaining is collecting your luggage, which happens in a ridiculous way. All luggage is stuffed into one room where you can just grab whatever you want, without anyone checking. When Thomas got his backpack, he quickly discovered his shoes and expensive music speakers had been stolen. No idea when or where it happened, but it made us leave our adventure with a pretty bad mood. Luckily, we kept all our other expensive belongings in a smaller backpack with us in the ship, so let this be the best advice we can give to you.
So once again, all the information:
Ticket price: 3 150 000 Rial per person, without vehicle
Port of departure: Shahid Bahonar Port, Bandar Abbas
Port of Arrival: Khalid Port, Sharjah
Departure days: Monday, Wednesday and Saturday
Check in time: 6PM
Departure time: 10PM
Time of arrival: 9AM (if you’re lucky)
How to get a ticket: at the port itself, at Bala Parvaz agency or probably any other travel agency
Company: Valfajr shipping: http://www.valfajr.ir/
Or you can be a pussy and take a one hour flight from Bandar Abbas to Dubai for about the same price.
Note: Are you travelling with a vehicle? No problem! We can’t inform you with the exact price for this kind of ticket, but according to people we met, it had to be something in between 200 and 400 euros depending of the type of vehicle, including two passengers.
Note 2: It’s is also possible to take the boat From Bandar Lengeh to Dubai, this trip only takes about 6 hours. Tickets are 3 150 000 rial and the boat leaves at 10 AM on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. We decided to take the Bandar Abbas ferry because we had to be there anyway, Bandar Lengeh port is in the middle of nowhere. Also, by taking the overnight boat we saved on accommodation for the night.
Note 3: Actually, here is a full schedule:
Bandar Lengeh to Dubai: Saturday-Monday-Wednesday, 10 AM
Dubai to Bandar Lengeh: Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday, 10 AM
Bandar Abbas to Sharjah: Saturday-Monday-Wednesday, 9PM
Sharjah to Bandar Abbas: Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday, 9PM
Note 4: All the information given above might change in the future, as of January 2018 this is the correct schedule.