"How are you?" he immediately starts a conversation although it is far after midnight. During the ride from Imam Khomeini airport towards western Tehran, we listen to the latest news in Iran. One kilogram of meat now costs sixty percent more than a year ago, the bread price has doubled, the gasoline price has doubled and the inflation rate is around 42 percent. Many people can hardly afford the basic food. The government has to make cash payments to families in need.
The driver himself lives in Tehran with his wife and a young son. He is working as a driver for foreign guests. When there are no regular guests he is trying to make a living as an ordinary taxi driver.

He is very talkative. Once he has finished talking about the situation in the country, he starts to tell stories about his customers. There was this Iraqi couple with their mother-in-law. They wanted him to drive them from the airport of Tehran all the way down to Shiraz. They had this gigantic suitcase with them, and they would take it wherever they went. For sure, it was full money or even jewelry. Mehran is persuaded, that something was wrong with these people - as heavy as the suitcase was!
Or then there were these two Chinese businessmen. They did not know a single word of Farsi. Conversation was impossible. But they would have him drive them around the country for days, they stayed in the most expensive hotels and visited numerous sights in addition to their business appointments.

One of his friends is driving a mini bus. He once had guests, was it from Germany or maybe Sweden? He can’t remember exactly. They rented the bus for a full three months! The driver had to take them to the most remote villages out in the nowhere. What could they possibly want to find there? During these three months they must have seen more of the country than most locals!
While talking on without any pause, he misses an exit on the highway. This exit did not look like this in the past, he rails, but anyway, everything is changing in this city. Construction work is in progress everywhere. And yet traffic never gets better. His son just got two days off from school because of the high air pollution, as so often during wintertime. But there are so many cars in the city and the heaters in the houses are out of date. Last year, the government removed hundreds of old Peykan taxis from circulation and replaced them by newer hybrid vehicles. But there still are far too many old cars and old trucks on the streets.
Over all these stories and topics we finally arrive at our destination. We are now well informed about all the latest news in Iran and are thus prepared for our stay.