BRFR Cake Stop 'breaking news' miscellany

[Psamathe]

[IMO going against FO advice was foolhardy, but that's easy to say as an armchair traveller!]

FCO advice often doesn't make complete sense and can even be ambiguous (eg "Subject to local conditions"). I've only done it once and worse than ignoring advice ie I called the British consulate in the country I was going from and said "So if I don't come back you'll know to do something" to which they replied "Don't go. If you don't come back we won't do anything. We have no diplomatic relations with them, no embassy, no consulate, nothing". But I went anyway. And very glad I did as it was fascinating (with a few "worrying" times).

 

[CXRAndy]

Unfortunately for them there were no other options for overland travel. It was either Russia or Iran, because Azerbaijan's borders were (and still are) closed. Of course, people will say they didn't need to travel overland, but as someone who has done two of the possible routes, I get it. What they did that I can't understand and was incredibly stupid was to put it on social media.

Cost of flying over certain countries seems cheap now 🙄

 

[PurplePenguin]

Did that make much difference? Applying for a Visa and hiring the guide would have been plenty of notification for the Law Enforcement agencies.

[IMO going against FO advice was foolhardy, but that's easy to say as an armchair traveller!]

I thought they had posted something slightly contentious, but I might be wrong about that. They did upload photos which I think was foolish and something that could have waited until they had left Iran. Perhaps, they were just unlucky.

 

[Beebo]

I thought they had posted something slightly contentious, but I might be wrong about that. They did upload photos which I think was foolish and something that could have waited until they had left Iran. Perhaps, they were just unlucky.

I’m sure they were unlucky.
But you can improve your odds of not being detained by a despotic regime, by not going in the first place.
And I’ve been to some silly places. Worst being Libya in the months after the death of Gadafi. But I had an armed escort at all times. In hindsight I probably shouldn’t have gone, but my company had kidnap and ransom insurance to cover employees working in silly places.
I definitely wouldn’t have gone as an independent traveler.

 

[icowden]

I’m sure they were unlucky.
But you can improve your odds of not being detained by a despotic regime, by not going in the first place.

True. If you like an entertaining read, Dom Joly's "The Dark Tourist" (not the Netflix copyright infringement) covers his journeys to places like Chernobyl, North Korea and the Congo. Apparently Congo was the one that where he was genuinely concerned about not getting out alive...

 

[PurplePenguin]

I’m sure they were unlucky.
But you can improve your odds of not being detained by a despotic regime, by not going in the first place.
And I’ve been to some silly places. Worst being Libya in the months after the death of Gadafi. But I had an armed escort at all times. In hindsight I probably shouldn’t have gone, but my company had kidnap and ransom insurance to cover employees working in silly places.
I definitely wouldn’t have gone as an independent traveler.

You can improve your chances of not being run over by a bus by never going out, but ultimately everyone does some form of risk assessment and works out whether the risk is worth the reward.

In your case, you presumably decided your armed guards were competent and trustworthy, and you were happy to be paid for the risk. I'm not sure everyone would be though.

The trouble with the way the average armchair pundit looks at this case is that they see no reward in going to Iran or in overland travel, so they can't understand why anyone would take the risk. Many would no doubt quite happily express this opinion on a mobile phone while driving.

My point on social media was that Iran has always been sensitive about photography. People routinely got in trouble for photographing the wrong thing, but the remedy was to simply expose the negatives or confiscate the film, and that could only happen if you were caught taking a photograph. In the world of social media, the photos can't be deleted and they can be viewed by the authorities, and both of those things dramatically increase the risk - I wouldn't take that risk for a few likes.