RANSVESTIA

boarded a Soviet ship and headed out into the Caspian on the way to Iran. We left about 3 p.m. and until it was too dark to see, we sailed past oil rigs active and abandoned literally all over that end of the sea. I went up on the bridge and found the First Mate who could speak a lit- tle English and he took me into the bridge and demonstrated the radar equipment, auto pilot, etc. These abandoned rigs didn't have either lights or buoys on them and I wondered how we managed to miss them but they had left a sea lane open and as long as we sailed at 175 to 185 degrees (south) we would miss them.

Next day we arrived at the port of Pahlevi in Iran and there being insufficient docking space we tied up alongside a Soviet freighter and walked across it. But there were all kinds of formalities before we could do so, so we got a good look at the activities aboard the freighter. It was interesting to see crates and machinery originating in France, Germany, Sweden, etc. that apparently had been shipped into and through the U.S.S.R. down to Baku and by freighter to Pahlevi for delivery in Iran. With the Suez canal out of operation it apparently was cheaper to make ths overland haul than to go by ship around Africa and then up to an Iranian port on the Persian Gulf (otherwise known as the Arabian Gulf if you are in Kuwait or elsewhere on the west side of it). It was also interesting evidence of international cooper- ation in that the U.S.S.R. was in effect acting as middle man for commerce between two NATO nations. Again, not what you'd expect from reading the American papers and magazines.

The south end of the Caspian is very tropical in climate, and only the end of the Sea borders on Iran. All the rest of it extends up into the U.S.S.R. We were put up in a nice resort motel and I got a chance to take two swims in the Caspian. "Swim" isn't quite the word "dip" would be better because the sea is quite shallow and you have to walk out quite a way before it gets deep enough to really swim in. There are only tiny waves but I expect that in a storm sweeping down the length of the sea from Russia that it could work up some pretty wild water. Next day we took off on a long bus ride over the mountains to Teheran. We used the road built by American troops during the war when they occupied Iran along with the British and used this road to ferry supplies for Russia over the mountains and down to the Caspian for shipment to the war zone. It is something of a fantastic road wind- ing its way up the side of several very steep canyons with one hairpin turn after another. But the terrain, the temperature, the vegetation and everything else changed at the summit. You go through a very

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