The woman from the agency recommended Mike try and extend his visa, so the next morning, Mike and Hamid went the next morning to the visa office, and after some back and forth, handed over his passport, and Hamid handed over his guide license, and were told to come back that afternoon.
They returned later, but the office had unexpectedly closed early! Left with no choice, they had to stay another night in Shiraz. Trying to make the best out of the situation, they hired a taxi to take them to Persepolis, an ancient city that was the site of an epic battle with Alexander the Great.
Persepolis
Persepolis from a nearby hill.
After walking around for a few hours, and taking lots of pictures, they went back to the hotel and got ready for a very late dinner. Afterwards, they went to bed, gearing up to deal with the visa office yet again.
They arrived at the visa office around 9:30 the next morning. And they waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally around 12:30, they were ready to extend it. But they got confused over Mike's visa. He has a journalist visa, but is in Iran as a tourist, which has confused almost every border guard and policeman who's looked at his visa! After more calls to Tehran, they were told to keep waiting.
After a few more hours, they wanted to look at Mike's camera, to make sure he really was here as a tourist and not a journalist, so they asked Hamid to get it from the hotel. Once he came back with it, they waited another 45 minutes for them to have a look, and of course all was OK. They still wanted to extend my visa, but told us they would need another day because of the visa type confusion. Not having another day to wait, Mike didn't have a choice except to withdraw his application and leave Iran the next day.
That evening before leaving, Hamid took Mike to the Shāh Chérāgh, a holy shrine and the only one in Iran non Muslims are allowed to go inside.
Inside the shrine.
The tour agency recommended Mike and Hamid fly back to Tehran rather than meet Alex in Mashhad, as he was driving from Tehran. Taking their advice, they got the last flight back at 11PM. The plane was an ancient MD-83, one that hasn't been made for almost 20 years! The air conditioning on planes is run off one of the engines, and it was so bad it only worked then the pilots throttled up for takeoff! Because of this, they spent the boarding process and taxi sweating in horrible heat and humidity. Finally, after the creaking plane lumbered into the air, it cooled down in the cabin, and they relaxed for the flight back to Tehran.
The flight was delayed about a half an hour and arrived into a manic Tehran airport. The signs for baggage reclaim were off, so there was no way to know which carousel to claim your bag! Hamid and Mike split up, each taking a carousel, hoping one of them was the right one. After about 20 minutes, Hamid found Mike and had his bag. They made their way to the hotel and another 2AM arrival.
Mike and Hamid walked around the main bazaar in Tehran on the morning of the second, the last day of Mike's visa. Afterwards, they got in a taxi to the airport, where Mike said goodbye to Hamid and checked in for his flight to Almaty. The queue for passport control took quite a while, and while waiting in line, he had a flashback to the end of the movie Argo, where they are detained before being let go. Of course none of this happened, and Mike was let through without any issues.