Woke up around 830am had the hotel breakfast which is included in the price of the dorm...they served bread, omlette, creps, yogurt, orange juice and coffee. Afterwards I put my backpack into a locker room and left to Essaouira which took approx 3.5hrs. The guy at the bus station said its Dhm45 and then i said the guidebook says 35 then he said thats without luggage and i said i dont have luggage hence I paid 35. In Moroccon buses you pay for your ticket and if you have luggage you got to pay separately to the guy who puts the luggage into the bus. Normally he would ask for Dhm10 but then you got be firm and say I normally pay Dhm5. He would complain and start haggling but then you got to stick to ... read more

I have finally reached my destination london and my trip Colombo - London in 50 days has finally ended. Visited Countries Map Thank you for everyones input, Take care and all the best !!! Be Happy !!!!! Vaj... read more

Long distance buses Iran’s long distance buses are of two types. The older and the newer buses: The older buses are by Mercedes Benz and the newer once are from Volvo, Scania and MAN buses. The Benz is about half the price as the other 3 but much slower. Comfort wise as well the other 3 looks better than the Benz. You go to the terminal and tell them where you want to go and by the ticket. In Esfahan the price seemed constant however in Tehran you can negotiate. First I was told the Volvo bus from Tehran to Istanbul was IRA350,000/= then the Scania people told me it was IRA250,000/= and finally the MAN people told me they can give me a ticket for IRA200,000. I have been in a Volvo and MAN and ... read more

Woke up around 7:30am, had Lavash, Nutella, Honey and Butter for breakfast. Mehdi and I went to the National History Museum. Mehdi showed his pass as he is doing Tourism planning for his degree and only told them that I was a student and they gave a 50% discount. Even though I am not much of a museum fan, there were a few impressive things. I liked the Iranian Salt Man, some of the old characters and statues. Some palatial ruins like artefacts which reminded me of Anuradhapura. Where you have the wooden columns in this instance like the stone columns Sri Lanka had. The National History Museum and the Islamic History Museum are side by side. The door entrances in the Islamic museum were quite nice. After the museum we went had a kebab and ... read more

Esfahan (Isfahan) 27th January 2006 Woke up early morning as Hadi had to go for classes and he dropped me at the Imam square. I called Ali and finally he answered and we decided to meet at 9:30am. Until Ali came I sat down and wrote my notes as I was already had quite a backlog. When Ali came we went to the Manar Jomban (Shaking Minarets). Unfortunately it was raining and they weren’t shaking it. People had been stopped from going up and shaking it themselves from 2003. Instead there is a person the “minaret shaker” who goes up and shakes it for everyone to see. Essentially, when you shake one minaret the other minaret also shakes. Afterwards went to Ali’s place, he is quite a house builder himself. Had lunch there and copied loads ... read more