Yazd (Safest city in Iran)

! The drive to Yazd from Shiraz was amazing! The terrain that was covered was not like any i have seen before! "Middle Earth" was flat, dry, and dusty. At times it was mountainous, with large peaks popping out of the earth like big dried dates! (they eat alot of dates here!)


Yazd is east of Iran and geographically it is the centre. The people of Yazd tell me that this is the safest city in Iran, as if Iran where to be invaded east from the Afghan Border, Kerman would be attacked. From the south in the Gulf, well...its far from the gulf. West from Iraq or Turkey, Tabriz would be hit, Esfahan and Shiraz. And North (i was thinking who would attack from the Caspian sea?) Tehran would be hit. So theres a bit of geography for you all! I guess with the G20 summit, and the recent talks of Nuclear proliferation, and Iran just creating new necear centrifuges, the talk of Iran having Nuclear power in the Middle east is pretty big news. I cant see why they are not allowed? Well i mean, yes, no one should be having a Neclear arms race in this day and age, but Iran isnt a country that goes along attacking its neighbours. Israel has Neclear arms, Iran has a population of 72million and claim that the nuclear power is needed for a cleaner approach to general energy and agriculture. I guess thats why DEFAT just sent me an email, claiming they have now changed their Australian travel advice on Iran from "Exercise extreme caution" to "Do not travel"! HA!!


ANYWAY! Iran is extremely safe, friendly, warm and inviting to foreigners! Yazd is obviously more conservative then Shiraz or Tehran. Women here are covered in all black, and even wearing gloves. It was a very relaxed atmosphere though, with Yazd having heaps of sweet shops! I thought i was in Sicily again with the amount of sweet shops i saw! (rose ice cream is this frozen dried noodle soup with rose water MMMM!!!) I spent the day walking around , visiting the sites. The most impressive was the Amir Chakhmaq Complex. In the evening i had a pizza on a roof top restaurant overlooking the square below, Iranian music was playing, i was sitting on a rug eating away, it was a lovely atmosphere! (although the pizza wasnt your traditional italian pizza, more of a middle eastern infusion!)


Wondering through the back streets of Yazd, it was obvious how old the place was! Everything was made out of sun-dried Mud, according to Unesco, Yazd is one of the oldest towns in the world! From the morning i kept bumping into the same two iranian tourist, every site i visited, we seemed to bump into eachother, though they couldnt speak english, it was the "AHHH i cant believe its you again!!!" sort of action! I must have looked a bit more tourist in Yazd (actually it is obvious that im not a local when i have my backpack on, a bottle of water and SLR camera dangling away) I got the usual, "HELLO MR!!! where are you from?" They chat for a bit, then continue on their way!


The next morning i took a taxi out to the Zoroastrian Cemetery before leaving for Esfahan. I must have just got in the site before closing time, because after an hour or so of hiking around in the blistering heat (im so glad im not here in summer june - aug) i was ready to walk back down and leave. As i was walking to the gates i realised they where closed, i thought, ahh they must be spring loaded, ill just push it open. When i got closer, and tried to push the big aqua gates opened, i realised that i had been locked in! Great! I thought it rather ironic, i was locked inside of an old Zoroastrian Cemetery, i could just visualise the Vultures soon circling the skies above, waiting for me to collapse of dehydration where they would then skin me alive!!! I began to bang and shake the big metal doors in a kinda of crazed laughing sort of way, surely someone would hear my loud aussie screams of "HELLO!!!! CAN SOMEONE ON THE DOOR!!!! IM STILL IN HERE YAH KNOW!!!!!!!! FRIGGENN HELLL!!!!!!!!!! JUST OPEN THE DOOR WILL YAHH!!!!!!!! ....... AZIZ!!!...... AZIZ!!!!! (everyones aziz here) HELLOO????"


ahah finally, 20 minutes later, this amazed Iranian door security man, opened the gate, gestured to his watch a "were closed" looked in the site, as if to say "is any one else in there?" and the locked it shut again!!

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