Blogs from East, Iran, Middle East - page 6

'Chador', in Farsi literally means 'tent'. It's the huge plain moon-shaped sheet that Iranian women donn themselves with, miraculously keeping it in place without the aid of any buttons or duct tape. Now, if it weren't for all the practice I got during dorm keg 'n' Toga parties and Greek/Roman plays (I knew Shakespeare and Sophocles would come in handy, everything truly does happen for a reason!) I couldn't have managed to drag myself around the Masshad's Holy Imam Reza complex feeling like I was going through one of those Asian 'sweat out the fat' diets for three hours. Rules for female visitors are bloody stricter than anywhere else I visited in Iran, for the reason that it is the third Holiest site for Shi'ites after Mecca and Medina. So for non-Muslims, this is the ... read more

Sadly I don't do the sleeping-on-the-bus routine very well, and to top it off it's quite tough for me to even sleep a wink on the longest plane ride. You have obviously come across one of those really ANNOYING PASSENGERs sitting next to you on a long haul who just have to : (a) get up a million times and walk up and down the aisles (b) exercise for ages at the back, chilling with other sketchy passengers and stirring up a mob (c) keep the $%&@ing light flashing at your face all the time as you sleep (grrr!) (d) furiously shake their heads listening to the crap on their Ipod (e) anxiously chew nicotine gum and eat their pen as a cig alternative (f) chug down 3 alcoholic drinks straight, followed by sleeping tablets ... read more

YAZD Come un antico gioiello incastonato in una perfetta montatura così Yazd giace placida in mezzo al deserto al centro della parte meridionale dell’Iran. Importante punto di snodo lungo la via della Seta, l’intera città vecchia è patrimonio dell’Umanità con le sue mura di fango e le sue torri del vento costruite per catturare il minimo alito di vento nelle roventi estati. L’acqua qui a Yazd, come in molti altri posti dell’Iran, viene fornita utilizzando il complesso sistema dei quanat ossia dei lunghissimi canali sotterranei scavati a mezzo di pozzi lungo il percorso che possono raggiungere, e superare, i cento metri di profondità. Si scava raggiungendo la sorgente d’acqua alle pendici della montagna e si inizia quindi a scavare il canale ad una profondità sempre crescente di modo che l’acqua possa defluire nella direzione desiderata. Si ... read more

So what is this badgir you talk about? Well... It is the world’s oldest form of air-conditioning and very eco friendly too! Travelling through the desert cities of Iran, one can't help but notice them as they are everywhere... We might call them wind towers, because that is essentially what they are... Towers to catch even the slightest breeze and then lead it, through a column of water to cool it down, into the house, while the warm air is led through separate vents upwards and out of the same towers... How ingenious is that!! I for one think that everyone should get rid of their conventional air conditioning and build one of those... They look cool too! The ultimate badgir city is Yazd, my destination after Esfahan... It is one of the world’s oldest cities ... read more

So crossıng over ınto Iran we were met by crowds of people and all theır stuff everywhere, ıt was manıc. Pushıng our way through we made ıt outsıde where the taxı drıvers were tryıng to charge us rıdıculous prıces and mutterıng somethıng about polıce checks. We had heard there was a bus so started to walk out of the border compound. Suddenly an army truck pulled up besıde us, motıonıng for us to get ınto the back. The guys were wearıng ray bans, lookıng pretty staunch, chaın smokıng and the guys on the tray had theır heads covered ın scarves and carrıed Kalashnıkovs. We drove at breakneck speeds for a lıttle way untıl we came to a huge traffıc jam: a polıce check. Here we were told to get out and waıt. And so we waıted. ... read more