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Published: October 9th 2009
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Parseh Hotel
A view from our hotel room on a very cool morning in Shiraz. So far, I've talked about Kandovan, Esfahan, and Yazd, being the latest entry. Well, guess what? Today, we shall talk a little bit more about Shiraz.
Getting to Shiraz was the ultimate experience, not in a bad way, of course! From Singapore, we took a flight to Kuala Lumpur International Airport as there wasn't a direct flight from Singapore to Iran as Iran Air doesn't do stopovers in Singapore. Yes, so from KL, we took Iran Air (IR840) to the Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran. Before the plane descended, I realised that the plane circled 3 times in the air. I wonder why that was so. It turned out that according to my guide Amu Amin, domestic as well as international flights are required to circle the mausoleum of the much revered Imam Khomeini as a sign of respect to him. He's the man who actually turned Iran into an Islamic Republic, hence the great respect for him. Yes, I divert again.
From Tehran, we took a domestic, one hour flight to Shiraz. Imagine this, spending close to 13 hours on a plane from Singapore-KL-Tehran, and another hour on Shiraz, and finally checking into the hotel, you can
Persepolis - The Entrance
The journey into Persepolis tell just how tiring it was. Fortunately though, I wasn't experiencing any form of jet lag, so I guess that's a good thing. Seriously, after we landed in Shiraz, it was really late at night and it was really really really freezing cold, and all we wanted was to sleep on a nice bed, which we got. We stayed at Shiraz-Parseh Hotel. Do check it out when you're visiting Shiraz. My sister and I shared a room and we forgo dinner cos we were too tired to pull ourselves out of bed, so yeah, we slept on empty stomachs. Not a very wise thing to do.
The next morning, I was told that we were going to Persepolis, this ancient historical site which is really ANCIENT. Yeah I mean it. They had lots of ruins, and Amu Amin told us lots of stories and I can somehow form visual images of how the procession went like in those days. To reach the ruins, you had to climb a long flight of staircases. There's the big staircase, and there's the small staircase. The small staircases are for the women who wore big clothings that went swish-swash, and the big staircases
Persepolis
Recall the steps that I was referring to - the big and the small. are of course for the men. Not sure if I have pictures of that. I might have to search hard for it later.
It was really interesting, seeing all the carvings on the bricks. All these carvings tell a story, like what kind of gifts the dignitaries would present to the king when they visit him at his abode. Some brought cows, others brought sheeps, while there are some that brought trees. We went to the place where the king has his feast with the dignitaries, and the place which marks the center of Persepolis, and the place where the Griffin (my personal favourite animal) was erected. It was fascinating, because needless to say, I am quite the history buff, having taken History at both the O and A levels. You literally have to spend a whole day just to explore Persepolis, because the area is quite large and there's quite a bit of history behind everything, from every carving to every little stone. No kidding. And oh, don't wear white pants when you go there. I wore white bottoms, and well, the dust began sticking on it, and it is close to impossible to maintain the whiteness at
Persepolis
I think this was half man, half griffin. the end of the day. Yes, don't make the same mistake as I did!
After Persepolis, we had lunch at a Persepolis-themed restaurant before heading for afternoon prayers. You can tell that Persepolis is very much the pride and joy of Shiraz. Even the Iranians, as I was told, kept coming to Persepolis just to have family picnics and all. We had kebab at the restaurant, and little did we know, that we will be consuming kebab after kebab for every meal (except breakfast) for the remaining 14 days.
After lunch and prayers, I was hit by the afternoon sleepy spell. Yes, during that time, I thought I was having jet-lag. But it was not the case. I just, you know, over ate. Hehe... I literally had to drag myself to the Naqsh-e Rostam, which was this tomb carved out of mountains, which are dedicated to the kings. Again, another history lesson, I keep telling myself. For once, I can't recall the exact story behind those carvings, so if you are interested, you can google it and read up on it. I wouldn't want to be accused of creating new history, tee hee.. Oh the whines of a
Persepolis
You get a sense of how huge the place was young adult...
The next day, we woke up pretty early (so much for jet lag!) to journey our way about two hours away from Shiraz. Off we went to Firuzabad. It is located in the Fars province south of Shiraz, so it doesn't really eat up a lot of your time if you make a trip there. So, what did we do there? You guessed it! We went to the Palace of Ardasir I, which is this really huge brick palace with a lake in front of it. It was actually one of the early creations of the Sassanid Dynasty, and apparently, this was the started point of how they learnt how to place a dome on top of a square structure. Oh, all the mathematical calculations were involved, something that I might not have grasp so easily. But it was interesting. Though the palace is all brick and mud, you can somehow imagine how grand it could have been back in its heydays. Imagine this, gold chandeliers, plush Iranian carpets from Hamedan (possibly), luxurious sofas and tables and chairs, art paintings, etc etc. The imagination is unlimited, my friends. 😊
My favourite part of the palace was
Persepolis
The columns of the castle actually the square in the middle of everything. It was rather empty, with a few stones portruding out from the ground, and you can basically run around freely. Also, there are places in the palace that feature really good hiding spots, you know, secluded areas.
And of course, I was thrilled to find out that we are going to Hafez's tomb, which is this famous Shirazi poet who was born, bred and died in Shiraz. A true blue Shirazi, I daresay. One thing I noticed was the large numbers of young people who came to his tomb. So what did they do there? Well, they offered prayers to him, and then they had this small book in their hands, which apparently, feature his entire collection of poems. They believe that if they just turn the book to any random page, read that particular stanza about love, and that will be their destiny when it comes to love. Sounds unbelievable? Well, they believe in it. It was said that in every Iranian home, there has to be one book of poems of Hafez. Yes, his poems are very renowned in Iran. I've tried to read an English translation of his
Persepolis
Every carving tells a tale poems, and somehow or other, I still couldn't quite get what he means. So, these Iranians must be really poetic to begin with! Or perhaps the translation did not do much justice to the original poem in Farsi, so yeah, that could be the problem. In any case, no no, I didn't read his poems and didn't turn to any random page. But it was definitely an eye-opener, seeing youths reading poems at a tomb. In my country, we rarely find that. We find youths hanging out at the streets of Orchard Road, the shopping heaven. Or you would find them hanging out with their friends under void decks. Ahh, the huge disparity between Iranian and Singaporean youths... So huge.
Well, that is quite an entry. When I do have more inspiration, I shall update. Oh by the way, mum said that there's a huge possibility that we're going to northern India come December 2009. And I've got my graduation trip all planned out, now I gotta start saving up for that 3-month trip to Europe woopiedoopieee!!! Omg, life has just gotten better!!!!
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