Blogs from Iran, Middle East - page 27

Planning a trip overseas inspires a mixture of excitement and trepidation as one prepares to set off into the unknown and turn dreams into reality. Purchasing an airline ticket is only the start and navigating one's way around foreign bureaucracy and visa requirements can be quite a challenge, as demonstrated by my naive forray into obtaining an Iranian visa over the internet. I selected an online visa application service - www.iranianvisa.com - who required a service fee of 30 Euros (almost $55 Australian dollars) to organise a letter of invitation with a visa authorisation code to be sent to my local Iranian Embassy in Canberra, ACT (Australia's capital). I filled in some details and sent off an online application and asked IranianVisa.com if there was a difference in cost for using either a British or Australian ... read more

jom’e Jan21F – bist o yek To shorten the rather complicated and full day of visits in Shiraz, let’s just say I see all there could possibly be worth visiting, and also mentioned in LP Iran. No, I have to say -- I see everything to the point of near casual indifference -- every nook, crack and cranny of Shiraz, of which I can only imagine the usual tourist would hardly ever get a whiff, including myself had I not “lucked out (??)” in running into the old man I take as guide. (But is this really luck(ed) or "f_cked"? Both meaning to say by this old guide Mohammed and what now looks like a problem finding photos taken while in Shiraz!) Together with Mohammed, I go from mosque to mosque, girls' or boys' Madraseh, an ... read more

SJan16 – Yek Shanbe Got a good night’s sleep – as far as I remember – and up early as a result. I take advantage of the metro, walking west along Taleghani to Moffateh St. to get the Taleghani Station and I casually make my way to Behest-e Zahara cemetery where most Tehranians or Iranians are buried, including those killed in the 1980-88 Irag-Iran war. First, I visit the Holy Shrine of Imam Khomeini. The Shrine is not a particularly pretty site to visit but I try to make the best of a bad thing. I enter a Mosque for the very first time (first ever as a Muslim, sshhh?). I take off my shoes, check in both Canon cameras, but not the iPhone, which they allow everyone to retain. I walk around and am actually ... read more

Most of yesterday involved taking it easy and/or getting ready for the next leg of this trip -- Tehran! I think this will be the most difficult part of this holiday, but I am optimistic nonetheless. I arrive in Tehran Jan 13 (Thurs) – panj shanbe at 4:00am -- and, fortunately for me, my pick-up has been arranged, for what could only have been otherwise described as a 'most' difficult task -- imagine, travelling into 15 million population city, to the downtown, alone, in the middle of the night to the Hotel Atlas. (Read later blogs to get more on just how difficult getting to the Atlas can actually be for a tourist, even when I am from one part of the city to another in Tehran.). Luckily for me, Elham D. is waiting to deliver ... read more

Back at the Blog! I hope all is well to those who have been following adventures here in the East. School finally started! I must say it was wonderful having a long break. The semester here is only 3 months long and my last day of classes falls on Dec 31st! Its a bit crazy thinking that so much time has already gone by. I feel like I've done so little out here, yet at the same moment I know that I have experienced a whole new world. So I decided to take 6 classes this semester - and so far all is going well. I'm not liking 8 o'clock mornings though, especially since Hebrew is my first class. Not sure how they figure someone will be at their peak so early in the morning, but ... read more