Blogs from Iran, Middle East - page 7

We had Sadj drop us in an area of Shiraz where the guidebook showed there were a bunch of hotels to choose from. Being our last destination before returning to Tehran we wanted a reasonably decent room so we’d determined to take our time in assessing our options. Marie got left with the bags while Emma did the rounds. As one of the leading tourist destinations in Iran, costs were relatively high and budget places weren’t even clean. There wasn’t much in the mid-range so Emma negotiated with the one with the nicest room relative to cost. What should have been a US$80 room was offered for US$57 but internet was separate and costs were quite high. We managed to get it for US$53 with internet included. After settling in we headed out to explore. This ... read more

Our ride to Yazd bus station arrived promptly. Iranians are very punctual, if not 5-10 mins early. We enjoyed the cool of the early morning once we’d found our bus. Passengers started to get grumpy when 9am came and we still hadn’t left (it was supposed to be an 8:30). A young woman who was studying in Yazd had sat opposite us and we’d been chatting to her as she spoke good English, she’d made a deliberate beeline for that seat in a relatively empty bus so we knew she was keen to engage. She told us that the driver was saying it not his fault he couldn’t go, that there was some problem with the company that they couldn’t understand something to do with accidents and the company be temporarily closed. The men on the ... read more

We were on an 8:21am train to Yazd so our accommodation did us an early breakfast and dropped us off at the train station for 8. It didn’t arrive until 9. We looked enviously at the old rolling stock that had earlier arrived from Tehran as our rather shabby modern train arrived. It was dirty and boiling hot. It you think about an modern train that has no opening windows so you rely on the aircon but someone forgot to put the aircon on and stuck you in a desert you get the idea. Thankfully when we finally pulled out of the station some faint aircon came on to take the edge off. It was an agonising slow trip, lots of work is being done replacing or building more tracks next to the existing one so ... read more

Leaving Uzbekistan was straightforward, we had to queue to go through 4 sets of security/immigration checks but that was about as exciting as it got. 3.5hrs later we were in Dubai to the news that Trump is the next US President. We focussed on the important things in life like getting more hand sanitizer, soap and shampoo. We think it was helpful having an Iranian visa (instead of doing a VOA) as we got questioned before they'd let us on either flight about visas. We flew through Iranian immigration with a barely a glance, just a straight stamp in. The bags turned up pretty efficiently given the shabbiness of the airport. We changed a few dollars to get a bit of local currency and then caught a taxi to a hotel we'd emailed and booked the ... read more

La mer Capsienne, c’est autour de cette dernière que nous avons voyagé ce dernier mois. Nous quittons le Kazakhstan pour rejoindre le Caucase et transiter par l’Azerbaïdjan pour quelques jours. L’objectif est maintenant l’Iran. Pays si convoité depuis des millénaires et si souillé à l’heure d’aujourd'hui par toutes nos politiques respectives. En logeant chez l’habitant pendant un mois, nous avons pu découvrir de l’intérieur ce que voulait dire "être Perse”. Loin des clichés fanatiques et moyenâgeux que nous enseigne notre société, nous sommes tombés nez à nez avec la douceur, la générosité et l’amour d’un peuple emprisonné dans son propre pays. Une découverte déroutante remettant en question - encore après 10 mois de voyages - toutes les idées préconçues que nous pouvons avoir sur notre monde. De nouvelles merveilleuses amitiés, des échanges inoubliables; notre séjour en ... read more