"why would you want to come to Yazd - its a shithole"

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We arrive in Yazd early on Friday morning. Pat and Christina decide to join me in meeting up with Mansour. While waiting for him to arrive we meet a couple from Geelong who are cycling through Iran. We all find it odd that five Australians are standing at a roundabout in a town in the middle of the desert in Iran at eight o'clock in morning. Mansour and Maria arrive and the first question he asks is "why would you want to come to Yazd? Its shit". This is a reassuring comment from our supposed guide.

We dump our bags in one of the awesome hotels and after breakfast go on a walking tour of the old city. And its a very old city, allegedly 7000 years old. We see the qanats and water storage tanks, which is a pretty ingeneous set-up for its time, as are the badgirs, which are like natural air-conditioners. Our tour also takes in the Jameh Mosque and Alexander's Prison. After dark we head up to the Towers of Silence, where the Zoroastrians used to place the dead to have their bones picked by vultures. Definately one of the stranger places I've slept. My poxy sleeping bag is no match for the cold of the desert at night, and I subsequently freeze my arse off. That'll learn me...


The following morning we check out the Towers before heading back into town for breakfast. After checking out the carpet shops we go on a tour of some old mansions which are being turned into hotels, which was actually alot more exciting than it sounds. There are about ten people on the tour, and myself and Pat entertain ourselves by pointing out that the Russian guy looks like Ron Jeremy from the back and Bobcat Golthwait from the front. What a combination. After checking out the water museum we meed up again with Mansour and his friend Ehsan. Ehsans first question to us is "why did you come to Yazd - its shit" then goes on a rant about how the only people who like Yazd are the people who were born there, and thats because they've never been anywhere else.

After some Austin Powers-style driving through the old town, our taxi driver takes us out to Kharanaq, where we stay at the Silk Road guesthouse. The owner, Sebastian is a really nice guy and we meet some Germans and Dutchies and Swiss who are all staying there. We take a night time tour of the surrounding area and I catch up on some sleep...


Sunday sees us doing sweet FA until lunchtime. Its stinking hot, so we go check out the abandoned village and climb the minaret, which Mansour takes alot of pleasure in shaking. We all shit bricks. Also check out the Caravanserai, and upon leaving a man comes out of nowhere and requests that we buy entry tickets. I later learn that this happens quite a bit, and I think of taking it up as a part-time job when i get back to Dublin to scam a bit of extra cash from tourists on the side.

We meet some interesting folk back at the guesthouse, including Pat and Bin from Cairns, a couple of oldies who are travelling around on their motorbike. Very cool people. Later we set up a makeshift open air cinema and watch a cool Israeli film called The Bands Visit, much to the disappointment of Mansour and Ehsan, who wanted to watch a pirated copy of the American Pie movies. Sorry boys, you can't win 'em all...


Monday morning myself, Pat and Christina hire a driver and head to Meybod to check out some old buildings. Narein castle is pretty cool, but more impressive are the caravanserai, ice house (which has freaky acoustics inside) and the Pigeon Tower, which had the dual purpose of housing carrier pigeons and collecting pigeon shit which was used as a building material. Seriously. We toy with the idea of going to Aberqu that evening, but when we arrive in Yazd we see the German/Dutch hitchhiking duo we met in Kharanaq, so we decide to stay in Yazd instead. Walking into the hotel is like a family reunion from the night before, and we all go for a walk to watch the sun set from a rooftop vantage point. A bunch of kids try and charge us "one dollar one dollar" to get on the roof, but I tell them I spent all my money on beer and prostitutes. I don't think they understand. A beautiful sunset is brought to a disappointing end when a truly awful call to prayer comes roaring over a nearby speaker. Now don't get me wrong, I love a good call to prayer but this p.a was suffering from severe distortion issues and made me wonder aloud whether it was actually Aphex Twin praising Allah. Needless to say we all made like shepherds and got the flock out of there quick smart. We head down to watch a session of Zurkhaneh, which is a kind of martial arts (actually more like man-aerobics) done to traditional music - the singing and percussion are absolutely amazing.

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