Blogs from Yazd, East, Iran, Middle East

It was supposed to be so easy. Have the hostel book me a taxi to the bus station, buy a ticket to Yazd at the station, get on the bus. The first part went according to plan apart from my driver not being able to change a 500,000 rial note, so he asked some fellow taxi drivers if they could help him. One guy with very light eyes and who could easily have passed for being Spanish or Greek was able to give my driver change. He asks me where I am going. “Yazd”, I tell him. He then tells me in very broken English that I was at the wrong station and that there wouldn’t be a bus leaving from here to Yazd for another three hours. He says I can get a bus leaving ... read more

My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there. - Rumi Passenger trains in Iran generally run overnight between major cities, a perfect travel solution when you’re on an independent journey because you save the expense of a hotel while getting to experience the best way humanity has invented to travel overland. When you’re on a tour you spend the day taking the bus, like we did – six hours to Yazd with one stop to stretch our legs. No tea for me, please. To be fair, the journey was lovely, passing through the eastern section of the Zagros mountain range where we experienced snow flurries, flocks of goats and sheep and distant snow-covered peaks on our way towards Yazd, the driest major city in Iran as well as ... 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

Getting into Iran was straightforward but slow. We knew we were here as soon as we got off the bus that had brought us from the Turkmenistan immigration post. On one hand a bored, surly soldier interrupted his watching of a volleyball match on the tv to grunt at me to change my shorts for long trousers (shorts are banned here), and for Atsuko to put on her headscarf. On the other the immigration doctor was quite apologetic assuring us that once we got away from officialdom things would be much easier and attitudes different, happily he was right. Our bags were searched so no chance of smuggling in any illicit beer, it's going to be a dry couple of weeks, at least it should be good for our livers. As we have a guide – ... read more

I'm catching a bus this afternoon to the desert so this morning my plan is to relax. I say goodbye to Kurt and Oliver and plant myself in the garden in the shade with the i-pad to try and catch up with my blog, alas, there are lots of distractions so I end up escaping into the alley ways. I am convinced that I know exactly how to get to the main street then the bazaar- sooo, take a left- connect with the main road, it's not far from there. I take a left for the bazaar and 10 minutes later arrive right back at the front door to the hotel! Resort to Plan B- take a right and walk- this time I end up on Emam St- gold! My main mission is to find some ... read more