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Published: June 27th 2007
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Bandar-e-Anzali's boats
Apparently, fishing and oil are the highlights of the town I have a secret shame during my journeys, that is, I always inquire the word for 'Snow' in the local language during my travels. Why? Well, due to language barriers, my taunted nickname at my Aussie school was 'Yucky Jen Crummy'. It was a rather sad coincedence that my japanese names sounded similar to such unfortunate vocabulary. Both of my first names mean 'Snow'. So, as a result I always sought new words for my name.
I've found out so far that in Turkish it is 'Kars', 'Lumi' in Finnish, 'Nipha' in Greek. They seem to sound so much better than 'Yuki'. So, during my travels in Iran, I decided to inquire. Turns out to my dismay that in Persian, it becomes....'barf'. Oh. Suddenly, I'm quite happy with my original name. At least it doesn't beat the Hungarian translation, which would be 'ho'.
As much as I dreamed of spreading my arms out at the front tip of a ship's deck to Celene Dion's all-time classic tune, this seemed so far from reality. At the port town of Bandar-e-Abbas, I'd organized a cruise around the lagoon in the Caspian Sea.
Getting up at 4 in the morning
Anzali
The main mosque of this port town to do all the hot cruising to follow and to be back at the hotel by 7am, I slept a few winks but the lack of sleep made me resemble a zombie or the boogie man under a kid's bed. Makeup would not work, and later I was smooshed into a shared cab where the driver was eager to stop to share breakfast with all of us. Sadly, I asked him to speed on.
The little motor-boat was in shambles due to age. Ironically, it was called 'The Titanic'. once i stepped onto it, it furiously rocked with a massive see-saw effect. I weigh less than 50kgs (110lbs) as a little asian woman, god knows what would occur if a tall drunken Irishman hopped onto it. Standing to do a semi-Rose Dawson pose was impossible, with my life jacket missing its zip, I could just hang on tight like a mortified cat as the boat sped against the waves to make it tip up in a near-90 degree angle.
Although it was too early for the lotus flowers to bloom, I still checked out the lotus plants growing in thousands, and the birds nearby. There were swans even,
Bandar-e-Anzali
'Titanic'? Umm....this is not Jack and Rose material. who'd flown from Russia. The captain pulled out a huge lotus leaf and placed it on my head-scarved head as a sexy hat. Who knows, it might be the new trend next year in Milan. 'Lotus-look' could possibly be very 2008.
Bandar-e-Anzali used to be called 'Bandar (port) e Pahlavi', after the last dynasty, before the Revolution in 1979. In fact, the last Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, had heartfelt memories of this port. According to his wife's memoirs, 'An Enduring Love' by Farah (Diba) Pahlavi, this was the very place he departed from to get to his boarding school in Switzerland. As much as a young boy didn't want to leave his home and country, he shed tears to realize this was his last stop in Iran. A few years later, he found this town to have grown into an unrecognizably modernised town due to his father, Shah Reza.
The delicacy here as a port town (with much fishing) is shark meat. I was taken to a local restaurant, where I screamed as soon as I saw a huge dried out shark hanging from the ceiling like a baby's mobile. No, this was not funny, it was a
At the Lagoon
Sunrise at last! bloody mummified animal hanging about for all time's sake. Avoiding it, I ate a sample of shark kebab and was genuinely impressed.
next stop, Qazvin and Rasht. My journey was coming to an end at last. That night, I passed out in my hotel room looking out to Caspian Sea with an immoral cigarette in my hand.
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leila
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I Luved It !
I was reading Iranian.com , read your article and ended up here. ...and WoW! More than an hour later (I really don't know how long it took) I'm all laughy-smiley-happy and quite fascinated by your power to make people see the good in everything and your positive outlook on life!! You've got a terrific sense of humor and that even carries you when you are in the middle of washing your hair with shampoo in your eyes and remenents of cucumbers all over your face and the electricity is whooom gone! laughed so much at that point! Love your Lotus-leaf hat and pose too. I have not been to so many of the places you've visited and I'm Iranian. Shame on me, huh? I've been away for a long time, but that's no excuse. ...and you know what? You went to Iran with a positive attitude, although you were a little scared of the unknown land and it's people portrayed as "Evil" in the West, yet you have had a totaly different experience first hand. That really goes to show that people and governments are NOT the same entity.- Far from it. Unfortunately the majority of people in the West (perhaps the US) don't seem to understand that. I looked up Palau to find your birthplace in the Atlantic Ocean- the pictures were breath taking! Mostly blue and green with sunshine all over. I know you live in NYC, but I was interested to know more. Yuki-jen keep on writing your great tales of travel. You're doing a wonderful job, you'll do it wherever you go! Your pictures are awesome and so to the point with your writing!