I was nearly converted to a Muslim in Esfahan !!!!

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I got into Esfahan (Iranians sometimes spell it as Isfahan too), Kaveh Bus Terminal at 8:30am. I am at this massive bus station, no guide book, no mobile phone (it doesn’t work in Iran), no one speaks English and don’t know where to go. Last but not least only USD4/= i.e. Iranian Riyals (IRA) 36,000 in my purse. Wow what a feeling.

The situation gets even better as I learnt later that Iran didn’t accept travellers cheques, no ATM’s, visa card not accepted due to US sanctions and I had changed my last USD10/= bill in Quetta, Pakistan. This is situation is worse but quite similar to Myanmar where they didn’t accept TC’s, no ATM and no mobile phones.

I am now right royally screwed !!!!

I had a few friends in Esfahan through Hospitality club but didn’t have a way of calling them.

I tried to communicate with people at the bus station, not one spoke English. I saw signs at the bus station stating “Hotel”, “Shower” and something else in the ceiling area.

I though most importantly let’s go to the “Shower” area to “Freshen” my self up (remember its 3 days travelling without even a shower).

I had just finished washing my face when this guy came up to me and asked me “Can I help you?”....the Christians and Muslims would have said God sent him and some others might have said another god, I am saying it’s because I looked like a tourist with my backpack. Later I learnt his name was Mujtaba Kuffashi.

I said yes please; get me to, a phone box, cheap hotel and a book shop to get hold of a guide book. I still didn’t know Iran didn’t accept TC’s and that there were no ATM machines that accepted visa.

It is at this stage that I learnt the generosity, kindness and the hospitality of Iranians. The guy who tried to help me had no idea of my financial situation at that moment.

He takes me to a little shop at the bus station, gets a phone card and doesn’t allow me to pay for it. He says that I am a guest in his country and this is his present to me. He wanted to buy a IRA10,000/= but the shop only had 20,000 ones so he took 10,000 from me and he put the balance. Then he took me to a phone box and we tried to call but the card didn’t work. Later on he left saying that he had to go and for a minute I wondered if this was a scam between the guy and the shop owner to get me to spend 10,000/=

Later on another man took me inside the office at the bus station and introduced me to a guy who spoke English; his name was Hamid from the office of the Kaveh Bus Terminal. I told him my situation and he took me to the phone booth and this time the card worked. So after all I wasn’t tricked in to buying the phone card. A full 20,000 riyals appeared on the card.

Hamid was really nice, he asked me to come inside the office and wait as it was warmer once I was done calling my friends.

I spoke with Ali from HC and fortunately he was free and he said he will be at the bus station at 9:30am.

I spoke with another friend who was supposed to be in Esfahan but was in Tehran when I called. He suggested Amir Kabir to be a good and reasonable guest house.

I met Ali at the bus terminal. He is a really great guy, spent a lot of time with me and he is not the conservative Muslim you would find. He and I were pretty much in the same frequency and within a couple of hours I felt like I had known him for years. It was like being with one of my old buddies at home I could have said whatever I wanted and it was ok and we also happened to think the same things.

I said to Ali this is my situation, we need to find a place to change TC’s, find a bookshop read a guide book and find a cheap hotel and mentioned Amir Kabir. (AK)

We went by bus to AK. This is the first time I have travelled in an Iranian local bus. Buses are very comfortable like British buses and the seating arrangement is also similar.

At AK they said a dorm bed would be 30,000 about USD3.5 but it was full and that I could take a single room for 70,000 approx USD7.5/=. I left my baggage there and said if a dorm becomes vacant by evening I will take it. Since it was still before 12pm and people check out at 12pm I still had hope in getting a dorm bed.

The people at AK agreed to change my TC’s but the rate was 7000 riyals per USD. Day light robbery you call this.

We walked into many banks and no one accepted TC’s. On our way to another bank this guy approached us and he agreed to change the TC’s (black market I take it). He offered me IRA8000/= per USD when banks were offering IRA9100/= for USD100/= notes. Well this is the price one pays for not having cash. What I do not understand is on www.oanda.com the exchange rate for Riyals per USD was 9500/= and in Quetta the Buhari exchange people gave me IRA8850/= per USD.

Oh by the way Iranian prices are no more in Iranian Riyals they are called “Tuman” where 1 Tuman’s equals 10 IRA’s.

Well it’s obvious but I will state it again, if anyone is travelling to Iran please have sufficient USD, GBP or Euro cash. Do not rely on TC’s although it is safe this country doesn’t accept them.

So I changed USD40/=. I wanted to change more but thought I will do the same in Tehran and hope for a better rate as it is the capital. (only to learn when I got there I was completely stuck as even the black market didn’t exist there).

After the financial situation was sorted we walked about to find a book shop to find a guide book to find a cheaper hotel. It is quite difficult to find a book shop selling English books here.

We went to this shopping complex in an area known as “In front of the Abbasi hotel” and finally we found a bookshop and checked the lonely planet guide book. Well believe it or not AK is the cheapest place. Ali warned me of this before as he said the price AK gave was quite cheap but after getting used to paying nothing more than USD2.5 over the past few months paying USD3.5-7 was like taking a piece of flesh out of me to pay so much in Iran. Anyway I had come to terms with it and I was ok to pay that. Then Ali said why don’t we get on the Internet and look in HC to see if you can find a member who would be willing to keep me.

We did just that and it was a very good idea. We found an internet place which cost about 10,000 per hour. Internet in Iran is still mostly dialup and no ADSL connections.

I logged on to HC and got about 6 numbers of members in Esfahan who were willing to keep members but I managed to only speak with one and that was Hadi and he was very joyous and said yeah no problem you can stay with me. He said he was out of town at the moment but to call him around 6pm and that he will meet me somewhere. Hadi agreed to keep me without knowing which country I was from, what language I spoke my age nothing at all. This is what really amazes me with the people so far.

Now that the accommodation was sorted out Ali and I walked to the Imam square also known as the Imam Khomeini Square. We went to the only tea / hubbly bubbly shop at the square. The view of the square was quite nice and I tried the hubbly bubbly too...

Saw the Si-O-Seh Pol Bridge. Si-O-Seh means 33, essentially there are 33 arches.

Afterwards we walked towards Chahar Bagh Street which is the Oxford Street in Iran and you can see all the young girls and boys being very busy shopping, window shopping and walking about.

We had lunch at one of the Darbar’s kind of restaurants there unfortunately the prices are not as cheap as Darbar’s. At this point I think a good meal in India (i.e. Aloo Masala, Dhar Curry and 5 Roti’s cost half a dollar while here some a chicken kebab with some bread cost almost two and a half dollars.

We kept walking on Chahar Bagh Street until about 6.30pm where I met Hadi. I was transferred from one HC member to another like an aircraft from one Air Traffic Control to another.

On our way to Hadi’s home we stopped by at the following places.

First, Hadi stopped by at the Khaju Bridge and showed me the two tigers on either side and how each pair of eyes were glowing when you look from the other side even though there wasn’t a light in the tigers eyes. Apparently the Khaju Bridge would be destroyed if there is no water it seems. The validity of this is questionable however the architecture or the construction is such that if there is no water it will get destroyed.

Both the Si-O-Seh Pol and the Khaju bridges are places where people hang out, lover hang out as well and you can sometimes see couples holding hands. You get little tea shops nearby and people smoking hubbly bubbly in the area. Vehicles are not allowed on these bridges and you are allowed only to walk.

Afterwards, we stopped at this ice cream place. The ice cream was out of this world. It was a light yellow colour probably due to the saffron that is mixed, a piece of chocolate and a piece of fat which I conveniently threw away. It was extremely tasty.

On our way home we stopped at Amir Kabir’s and they said that they have a dorm room and had kept it for me. When I said that I didn’t want it they said they kept it for me and if I am not taking it I should pay for it. Hadi asked what I wanted to do and I said I would love to go to his place than staying in a hotel because the purpose of this trip was to meet local people as often as I could and not just hang out in a hotel.

I went to Hadi’s place, met his mum and dad. Hadi is an amazing guy; he had guests staying over at his house. This goes to show hospitable he is. He called up his friend Ehsan and arranged for me to stay at his place. Unbelievable I must say. Later on Ehsan came and picked me up and we went to one of his friend’s house. His friends were having something like a prayer meeting it appeared to me and I was for a minute wondering whether I was in some terrorist meeting. To see these guys meet once a week and have a chat on a certain topic ranging from religion to politics to economincs.

Today they were having a religious conversation. Anyway they were quite amazed to see a foreigner and asked me various questions in Finglish (Mixture of Farsi and English) as only Ehsan could manage to speak a little English. They started asking me questions on my belief in god and how Islam was the better religion. Thankfully I am non-reacting person. The discussion took place with everyone seated on the floor, this is their cutlreu. Once the discussion was over we all sat on the floor and had dinner. I ate Lavash, Omelette and Cheese (aka Paneer).

Later on they wanted to talk some more about religion with me so they took me to another friends house. Now the time is 11:30pm and still I am not sure where I am going to sleep. I am being transported lock-stock and barrel. We went to another friend’s house as this guy spoke better English.

He also began asking my belief in god and asked me what I was and I said well I follow the Buddhist way of living. He either hadn’t heard of Buddha before or pretended not to know and he said Buddha with very bad pronunciations intentionally or otherwise. Nevertheless I kept quiet. The atmosphere was still jovial and everyone was calling me as Mr. Vaj jokingly. They were showing me various Islamic scriptures and parts of the Koran.

They got me to recite various Islamic prayers in their effort to make me a Muslim and I was wondering at which stage they would try to circumcise me.

After I had read the Islamic prayers they said now I am a Muslim. I didn’t know that conversion was this easy and why people go through so much trouble and giving them so much paid with surgical procedures.

Finally I was told that I was going to spend the night here and I decided to take a shower almost after 4 days now. The hot shower felt absolutely brilliant and felt so good.

It was quite a pillar to post situation but it was an experience meeting so many Iranians at once.

I put my sleeping bag on the floor and prepared myself to sleep. The Iranian culture is that most people sleep on the floor. Around 1:30am I put my head down and fell asleep.

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Comments

[deleted_49612]

Congratulations on your conversion. Just kidding. :D