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Published: April 25th 2007
Shrine of Imam Khoumeini
Still in construction, even after 17 years...definitely an eye-catcher though. I cannot remember the previous night very well due to the 13 hour haul that obliterated my mind, along with a 5.5 hour time difference - the 0.5 was something i wrestled with most.
But my first day in Tehran proved jollier than expected. We were to leave Tehran for later on in the trip and we went on our little bus ride down to visit Rayen, Qom and Mashad.
Rayen (10kms south of Tehran) was where the Imam Khoumeini shrine - it was our first time witnessing the abundant blue-green domes decorated with elaborate tiles. Despite the fact that it is still under construction since 1989, it still is very impressive and quite a shock to see the gold minarets and huge blue domes from the distance.
here, i was fully acquainted with my darling friend, Kaori, who is from Hiroshima. She was quite a traveller herself, looking much younger than my 21 years. Yet we bonded over cigarettes and she told me about the rarity of smokers in Japanese tour groups (very surprising). Anyhow, we would end up spending most of the time laughing about the gossiping old women who'd congregate in someone's hotel room
Rayen - black chadors crowding about
Going close to the glass as i could, the women poured all over me and danced around when I tested my limited Farsi. after a day of sightseeing, not realizing the walls are so thin that we could hear every bloody word in the room next door.
Righty ho. It was our first time witnessing a sea of women in black chadors coming together in great numbers in front of the glass casket case. They jumped all over us, attempting their little English and trying to figure out where we had come from. It was quite a sight, seeing these Shiite Muslims sitting around the shrine complex just chilling as if enjoying a sunday brunch on the grass, or playing with their kids inside the shrine itself. I did not see majority of them praying, as it seemed like they were speaking about local gossip or discussing shopping amongst one another. i guess my image of Iranian Shiite Muslims started to soften a little more as the trip went by.
Our Iranian guide was an impressive walking encyclopedia, who'd travelled to numerous international destinations throughout his life. Still in his early 40s, he's mastered a hoard of languages and continued to impress us with his fluent japanese (including phrases not even I could understand that easily). Kaori and I cornered him
within the shrine complex
Entering from segregated entrances, the Japanese women and I finally figured it out. at kashan later on to ask if he had a Japanese wife - haha - to our surprise, he said otherwise. the man's full of mystery!
His name was Seyed, he was originally from the northern region of Azerbaijan which explained his pale complexion. He would escort us throughout our trip in Iran, and the knowledge he shared with us in these two-weeks was most valuable. I learned a great deal from this gentleman, whom I would later come to befriend.
So we moved onto Qom, 130kms south of Rayen. This was a religious site with the tomb complex of Fatimeh (quite a sight as you can see), but also famous for the 'Sofan' biscuits made from saffron, rosewater and pistachios. Mighty delicious, if I may add....
And then we made our way towards the town of Kashan, which apparently means 'Here it is!' (it was a natural oasis back in the day). We later learned from Seyed that those nations ending with '-an' is actually Persian in origin, meaning 'the place of'. (ie. Afghanistan is the 'place of the Afghans'), and the names were invented back when the Persia was 75 times its current size.
Imam Khoumeini shrine - blue dome
Iranian architecture unchanging throughout time...sighhh
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