Blogs from West, Iran, Middle East - page 4

The city of Esfahan has been the highlight of our short time in Iran so far. Emam square is the second largest in the world after Tiananmen square in China. The architecture is incredible, it's too bad they didn't light it up very well at night. Our favorite part of Esfahan was walking along the river by the old bridges that were built back to the 1600's. The pathways and parks were full of families setting up their picnics for breaking the fast at sunset. So many strangers approached us simply to find out where we were from and what we thought of Iran. All of them greeted us with smiles and good wishes. An older lady even offered to take us to her home for dinner. It's really too bad we had to leave the ... read more

After leaving Hamid and his brother in Dezful I got in a taxi which then took me to a shuttle taxi stop. Not really a stop but where 5 cars were parked underneath a tree on a siding beside the road. My intention was to get to Khorramabad which had a famous fort above the city. Fortunately Hamid had relayed my destination and instructions to the taxi driver who then relayed them to a shuttle driver. Amusing the local drivers somebody dumped my bad into the boot of a care and told me to sit in the back. I got the poor seat option again and was put in second next to young guy with a bandage around his head. A third man got in front and then the fourth got in next to me. We ... read more

In the care of the kings of hospitality It is safe to say that my time in Bushehr had refreshed me; the warm hospitality; a clean environment; the unexpected social gatherings; time away from paid hotels, the dirt and concrete pillows and the unknown content/cleanliness of bedding. It was also a holiday away from my own ‘holiday’ the not-really-doing-anything in particular; the lack of any need to do ‘tourist’ stuff. It was great. But my visa was for a month only and I was already beyond the half way point, so regardless of the genuine (or not) invitations to stay longer I had to continue my journey north bound to the ‘deeply historic’ (Lonely Planet) city of Shushtar. But before I left, 'Fatima's' sister ‘Farahnaz’ surprised me by a farewell gift of an embroidered colourful ‘ ... read more

Chang and I arrived in a hot Esfahan in the middle of the afternoon. We entered Kavan bus terminal to find out the departure times from Esfahan. But if you don’t read Farsi (which is in Arabic script) things are difficult to find in Iran. Luckily we immediately saw a desk manned by young women with headscarves and copious amounts of makeup. She spoke decent English and helped us on our way. However, outside the terminal were the wolves - otherwise known as taxi drivers. Surrounding us as they jostled with each other and shouting out English words whilst trying to grab our bags; my guard was immediately up. This time I kept quiet and watched Yang do the talking. One guy started off by offering 5,000 Tomans (5 dollars) to our hotel before adding “very ... read more

(Dienstag) Nun, ich bin im Iran. Alles ist hier furchtbar normal. Die Einreise ist entspannend-unspanned. Nur eins fehlt: Mein Rucksack. All meine Befürchtungen werden war. Er ist in Kuwait oder Dubai, oder, inshallah, in Lampukistan. Würde man in Europa jetzt wohl einen hübschen Bericht ausfüllen, fällt es hier schon schwer, jemanden zu finden, der Englisch kann und sich einem annimmt.Mit Hilfe eines netten Grenzpolizisten und dem Iran-Air-Station-Manager kommen wir zu dem Schluss, dass mein Gepäck wohl am Donnerstag Abend in Shiraz sein könnte. Eher ein frustrierendes Erlebnis. Ich wünschtre, ich wäre Ryanair geflogen und hätte mich dazu gezwungen, alles feinsäuberlich in mein Handgepäck zu stopfen. Ansonsten mache ich das beste aus dem Abend in Esfahan. Die Stadt ist gewaltig, und das was ich im Dunkeln sehe, ist allemal vielversprechend. „Esfahan ist die Hälfte der Welt“, heißt ... read more