Blogs from Iran, Middle East - page 45

By coincedence, Japanese and Persian have identical phrases which are completely different in meaning. Hence, a little Japanese dialogue with a fellow JP tourist could result to disaster. Two Japanese women ran up to me, freaking out when a bunch of curious Iranian locals pointed at them shouting 'Shinei! Shinei!' - they were merely saying 'Chinese?' but in Japanese, this is an imperative command meaning 'Die!'. In the marketplace, some Japanese tourists and I noticed the bizarre form of watermelons on display. to this, we said the phrase 'Hendawane~' (meaning 'how odd!'). Hearing our conversation, the fruit vendor smiled and gave us three watermelons for free. we were puzzled, but accepted them anyway. Other fruit vendors nearby did the same, and some of them decided to just throw them at us like bloody hotcakes. One barely ... read more

I doubted my ears when I first heard a 'Careless Whisper' ringtone go off in Iran. The owner of the phone was not a lovelorn western woman, but a local man who had this uncanny resemblance to Omar Sharif (plus 30 kilograms). During my few weeks in Iran, I would hear George Michael's famous tune (polyphonic and mono) ring accompanied by a grizzly 'Bale?/Yes?' of a 40+ unshaven local. I decided to look into this, as my curiosity spasmed knowing about the western music ban imposed in the country. Was this a sony/samsung/motorola trend amongst all imported phones? No, a man happily responded it was of his own choice and he downloaded it when he went to Turkey. Everyone knew it, to my shock. The carpet seller, the woman in the heavy chador and the ... read more

First I want to say, i am currenly in Usbekistan and I left Iran one week ago. During this week I crossed Turkmenistan and visited the deserted Aral Sea. But this will be in the next topic :-) I didn't write for such a long time, because in Iran, like in China and some other totalitarian states, internet is censored and I couldn't access the travelblog site. ... read more

I always knew my headscarf would never be approved by the government, but never thought I'd be dragged into a room by kurdish girls who'd strip me of my clothes and dress me up in local formal garb! On the way north, we stopped by a little village called Sanjud, who'd rarely seen foreigners. Let alone a mere toilet stop... Farsi is still the official language, and I asked if we could take photographs...a girl told me that all of us foreigners were invited to her little home for chai (tea)! and voila, we walked in...tho it bloody cost me my clothes. I screamed in surprise. Entering an open room with a handsome carpet, I examined the contents of a Kurdish home. A central living room containing no western furniture, but cushions all around the ... read more

Kurdistan. You're ready to take more sexy daily snapshots. But locals drop everything they're doing just to see you get off your bus. Their jaws drop when you light a cigarette. All school classes come to a halt as kids pour out of their classrooms to see if you're really a fellow human being. Masses of youngens approach you for your autograph while others timidly just snap out there camera phones. Only if you're Eastern Asian in Iranian Kurdistan. I've never been stared at like I had a tulip growing on top of my head, but anything's possible here I learned, alongside uber-cheap gasoline, tulips and illegal whiskeys. Feeling like Elephant Man tiring of crowds, I was 360 degree camera-phone conscious with kids tearing at my clothes while they mimicked Street Fighter Oriental 'Achooooooooooooou' karate ... read more