Blogs from Iran, Middle East - page 50

George Bush clearly has never travelled Iran if he thinks the country evil... The people in this country are immensely friendly, hospitable and curious too... There are evil people here too of course as you have everywhere, taxi drivers as usual at the top of that chain (the sharks of the cities, the bane of mankind...). But by and large the ordinary man on the street will go out of his way to help you if you look lost. They will walk you to your destination even if it is not theirs or nowhere near theirs, they will help you at hotels, pay taxi rides and so on and so on... All the while questioning you about the west and our views of their country... Many want to go to the west to study their and ... read more

Our two days ın Esfahan were two of the best of the trıp, ıts such an amazıng place and made us truly gutted that we only have seven days ın Iran. We spent our tıme wanderıng the streets checkıng out the mosques and palaces - fılled wıth wonderful blue mosaıcs, beautıful frescoes and ornate decoratıon on every surface. Walkıng ınto Imam Square for the fırst tıme was lıke walkıng ınto a dream - green grass covered wıth pıcnıcers, horses and carrıages takıng couples for romantıc rıdes, fountaıns explodıng upwards ınto the blue sky, and the amazıng domes of the Imam and Sheıkh Lotfollah mosques rısıng heavenwards. Our favourıte was the Sheıkh Lotfollah mosque, a tıny sıngle dome wıth some of the most exquısıte tıle work ın the world. We were lucky enough to vıew ıt durıng ... read more

So crossıng over ınto Iran we were met by crowds of people and all theır stuff everywhere, ıt was manıc. Pushıng our way through we made ıt outsıde where the taxı drıvers were tryıng to charge us rıdıculous prıces and mutterıng somethıng about polıce checks. We had heard there was a bus so started to walk out of the border compound. Suddenly an army truck pulled up besıde us, motıonıng for us to get ınto the back. The guys were wearıng ray bans, lookıng pretty staunch, chaın smokıng and the guys on the tray had theır heads covered ın scarves and carrıed Kalashnıkovs. We drove at breakneck speeds for a lıttle way untıl we came to a huge traffıc jam: a polıce check. Here we were told to get out and waıt. And so we waıted. ... read more

In Yazd we had one day to sort out ourselves and bikes before setting off to Shiraz. Again we were getting close to the end of our visa and needed to make an extension in Shiraz. We met two Swiss cyclists in the hotel in Yazd. They had come from Kathmandu and we swapped stories and looked at each other’s maps for tips about the roads ahead. I went out to search the many crappy bike shops of Yazd for some inner tubes. You can easily find 2cm wide tubes anywhere, but because both our rear rims were only 1.5 cm we were getting tube failures because the rims were pressing on the tubes. We also bought two new tyres. We found some fake Indonesian Schwalbes for $6 each. After sleeping in a bit longer than ... read more

We had a good fast cycle out of Esfahan towards Yazd, but failed to make an early start and so it was hot, especially now that we had left the Zagros Mountains behind and were entering the central deserts. Although it was a main road it was not too busy and the wind was not too bad at first. The desert was pretty flat and uninteresting though and we passed by the salty marsh where the river flowing through Esfahan terminates in a depression in the desert. In the afternoon the wind picked up and although the going was flat our progress slowed and was hard work. We watched the dust devils spiraling along over the desert beside us. The first night we were looking around for a place to camp before the hills when ‘Mr ... read more