Blogs from Iran, Middle East - page 51

Hamid had offered to take me with him on a trip to Bushehr on the Red Sea coast but he slipped in the showerand injured his back, so instead I went and bought a new pair of pants and a couple of T-shirts, visited a traditional restaurant, the bazaar, a museum and a mosque. I moved from the apartment to a smaller cheaper hotel that evening and settled in to watch the world cup soccer matches with the guys in the hotel. Over the next few days I checked out the local restaurants found all the goodies at the bazaar I wished to buy and basically took it easy and got my ticket refunded. On the 11th it was time to pack up my bags and my new purchases and head to the airport, say farewell ... read more

Arrived in Esfahan on a back to back National holiday for the Iranians cause its the anniversary of their founder. Hence, every mosque, palace or any place that needed tickets was closed. Explored the bazaar , Imam Square and the Bridges of Esfahan instead. Esfahan has good weather! Its kinda windy and cool. The bazaar is pretty interesting selling things from carpets to camel bone ornaments. I realise bazaars in Iran are just huge mega shopping places. Really interesting with tons and tons of things they sell. And their bazaars are usually huge ( few km large). Got sucked into a carpet shop. I feel Persian carpets are really beautiful and are really investments but too bad I can't afford it.... The river and its bridges were pretty ....Its really nice taking an evening stroll ... read more

Took a short trip to Kashan on route to Tehran as i head back to the border. Abyaneh was nice with the little Red houses .....The local women dress in pretty colourful clothings different from the other cities. Abayneh is at the foot of a mountain ...sslightly elevated giving the area a cool and crisp weather. Nice scenery out here with some really nice tall trees...(pine trees? not sure) at the end of a short walk, there is also a mini water fall ....pretty refreshing to drink from it. Guess this is a weekend getaway place for Iranians. My guide was pretty nice and for lunch we went to Kashan and ate some really nice Kebab. Although i'm starting to get a bit sick of Kebab, this one was really good so no complains....haha Kashan ... read more

Ali and Mahshid asked me to stay with them while I was in Tehran, but I thought I was intruding on their their kindness (misguidely it turns out) so I returned to the hotel off Jomhuri Street to get rid of my bag and spent much of the rest of the day arranging plane tickets and cancelling others, it seems I will get a full refund for the Kuwait flight I missed, how good is that. In the evening after visiting a Netcafe, Khosoro rang me at the hotel and invited me to leave the hotel and stay at his place with him and his wife Marnia, it was 9.30pm in the evening however so I begged off. He came instead to the hotel in the morning and we visited some of Tehran's major museum's, interestingly ... read more

Hamedan is a pleasant, green city with fantastic views up to the Zagros Mountains, with Alvand peak dominating the skyline. The Farsisch Guesthouse was really welcoming and the 2 crazy old men who run it made us feel very at home, giving us washing powder for our laundry and helping to tie a rope on the roof to dry it, even if they were mumbling stuff about “Hitler, good” and “Britain, hmmm Bobby Sands ha-ha-ha”. It was Friday and so it seemed everyone in Iran had gone for a picnic. We met Majid in the guesthouse, he is a student in Tehran but was working doing civil engineering and surveying for a new railway that is going to be built pretty much along the line that we had taken as a muddy short cut in the ... read more