Blogs from Iran, Middle East - page 52

Stayed in the Estaghal hotel. Was over charged compared to what was written in the lonely planet. i guess its because the cab driver gets a comission for beinging me to the hotel. And the comission comes from me. Grrrrr..but the place was clean and nice so guess it was ok. Booked a Persepolis Tour with Pars for just $8. At th office, i met a Singaporean lady ! Solo traveller also but she was been in Iran for 3 months! She is an English teacher whom i guess has fallen in love with Iran. Said she wants to learn Farsi and prob will come back pretty soon. Pleasant surprise to meet a singaporean here. Had the afternoon to myself so i set about exploring the town. The city of Shiraz is much more peaceful ... read more

When I was in Shiraz last time Hassan and I met an Iranian girl named Mozghan, she offered to show me around town if I returned so I sent her an email and said I would return for a couple of days and she offered to meet me at the airport. The plane was delayed at the airport in Tehran for nearly three hours so I was suprised to see her there when I arrived, she arranged the cab to the hotel where I deposited my bag and then took me to the castle in Shiraz and then the Bazaar. After walking around for an hour or so looking at souvenirs and having to repeat myself constantly as people here have difficulties with my accent we went to a traditional tea house and tried some local ... read more

We left Tabriz early in the morning and headed out of the city and around the western side of Mt Sabalan, the huge volcano south of Tabriz, and down the eastern shore of Orumiye salt lake. After making good progress we stopped for a mid-morning snack and encountered our first Iranian hospitality when we met Leila, a student of English literature, who bought us kebabs. She spoke excellent English with a strong American accent and seemed fairly annoyed when the guy from the kebab shop wanted her to ask us about our views on Iran’s World Cup chances and what was our opinion about Iran’s nuclear programme? She wanted to know our views about Iran and seemed surprised we only had positive ones, telling us it was OK to say what we really thought. The Kebabs ... read more

The trip to Esphahan was initially uneventful, an early start was required as we had 500km to cover, Hassan drove like a maniac as he had to be in Isfahan at a certain time. Just after the Yadz turn off he got a call from the agent saying the stupid American's wished to fly to Yazd instead and should be at the airport to collect them at 3pm. Well there was no way in hell he could take me to Esphahan and then pick them up on time and for a moment I thought I would be unloaded on the roadside. This did not happen over the course of 3 or 4 days I have found him to be a kind and honest person and believe we have developed a true friendship, he proceed to drive ... read more

I knew nothing about the Islamic Republic of Iran before this trip, and although Robin knew a little more the country was largely a mystery for both of us. It was also something of an enigma - we knew one story about the country based on news, history and political impressions from the west. We had already learnt from our experience in Syria and other countries not to trust these however. The stories from other travellers and Iranian people themselves, i.e. people who had actually been there and didn’t have a political axe to grind, painted a very different picture. This was partly what made us so keen to visit the place, to find out what the real Iran was actually like. We had been given a 1997 guide book and I was a little apprehensive ... read more