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Published: June 20th 2009
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Persepolis
Most ancient Iranian site Having left Esfahan behind, visiting mosques, wonderful bridges straddling a river with no water and having eaten some traditional Iranian food (apart from the ever present kebabs!) we headed south to Shiraz of grape fame - isn’t it odd that they are a nation of teetotallers. Although we were spending two nights there we only had one full day to explore and half of that was spent at the Iranian Department for Aliens (yes really) extending our visas as we discovered they were due to expire a few hours before we were due to leave the country - a hefty fine for breaking this law! It was another beautiful town and we spent the afternoon in the most brilliant bazaar which was heaving with locals buying very sparkly and exotic fabrics - one wonders what goes on behind closed doors!!
From Shiraz we went to Persepolis, Iran’s most important historical site built some 2500 years ago. The ruins are vast and magnificent and we could have spent longer there had it not been for the 40°+ temperatures with no shade.
Next stop was north again towards Yazd a beautiful Silk Road town in an oasis between two deserts. We had a
Persepolis
more of the same! couple of days there exploring the old town of low mud and clay walled houses all huddled together joined by a maze of alleyways - we did get lost a few times but the locals are very friendly and helpful. There were also the usual array of mosaic tiled mosques which never fail to impress! We haven’t yet seen any camels but we ate camel in Yazd - and very delicious it was too (apologies to the vegetarians reading this).
We headed north again to Tehran where we had been warned about huge demonstrations post election. We were warned not to get amongst large gatherings of people - that turned out to be quite ironic! We arrived on the outskirts of this manic city at about 4.30 in the afternoon and it was about 8.30 by the time we arrived in our hotel. We were aware that the streets and pavements were thronged with people walking with a purpose and as we got towards the centre of the city, a stop/start sort of journey, we could go no further, the crowds were so massive that traffic wasn’t moving and Kristina not being a modest little vehicle was sticking out like
Bush camp
Camping in a park (on police instruction) cooking dinner with help of locals a sore thumb! We didn’t feel under any threat at all, we were surrounded by thousands of people on all sides but we had the windows wide open all the time and everybody was coming and talking to us and asking us to tell their story and pleased that we felt able to come to their country. Some hoped we were reporters so we could tell the world their story. We felt quite privileged to be there and had a strong feeling that perhaps we were seeing history in the making. We understand that Kristina together with Steve’s elbow even made it on to Channel 4 news and CNN. He has been having calls about it ever since. Eventually the police made a road through for us and a very generous motorcyclist led us through the quieter streets to our hotel. We appreciate there has been violence and deaths but all the people we saw were extremely peaceful and kept throwing us sweets and not once did we feel any threat.
Tehran is manic and the biggest danger we faced was crossing the road or taking a taxi ride. We visited the National Jewel Museum (the Crown Jewels of Tehran).
Kristina
Running repairs The opulence is unimaginable but not allowed to photograph any of it obviously!
We left three of our group behind in Tehran (the comedian Glen, commandant Mike and Fiona his wife) as they have not been granted Turkmenistan visas - we will meet up with them in Uzbekistan. It took 2 days driving to reach the Turkmenistan border and it took 5 ½ hours to get us and the truck through the border - we were pretty well the only people there, so hate to think what it might be like if they had a rush on! Ashgabat is the most bizarre city we have ever been in. It is very modern, having been destroyed by an earthquake in 1948 and our hotel is probably the only building which isn’t white. It’s very clean, clinical and pristine and we’ve hardly seen anyone. There are massive squares and parks with nobody there. We are having a bit of luxury though in a beautiful hotel with a swimming pool which we have sampled needless to say. This however will be followed tomorrow with camping in the desert for a few days.
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diana levett
non-member comment
Dear Margaret and James - I feel like you won't be the only ones to have gained from this trip , we are learning so much about the places you are visiting and why you wanted to go there. I could just do with some sparkly fabric to tone in with my wedding outfit!. We are relieved you are away from Tehran though, our esteemed BBC Correspondents are now talking about the smell of tear gas and further trouble. Can't believe you've been gone a month. It's the longest day here and rather dull for sitting out to watch the sunset. Lots of love Di and John