تهران ایران نیست Tehran is not Iran

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Tehran is not Iran




I am travelling by bus and cars through many small towns and cities in high mountainous region of Khorasan province that are supposed to be Iran but appear to be so different and strange to me. Today I made it to a small boarder town in the high northern mountains of Iran called Dar-e-gaz near Ghuchan. I attempted to cross the border into Turkmenistan but strangely they required a visa to enter the country even with my American passport. So I had to backtrack 5 hours to a larger city (Mashhad) where there is a Turkmenistan consulate and will go there tomorrow at 9 am hoping to get the visa the same day and continue. The weather is coldish but good, I have been eating odd food and miss a good salad as I can't trust eating vegetables or salad in small town restaurants in a fear of getting sick. Every so often the accents change from Farsi to Turkish and many other dialects, but I get by well. The experience of seeing different lifestyle and cultures is so amazing. The influence of religion is so vividly and deeply rooted in everything around here. It is so sad to see what religion has done and what has become of this country. Young men are hopelessly hanging around in the dark and dusty neighborhoods in the evenings and have no idea about the outside world. The small old black and white TV in my room in this only hotel in town shows nothing but religious lectures by bearded incompetent speakers. TV shows are about young people competing in reciting the Quran and the bearded judges evaluating their tone (تلاوت) and accent for a grand prize of 100,ooo tomans ($30). The reciting of Quran from the loudspeakers of the mosque's towers wakes you up at the crack of dawn before the daylight and is heard many times throughout the day. In small towns women are generally unseen except the black shadows and Chadors that are spotted here and there. In my conversation with people, when they realize I live in the US, they often ask: " آقا زندگی در آمریکا راحتر از اینجا ست؟ " ---"Sir, is life in America more comfortable than here?" I often avoid a direct answer.

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Comments

[Wanderer of the earth]

Wi-Fi
I love the wi-fi posted in roman letters! That's hilarious. What odd foods have you been eating?