When you imagine Iran, what comes to mind? Take a moment to think.
What about the people? The terrain? Culture? Food? What about safety?
Before I came into Iran, I imagined a baron desert with little mud huts and grumpy people eating goat stew and avoiding bombs and firefights in the streets.
Rubbish.
Well partly rubbish. There are deserts but there are also lush rainforests, mountains and lakes. There are cloud shrouded hills and remains of impressive Persian cities and fortifications that must have been amazing and daunting 2,500 years ago. They are fairly awesome now! The people are among the friendliest we have ever met on the planet. There is nothing too big or small you can ask of them and they wish for nothing in return. They eat delicious food ranging from chicken kebabs, camel steaks and as many cakes and sweets you can eat. No goat stew in sight. The parts of Iran we have been to are the safest places you could imagine. We have been freely walking around at night in city suburbs or wandering through villages that have rarely seen westerners. The most hostile experiences we have had is being stared at because we aren't Iranian, me getting shooed away as I tried to walk into a women's only mosque and a creepy man trying to steal a kiss from Gill!
So now that we have dispelled all your pre-conceptions, we can start telling you all about it.
Masuleh is a multi-tiered town on a mountain side and was our first major stop. We stayed there for 3 nights and experienced a frenzy of clothes buying as all the women on the trip sought to expand their wardrobes and get something more "fashionable". We went hiking up in the mountains into the cloud layer and through ferns that were taller than all of us.
We stayed in apartments, crammed onto the floor, but there were clean toilets and a fridge and even a flat screen TV. As our Farsi isn't great, the TV wasn't much use until someone very clever discovered something. They worked out that an external hard drive could be plugged in and ran through it, and therefore we had a near limitless supply of films. So we made chocolate banana pancakes and had a movie night. It was brilliant. Sprawled out over the chairs, sofa and floor, we watched a whole evenings worth of films.
The morning after our film bonanza, and just before we set off on a drive day, we awoke to an awful smell. Somehow, overnight, our hot water generator had malfunctioned and leaked liquid diesel all over the floor. We couldn't open the windows and doors fast enough. The smell burnt our nostrils and stunk out our clothes. I got some on my pillow so had to spend the rest of the drive day holding it out the window to power blast the smell out. In hindsight, we were properly lucky that the whole place didn't set alight. But anyway, a slightly bittersweet departure from Masuleh!
Our next main place to go was the city of Esfahan. Staying in a hostel that hadn't been updated in years, this is when we really started to get a taste of the real Iran. Our digs were beds crammed into a room with 1 communal toilet and shower for each sex.
Accommodation apart, the city in amazing. Our first night started with pizza that outwardly, despite which flavour you ordered, looked the same as all the others but was packed full of filling and tasted delicious. The city is home to an amazing bazaar, magnificent mosques and ornate bridges. The square is the second biggest in the world behind Tian'anmen Square in China. We went to the old palace and explored the music room that was decorated in a hollowed out plaster design. The mosques were huge and were over-the-top ornate with every inch on wall and ceiling covered. You could stand in the centre of the dome and if you made even the tiniest noise, it would be amplified and reverberate around the whole building. We walked the bridges, ate on rooftop restaurants and even went to shaking minarets where if one is shaken, the other one does too, all by itself. But apparently 6 months ago, they stopped. Shaking them so now they are just plain minarets just like all the others. Needless to say, this was a bit rubbish so we didn't bother paying to get in and see them. So we went to the grand bazaar instead. As we walked the maze of potters and carpet sellers, a local started to chat with us. He gave us a tour of the tunnels and took us up onto the roof and to the locals area. He showed us how the traditional Esfahan carpets are printed and then said goodbye and wished us a good time in Iran. No money or payment was uttered, he just did it out of the kindness of his heart.
Later that evening, we sat down and ate curry on carpets on the square with two students who wanted to practice their English called David and Mustufa. They told us all about the peoples beliefs versus the government. There were signs saying "down with Israel" and "down with USA" and pictures of burning american flags. Apparently, no local thinks this. It is a propaganda campaign by the government but no local we met had any radical views. Everyone was so excited at the prospect of change as that day, the new "reasonably moderate" president took charge with promises to improve relations with the rest of the world and stop censorship (which is the reason it has been ages since we last updated our blog, went on BBC, Facebook or even Google!).
Next we visited what was the biggest city in Persia, Persepolis. Persepolis is a mass of columns and palaces and a Petra-style temple built into a rock face. The intricate detail was still visible 2,500 years since the city was sacked and deserted. This place made it easy to imagine how formidable the Persians were. But by now, the heat was starting to rise. 40 degrees by day and 30 degrees by night and our full length clothing and Gill's headscarf it was starting to get unbearable.
After the city, we went to the old town of Yazd. This is reportedly the oldest city with the world and has apparently been inhabited continuously for the previous 7,000 years. This was a place with more mosques and situated around a labyrinth of streets and deserted markets. But the best bit, air con. Not true air con, but coolish air in our room. We ate amazing food like beef stew in pomegranate and walnut sauce, aubergine casserole and birthday cake! Gill had her birthday while we were in Yazd so we had a tea party with lots and lots of cakes. Possibly the sweetest thing I have ever tasted and enough e-numbers to keep everyone bouncing off the walls for the rest of the day!
The next morning, our group split. We lost about 15 people to Goa as either they didn't get their Pakistani visa or just didn't fancy it. Karen and Will have been telling us all the horror stories of how we are going to be camping in corrupted police compounds as we dash through Baluchistan. Oh well no turning back now as off towards the boarder we go!
Written on 9/8/13
What about the people? The terrain? Culture? Food? What about safety?
Before I came into Iran, I imagined a baron desert with little mud huts and grumpy people eating goat stew and avoiding bombs and firefights in the streets.
Rubbish.
Well partly rubbish. There are deserts but there are also lush rainforests, mountains and lakes. There are cloud shrouded hills and remains of impressive Persian cities and fortifications that must have been amazing and daunting 2,500 years ago. They are fairly awesome now! The people are among the friendliest we have ever met on the planet. There is nothing too big or small you can ask of them and they wish for nothing in return. They eat delicious food ranging from chicken kebabs, camel steaks and as many cakes and sweets you can eat. No goat stew in sight. The parts of Iran we have been to are the safest places you could imagine. We have been freely walking around at night in city suburbs or wandering through villages that have rarely seen westerners. The most hostile experiences we have had is being stared at because we aren't Iranian, me getting shooed away as I tried to walk into a women's only mosque and a creepy man trying to steal a kiss from Gill!
Masuleh is a multi-tiered town on a mountain side and was our first major stop. We stayed there for 3 nights and experienced a frenzy of clothes buying as all the women on the trip sought to expand their wardrobes and get something more "fashionable". We went hiking up in the mountains into the cloud layer and through ferns that were taller than all of us.
We stayed in apartments, crammed onto the floor, but there were clean toilets and a fridge and even a flat screen TV. As our Farsi isn't great, the TV wasn't much use until someone very clever discovered something. They worked out that an external hard drive could be plugged in and ran through it, and therefore we had a near limitless supply of films. So we made chocolate banana pancakes and had a movie night. It was brilliant. Sprawled out over the chairs, sofa and floor, we watched a whole evenings worth of films.
The morning after our film bonanza, and just before we set off on a drive day, we awoke to an awful smell. Somehow, overnight, our hot water generator had malfunctioned and leaked liquid diesel all over the floor. We couldn't open the windows and doors fast enough. The smell burnt our nostrils and stunk out our clothes. I got some on my pillow so had to spend the rest of the drive day holding it out the window to power blast the smell out. In hindsight, we were properly lucky that the whole place didn't set alight. But anyway, a slightly bittersweet departure from Masuleh!
Our next main place to go was the city of Esfahan. Staying in a hostel that hadn't been updated in years, this is when we really started to get a taste of the real Iran. Our digs were beds crammed into a room with 1 communal toilet and shower for each sex.
Accommodation apart, the city in amazing. Our first night started with pizza that outwardly, despite which flavour you ordered, looked the same as all the others but was packed full of filling and tasted delicious. The city is home to an amazing bazaar, magnificent mosques and ornate bridges. The square is the second biggest in the world behind Tian'anmen Square in China. We went to the old palace and explored the music room that was decorated in a hollowed out plaster design. The mosques were huge and were over-the-top ornate with every inch on wall and ceiling covered. You could stand in the centre of the dome and if you made even the tiniest noise, it would be amplified and reverberate around the whole building. We walked the bridges, ate on rooftop restaurants and even went to shaking minarets where if one is shaken, the other one does too, all by itself. But apparently 6 months ago, they stopped. Shaking them so now they are just plain minarets just like all the others. Needless to say, this was a bit rubbish so we didn't bother paying to get in and see them. So we went to the grand bazaar instead. As we walked the maze of potters and carpet sellers, a local started to chat with us. He gave us a tour of the tunnels and took us up onto the roof and to the locals area. He showed us how the traditional Esfahan carpets are printed and then said goodbye and wished us a good time in Iran. No money or payment was uttered, he just did it out of the kindness of his heart.
Later that evening, we sat down and ate curry on carpets on the square with two students who wanted to practice their English called David and Mustufa. They told us all about the peoples beliefs versus the government. There were signs saying "down with Israel" and "down with USA" and pictures of burning american flags. Apparently, no local thinks this. It is a propaganda campaign by the government but no local we met had any radical views. Everyone was so excited at the prospect of change as that day, the new "reasonably moderate" president took charge with promises to improve relations with the rest of the world and stop censorship (which is the reason it has been ages since we last updated our blog, went on BBC, Facebook or even Google!).
Next we visited what was the biggest city in Persia, Persepolis. Persepolis is a mass of columns and palaces and a Petra-style temple built into a rock face. The intricate detail was still visible 2,500 years since the city was sacked and deserted. This place made it easy to imagine how formidable the Persians were. But by now, the heat was starting to rise. 40 degrees by day and 30 degrees by night and our full length clothing and Gill's headscarf it was starting to get unbearable.
After the city, we went to the old town of Yazd. This is reportedly the oldest city with the world and has apparently been inhabited continuously for the previous 7,000 years. This was a place with more mosques and situated around a labyrinth of streets and deserted markets. But the best bit, air con. Not true air con, but coolish air in our room. We ate amazing food like beef stew in pomegranate and walnut sauce, aubergine casserole and birthday cake! Gill had her birthday while we were in Yazd so we had a tea party with lots and lots of cakes. Possibly the sweetest thing I have ever tasted and enough e-numbers to keep everyone bouncing off the walls for the rest of the day!
The next morning, our group split. We lost about 15 people to Goa as either they didn't get their Pakistani visa or just didn't fancy it. Karen and Will have been telling us all the horror stories of how we are going to be camping in corrupted police compounds as we dash through Baluchistan. Oh well no turning back now as off towards the boarder we go!
Written on 9/8/13
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