Iran continued..................

IRAN 2

Hotel Park !

This picture was taken during the day but the park filled with campers every evening

We left Tehran and headed for Esfahan. The motorway was signed "no motorcycles" but we managed to get through by acting the dumb tourist. We had been given a contact name in Esfahan for cheap accommodation but on arriving the pay phones would not ring a mobile number. Two students took us by taxi to the Communications Office to make the call, although this did not help as his mobile was switched off. This left us with no accommodation at all and meant the search was to begin. The two lads offered to help us and enquired with several hotels as to availability and price. However, this weekend was a holiday for the Iranians ( Father's Day ) and all hotels were either fully booked or only had expensive rooms left. It was obvious that the lads needed to be elsewhere so at the last hotel they tried we said that we would find something ourselves, they spoke with the doorman of the hotel and he telephoned a friend that spoke good English so that we would have a translator. Ten minutes later his friend arrived by car. We explained our situation and he said that he and his friends had in fact spent last night on the floor of the hotel gym as there were no rooms available. We had been told that there was camping in Esfahan so asked about this. No, he said , no campsites. Then he asked did we have a tent with us if so we should just camp in the park with the locals ! Apparently this is quite normal in Iran. He gave us a lift back to the bikes and we rode to the park where we found several Iranians camped out. Not all had tents, some merely slept on a carpet ( explains why they need so many carpets ! ) under the sky, many of them also parked their cars on the road beside the park and then slept on the pavement.

The park was next to the

Si-O-Se bridge

We pitched our tent as it was getting dark and once the tent was up an Iranian came over to us with some Cay (Tea), He and his family then joined us and very soon the audience had enlarged so we had a crowd of around fifteen people all listening to everything that we said, fortunately one man who spoke a little English joined us and acted as a translator, we also used drawings to explain things that could not be translated, After a couple of hours of this we decided that we needed to eat, so Ali (the man who brought us the Tea) and myself went to get some Kebabs and rice, then when we returned to the camp he told everyone to leave us in peace whilst we ate, this was not totally effective so one of his daughters stood guard (about 10 ft away ) and as soon as anyone approached us she intercepted them and turned them away, We were very grateful for her protection.

Over the three days that we stayed in the park we had a constant audience, people would sit on the bench's and on the grass and just sit there watching us, there was a constant flow of people wanting to talk to us, many of them just wanted to practice their English, and many of them wanted to know how they could get to Britain. We felt like zoo exhibits and had no peace at all for the three nights that we stayed, and so were glad to leave despite the fact that the people were all extremely friendly, asking whether they could help us at all or did we need anything, offering sweets, tea and food etc.

One morning we found ourselves surrounded by hundreds of soldiers of differing regiments on the way back from a parade.

The city of Esfahan is beautiful. There are many things to look at here but we restricted ourselves to the Meidun-e-Emam Khomeini Square where you can find the Masjed-e Emam Mosque with its bright blue and yellow tiling. In the largest of the domed rooms there was a stone tile that was at the centre. At this point the echo was perfect. We practiced several times stamping our feet and listening. A guide showed us that you could pull a small piece of paper and still hear an echo. The square was originally a polo field and is directly in front of the Palace and is 510m x 164m with ponds and horse carriage rides being offered around the perimeter.

Jenny in her new trendy outfit outside the Mosque - Masjed-e Emam.

The main attractions, however, in Esfahan are the bridges over the Zayande River, of which there are several. As we were staying next to the Si-o-Se bridge and in the morning we walked with the locals alongside the bridge on a ledge that was around 6 inches below the water level. The river is fast flowing and there were times when your footing was not all that sure, but It was fun and It cooled your feet down ! .

People walking along the side of Si-o-Se Bridge.

When we pack up to leave various people gave us their phone numbers and offered to provide us with accommodaton when we arrived in their city and we were even given hand written messages in English which wished us good luck on our travel's, Camping in the park had been a very good experience, we managed to meet a lot of Iranian's and find out their real views on Iran and the rest of the world, but we were glad to leave the Zoo.