Iran continued

IRAN 3

Shiraz is one of those places where we never got round to taking many pictures, so we do not have any pictures that are good enough to put on the web site, however Perspolis is close to Shiraz so the picture on the left was taken there.

Shiraz is where we met up with Anderas, (a German who has lived in the USA for the last 20 years ) Andreas was waiting for Hamid to come from Tehran to fix his BMW R100GS, as we had already arranged with Hamid to meet him in Shiraz with the two new rear sprockets which had failed

to arrive while we were in Tehran, we decided to go straight to the hotel that Andreas was staying at. We looked around Persepolis the next day, a legacy of the Achaemenian Empire which ruled Persia between 559 and 330 BC. The reliefs cut into the arches and stairways depict the bringing of gifts to the King, many of which still remain. Here we encountered another tourist price scam - the ticket office insisted that we must pay for both entrance to the site and the museum entrance also. However, on entering, tickets to the museum could be bought seperately ! The museum consisted of copies of items that had been found - the originals in another museum and in total around 100 objects of very little interest.

The palace of King Darius.

That evening we met Andreas sitting in the lounge with two Iranian men who turned out to be Ramin ( an English School-teacher ) and Amin-Ali ( an intelligence officer ). We joined them for dinner at a restuarant that Andreas had found earlier in the week and had the best kebabs that we have come across so far. Ramin was keen to improve his English conversation but despite our efforts every sentence was pronounced as though he had read it straight from a literature book and every word was explained in great detail, this meant that he became impossible to listen to and concentrate on. We had many discussions on the use of the English language. literature and poetry. It was noticeable that they had both learnt most of their English from reading Classical Literature and it was also reflected in their understanding of English life. They think that England is the same as they have read in Charles Dickens and that there is a major class structure still - which although we explained was not like this anymore we feel that they are not convinced !

The next day and a half was spent helping Andreas to fix his motorcycle with the help of the "drunk, hammer-weilding mechanic" and a very frustrated Hamid. Ali, the mechanic had been recommended by the local travel agent but proved to be as Andreas put it a butcher of mechanics. His idea of fixing it was to take a hammer to it. At 12.30 we stopped for lunch and were invited to Ali's house. Here we were offered a local brew something like schnapps - Andreas and Cliff tried some but declined to drink any quantity of it, however, Ali downed two large full tumblers of it in around 1/2 an hour. Then went back to the workshop on his moto ( we have decided that we cannot call them motorbikes or scooters ). At 8.30 we finally gave up for the night and headed back to the hotel with Hamid who had now missed his flight back to Tehran and would take one the next day. We ate and drank alcohol - literally - we were supplied with 96% medical alcohol. It has been surprisingly easy to get it here although it is banned. We finished working on the motorbike the next day and arranged to meet Ramin and Amin-Ali at Amin's house for dinner in the evening. Amin's wife Sara continued to wear her scarf whilst we were there but Jenny was able to remove hers much to her delight. The meal was eaten in the hallway on a carpet - no such thing as eating at a table here. The house was sparten but clean. Amin and Sara had only recently been married and Sara showed Jenny her traditionally decorated bedroom. The room had a bed with a furry red/orange and yellow blanket and matching pillows and over the bed was a heart made from tinsel with their names inside it. All over the ceiling hung strands of tinsel.

We ate traditional foods, rice, spagetti, salad, lamb stew and chicken drumsticks. They tend to use what we would consider the worst parts of the meat and so we did not eat too much of the stew. After dinner Jenny decided to try and break the ice with Sara (who spoke no English) and helped to wash the dishes whilst Cliff and the other men drank tea, danced and enjoyed themselves. After cleaning Sara and Jenny went into a back room to look at photo's - some of these showed Sara with no scarf and lots of make-up. It is strange but any photo's that we see in photographer's windows of young girls always show them with buckets of make up on, generally not well applied either.

Cliff, Andreas and Ramin at dinner.

We all left the next morning for Yazd. Yazd is famous in Iran for it's old city which consists of single storey houses clad in a mud/straw plaster. We had not originally planned ot go hear but Andreas wanted to and we had decided that it would be a good idea to meet up with a few other people crossing the Pakistan border. We have been warned that this is a drugs running area and that safety in numbers counts. It was about now that our patience came into play and still is being tested. We arranged to leave at around 10 a.m., however, it was 1 p.m. by the time Andreas was ready. We have since learnt that he is the worst time-keeper going. However, we will stick it out until we enter Pakistan. We arrived in Yazd in the early, but dark, evening. A local man found took us to a guest house and we checked, ate and crashed out. We went to Y@zd internet cafe and then went to the abandoned mosque to see the sunset from the roof. We missed it ! Two local women came up to the roof and started asking Jenny many questions, offering tea at their grandmothers house which we accepted. We now accept many invitiations as it is the only way that you get to see the real Iranian people and lifestyle. We went into the main room of the house which had only three walls and an opening onto the courtyard which was the middle of the house. Here there were around 10 people - uncles, aunts, grandchildren and friends. The women were very friendly and talkative but the men seemed a little strange. One was definately a few cans short of a six pack and the grandfather very strange. We collected some cans of vodka and more alcohol on the way back to the hotel, we ate crisps and dry bread for dinner. The next night we agree that we are going to go to a teahouse that had been recommended for traditional food - this did not work out - we left Andreas at the internet cafe and agreed to meet at 8 p.m. At 8.30 he phones - still in the internet cafe but leaving immediatley - 9.15 he gets back. The restuarant is shut so we eat naff kebabs again. This is how it goes on.

Relaxing in a Tea House

Yazd old city - view from the abandoned mosque at sunset.

Cliff - complete with beard at the abandoned mosque.