Some first impressions from Esfahan:
And here's prayer time in Jamme Mosque
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Goin' South
It rained on Thursday in Tehran a bit... a nice kind of cooling rain with a bit of an electrical storm. Apart from that the weather has been hot, but not unbearable. It's probably in and around the 35 C mark at the peak of the day, but generally quite dry. You wouldn't want to be walking around outside too much around midday but it gets nice and cool in the evening and at night. Unfortunately these frickin' Iranians feel the need to air condition everything and I've got a huge big head-cold with a snuffly nose, sore throat and general shittiness from sleeping in uber-airconditioned rooms (where you can't control the AC yourself).
I'm almost finished my book and as soon as I do, I'm up the swannee with a toothpick for a paddle as I have no more (unread) books left. I'm reading 'The Idiot' by Fyodor Dostoevsky at the moment and it's taking its time on getting to the point. My favourite book so far has been Captain Corelli's Mandolin, which kind of reminded me of the Magus, one of my favourite books of all time.
I had a good few days in Tehran. I spent 8 of my 30 visa days here, which is probably a little more than I should have, but I reckon that it was well worth it. The capital cities are always important as they reveal a lot about a people and I've really enjoyed myself here. I was put in contact with one of the locals here, a really nice guy, who took me under his wing and made sure that I got to see some of the "other" sides of the Islamic Republic. The other night, he brought me along to a bit of a party... and well... I got hammered on this stuff called arac, which is a locally brewed concoction known for its effect of making you blind. The guys at the party assured me that the particular batch had been tested by them on many an occasion without any resulting blindness and so, I conceded and drank myself to oblivion. I woke up the next morning (well, more afternoon than morning really) with a pounding headache. I don't know if this is all in the spirit of Ramazan, but whatyagonna do... when in Rome...!!!
So I hopped on a Super-VIP-ComfyComfy-Super-Super bus from Tehran for a quick six hour blitz to Esfahan in Central Iran yesterday. Arrived here last night after having the ear yapped off me by this friendly Iranian guy with no English... but apparently this city is the THE thing to do in Iran so lets see what the craic is. I'm going to stay here for a couple of days and then move south towards Shiraz. Then I'll spend a few days in the desert in Yadz before putting the head down and doing a legger to Zahedan and then directly across the Pakistani border to Quetta and Karachi.
I had the maddest dream last night... (In fact it was kinda a whole night of mad dreams but I just remember one): I was skateboarding (as I do) down this mad mountain and fell off the cliff and kept on falling for ages before I was able to grab onto a random ledge. And then I was worried about my skateboard had been lent to me by my brother, while hanging there from the ledge. I spent half the fucking night hanging from that ledge worrying about the skateboard until I was interrupted by some Saudi/Qatari/generic Arab who burst into our dormitory at 7.00am this morning ranting and raving about people not sitting on this bed (the dream was over by this stage).
I had other stuff to tell you but I can't remember it now...
View Larger Map
I'm almost finished my book and as soon as I do, I'm up the swannee with a toothpick for a paddle as I have no more (unread) books left. I'm reading 'The Idiot' by Fyodor Dostoevsky at the moment and it's taking its time on getting to the point. My favourite book so far has been Captain Corelli's Mandolin, which kind of reminded me of the Magus, one of my favourite books of all time.
I had a good few days in Tehran. I spent 8 of my 30 visa days here, which is probably a little more than I should have, but I reckon that it was well worth it. The capital cities are always important as they reveal a lot about a people and I've really enjoyed myself here. I was put in contact with one of the locals here, a really nice guy, who took me under his wing and made sure that I got to see some of the "other" sides of the Islamic Republic. The other night, he brought me along to a bit of a party... and well... I got hammered on this stuff called arac, which is a locally brewed concoction known for its effect of making you blind. The guys at the party assured me that the particular batch had been tested by them on many an occasion without any resulting blindness and so, I conceded and drank myself to oblivion. I woke up the next morning (well, more afternoon than morning really) with a pounding headache. I don't know if this is all in the spirit of Ramazan, but whatyagonna do... when in Rome...!!!
So I hopped on a Super-VIP-ComfyComfy-Super-Super bus from Tehran for a quick six hour blitz to Esfahan in Central Iran yesterday. Arrived here last night after having the ear yapped off me by this friendly Iranian guy with no English... but apparently this city is the THE thing to do in Iran so lets see what the craic is. I'm going to stay here for a couple of days and then move south towards Shiraz. Then I'll spend a few days in the desert in Yadz before putting the head down and doing a legger to Zahedan and then directly across the Pakistani border to Quetta and Karachi.
I had the maddest dream last night... (In fact it was kinda a whole night of mad dreams but I just remember one): I was skateboarding (as I do) down this mad mountain and fell off the cliff and kept on falling for ages before I was able to grab onto a random ledge. And then I was worried about my skateboard had been lent to me by my brother, while hanging there from the ledge. I spent half the fucking night hanging from that ledge worrying about the skateboard until I was interrupted by some Saudi/Qatari/generic Arab who burst into our dormitory at 7.00am this morning ranting and raving about people not sitting on this bed (the dream was over by this stage).
I had other stuff to tell you but I can't remember it now...
View Larger Map
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Crazy Traffic
The traffic is mental here... Apparently some tourists have a really difficult time crossing the road. There's no lights for pedestrians so you just have to barge through the traffic... You look up a road which is choc-a-bloc with speeding cars, vans, buses, motorbikes and can't even imagine yourself crossing it. But if you need to cross, then there's no other option. You basically just have to walk and the majority of cars swerve to avoid you and you try to stop and start to make the best of the gaps, keeping your tummy and arse tucked in tightly while two buses sandwich you to a hair's breadth... Exiting stuff.
Here a short video generically found on the web.
Here a short video generically found on the web.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Friendly Iran
Before I left Ireland, when I told people I was coming to Iran, the standard response was 'Why?'. Given the generally unfavorable coverage that Iran gets in the media, I suppose this is understandable. In fact, I was a little apprehensive coming here myself. I remember how as soon as I entered into the grounds of the Iranian embassy in Dublin, my heart skipped a beat or two and I was kind of 'on edge'. However, in the past few days, a lot of the prejudices that I had about Iran have been demystified.
I've been speaking to people about what's going on in Iran and there are a lot of varying opinions. First of all, a (very) brief recent history lesson (full lesson here). The Persians have a history going back thousands and thousands of years. It is suggested that the first civilisations began here and much thinking went on here while Europe was still hanging around in the Dark Ages. Persia was ruled by various caliphates (or muslim kings) and then by the somewhat more secular Shah's until 1979. Things were pretty liberal back then, although it could be argued that the shah was a bit of a plonker and tended to spend the country's cash a tad freely. Due primarily to this financial imprudence in '79, religious traditionalists, communists and nationalists all came together to overthrow the shah during the iranian revolution. In the power vacuum that followed, an exiled religious leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, returned to Iran and claimed the country as an islamic republic, imprisoning and killing many of the non-islamic revolutionaries who had helped bring about the Iranian revolution (now retrospectively known as the Islamic revolution by the Iranian government) and founding a nation state where Shia Islam is not only the national religion but infiltrates every aspect of government activities, including the institualisation of sharia law in the judiciary. Directly after the revolution, our mate Saddam Hussein decided to take advantage of the inexperienced new state and make a land grab from Iraq, prompting the very bloody eight-year Iran-Iraq war. Although this war left many dead and wounded, Iran stood its ground and the war solidified the place of the Islamic Republic and the governing council of guardians.
So, back to life in Iran today. So far, all I've seen is Tehran and one must remember that this city of 20 million is the most liberal and progressive part of iranian society. However, life here is quite similar to big European metropoli. Although sharia law is nominally quite strict in certain instances (i.e. stoning for extramarital affairs, death by hanging for sodomy etc.), it should be noted that the sharia punishments are almost never handed down. They are only handed in down if the crime has been committed in conjunction with other serious crimes, i.e. murder or rape. Also, sharia punishments can only be handed down in accordance with sharia methods of proof, some of which are quite amusing. (I.e. sodomy must mean actual penetration as witnessed by four men and the couple involved must remain in their positions while a string is passed between the two bodies... Only if it gets stuck, has sodomy occurred...WTF???).
Also, booze is available over here through delivery men... you just call your local buddy and he passes by your house and drops off a bottle of vodka, to which you add some perfectly legal red bulls and bob's your uncle... Club92!
One of the contacts I had here brought me out for dinner the other night to a restaurant a little outside of Tehran and we had a quality feed and smoked some shisha... but he works for an Iranian private bank and is involved in Islamic banking. Listen to this, under Islamic law, it's illegal to charge interest (it's the same in Christianity actually, but that's one of the little rules that we've forgotten about), so there's this concept of Islamic banking, which buys the house that you're looking to buy with a loan and sells it back to you for more money... i.e. no interest involved whatsoever... click here for more on Islamic banking.
Anyway, what I was trying to say was that everything feels very much normal here... although there are obvious restrictions (my facebook account being one of them), it really ain't all that different.
One major difference is actually a postive one, the Iranians I've met so far have been unbelieveably hospitable. They seem to see unfailing hospitality as a 'duty' or 'responsibility'. I've been taken out for countless dinners and lunches, had teas bought for me, been driven around, been brought to visit different things and generally been treated like a prince by the Iranians I've met so far. They won't let me put my hand in my pocket (even though I am quite insistant) and they always go beyond the call of duty.
The other night I had brought out too little money and was stranded in north Tehran with only enough for a taxi halfway home, and the nicest motorcyclist on the face of the planet gave me a free spin home... twas great...
That's all for now... excuse the slight disjointedness of posting.
C.
I've been speaking to people about what's going on in Iran and there are a lot of varying opinions. First of all, a (very) brief recent history lesson (full lesson here). The Persians have a history going back thousands and thousands of years. It is suggested that the first civilisations began here and much thinking went on here while Europe was still hanging around in the Dark Ages. Persia was ruled by various caliphates (or muslim kings) and then by the somewhat more secular Shah's until 1979. Things were pretty liberal back then, although it could be argued that the shah was a bit of a plonker and tended to spend the country's cash a tad freely. Due primarily to this financial imprudence in '79, religious traditionalists, communists and nationalists all came together to overthrow the shah during the iranian revolution. In the power vacuum that followed, an exiled religious leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, returned to Iran and claimed the country as an islamic republic, imprisoning and killing many of the non-islamic revolutionaries who had helped bring about the Iranian revolution (now retrospectively known as the Islamic revolution by the Iranian government) and founding a nation state where Shia Islam is not only the national religion but infiltrates every aspect of government activities, including the institualisation of sharia law in the judiciary. Directly after the revolution, our mate Saddam Hussein decided to take advantage of the inexperienced new state and make a land grab from Iraq, prompting the very bloody eight-year Iran-Iraq war. Although this war left many dead and wounded, Iran stood its ground and the war solidified the place of the Islamic Republic and the governing council of guardians.
So, back to life in Iran today. So far, all I've seen is Tehran and one must remember that this city of 20 million is the most liberal and progressive part of iranian society. However, life here is quite similar to big European metropoli. Although sharia law is nominally quite strict in certain instances (i.e. stoning for extramarital affairs, death by hanging for sodomy etc.), it should be noted that the sharia punishments are almost never handed down. They are only handed in down if the crime has been committed in conjunction with other serious crimes, i.e. murder or rape. Also, sharia punishments can only be handed down in accordance with sharia methods of proof, some of which are quite amusing. (I.e. sodomy must mean actual penetration as witnessed by four men and the couple involved must remain in their positions while a string is passed between the two bodies... Only if it gets stuck, has sodomy occurred...WTF???).
Also, booze is available over here through delivery men... you just call your local buddy and he passes by your house and drops off a bottle of vodka, to which you add some perfectly legal red bulls and bob's your uncle... Club92!
One of the contacts I had here brought me out for dinner the other night to a restaurant a little outside of Tehran and we had a quality feed and smoked some shisha... but he works for an Iranian private bank and is involved in Islamic banking. Listen to this, under Islamic law, it's illegal to charge interest (it's the same in Christianity actually, but that's one of the little rules that we've forgotten about), so there's this concept of Islamic banking, which buys the house that you're looking to buy with a loan and sells it back to you for more money... i.e. no interest involved whatsoever... click here for more on Islamic banking.
Anyway, what I was trying to say was that everything feels very much normal here... although there are obvious restrictions (my facebook account being one of them), it really ain't all that different.
One major difference is actually a postive one, the Iranians I've met so far have been unbelieveably hospitable. They seem to see unfailing hospitality as a 'duty' or 'responsibility'. I've been taken out for countless dinners and lunches, had teas bought for me, been driven around, been brought to visit different things and generally been treated like a prince by the Iranians I've met so far. They won't let me put my hand in my pocket (even though I am quite insistant) and they always go beyond the call of duty.
The other night I had brought out too little money and was stranded in north Tehran with only enough for a taxi halfway home, and the nicest motorcyclist on the face of the planet gave me a free spin home... twas great...
That's all for now... excuse the slight disjointedness of posting.
C.
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