Last day

My last day in Iran. I am now in Teheran and will probably visit the sha's former palace. I have had a great time in Iran and I will return for sure. But time has come to return to the office, I have great memories and made a couple of new friends with whom I hope to stay in touch in the future. For now goodbye and enjoy the pictures I made while in Esfahan.

Choqa Zanbil

Choqa Zambil is an ancient Ziggurat in the west of Iran. This was part of the religious capital Dur Untash build around 1250BC by the Elamite King Dur Untash. The Ziggurat was discovered by geologists working for the anglo iranian oil company.

Bishapur

Yesterday I saw the remains of an ancient city called Bishapur, 130km west of Shiraz. Bishapur was the capital of the Sassanid king Shapur I (241-272 AD). In the ruined city not much was left standing but across the road in a canyon there were some beautiful rock carvings. Some of them depicted the defeat of the romans by this emperor others contained coronation scenes. The one depicting a meeting with Arab bedoins was particularly beautiful.

Chahar Shambe Soori

The last Tuesday night of the year Iranians lite fires and there are fireworks. The people used to burn their old carpets and buy new ones in spring. To show their courage people would jump across the fire. Because I am in Iran I guess I should join the fun and see what this celebration is all about. So I went to the riverside of town, but did not see a lot of things happening. It appeared to me that most people do this at home. So I went to a diner and started talking with two Iranians. One of them invited me to his home to jump across fires there. They just finished jumping but offered to start the fire again for their foreign visitor. First I visited their home Father was retired and had worked in metallurgy, the daughter was studying agriculture. They offered me some tea and some fruit (it was 12 o clock at night!). After the warm welcome we went by car to look for a fire to jump across and found one.

Making friends in Shiraz

Today I had a busy day. I rented a taxi for the whole day to be able to move quickly between the important tourist places in Shiraz.

I visited some beautiful gardens, saw the tomb of Emir Ali, Saadi and Hafez. The last one is the most famous poet in Iran.

In the tomb of emir Ali people were remembering the death of a loved one. It is a custom to give something to eat or to drink to visitors of the mosque. I got some sweet cookies and a cup of tea. Later I was approached by two little children and thanks to my basic farsi skills I was able to communicate with them.
As a westerner you really stand out, especially in the gardens. Most of the time people give you the odd look, but often they stop to ask where you are from. Then they want to make a picture of you (who is the tourist now ;) )
They often inquire why you are travelling alone (tanha) and ask if you are married (People in Iran use to marry at quite a young age). People are really surprised when you answer them in Farsi. Soon I get stuck because I know most trivial conversation now but when people get into details it is a little harder.

So I am talking a lot (in farsi ;) ) In Shiraz I have talked two hours with shop keepers, two hours with people in the hotel, with soldiers, taxi drivers, tourists, you name it. The farsi language course is really paying of now. Maybe I will spent some more time practicing tonight.

In the orange guarden pavillion I saw a picture on the ceiling that had a "dutch" flavour about it. With people on the ice and a windmill in the background. Remarkable.

Persepolis

Today I visited persepolis (near Shiraz). The travel agent aranged a professional guide for me to tell about the site and symbology of the statues and stone carvings. Persepolis was beautifull to see and though today was an Iranian holiday the site was not too busy.

One of the symbologic features I remember was that of a lion fighting a bull. The lion represents spring and the bull represents winter. The lion was winning meaning that spring is coming. Spring celebration is a big event in Iran. It marks the event of the new persian year. 21 march it will be 1388. (maybe i have to return to Iran in 12 years to celebrate the turn of the century.

People from many countries and regions used to visit the palace of Darius the great in spring, to honour the king with gifts.

After Persepolis I visited Naqse Roshtam, the necropolis of the persian emperors. In the rock the battle and subsequent victory with the east roman empire was depicted.

Qeshm diving

Today we went for diving at Qeshm Island. I asked to make two dives, but did not realize that one of the dives would be to a ship sunk in the Iran-Irak war. I never really opted to dive to wrecks. I always worried that you could get stuck somewhere under water. However they provided me with an experienced instructor who would safely guide me to the wreck. Eventually we dived upto 25 m depth (a personal record, my last one being 15m). Later today we dived in more shallow water to look at some coral reefs.
Going diving is always a great thing to do. In the water you totally depend upon eachother and this creates a bond. Today I ate barracuda liver for the first time in my life. I don't know if I will do it again.

Fun at the Hotel

I am quite busy practicing Farsi nowadays. At times the hotel staff or people that come by help me out. But I have to grow some more confidence to just speak to people and make mistakes. Between practice and lessons there is also some time to make fun. I bought some balloons today. Balloons are like magic. They make anybody smile. With a young boy I played balloon "volleybal" for 40 minutes.

Familytrip to Karanak

Yesterday I had a wonderful time together with the family of my teacher. We went to the historic village of Karanak. She invited her brother in law, her sister and her mother. Spending a day with an Iranian family was a treat. We made a walk around the village had had a BBQ with shish kebab. I tried practicing my Farsi and showed some postcards of Delft and kinderdijk. They thought the Netherlands was really beautiful. I told them I enjoyed the warm weather, desert and mountains instead of rainy Holland. At the end of the day I tried to express my gratitude by giving them some nice items of Delft Blue pottery I bought especially for my trip.

Cultureshock or not

Being taught Farsi in Iran provides a unique opportunity to find out more about Iranian way of life. Between our practice sessions we exchange views about Dutch and Iranian way of life. It seems that people value friendship, family and religion over business. Therefore interaction between people may seem inefficient from a dutch guy's point of view. Woman play an active role in society: My teacher has a day job in the marketing department of a textile factory and holds a Bsc in Industrial Engineering. She told me an anekdote that Nike had to adopt a different marketing strategy for Iran since the image of a "macho" man practicing sports does not agree with the Iranian man ?!

A few years ago I had a lot of prejudices about Iran. Our media depicts Iran as an enemy of the west, supporting terrorism and trying to build an atomic bomb. On TV I remember seeing images of people protesting against the west and burning flags. I consider this the "hard outer shell". I used to think traveling to Iran should be risky.
When you enter Iran the warmth and friendliness of the people is hard to match with the image created by the media. Iranian people are real easy to talk to and when I explain them I am trying to learn Farsi they respond enthusiastically. For the moment I am puzzled.

Yazd and the water museum

How about waking up with the following view from your bedroom window. I started my farsi course and I am staying at the orient hotel in the old town of Yazd. Since most buildings are constructed of mud bricks (adobe) they slowly crumble away. 30 percent of the old town is in ruin.
The watermuseum did not look like much on the outside, but it was beautifull from the inside. The museum had a basement part giving acess to a qanat (underground aquaduct). These spaces were nice and cool and were used to obtain drinking water or do the washing (hopefully separate qanats ). Seven years ago a pipeline was constructed so Yazd no longer relies on qanats for its water supply.

Chak Chak en Karanaq

In the year 637AD a Sassasian princess Nikbanuh fled to this site. Short of water she threw her staff at the cliff and water began dripping out.
Chak Chak means drip drip it's Irans most important holy pilgrimage site for people of the zoroastrian faith




















Kharanaq is a almost deserted village in the desert with a citadel constructed of mud-brick houses. It's intriguing to walk around in the small alleys. Due to the softness of the bricks the citadel is slowly turning into a ruin.

On friday I will spent the night there to look at the sky and have a full day of farsi lessons.