Some time since the last post already, and a lot has happened... A short overview:
After Mashad, we took a train along a southern cross-desert route to Yazd, a pleasant ancient city in the middle of the desert. It's city scape is dominated by badgirs, a type of ancient air conditioning system. It is also the centre of the Zoroastrian community of Iran, but apart from some towers of silence and a fire temple, there is little evidence of the presence of these non-Muslims: the chador is also omnipresent in Yazd...
We also visited some desert towns around Yazd, with crumbling mud-brick walls and more badgirs, ice-houses (huge partly underground warehouses where ice was stored in wintertime, for use in the blazing summer heat) and caravanserais.
From Yazd, we took a bus to Kerman, mainly because we couldn't get good transport connections to Bandar-e-Abbas, where we wanted to go originally. Kerman isn't really a very interesting city at all, although there's quite a fine bazaar (but they have that in all cities) and some mosques worth passing by.
An overnight trip to nearby Mahan was more pleasant. Shazdeh garden, an atmospheric and peaceful garden and palace of a former prince provided us with a pleasant afternoon, including a dynamic discussion with an Iranian fanatic atheist ("Do you agree? We must destroy all religions!").
Later, we managed to take a bus to Bandar-e-Abbas, Iran's biggest port city in a very different part of the country. Bus rides are by the way quite an experience: the fact that buses are adorned with such phrases as "Need for Speed" and "Road Runner" should make clear why... Bandar isn't much in itself, but for us, seeing the Persian Gulf (well, the Strait of Hormuz at any rate) was the main draw.
We spent a few days on Qeshm island, where we had a very cheerful tour with some Iranian tourists. It was quite sad to see the Iranian women enjoy the pristine sandy beaches: bathing isn't prohibited, but no one would of course go in the water in full hejab dress... There is also an amazing mangrove forest (now, that's not something we'd have associated with Iran!), where we saw some rare birds and even a sea turtle just a few metres away.
Floris also had a short but extremely nice swim in the Gulf: the water was just right and there were no fish or other creatures nibbling at his feet. Due to the hejab-restrictions, Hanna was less fortunate and managed only to wiggle her toes in the sea...
After returning back to Bandar-e-Abbas, we went to the small town of Minab for the famous (in the region at least) Thursday market. The market itself was quite interesting enough indeed, but more interesting still were the people: a lot of the local women wear the 'bandari burqas': a face-masque with colourful embroidery, effectively covering the entire face - and that in a country where women already are almost wholly covered up!
Later, we went to Shiraz and to the magnificent site of ancient Persepolis (locally known as Takht-e Jamshid), the ceremonial city of Darius's Persian Empire. Though battered trough the ages and burnt down (presumably by Alexander the Great), it is still an impressive site. The multicultural nature of the then largest empire in the world is evident from the murals and building style. More info: Persepolis on wikipedia.
Shiraz will go down in our memory not only as the city with the enjoyable parks (great places to relax and have a chat with some locals) and the atmospheric tomb of the poet Hafez, but also as the city with the largest concentration of fast-food-style pizza places. With about 30 pizza joints on the main street, Shirazi's really must like pizza!
After that, we traveled to Esfahan, where we are at the moment. But about our adventures in this city, we'll relate another time.
After Mashad, we took a train along a southern cross-desert route to Yazd, a pleasant ancient city in the middle of the desert. It's city scape is dominated by badgirs, a type of ancient air conditioning system. It is also the centre of the Zoroastrian community of Iran, but apart from some towers of silence and a fire temple, there is little evidence of the presence of these non-Muslims: the chador is also omnipresent in Yazd...
We also visited some desert towns around Yazd, with crumbling mud-brick walls and more badgirs, ice-houses (huge partly underground warehouses where ice was stored in wintertime, for use in the blazing summer heat) and caravanserais.
From Yazd, we took a bus to Kerman, mainly because we couldn't get good transport connections to Bandar-e-Abbas, where we wanted to go originally. Kerman isn't really a very interesting city at all, although there's quite a fine bazaar (but they have that in all cities) and some mosques worth passing by.
An overnight trip to nearby Mahan was more pleasant. Shazdeh garden, an atmospheric and peaceful garden and palace of a former prince provided us with a pleasant afternoon, including a dynamic discussion with an Iranian fanatic atheist ("Do you agree? We must destroy all religions!").
Later, we managed to take a bus to Bandar-e-Abbas, Iran's biggest port city in a very different part of the country. Bus rides are by the way quite an experience: the fact that buses are adorned with such phrases as "Need for Speed" and "Road Runner" should make clear why... Bandar isn't much in itself, but for us, seeing the Persian Gulf (well, the Strait of Hormuz at any rate) was the main draw.
We spent a few days on Qeshm island, where we had a very cheerful tour with some Iranian tourists. It was quite sad to see the Iranian women enjoy the pristine sandy beaches: bathing isn't prohibited, but no one would of course go in the water in full hejab dress... There is also an amazing mangrove forest (now, that's not something we'd have associated with Iran!), where we saw some rare birds and even a sea turtle just a few metres away.
Floris also had a short but extremely nice swim in the Gulf: the water was just right and there were no fish or other creatures nibbling at his feet. Due to the hejab-restrictions, Hanna was less fortunate and managed only to wiggle her toes in the sea...
After returning back to Bandar-e-Abbas, we went to the small town of Minab for the famous (in the region at least) Thursday market. The market itself was quite interesting enough indeed, but more interesting still were the people: a lot of the local women wear the 'bandari burqas': a face-masque with colourful embroidery, effectively covering the entire face - and that in a country where women already are almost wholly covered up!
Later, we went to Shiraz and to the magnificent site of ancient Persepolis (locally known as Takht-e Jamshid), the ceremonial city of Darius's Persian Empire. Though battered trough the ages and burnt down (presumably by Alexander the Great), it is still an impressive site. The multicultural nature of the then largest empire in the world is evident from the murals and building style. More info: Persepolis on wikipedia.
Shiraz will go down in our memory not only as the city with the enjoyable parks (great places to relax and have a chat with some locals) and the atmospheric tomb of the poet Hafez, but also as the city with the largest concentration of fast-food-style pizza places. With about 30 pizza joints on the main street, Shirazi's really must like pizza!
After that, we traveled to Esfahan, where we are at the moment. But about our adventures in this city, we'll relate another time.
No comments:
Post a Comment