Iran

I arrived in Iran by road from Armenia, on a 30 hours bus trip. After crossing the border, all girls have the wear a scarf (the hidjab) and a long shirt called « manteau » that has to cover the body. First good news, some girls don’t hesitate to wear a light white manteau over a pink sexy top… The scarf is about to fall all the time (and does fall when there is no risk to see the police…).

The first day I wear an XL shirt from Thomas, my French-Lebanese-Armenian travel friend (and photograph, thanks!) met in Armenia. Although it would have been theoretically possible to travel alone in Iran, it was much more comfortable to travel with a man, my “husband” for the journey: when I tried to say to the girls in the women section of the bus that we were just friend or cousin, the laughed at me answering “honey moon…?”.

First stop in Kashan where I go for shopping in the nice bazaar. I realised that the fashion way of dressing of the Armenian-Iranian girls of the bus is not so common in a small town, all women wear the black chador. But during the whole trip, we saw only one woman (most probably foreigner) wearing a chador that covers the face, letting only the eyes appeared. We didn’t see many people praying, we heard that young people drink alcohol at home (sometimes sold by the Armenian, the only Christian in the country). Surprisingly, although it’s an Islamic republic, the religion doesn’t seem to be so present, compared to other non Islamic Republics I went to such as Turkey.

We stayed in guesthouses and also with Iranian met through hospitality club. We spent the days visiting the many mosques and palaces. We relaxed in tea houses and in the nice gardens during the hot afternoon (up to 45°, but has it was dry it was not too suffocating, although under the hidjab it’s always too hot).

We visited the elegant city of Isphan:

Shiraz and the most conserved ruines of the Achmenidian Empire (6-5 century BC) in Persepolis:

The gold and sand city of Yazd in the desert:

And we finished the 2 weeks trip in Tehran, huge city of 15 million inhabitants surrounded by wonderful mountains up to 5670 meters.

We met about 20 Europeans tourists, always the same seen again along the trip (and even 2 guys from Lausanne). Else, most of the tourists were Iranian, which is very nice, because the locals are not so used to foreigners and they are very curious and extremely friendly. I never enjoyed so much shopping in a bazaar, they never pushed us to buy anything and prices were honest (we didn’t visit the Armenian church in Isphan, the entry fee was 10 times higher than most of the mosques and palaces!!!) .

We had many interesting discussion with Iranian met in the street, they seem just to want to meet people and practice their English, never asked for money. Maybe it’s also because it’s quite a rich and developed country? I was surprised to see such good roads (especially after one month in Armenia!), streets full of gold jollier shops for Iranian women (it’s amazing how elegant they look, even with the hidjab or chador), equipment for sport in public parks (that women use with the hidjab of course), and (unfortunately…) also so many pizza and fast food restaurant… As our friend in Tehran said, the people working for the government are Homo Islamic capitalist…

Except for the government, I really loved the country, people are wonderful and I won’t forget our amazing hosts in Tehran, I really hope to see them again… I need to continue to give them salsa lessons, when we arrived at their house they where practising salsa in front of a video (there are no discotheques in Iran), I couldn’t have wished better welcoming!

Many tourists we met travel on the silk road from Europe to Asia, I almost wanted to follow them, but it’s time for me to go home. After the many travels, I look forward to start working as environmentalist for BIRD in Lausanne mid August.
But as the skiing is meant to be really good in Iran, maybe I’ll go back for the winter holidays…?

PS: question from our Iranian friend in Isphan: besides his Iranian passport, he has an Irakian one. He would like to visit Europe but doesn’t know with which passport it’s easier to get a visa…???
His Irakian passport is a fake one, done so that he doesn’t need to go to army in Iran. Our friend from Shiraz didn’t seem to find it so difficult as military, he works only mornings, has time to chat on the internet, else he needs to translate information about the American army…!