This city is REALLY doing my head in! It's either the noise or the pollution from the traffic but I get a cracking headache every time I go outside. On top of that I haven't had a decent meal in a couple of days as I've been really crook the last couple of days, holed up in my crummy hotel room popping questionable local pills, guzzling litres of water and making quick dashes for the bathroom. Urgh.
The only thing stopping me getting out of here is my Chinese visa. It's pretty critical to the rest of my trip here. I've now booked my flight from Iran (Mashhad) to Kygyzstan (Bishkek) and I leave here on the 19th September – a bit earlier than I planned but there's only one flight a week. Oh well. After 10 days or so trekking in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan I want to delve into Western China for the last couple of weeks (I fly out of Honkers on 18th October). Anyhoo so I went up to the Chinese Embassy waaaay up the hill in North Tehran. The north of the city is MUCH more likeable: less traffic congestion, more leafy and green, and closer to the Alborz Mountains. Turned out my trip up there was for nought though: all I got was a curt "come back tomorrow" from an intercom. Ah well…
On the way back down to my hotel, I got off the brand spanking new Metro system (side note: it's mixed but there are separate women only carriages) at Taleqani station and went upstairs to the "US Den of Espionage". It's a massive walled complex of buildings, looking pretty run-down these days. Since the US left it's been the home of the Sepah militia, who vow to "defend the revolution". They're a bit touchy at people taking photos of the walls apparently, as I'd only just started snapping off a couple when I was harassed and sternly warned by a group of six boy soldiers to not take any more. Still I did get a couple of good photos of some of the murals. There was one with had the Statue of Liberty with a skull for a face, and I especially liked this quote: "The Day United States of America Praises Us We Should Mourn".
Bombs and flowers. What remains of the US seal.
Some ubiquitous trash talk… More rhetoric (and that's all it is).
This evening I was desperate to eat something substantial and definitely NOT a kebab (this region of the world is not a gourmand's delight), so I tracked down a – or the – Chinese restaurant in town. To get there I decided to take a motorcycle "taxi" there – i.e. a guy with a bike that wants to make a few extra rials. Well it turned out to be the most amount of urban fun out there!!! Hanging on for dear life, we wove our way through six lanes of traffic, around buses, between cars (my knees grazed a few), used both sides of the road and even the pavement! $2 well spent!! The Chinese food was half decent as well.
So here are a few more fun facts and observations about Iran:
- On almost every street corner you find these hexagonal, blue mail boxes. On closer inspection they turned out to be donation boxes for giving alms, which is one of the four pillars of Islam. You see people drop their spare change into them all the time.
- I've seen several guys wearing black "Cal" baseball caps of all things! What a laugh!! I assume they fell off the back of a truck from China…
- There are heaps and heaps of teenagers and young adults around, and I was able to find out that it's a by-product of the Islamic Revolution. After the revolution the government made the smart move of banning contraception and telling everyone to make lots of babies. And make lots they did! The average number of children per mother was a disbelievable SIX!! The government then realized the economic consequences of their decision and repealed it. Still, today a staggering 70% of the population is under 30! Of course this has outpaced the economy and unemployment is a real problem.
- Next time you eat a pistachio, spare a thought for Iran. The country produces a whopping 57% of the world's supply of the nut! And the ones I've had here are delicious.
- No posters of Osama here! Thought I might spy a couple (I saw a few Anti-Zionist posters in Eastern Turkey) but I guess that Sunni-Shiite rift is pretty cavernous. I've seen a few of Nasrallah though.
- To really confuse you, Iran uses not two but THREE calendars! Our Gregorian one (anything international), the Persian solar calendar (official), and the Muslim lunar calendar (religious). It can get tricky booking tickets… Oh and Thursday and Friday of their week is the weekend, which has meant I've had to re-adjust some of travel plans.
(L) One of the many Iran-Iraq war murals adorning the sides of buildings.
(R) A proud shopkeeper and my lifeline to surviving the kebab-laden meals.
Fingers crossed I can sort out my visa bright and early tomorrow morning because I really want to get out of here and down to the town of Kashan, a couple of hours south of here.
After a day and a half of traveling from Van, I made it!!! I can hardly believe I’m here in Tehran, the capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran! Woohoo! It was quite a journey here though… I left Van early yesterday morning on a bus that would take me over the mountains of south-east Turkey and through a "minor" border crossing at Sero (near the border with Iraq). Distances are deceiving on the map because it’s quite mountainous and the roads aren’t that flash, and it was about six hours later we rolled into the border station.
A few photos en route from Van in south-eastern Turkey to the border with Iran. This is the heart of Kurdistan and quite close to the northern edge of Iraq – doesn’t look worth fighting over really…
I would have loved to have snapped a few photos at the border point but it’s always a bit of a sensitive issue – "security" apparently – but it was a dry and dusty spot in the middle of nowehere with a big military presence on the Turkish side, a couple of buildings that had seen better days, and a queue of vehicles waiting at both sides of the gates. I was the only westerner on the bus and completely stumped the Turkish authorities – I don’t think they’d ever cleared an Aussie before! The Iranian side was fortunately without incident (I held my breath as my name on the visa was spelled incorrectly) and it wasn’t long before we were all watching the customs officials take the bus and our bags apart looking for contraband.
After another couple of hours we arrived in Orumiyeh, an unimpressive small city known nationally for its fruits and vegetables. In that time on the bus I began to fully understand the breadth and depth of Iranian hospitality. I’d been befriended by a local guy Hassan who was just returning from a vacation with his family in Turkey. Although I really didn’t want to burden him with the hassle, he insisted time and time again that I have all my issues taken care of – namely changing dollars into rials (at the local rate) and arranging transport to Tehran – and proceeded to drive me around town to work everything out. Nice!
I originally planned to fly to Tehran (this place is dirt cheap – you can fly across the country for $30!) but I would have had to have waited until the next morning just to get on a waitlist, so I instead opted for the 12 hour night bus. It wasn’t the most comfortable night’s sleep and I arrived this morning pretty groggy. On top of that I’ve really struggled to find good quality food as I’ve moved further east, and I’m out-of-sorts with a bit of "Delhi belly".
So first impressions of Tehran and Iran in general:
- Tehran in a word: a dump! It’s a massive, sprawling, polluted city with 14 million inhabitants (1/5 of the country!). Town planning seems to be non-existent and it’s a real bitch to get around. The streets are filled with Paykans (the lead petrol-powered national vehicle manufactured for the last 40 years without a design change) and little put-put-put motorcycles, and the combined effect is lots of noise and tons of air pollution. I know that Iran has much better places to offer and I’ll be getting out of here asap.
- Iran is the only Shiite state and is surrounded by Sunni neighbours, and I’ve already noticed some of the differences between the two faiths. For example in Turkey the Sunni mosques have long slender minarets on their mosques, the ones here are short and stumpy, sorta "chunky". One reason I’d prefer to be a Shiite (don’t worry Mum…) is that they only have to prey three times a day as opposed to the Sunni five – that 4:45am wake-up-call call to prayer would really get to me! I know the differences, which stem from a sort of Great Schism that occurred after the death of the Prophet Mohammed, go a lot deeper than that, and I’m looking forward to hopefully learning more about them.
- I saw a few women driving cars here today – I definitely didn’t see that in macho male-dominated Turkey! I also learnt that women fill most (80%!) of the places at university, which was another pleasant surprise. You see many more women in the black head-to-toe chadors than in Turkey, but a lot of women seem to want to challenge the boundaries of Sharia law by instead wearing a head scarf that shows a lot of hair, a long jacket and jeans. Oh and it was quite an eye-opener walking through a shopping arcade and just seeing guys clothes being sold! I guess there’s just no need for much wormen’s fashion…
- I think I’m already coming to understand that Iran’s greatest asset are its people. All day I’ve been meeting complete strangers who are extremely friendly, keen to help or practice their English, and who want to learn more about me and why I’m in Iran. They’re a lot more educated and informed and open-minded than the Western media would have you believe, for example many of the middle class have been educated at universities throughout Europe and the US. I think this is going to be a great trip (once I get out of Tehran)!
I went to see one of the highlights of the city this afternoon – the National Jewels Museum. Its an incredible collection of the 17th to 20th century jewels from the Safavid monarchy that was given the arse when the Islamic Revolution came along in 1979 (think: Ayatollah Khomenei). They say it rivals the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London but I have to say that it beats them hands down! The sheer amount of exquisite jewellery and the number of loose gems (many in the 200+ carat category) was truly astounding. The highlight for me was a 34kg globe of the world made out of gold and a staggering 51,366 precious jewels (diamonds used for Iran, rubies for the continents and emeralds for the oceans)! Oh and Adri if you’ve ever wondered where all those Colombian emeralds went then look no further – they’re all here! Literally piles of them, along with diamonds from South Africa and rubies from Burma. I’ve never described something as "priceless" before and mean it, but I think I can now…!
The other "must see" for me on the agenda for tomorrow is the former US embassy, now titled the "US Den of Espionage". It was here that the CIA planned and executed their first ever coup back in 1953 (aaah the memories…). It was also the location of the infamous hostage crisis 25 years later, when students (fearing more CIA dabbling in domestic politics) stormed the embassy and held 53 diplomats hostage for 444 days. You’re not allowed inside the building but the walls outside are covered with the "Down with the USA" and "Great Satan" murals you’d expect. It should be entertaining…
Look at a map of Western Turkey and you can't miss Lake Van. It's a giant natural lake formed centuries ago when a volcano closed the valley mouth. Its water level is maintained by natural evaporation, and this has led to an extremely high mineral content in the water – it's so alkaline that clothes washed in the lake come clean without soap! The lake is surrounded by an extremely dry and arid environment and backed by an impressive range of mountains.
I'm writing this in the town of Van on the eastern shore of the lake. The town was once part of the Silk Road and more recently on the hippie trail of the 60's and 70's from Istanbul to Kathmandu, and I'm here to prep for my trip into Iran. I wasn't originally planning on spending this much time here, but I need to wait for the banks to open on Monday to change some travelers cheques. I found out that Iran is the ultimate cash economy: no credit cards, ATMs don't accept foreign bank cards and banks won't change travelers cheques ("American Express – Do Leave Home Without Them"). That means I need to carry in all the $$$ I'm going to need for the 2-3 weeks I'll be there. That might seem a bit of a safety concern for the independent traveler, but I hear that petty crime (or any crime for that matter) is negligible in Iran – probably because you lose your right hand if you get caught stealing!!! (joke)
I did get the chance to see one of the highlights of the lake region though. Akdamar Kilisesi (Church of the Holy Cross) is a 10th Century Armenian church built on an island 3km out in the lake. To get there I had to take a dolmus (minibus) 30km south-west along the lake shore, and then catch the ferry out to the island. The church is known for its great relief carvings, but of course I was destined not to see them! The whole island was closed for restorations, so I had to settle for a boat trip around the island and a couple of postcards showing the stone carvings.
Once I've done my banking tomorrow I'll catching a bus to the Esendere-Sero border crossing in the mountains and then on to Orumiyeh. As there's not much to see there (although the mythical "Garden of Eden" is believed to be around the area) I'm hoping to get straight on a bus to Tehran. While the city of 13 million isn't high on my "must see" list, I need to go there to apply for my Chinese visa and book a flight out of the country (probably just before Ramadan, which gets going on 22 September). I think I'm going to fly straight to Kyrgyzstan, as I've pretty much given up on getting a visa for Uzbekistan and Afghanistan is too "hot" right now. It's a shame as Uzbekistan has some of the best Silk Road cities, but there's not much I can do…