Author: Tom

Sunday, the 15^th of April

On our last day in Shiraz, we still had plenty to visit; we woke up at 6.45 to visit the Masjed-e Nasir al-Molk Mosque, also known as the Pink Mosque. Apparently it’s one of the most photographed mosques in Iran, you’ll understand why:

(We were lucky to get there early, you can see in the last picture how busy it got an hour later…)

Most of the buildings in Shiraz were built or renovated by the 18^th century Zand dynasty, with Karim Khan being one of the main benefactors. He was a brilliant but humble man, preferring to be called ‘Regent’ (Vakil) rather than ‘King’ (Shah), as a servant of the people. The names of many Shirazi buildings still bear this title, such as the Vakil Mosque and Bazaar:

While strolling through the bazaar, we ran into Menachem, an Iranian jew. He kindly invited us for lunch at his place, an offer we couldn’t refuse. He explained to us he often seeks out tourists to practice his French. After some delicious watermelon and tea, he offered Wafa a small present. While taking some photos, he suddenly turned to hold Wafa and kiss her on the cheeks, which startled her. We didn’t quite know what to make of this, a friendly gesture or something else? It did ruin the moment for Wafa, though…

(You can see the reaction of Wafa in the second picture…)

We didn’t let it ruin the day, however, and went on to visit a nearby salt lake. Maharloo Lake, or the Pink Lake, stretches for miles to the southeast of Shiraz. Beautiful place, and our feet got a good scrub as well!

Dinner was the best we had of the whole trip through Iran so far. It was so good, in fact, it was all gone before we could take a picture…

 

Monday, the 16^th of April

Today we were leaving for the desert town of Yazd. First Wafa got a little surprise, though… While putting on her trousers, she suddenly spotted something moving inside of them:

(Say hello to our little friend! A giant centipede, about 10 cm big/tall/long!)

Mehdi told us we probably brought it with us from the desert, as these things normally don’t live in the city. However it found us, it certainly gave Wafa a good scare! (and Tom too, with Wafa’s shrieking…).

With a heartfelt goodbye, we took our leave from Mehdi and company. We left the centipede as a new pet for him to enjoy…

Luckily, the ride to Yazd was otherwise pretty uneventful. We did pass some magnificent mountains though.

After arriving in Yazd in the afternoon (another 400 km ride behind us), we first sat down in the courtyard of our hotel for a cup of tea. Suddenly, the sky turned orange… SANDSTORM!!!

We were told this only happens once or twice every year. Just our luck :). After half an hour, the sand turned to rain. Also quite rare in these desert parts. So far, it has started raining in about every Iranian town we’ve visited… Maybe they should start paying us?

 

Tuesday, the 17^th of April

When we got up the next morning, the rain had also brought the cold with it: only 7°C. Under a grey and overcast sky, we visited Yazd. It was really pleasant to just stroll around in the old town, with its old mud brick houses. Pictures don’t do it justice under this weather, though:

(You can see the tall, seemingly gothic towers (first picture) everywhere, they’re called badgirs. These are ingenious cooling systems for the old houses in the town: warm air rises through them, creating permanent suction and thus ventilation in the house, keeping it cool in summer. Last picture: Abdel photobombing our selfie…)

In the early evening, we visited the local gym for a fitness demonstration: Bastani. This type of fitness originated with the exercise regimes of army soldiers, but is now a ritualized and musical tradition upheld by old and young alike:

We had dinner in the local Silk Road (!) restaurant. It was a buffet, where we assumed one of the dishes was beef. We only learned later on, that in fact we’d been eating camel meat! Which was a first for all of us. Tastes more or less like beef, but a bit more stringy perhaps.

 

Wednesday, the 18^th of April

There were a few interesting places to visit in the surroundings of Yazd. First we headed off to one of the holiest shrines in the Zoroastrian religion: Chak Chak. (Not making that name up.) When the Arabs invaded Persia in 640 AD, one of the last Sassanid princesses took refuge in these parts (see previous posts for more on the Sassanids!). In need of water, she struck her staff at the mountainside, at which point water started dripping out. The shrine itself isn’t really that much to look at, but the scenery certainly has its merits:

The nearby town of Kharanaq contains an old deserted part, which makes for some awesome ruin exploring. We also had a nice walk nearby, through the small patches where farmers were tending their crops:

When we got back to our hostel, we got some bad news in our mailbox: our Turkmenistan visa had been refused, for the second time even. You see, we didn’t mention it at the time, but our initial request for a Turkmenistan transit visa (in Brussels) had actually been refused by the end of March. When this transit visa is rejected, you have a second chance though: you can apply for a tourist visa, which is supplied when you book a tour through the country with a local tour operator.

By this time, the tour operator that we contacted had done the necessary paperwork, and we had been waiting for the response of the Turkmen immigration services. Again a no, then.

What does this mean for the rest of our trip? Like we explained in one of our first blog posts, there is a plan B: Azerbaijan and then a ferry across the Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan. Which is a lot more hassle. So on the boat we go!

Lucky for us, Moshim, our host at the RestUp Hostel, had just the thing to cheer us up: a delicious home cooked meal. It actually reminded us of a vegetable tajine! Moshim has been a great host to us, by the way, ever helpful, always cracking jokes… Comes greatly recommended for a stay in Yazd!

 

Thursday, the 19^th of April

Because of the changed plans (going through Azerbaijan), we need some more time to travel through Iran. Instead of going to Turkmenistan in the northeast, we’re now heading back towards Europe, leaving in the northwest. This means a few extra days in Iran. But that also means our visa might run out (valid until 30/4). So today we got our visa extended in Yazd. The procedure at the local police station is pretty straightforward, but it still took us almost three hours to get everything done (payment at the bank, having pictures taken, copies of passports and visas…).

Afterwards, Abdel told us that he’d like to fly home from Teheran (while we pass there on the way to Azerbaijan). Our pace has been wearing him out, and in his opinion, the additional kilometers through Iran, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan would be too much for him. So the planning for the next few weeks looks more or less as follows:

• 28/4: drop off Abdel at Teheran airport
• 1/5: cross border with Azerbaijan
• 3/5: get on a ferry to Aktau, Kazakhstan
• 6/5: cross border with Uzbekistan
• 8/5: arrive in Khiva

All in all, this plan B should only cost us about a week extra compared to the original itinerary. Keeping in mind that the ferry might cause more delays, of course…

We spent the rest of the day in Yazd, resting up for the next leg of our journey. First a short visit to the towers of silence, a Zoroastrian shrine on the outskirts of Yazd:

Then we just lazed about, having a drink on one of the many rooftop terraces in Yazd, and just strolling through the old town. As the sun was out, the views were considerably better than two days before:

 

Friday, the 20^th of April

Another 400 km drive, to Kerman in the southeast of Iran, today. On our way there, we visited one of only two round caravanserais in Iran (Shah Abbas the Great, him again, ordered the construction of 999 of these things in the 16^th century). The one in Zein-o-din has been beautifully restored and turned into a hotel/teahouse:

(pictures later)

We arrived in Kerman in the early afternoon. After picking up our guide, Sajjad, we headed towards the nearby Lut desert. Sajjad is a medical student slash tour guide, and is really knowledgeable about just about everything concerning Iranian history, nature,… After spending the rest of the afternoon in the desert, we climbed one of the Kaluts to watch the sunset:

(Qanats are manmade underground canals, used for transporting water from the mountains towards the desert. These enable villages to thrive even the harshest of conditions.)

(The Salty River. For obvious reasons.)



(Also in this picture: Suzy for scale. See if you can find her. White = more salt, not snow.)

(Lut means ‘empty’. The Kaluts, part of the Lut desert and looking like a city of rocks, then mean ‘city of empty’.)

After a tasty chicken dinner in an ecolodge in a nearby desert village, we went to bed early. The plan was to go stargazing at 1 AM. Of course, 1 AM came and went, without anybody waking up. At 2, Tom’s brain decided it really wanted to see the stars, so he got up and took a little nighttime desert tour on his own. Enchanting view of the Milky Way. Sadly, no pictures though, as our phones’ cameras only produce potato quality shots.

 

Saturday, the 21^st of April

After driving back to Kerman and dropping of Sajjad, we went on to visit the nearby town of Mahan. Mahan is home to a pretty mausoleum (forgot who it belongs to, though) and a nice 19^th century garden:

(Putting on our best duckfaces.)

Near the garden, we were invited to lunch by a friendly army officer and his family. In traditional Iranian style, we had a picnic by the side of the water. We received a few gifts as well: some rosewater perfume, a 5000 Rial banknote, fruit… In exchange we could offer them a German euro and some Lotus speculoos!

The rest of the day we spent in Kerman. We thought pickings were a bit slim here, apart from a nice madrassah and the local hamam.

 

Sunday, the 22^nd of April

We started our trek from Kerman in the southeast, to Mashhad in the northeast of Iran. The first leg took us to Esfahak. After driving for 100’s of kms through literally nothing, we arrived at the village late in the afternoon.

Esfahak itself is rather nice. It’s a green oasis in an otherwise very arid environment. We stayed in another ecolodge, this one located in the old town. This part of town was abandoned 50 years ago, after an earthquake. Our host, Moshin, started renovating some of the old houses a couple of years ago. One by one, the other villagers are doing the same. It made for a lovely stay in an otherwise deserted ghost town:

Walking through the small garden patches at the back of the town, in the shadow of palm trees, gave us a flashback to our time spent in Morocco, in 2015:

(Even Suzy got a nice view!)

Monday, the 9^th of April

After staying in Isfahan for a couple of days, we went on a desert excursion nearby. We were told there were some nice views in a town just 100 km away, Varzaneh. On the way there, we spotted some pigeon towers:

(In the olden days, the pigeon poop was used as fertilizer. So these towers were literal poop machines. The towers were once all over Isfahan as well, about 2 000 of them. If you know they housed 14 000 pigeons per tower, that gives you about 28 000 000 little pooper troopers!)

When we arrived at the sand dunes in Varzaneh, we stumbled upon some sort of theme park in the desert, complete with bouncy castle, death ride and ATV rides. It was hilarious to see a bunch of Iranian school girls in chador driving ATVs through the dunes while shrieking their lungs out. When they met Wafa and Abdel though, they thought they were married, instead of father-daughter. Says a lot about society here…

The desert itself was of course very photogenic:

There was also a salt lake nearby, where we had lunch. Funnily enough, it had rained the day before (our luck, rain in the desert…), so it wasn’t that impressive:

Driving through that mess with the car wasn’t such a great idea either. Afterwards, it was caked in salt top to bottom, so we had to go to a local carwash:

(That is salt on the windows, from driving through deep puddles. The carwash dude gave Suzy the best carwash of her life with a pressure washer, chassis and all.)

While visiting the Ghoortan citadel nearby, we met another busload of screaming school girls. Their knowledge of English was pretty limited, so all we got was ‘Hello!’ and ‘How are you!?’ a thousand times over.

Tuesday, the 10^th of April

Another big trek (600 km) on Tuesday, from Isfahan to Shushtar, in the South West of Iran, not far from the Iraqi border. Nothing much happened on the drive, but we saw some beautiful and very diverse landscapes. From driving through the southern end of the Zagros Mountains, with very deep ravines, over green and lush valleys (where they even grew strawberries), we ended up in very red and arid rocky hills. By mid april temperatures already reach 33 °C. Locals claim it gets as hot as 70 °C in summer!

This region of Iran hasn’t exactly been touristically developed yet, we noticed. After seeing a couple of hotels, one more derelict than the other, we found ourselves some clean but overpriced rooms in the center of town. Dinner, although with a view, was also underwhelming. As nobody spoke a word of English, we were lucky to have Abdel with us: 90% of the population here is Arab!

Wednesday, the 11^th of April

As it would be a very hot day, we of course prepared a day with lots of sightseeing. First stop was Susa, ancient Elamite and Persian city. The Elamite kingdom was one of many in the region, before the Persian Achaemenid rulers Cyrus and Darius conquered them all and created the first world empire in the 6^th century BC. Sadly, the site was thoroughly looted by the French in the 19^th century, so most of the interesting pieces are in the Louvre now.

Next stop was Chogha Zanbil. This ancient Elamite ziggurat (= multilevel temple, their version of the pyramid) was only rediscovered beneath the sand in 1935, and was therefore beautifully preserved:

(Normally you don’t get to climb the ziggurat itself, but we found a guy. Yay for destroying timeless archeological treasures!)

To give you an idea of the size of this thing, the square base is 105x105m, and it once stood 52 meters tall. Nowadays, only 26 meters remain.

After a huge dinner in the local McDonald’s/Pizza Hut/KFC notsofastfood crossover, we visited the Historical Hydraulic System in Shushtar. This is basically a complex system of dams and canals that powers something like 36 mills. When you walk through  it, it looks like a maze of water filled canals and little waterfalls. Parts of it are supposed to date all the way back to the Achaemenids (See also: Susa).

On our way back to the hotel, we met a young guy who tried to make something clear to us. Using google translate, he finally managed to get across he wanted to kiss Wafa. Teehee. We beat yet another hasty retreat, but he kept following us. Now he said something along the lines of ‘You don’t have to worry about the others if you want to elope with me’. Funny guy. We think he was a bit simple or something.

Thursday, the 12^th of April

Another 600 km drive, from Shushtar to Shiraz this time. This one was a bit more boring, not that much to see. During the drive, we passed the 10 000 km mark of our trip though! At this rate, we’ll do 50 000 km by the end of our trip, instead of the projected 40 000…

Near the end of the day, we stopped over by Bishapur, which was once the Sassanid capital. The Sassanids were the ruling dynasty of Persia, roughly from the 3^rd until the 7^th century AD, which put them constantly at odds with the (Eastern) Roman empire. Bishapur itself was partly built by Roman legionary captives: Shapur I inflicted several defeats on the Romans in the 3^rd century, even taking the Roman emperor Valerian captive in 260 (only time this happened in Roman history!).

The visit was cut short by a passing thunderstorm, so we headed on towards Shiraz. Finding a place to sleep had been really difficult here, as most hotel rooms are booked way in advance during high season (April – May). We were lucky to find Mehdi’s guesthouse through Facebook. One of the best places we’ve stayed in Iran so far, we can’t recommend it enough!

Friday, the 13^th of April

Shiraz is the Iranian city of gardens and poets. It was mostly built and renovated during the Zand dynasty of the 18^th century. Our first visit was to the Pars Museum, a small pavilion in a lovely garden:

Next was yet another holy shrine, this time for three brothers of Imam Reza (See also: Qom). We’ve met most of the family now, can’t wait to finally meet the guy himself in Mashhad. The shrine itself wasn’t particularly noteworthy, but Tom managed to lose our guidebook on Iran. We later learned from a guide somebody picked it up and offered it to a couple of German tourists, who simply accepted it as theirs. Bloody Germans! First they start two world wars, then they steal our book!

Lucky for us, Mehdi came to the rescue: he pointed us towards a local bookshop that actually had one last copy of the Lonely Planet, albeit an older edition. Crisis averted! We rely rather heavily on our guide to find places to sleep, restaurants…

At sunset, we visited the mausoleum of Hafez, somewhat like the national poet of Iran. Apparently every Iranian can quote some of his verses by heart. We thought it would be a quiet and serene place. We arrived to find the place flooded by Iranians though:

(Something weird happened in that last picture. It’s unedited. Hafez’s ghost passing over Wafa?)

Saturday, the 14^th of April

Today: Persepolis!

Today also: another Iranian holiday!

Result: lots of people on site. The palace complex is rather big though, so save for a few choke points, it didn’t get too crowded. Persepolis was built by Darius, the second of the Achaemenid emperors, around 500 BC (See also: Susa). It was extended mostly by his son Xerxes (who we in Europe know as the bad guy at the battles of Marathon, Salamis…). Together with their (grand)father, Cyrus the Great, these three are still revered by Iranians and historians alike. They are known as fair and just kings, permitting religious freedom, respecting the customs of conquered nations and being all-round cool dudes. At Persepolis, the British found an inscribed cylinder, which bears the first declaration of human rights, written 2500 years ago! Of course they promptly put it in the British Museum, like so many other looted treasures. To give you an idea how well liked these guys were, even the Old Testament has nothing but praise for them.

(There is one gigantic relief in which all of the conquered nations pay tribute to the Persian emperor, each in their traditional garments, bearing typical gifts. Everything is depicted with the utmost respect for these nations.)

The Achaemenid line (and Persepolis itself) was ended by the invasion of Alexander the Great. Darius III was killed by one of his lieutenants while on the run, and Persepolis was burned to the ground near the end of the 4^th century BC. It’s not clear why Alexander did this, as history also lists him as a rather tolerant and open guy. One theory: it was an act of vengeance, as the Persians burned Athens a 150 years earlier. According to our local guide, this doesn’t make any sense though, as Alexander was Macedonian, not Greek. And also, the Greeks started it! (By burning Sardis a couple of years earlier.) According to another theory, Persepolis was known as the richest and most beautiful place in the world at that time. Alexander then burned it, to prove he was powerful enough to eclipse all the wealth and power that was accumulated at Persepolis.

Near Persepolis is the site of Naqsh-e Rostam, the necropolis of the Achaemenid emperors. Darius and Xerxes were buried there, along with a couple of their descendants. Their tombs were hewn from the rocks in a hillside. Lots of erosion because of this. Interestingly enough the site was recuperated by the Sassanids some 600-700 years later (See also: Bishapur). Beneath the Achaemenid tombs, they cut several reliefs from the rocks, depicting their greatest exploits. Also on site: a square tower, thought to date from Achaemenid times. Its function is unclear: a burial chamber, a treasury…?

(This last scene is Roman emperor Valerian being taken captive by Shapur I (See also: Bishapur).)

Some 70 kms away, Cyrus the Great himself is buried, at Pasargadae. We passed by it, but nothing much remains, only his funeral tomb. Cyrus actually started building his own capital city at Pasargadae, but it fell into ruins after Darius built Persepolis.

In the evening, we had dinner in a very nice setting, although the food itself was a bit meh:

Afterwards, Tom joined Mehdi and his friends for a game of football. Great fun, until he decided to go for a header. He missed the ball a bit and it landed straight on his glasses. Result:

(Luckily he has a spare pair…)

Wednesday, the 4th of April

The previous evening, we picked up Abdel from the airport. As he only speaks French and Arabic, we had prepared some sentences in English for him, a hotel reservation, a planning… Just to make sure he could pass customs without any problems. In the end, he breezed through every control without being asked one question. We missed each other in the arrival hall though, so he was almost ready to take a taxi to the hotel when we finally found each other…

On Wednesday, we visited the shrine of the sister of Imam Reza, the 8^th Imam, in Qom. Metusaleh was buried here in the 9^th century, after dying en route to visit her brother in Mashhad. Because of this shrine, Qom is the second holiest city of Iran, after Mashhad (burial place of Reza himself). Through gifts of pilgrims, the shrine has become very opulent:

(The gold ornaments you can see in one square alone, add up to over 200 kg of pure gold!)

(Wafa almost died boiling under the chador. She didn’t understand how Iranian women are able to wear this, or put up with it… Respect for our Iranian sisters!)

We then set out towards Kashan, where we booked a room in a nice traditional house. We didn’t do much for the rest of the day, as it got pretty hot. In the evening we had dinner in a very nice setting though:

(There were a few of these renovated houses/palaces in Kashan, that gave you a real feel for the architecture of the time (mostly 19^th century, Qajar dynasty.)

Thursday, the 5^th of April

We stayed in and around Kashan on Thursday. First we visited a traditional bath house (hamam), which was beautifully renovated:

And then another palace of a merchant:

We had lunch in the Fin garden, which was designed for one of the great Shahs in Persian history, Shah Abbas the Great (Saffavid dynasty, 16^th century). This guy’s name is going to pop up a lot more, so you might want to remember it 😉

Afterwards, we drove towards a nearby village, Nyasar, which was supposed to have a nice waterfall. However, when we got there, the waterfall itself was rather underwhelming:

Still, it was nice to see how the Iranians themselves spent their weekend (Thursday and Friday in Iran!), as they were picnicking all around, smoking a water pipe, or just taking a nap.

Friday, the 6^th of April

Today we would drive to Isfahan, but first we stopped by Abyaneh. The drive to this little town alone was worth the detour, as it is hidden in a valley, surrounded by snow-capped mountains:

Because of its isolation, the inhabitants apparently still speak an older version of Farsi, called Middle Persian. They were also out in their traditional garments:

On the drive towards Isfahan, it started raining, so no more stops. We drove through Natanz though, which is famous for being the town where Iran’s nuclear program is/was being developed.
*DISCLAIMER* We can neither confirm nor deny there were any weapons of mass destruction present. *DISCLAIMER*

When we arrived in Isfahan, we quickly dropped off our luggage, and went to explore the city centre nearby. What we saw was simply jaw-dropping:

The most impressive monuments on the Naqsh-e Jahan Square (2nd largest square in the world, we were told. After another one in Pyongyang…) were built during the reign of Shah Abbas the Great (yup, that one again). These include the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque and the Masjed-e Shah Mosque you see above.

In the evening, we went for dinner in a restaurant on the square. Of note here was mainly the dessert: some sort of yoghurt pudding, with lamb meat mixed in (0,5 kg of meat per 10 kg of yoghurt, for the foodies among you). Had a very nice, non-meaty taste!

Saturday, the 7^th of April

We wanted to explore the city further, so we dived into the bazaar. However, after more than 3 weeks of non-stop travelling, writing, planning and other stuff, Tom’s brain decided it had had enough, and went into shutdown. So we split up, with Wafa and Abdel soldiering on, while Tom spent most of the day in bed, resting.

Some of the nicer stuff that was visited:

(Ali Kapu palace.)

(Sheikh Lotfollah mosque.)

(Masjed-e Shah mosque.)

(Masjed-e Jameh mosque.)

Each by themselves, these are architectural gems to behold. To see them all in one place, almost one square even, is just astonishing.

We had dinner in a lovely restaurant, in Qajar style. The food in Iran is quite good by the way (according to Tom only >_>), although it might get a bit monotonous after a while. Lots of kebab (chicken, beef or lamb), stews and rice. Wafa is starting to have trouble finding variety in her menu 🙂

Sunday, the 8^th of April

We’d planned to visit the outer sights of Isfahan, but almost immediately got sidetracked by a very charming carpet salesman, not far from Naqsh-e Jahan Square. Although we made clear his carpets were way above our budget, he still gave us an interesting introduction to Persian tapestry, tea included. What really appealed to us, is that he stayed very friendly until the end, even when he couldn’t convince us to buy anything. This has been quite different in some other countries we’ve visited, where shop visits frequently turn nasty once the shopkeeper understands you’re not buying, but only windowshopping.

(Boone, we thought about buying this one for you, but too expensive… 🙁  )

Isfahan is also famous for its lovely bridges, mostly Pol-e Khaju and Si-o-Seh Pol (again dating from the Saffavid era). We thought some of the charm was missing though, as the riverbed was completely dry:

 

We also visited the Armenian quarter of Isfahan, Jolfa. Beautiful paintings inside the cathedral:

(Reminds us a bit of Bosch, with the demons.)

But lunch in one of the many restaurants was spoiled by the fact that the waiter kept whispering in Tom’s ear to put a tip underneath his plate. Big no-no.

On our way back towards the hotel, we stopped by the atelier of a master craftsman, Hossein Fallahi,  famous for his miniature paintings. This gentle old man (almost 80, and still his hands are steadier than ours!) explained to us how he had travelled all over the world for exhibitions, including Belgium:

(On top of his list: Ardooie! He said he really liked Belgium, as people had been very friendly to him there.)

(He also made us a nice little painting. We ended up buying a couple of souvenirs from his shop :).)

Afterwards, we changed hotels in Isfahan. Two days earlier, Wafa had stumbled upon a brand new hotel by accident, which offered us a deal we couldn’t refuse (-50%). It had only opened the week before. Big recommendation from us: it’s called Keryas Hotel, right behind the Masjed-e Shah mosque.
So the next 2 nights: luxury! It actually turned out we were the very first guests of the hotel!

(And it was a very nice hotel! Even Suzy got a view while parked in the street 🙂

They were still sorting things out, so a lot of our questions were bounced around by management before we got an answer, but this also had its advantages: because there wasn’t a price list for the minibar yet, we could take anything we wanted for free 🙂 🙂 🙂
Best two nights of sleep we’ve had so far during our trip!