Last blog from Iran: With photos: j2westcountry.tumblr/post/62664284105/friday-27th-september-persian-people Friday 27th September - Persian People image “Are you okay?” “Yes I’m okay, are you okay?” “Yes I’m okay, how are you feeling?” “Yes I’m well thanks, how about you? “Yes I’m good, are you sure you’re okay?” “Yes I’m okay, how about you, are you okay?” This (in Farsi) is how the majority of phone conversations in Iran begin. It is competition to see which person can be the most polite and caring about the other. It is a good indication of the warmth and kindheartedness of the people of this enormously misjudged country, and stark contrast to the harsh tone of “What are you doing?? Did you eat??!” you get in an East Asian phone call. image I’m at the Iran/Iraq border town of Piranshah, just a few hours away from crossing into the most dangerous stretch of my journey so far, Northern Iraq. The area of Northern Iraq or Iraqi Kurdistan, is in fact very safe, as I’ve been told by many travellers, as long as you stay away from a couple of major cities and don’t even think about going into Southern Iraq. The thing that worries me is crossing the border from Iraq into Turkey, and its close proximity to Syria. This part of Turkey has been an area of unrest in recent years, even without the continuing crisis in Syria. The huge influx of refugees from Syria has put even more stress on the area, and I hope to pass through it as quickly and safely as possible. image The last three weeks in Iran have flown by, but they have made some of the most amazing memories of my entire trip. I cannot even begin to describe how hospitable the Iranian people are to foreigners, which is perhaps why I have been struggling to know what to include and what not to in this blog post, without it turning into a thesis. So many times I have had shopkeepers or restaurant managers or internet café owners refuse my money or give me a large discount, instead giving a smile and a nod which is the country-wide symbol for “You’re our guest!”. So many people, when I have just asked for a simple request or direction have gone well out of their way to show me a location, order me food, or invite me to stay at their house. Countless warm-hearted enquiries about my age, nationality, marital status or job would end with a big smile, a deposit of amazingly fresh fruit or nuts into my handlebar bag and a hearty yell of “Welcome to Iran!”. image There are so many hospitable people and random acts of kindness to point out in the 21 days I spent in Iran, but notable experiences include: Couchsurfing in Tehran with Ali, a generous website designer who lives in a huge apartment in a swanky northern Tehran neighbourhood, who showed me around the huge metropolis and fed me well, along with seven other equally grateful couchsurfers! Meeting Hossain, a debonair, sports-car driving hotshot with a heart of gold and his girlfriend and friends in Sharoud. (After just having a solo pizza on a table near them in a restaurant, they invited me to a hookah lounge for “hubble bubble” and tea, let me stay at their new apartment, then convinced me to stay an extra day for a huge Iranian BBQ in the mountains with the best chicken I’ve tasted in months.) Using the Warm Shower’s website to stay at Yasir’s, the young, insightful locomotive driver and astronomer who wants to travel the world, chasing the future solar eclipses. Having my USB stick with all my back-up photos, blogs and music on sent to me by taxi to the next town, 50kms away, after leaving it in a small computer shop where the owner, Aghil, let me use his wifi for an hour for free (he also refused to let me pay for the taxi). Sohrab, the modestly dressed graphic designer, English teacher and vineyard owner who stopped me whilst cycling in the night and gave me a place to stay and several large bunches of amazingly sweet (and heavy!) grapes to take with me. And most recently staying with Heidar and his family, another computer/music-download shop owner who let me use his wifi and who immediately insisted I stay at his house when I told him I saw cockroaches in the only hotel in this border town. All of these people were so incredibly kind and hospitable on a scale you we probably can’t even comprehend in the UK. They don’t just go out of their way, they reschedule their whole day to make sure that you are a comfortable guest of theirs. These experiences are what make the travelling through countries like Iran such a warm, touching and incomparable experience, and gives you faith that there are still so many good people in the world. And wow, do they feed you well… which for a hungry cyclist who has lost about 10kgs of weight in Central Asia from poor sustenance and dodgy stomachs, is an absolute god-send! image I also, finally, had the pleasure of riding with my friends and visa-waiting-drinking-buddies Julian and Ellie, who have been heading west in a similarly slow fashion. After several attempts to synchronize our cycling schedules that were always thwarted by one visa problem after another, we finally got to ride together in Western Iran. It was really fun to finally get to ride with these guys, to not have to eat alone in restaurants, to share out the stares of highway onlookers and to have cycle breaks where I could actually have real conversations that weren’t in broken English or explaining where I was from and why I wasn’t married. Sadly it was only for three days, but hopefully we can meet up again in Turkey for another jaunt. image image image Three weeks does not seem enough to travel this massive country and meet all the amazing people, but I’m happy with the time I had here, and even though I went to hell and back with a hefty ticket price to get the visa, I definitely think it was worth it, and certainly want to come back and visit again one day. The Government of Iran, and Iranian people’s sour attitudes towards it, is perhaps another story. One which I might wait until I’m out of the country to write about. I’m off to Iraq today and then it’s up to the Turkish border where I’ll be cycling along roads just a few kilometres away from the Syrian border. Wish me luck! image
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 00:08:56 +0000
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