Switching worlds

Back in my hometown Groningen for a while now, here my last 2 days of my silk trip.
On wednesday the 20th of August I wondered through Tehran on my last day (for now) in Iran. I finally found a music store where they sold Tombaks (Iranian drum) for about 50 euro but after finding another store I found a better Tombak for about 30 euro with a good leather bag.

It was already late in the day and after rushing to the bazaar to find some gifts for my friends, I noticed that many shops were closed and with some help from strangers I bought a couple of Iranian flags and some waterpipe tabaco.

I shared my last pistachios with 2 Slowakien backpackers who's photo camera got stolen on the street the day before with more then 1500 photos on it. Really f#$*ed up for them and I promised that I would send them some of my photos.
In the hotel where I stayed I met Jens again, a funny Danish dude who I met in Esfahan, he was taking the bus back to Istanbul and from there fly back to Denmark. I really love trains but really don't like long distance busses, Jens was taking a 36 hours bus !! It reminded me of the 57 hour bus ride in South America but back then I had valiums and Jens didn't want to take those of me. My flight with Emirates will be so much more comfortable.


The next day I got up before 6 and with my last rials I hired the same taxi driver who picked up and brought my dad, and went to the airport. The streets of Tehran are around this time completely empty, strange side as in the daytime these are one of the busiest in the world.


I had to wait before I could check in at around 9 and I managed to stay under the 20 kilo luggae limit.
My last Iranian money was almost gone but as I bought a last thea at a small cafe on the airport I was invited to join a table where 3 employees were having breakfast and I was asked to have some nice bread with eggs as well.
The hospitality here is amazing!!! Even here at the airport. My first flight went to Dubai and was just 2 hours. But a very pleasant 2 hours, flying Emirates Air is great, food is good and the onboard movie and music system is huge.

Arriving an hour late in Dubai I was brought to a counter where a steward told me that my flight to Frankfurt already left and that my flight was rescheduled to tomorrow morning.
I have flown quit abit in my life and I knew that one day I would get in such a situation. The young lady said to me that Emirates booked a room in a hotel and that they would provide food and I could even go into the city!! SWEEETTT.

Got a nice room (double bed and bath) in a 4 star hotel just near the airport, 4 coupons for lunch, breakfast, dinner and snack at a buffet. This is the most luxurious accomodation I have ever had and all employees greet you with "hello sir How are you".
After enjoying a great lunch and a nice bath I got a free airport shuttle to one of the biggest malls in the world and strolled around. Dubai is very hot and humid but the mall is nice and cool. Allot of men wear arab clothes and quit some women wear a full covering burka (haven't seen that in Iran at all) I saw female hair again after 4 weeks in Iran which was quit nice but seeing girls wearing scarfs does has something mysterious.

My flight the next morning was at 8 oclock, so after a good breakfast the Emirates shuttle bus brought me to the airport and my 6 hours of movie entertainment pleasureride started with my flight back to Europe after travelling for more then 7 weeks. I rejected all the free beer offers on the plane as I wanted to drink this holy drink in Groningen

I arrived around 14:00 in Frankfurt and my first experience with German hospitality was not a good one. Standing in line for passport control, I yawnded for a second without even noticing it and suddenly the airport asshole cop started shouting at me in german because he thought I yawned on purpose. Cause it was late I decided to take the train to Holland instead of hitchhiking as friends of me were waiting at my place.

Bought a ticket for almost € 100,- !!! 3 hours of train ride € 100,-!! just sick. I had to wait at Frankfurt trainstation for almost 2 hours and as I sat at a coffee place, the german manager asked me in an angry german way to leave if I was not planning to buy anything. Fair enough but nobody asked me to get my order but the waitress did help other people.
WELCOME BACK TO THE REAL WESTERN WORLD, WHERE HOSPITALITY HAS LOST HIS MEANING! I went back to the owner and ordered a coke and complained about his rudeness, he gave in and appologized to me.
I had a smooth trainride back and arrived in my Greenroom before 22:00 that night after travelling for 15 hours. Seeing my friends again ,who waited for me in my room, was very nice and it was good to see them again.
This last week before school starts I want to spend with my friends before I leave home again in May for 6 months to Africa.

I will miss Iran allot and the people who I have met and I liked travelling with my dad allot. It is an amazing country with great people maybe the friendliest I have ever met. Iran is not dangerous and moslims are one of the most generous kind of people you will meet (and I am not talking about the small % of extremists, who ruin it for the rest) My advice is just go and explore Iran and the Middle East, you won't regret it.

Hope you all like my long posts, in 7 months I will be back to tell you about my adventours in Africa.
I attached a movie of me smoking a waterpipe and some photo's of the friendly staff of the airport, the plane and my favourite drink Rani.

Khoda Hafez

Joost.

Saying goodbye to one of the world's friendliest countries

Today is my last day in Iran after travelling for more then 7 weeks of which spending almost 4 weeks in Persia.

Well I will continue from where I left of in my previous post. Last thursday my dad and I got a busride to Busher at the Persian Gulf. We left our big bagage at the hotel in Shiraz which included 2 carpets we bought the day before and some souvenirs of Persepolis.

Busher is not really a place tourists would visit and it is mainly known for the build of one of the nuclearreactors and as a harbour for takeing the boat to Dubai or Oman.

As I looked up the weather forecast for busher it only showed a cold 42 degrees celsius but later we found out this must have been measured in the shade. As the bus measured a temperature outside of .... 56 degrees celsius !!! for my american readers that is 133 degrees fahrenheit. Which is just sick-ass hot!! Walking on the street in the heat of the day is really not recomendable as the humidity is also very high but fun to experience it for a change.

The water in the Persian Gulf is really cristal blue and as we saw, people do have to swim with their clothes on. The next day my dad went for a swim in the morning and I regreted that I forgot my swimshorts in the hostel as if there are no cops around men could swim in their shorts.

We flew back saturday morning from Shiraz to Tehran with an old Russian plane makeing it to the capital in 1,5 hours.

As we still had the whole day to see some museums we missed before, the National museum being the most important as it was recomended to see it after visiting Persepolis. Also we had a guided tour in Farsi through the Ebrat museum which was a former prison in the time of the Shah Reza (a dictator some 30 years ago). This I can describe as being the Madame Tussauds/museum of wax statues of Iran as many wax prisoners are being shown in the most horrible torture positions.

Our last Gheylan we shared in a nice theahouse in a park where we sat down 2 weeks ago doing the same. I really enjoyed travelling with my dad, and it is good to experience the things with someone you known so you can talk about it when you're back home. Rough plans are being sketched for next year when my parents can come and visit me in .......

The Azadi tower, Tehran's Arc the Triomph was our last attraction we saw with an amazing light show and fireworks as one of the Imams its birthday was celebrated. A nice ending of our trip together.

On sunday he flew very early to Frankfurt and I made my way to Hamedan in the West of Iran with an Iranian friend I met before.

Hamedan is known for a huge cave, a big iranian tourist attraction but as my money was running low and my friend Amir didn't bring any money, we visited some attractions in the city while staying at his family.

My last day in Tehran I will spend looking for souvenirs and gifts and maybe a Tombak an Iranian drum instrument. Tomorrow I have an early flight to Dubai and then Frankfurt where I will spend a night at a classmate his place as I will arrive in the nighttime.

On friday I will hitchhike back to Holland as this was my way of travelling I started with so I like to finish with it as well.

I will miss hospitable Iran and its amazing food, of which I haven't told you about, an indication.. every 3 or 4 days I bought half a kilo of pistachios and once in a while baklava, pashmak (a sort of cottoncandy/suikerspin), nougat, cookies, kebab etc etc.

But I will definetly enjoy the first alcohol containing beer in Europe I will drink as that is what they do not have in Iran. And I am looking forward to see my friends and family again.

See you all soon.

Joost

Jewels of Persia

Dear readers,

So at the moment i am already travelling for more then a week with my old man and I like it. We are currently in Shiraz in the south of Iran and tomorrow we are going to see the Persian Gulf.

I don't know if it's a smart decision because at the moment the temperature can reach well above 50 degrees!!! Some say it's 55 degrees and that is 20 degrees hotter then in shiraz at the moment. but hearing nice stories about the clear sea at the gulf makes us enthousiastic how it's like.

A small overview of what we saw the last week. On sunday the 4th of August I picked up my dad from Tehran Airport at 4 o'clock at night, spending a few days in Tehran and showing him the Iranian customs I learned from my stay in the north.

The night before I was invited to the home of one of the guys I met in Jawerdeh and I was welcomed by the whole family as you can see on one of the photos in my last post. They invited me and my dad to come and have dinner with them and we will after returning to Tehran in 2 weeks. We took the nighttrain to Esfahan where we hangout for a couple of days.

Esfahan or Half of the World, as the name litterly means can be seen as the Paris of the Middle East. Its architecture is amazing... The blue mosques, the palaces and the huge Imam square (being the 2nd largest square in the world) I hanged out with 2 backpackers (Suni and Michei) at night playing frisbee and smoking gheylan (waterpipe) in some theahouses.

In Yazd a city more to the south we shared with the 4 of us a taxi to some very old villages some dating back thousands of years. Yazd is one of the oldest cities in the world and you notice that when walking around. Cause of the heat we didn't do much between 12 and 16:00 and relaxed in our hotel with other travellers. A few days ago we went to an indoor swimming pool with only men, as swimming mixed with women is forbidden in Iran.

The day before yesterday we arrived in Shiraz (hotter but still do-able as the hummidity is ok) and yesterday we saw magnificient Persepolis. An ancient ruine site dating back 2500 years when the Persian Empire was one of the most powerfull in the world. A photo of me standing at the gate can be seen in this post.

My dad and I have developed a game when travelling in Iran, actually more of a competition. As we handsome western men, when we walk across the city many iranians want to talk to us and often ask where we are from and welcome us to Iran. Also many Iranians want to have a photo taken with us, our competition is who can get as many iranians on the photo as possible. Yesterday I held the record of 20 boys from a school (see the photo) today my dad beat the record by more then 30 iranians and himself.

Also when crossing the street we classify its complexity of crossing it on a scale between 1 and 5.

Well as I mentioned it before, tomorrow we are going to the Gulf for a day as we will try to do some swimming or even snorkelling making our way back to Shiraz the day after to fly back to Tehran on Saturday. My dad is flying back the day after to Germany. I will spend a few days after he left with some friends in Tehran and in the west of Iran.

I still enjoy Iran a lot, meeting so many nice people random on the street and learning much of how people think and live here. This is trully an amazing country unregarding of what its government does or of how strict the Islam law is here. Its people, the beauty of the cities and villages, the environment and traditions are amazing. But I will tell you that inperson when I'm back.

greets joost.

Photo's of Iran

Kandovan Village, North of Iran
Above the clouds in the mountains

At the home of Iranian friends
6 person cabin in the train from Tehran to Esfahan, in the upper beds; me and my old man
At the magnificient Khomeini Square, Esfahan

Redefining Hospitality

First of all I want to thank everybody for their nice remarks on my posts and by email. Good to hear that you appreciate my effort for posting my experiences on this blog. Second I am really trying to post some photo's on my blog but the connection here is as shitty as it can be, so I will try to send them by email.

Tehran, Tehran want a noisy and crowded city but as many people said that it is an awfull place I don't hate it yet after being here for a day.
So as I described in my last post my plans were to spend a few days in the mountains in a village called Masouleh some 1000 meter up. After a day seeing the village with 3 polish travellers a got settled in a nice cheap room with a nice view as the polish left for Theran.
Sitting and reading while smoking a Gheylan (waterpipe) a young guy came up to me and started talking to me (believe me not uncommon as many people do that here) and he invited me to sit with his family at their table. His brother and parents spoke pretty good english as well and before I knew it I was invited to their vacation home at the Caspian sea coast and spend the next 4 days with Sourena their son in a far nicer village at 4000 meter high, let me re-phrase that; chilling in a nice village overlooking the clouds (as we where above the clouds and sometimes in)

The family also took me on a boatride through an bird protected area and we enjoyed a marvelous sunset. I learned allot from them regarding the government, country and religion in Iran. As they were making jokes about their president as we in holland would make jokes about the hair of mr Wilders. The Caspian sea coast as it sounds maybe amazing it is actually quite dirty as Iran has a serious garbage problem. At night at the coast and the days spending in Jawerdeh (the cloud village) I met many Iranians together with sourena who helped me translate allot. Many people here know Holland from the flowers and football (van nistelrooy, van basten, robben etc) and I get to answer allot of questions about how life is in Holland and how I like Iran and why I am not married yet.
Iran really is a country you could see in two ways; 1 being the strict islamic country as many people picture it from tv (burning flags, women in burkas or public death sentences) or the other way that actually many young people are not muslim, listen to ''forbidden'' western music and have seen all the latest holywood movies and don't agree with their government and many do drink alcohol. Actually the homemade redwine and whisky is not bad.
My main dish what I had the last 5 days were chicken, chicken and more chicken and a little bread as my room mates in Jawerdeh made the best chicken on the bbq for me everynight.

My Farsi is getting better and people here like it allot that I try to study it. I have so many more experiences I want to share with you but maybe it's better to tell it in person.

Today I wondered through Tehran and visited the big bazar, traffic is terrible here and crossing the street for the first time looks like a death wish but now I really enjoy it and I compare it with a free adrenaline rollercoaster ride when the themepark is closed. ;) I actually get used to the almost 40 degrees in the daytime.
Last night I slept in a shitty guesthouse but it was nice to meet some fellow-travellers, and as my dad is arriving in Tehran tonight I found a better one.
The next 2 weeks I travel with him which will be a different experience for a change.

Also I booked my flight back home and the date is ........ the 21st of August flying to Frankfurt, which was the only one available in europe till the 25th of August. My original plan was to stay a week longer but besides the lack of available flights, I also want to enjoy the last week of the summer vacation back home with my friends as from September I will be busy with school and work again.
And as many Iranians really live the day as it comes with friends and family, I experienced and know that besides my passion of travelling, my friends and family I have back home are of great importance to me. But first another 2,5 weeks seeing all the jewels of Iran in the middle and south.

Hope you have a little idea of how Iran is but actually you should come to this great nation to experience it your self.

Hope everything is well.
greets joost

p.s. Yo makkers hoe was het Festival Reggea Geel dit weekend?