Back to Tehran

We spend most of the time driving back from Anzali to Tehran. There are 2 ways of getting back to Tehran from Anzali: one is via Rasht and Qazvin, the way we came from; and the other via the Caspian Sea coast and then turning into the mountains. We went via the latter route. The initial part of the was quite uneventful, I would expect to see the Caspian Coast as we drive along this stretch of the road. However no such luck, as we were driving nearer inland, the coast is on the opposite side, we can’t see the coast at all. Luckily our guide was kind enough to detour into a short stopover area facing the Caspian Sea. “This is our last opportunity to take pictures of the Caspian Sea”, I thought to myself and snapping my camera profusely. After a 5 min break, we continued our way back to Tehran. Out of nowhere, our guide asked if I am still interested in buying Iranian Tea, and I said yes, so he stopped by this shop in Lahijan, where the area is famous for Iranian Tea. As we were pulling up to the shop, our guide pointed out that the mountains we see, where the tea leaves are grown, is known as the Devil’s Mountain as the area is rather windy and at night one would hear the rusting sound produced by the tree, giving the whole area an eerie feeling. After getting our tea, we resumed our journey back. The rest of the journey was rather uneventful.

Caspian Sea

Devil’s Mountains

One last look at the Caspian Sea

One last look at the Caspian Sea

One last look at the Caspian Sea

Alborz Mountain Ranges

We turned into the Alborz Mountain ranges at this coastal town called Chalus. The initial drive was quite alright (after seeing the dramatic sceneries in Alamut Valley, the rest is just don’t match up to it) until we came to this short rest point. From here I can see the whole of the mountain valley as well as this farmland at the bottom of the valley. I thought this looked like a scene in one of those cowboy movies. The view is stunning! From this point on, the journey looked interesting. Many times, our guide wanted to over several cars in the one laned motorway but was unsuccessful either due to cars coming from the opposite lane or the car in front of us suddenly sped up as we filtered our car to the oncoming traffic lane. However, our guide managed to over many slower-moving cars along the way. What amazes me more is the way the road was being paved. We travelled into the valley and then up the mountains, into the snow and tunnels carved out from the mountain. Every turn is a surprise on this road, as it hops from mountain to mountain ensuring travellers on this road get from Chalus to Tehran. There is this part of the road that flattens out to look like we are near sea level. I am pretty sure we are on top of the mountain, as there was still snow on the ground. The whole area looks like some winter wonderland, absolutely beautiful and peaceful

Driving through Alborz Mountains

Driving through Alborz Mountains

Driving through Alborz Mountains

On the way, we saw snow and some villages covered in snow

Driving through Alborz Mountains

Driving through Alborz Mountains

Driving through Alborz Mountains

Driving through Alborz Mountains

Driving through Alborz Mountains

Capital of Iran

After snaking up and down in the mountains, after 4 hours drive, we arrived in Tehran. From the peaceful road and now we are entering into the chaotic roads of Tehran. After checking into the same hotel we stayed on our first day in Iran, we decided to head out and visit some bazaars that were mentioned in Lonely Planet. Everywhere we go, there are tons of people shopping and hanging out. Most probably shopping for the Iran New Year. The streets in Tehran is bustling with life, unlike some of the towns like Kashan or Anzali. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel. On our way, we saw the metro station and took a ride on it. The metro in Tehran charged a flat rate of roughly SGD0.30 regardless of the distance you ride on it.  As we entered the paid area of the station, walking towards the platform, I realised the metro station is spick and span. The train that would bring us back to our hotel pulled into the station, as we boarded the train, I saw the train looked very new and clean. The ride on the metro was very comfortable, and though this is our first time taking the metro in Tehran, the well-marked dual-language signs ensured that we are on the right train. As we alighted the train and exited the station, 2 locals looked at us and asked where we were from. They were rather surprised that we were in Iran as travellers. We chatted a bit and we found out that they are not from Tehran, they like us are travellers and they are in Tehran for a holiday. As our hotel and theirs are in a different direction, we parted our ways and headed back to our hotel to rest for the night.

Walking around downtown Tehran

I had pizza for dinner

Around Downtown Tehran

A Bus stop in Tehran

Subway in Tehran

Subway departing the station

 

Masuleh – The Millennium Village

Our plan today is to visit a village that is more than a thousand years old. Masuleh, a village located in the mountains to the southwest of Rasht. The drive to this part of Iran is rather mild (as compared to Alamut and Abyaneh), however, along the way, the farmlands and the effect of the fog made me feel as though I am in Europe. The peacefulness and tranquillity of the farmlands are just fantastic. The road to Masuleh is not long, but today being wet weather (has been drizzling since last night) made the driving a tad challenging (though not as bad as that to Alamut or Abyaneh). We arrived at Masuleh some 2 hours later. As soon as stepped out of the car, I can immediately see the difference between Masuleh and Abyaneh. Before that, I was still asking what is the difference between the 2 villages since they are both situated in the mountainous region.  Unlike Abyaneh, which is situated in a valley between mountains, Masuleh is built directly into the base of the mountains. It is not exactly sitting between 2 mountains. Houses are stacked from the bottom to the top, each using the roof of the house below as the base of their house. Pretty much like building lego houses. Such an architecture makes the roof of the house below the front yard of the house above it. The low clouds and the drizzle makes the village looked more poetic! Another difference I spotted between Abyaneh and Masuleh is that the latter has more youngsters then the former, which is largely inhabited by old folks. The constant water flowing from the nearby mountains adds a certain rhythm to the otherwise tranquil village. We spent about 30 mins admiring the beauty of this millennium-old village before heading to Bandar-e Anzali.

The countryside near Rasht

Peaceful and tranquil countryside

The low cloud gives this area a very comfortable feeling

The peaceful countryside near Rasht

Me in the countryside near Rasht

Panoramic shot of the river that runs through the countryside

Close up shot of the river

Arrival at Masuleh

This town is built from the base of the mountain up

Masuleh is 1000 years old and there is even a mosque in the town

Taking a selfie at Masuleh

Views around Masuleh

This shot is taken on the roof of one of the houses, which serves as the front porch of the house above it

The low cloud gives the impression that the village is high up in the mountains

 

Another selfie at Masuleh

The housing in Masuleh is very unique

Panoramic shot of Masuleh

The mountains opposite Masuleh

The river that provided water to dwellers of Masuleh

We stopped by a shop for lunch on our way to Bandar-e Anzali

Although it doesn’t look appetising, this is good

Lunchtime

Travelling to Bandar-e Anzali – The Town by the Caspian Sea

The drive from Masuleh to Bandar-e Anzali is not too long, however, having to go through Rasht meant we had been delayed by the traffic jams in the city. The drive is rather uneventful and plain. About 4 hours later, we arrived at Bandar-e Anzali. It is very obvious for first-timers to notice that they are actually in Anzali, as the port customs is the first thing one would see if coming from Rasht direction. Our purpose of coming to Anzali is to see the Caspian Sea, the largest lake in the world. As this body of water is freshwater, and not connected to any sea or ocean. However as it is surrounded by a few neighbouring countries, regarding it as a lake gave rise to some sovereignty issues with regards to the usage of the lake, thus this lake is regarded as a sea. As we stopped by a bridge to take some pictures of the nearby port, we saw some men fishing on the bridge. We stopped momentarily to watch and see how their luck goes in fishing. Nothing big was caught, the guy with the net caught more fishes than those with fishing poles.  This town is a lot quieter then Rasht, there isn’t many people or traffic around. We drove to a nearby beach to see Caspian sea. The cold sea breeze propelled the seawater against the beach, the rhythm is just smoothing. Our hotel is just a short drive (like 2 mins?) away from the beach. As we were checking in, we requested a room with a sea view. Of course, that was not difficult to fulfil as the hotel was practically empty. Our guide told us that Anzali is not a tourist town, and the attractions are very limited, hence not many people would venture to this part of the country.  When we entered our room, I was rather thrilled to have a view of the Caspian Sea.

Driving through the countryside towards Anzali

Port of Anzali

Port of Anzali

Port of Anzali

The Caspian Sea technically the world’s largest lake

From this view, it is hard to imagine the Caspian Sea is a lake

View of Caspian Sea from our hotel room

We wanted to head outside the hotel to see if there are any nice restaurants for dinner. However the freezing (laterally cold!) and the rain was preventing us from taking more steps out of the hotel, we decide to settle our dinner in the hotel. Seeing the rain stopped momentarily after our dinner, we went outside the hotel for a walk. However, we were deceived by the cunning rain as it soon started to pour (and we were like 2 mins from the hotel, only managed to visit a couple of shops just outside the hotel). We had no choice but to return to our room. We left the window ajar for the rest of the night to allow the rhythm of Caspian Sea sing us a lullaby as we wondering into our dreamlands.

Persian Kebab for dinner

View of Caspian Sea at night from our room

The Honesty of Iranians

We woke up pretty early today as we were rather excited about the trip today. This is the third climax of the trip and certainly is the highlight of the trip. As we were packing up getting ready to check out of the hotel, I realised my camera is missing! OMG, my worst fear has come true. Throughout the trip, I had this constant thought that if my camera goes missing or the memory card got corrupted, all the pictures I took will become memories! My best bet is to go back to the restaurant we dine last night, and hopefully, it is either still there or some kind soul found it and passed it to the staff. While our guide was settling our check out, I headed over to the restaurant to asked about my camera. Luckily the staff slept in the restaurant for the night and someone was there to open up for me. However the staff do not speak English and I do not speak Farsi, but he is kind enough to let me in and look for my camera. I went to where we were seated last night, but the table and chairs were re-arranged. My camera was nowhere to be found! At this point, I was thinking, maybe I should get my guide who can talk to them. As we were walking back to the hotel, we saw our guide coming out of the hotel looking frustrated, we asked him what happened. He said that the hotel had stuffed up the paperwork for the payment. The travel agency had made the payment for our stay and the hotel staff cannot find the paperwork, as such, they are still withholding our passport. As the hotel staff is still searching for the paperwork, we went back to the restaurant. Our guide spoke to the staff and they said they have found my camera, but it is locked and the key is with their boss. After our guide told them to search again, they found my camera bag just below the counter. I opened the bag, my camera is still there! What a close shave. I thanked the restaurant staff, and we headed back to the hotel. By this time the hotel staff had found the paperwork and we were given our passports back, soon we were on our way to Alamut castle.

Driving Up and Down Mountains to Alamut Castle

The distance from Qazvin to Alamut castle isn’t that far, but the road to the castle makes driving slow. Our guide wasn’t lying when he said the road to Abyaneh is peanuts. The road towards Alamut castle was alright initially, however as we head further in, the road headed up the snow-capped mountains. To make things worst, the side that is at the edge of the mountain has no barriers! One wrong move or an avalanche would send us 2200m into the valley. The windy road at certain part has a roughly 150 deg turn, snaking up and down the mountainous roads, watching the snow-capped mountains zoomed into valleys, the drive is beautiful! Along the way, there are 2 towns that we passed by. Made me wonder why would anyone wanna leave in the middle of the valleys, where the only way out is up to 2200m high mountain through the winding roads. To reach Alamut Castle, we went up about 3 mountains and then into Alamut Valley. After about 3 hours drive, there it is Alamut Castle sitting right on top of the mountain. The whole area including Alamut Castle was covered with snow! Seeing the castle and the snow I was doubly excited. However, when I looked up and first saw Alamut sitting on top of the vertical part of the mountain, my first reaction was “How the hell do we go up that thing on top of the vertical cliff???!!”. I read on Lonely Planet to get to the castle involves a “25 min sweaty trek”, from where we were, I do not see any access to the castle.

The drive towards Alamut Castle

Gradually we saw the landscape turned from green to white

Driving up 2200m towards Alamut Castle

Snow snow everywhere

On our way to Alamut Castle

The white snowy scenery captivates me

First time I see so much snow

At one point I was wondering if we would have a chance to go out and play with the snow

The highway that cuts across the mountains

And we began our descent from the mountains

The scenery along the way was fantastic

Driving towards Alamut Castle

Panoramic shots along the way

Panoramic shots along the way

Me amongst the mountains

Arrival at Alamut Castle

The Legendary Castle of Assassins – Alamut Castle

As soon as we got out of the car, the “mystery” of how to scale the castle was solved. Our guide brought us round to the back of the mountain and there it is, a stairway leading up to the castle. This stairway is covered with snow. Walking up is fun but tiring, and not to mention slippery, as the way up was covered with both snow and mud. The walk up was initially gentle, as it is made of rocks. As we walk up towards the lower castle, the rest of the way up was made of wood. The makeshift stairway was constructed recently to enable easier access to the castle. The first set of led us to the lower part of the castle. There is a short tunnel that leads to the watchtower. More like a watch area to me. But the view here is amazing! I can see the whole of Alamut Valley and the way that we came in from. The view stretches as far as the Alborz mountains far in the backdrop of Alamut Valley. Our guide told us this place is used as a watchtower for precisely this reason. The builders of this castle chose their location very well. We went further to the upper part of the castle. There are a lot of restoration works going on at the moment, scaffolding was visible everywhere. We went to the inner part of the castle, I can see they have everything here! From Stables to water wells to storage area for food, as well as a prayer room, this place is self-sufficient any time.

The legend behind this castle was that for centuries this castle is unconquerable due to its location and the well-pointed watchtower. However, it fell to the Mongols subsequently. I take my hat off the Mongols for their ability to take this castle, as there is only one way in and one way out. To get into the valley undetected is amazing. We then went towards the roof part of the castle. From here, the whole snow-capped Alborz mountain ranges is within our sight. Standing at this point, looking out into the mountains and the valley beneath us is so relaxing. The tranquillity standing here facing the breathtaking Alborz mountains is beyond description. Coming here, scaling the Alamut castle is indeed a once in a lifetime experience for me, moreover not many people have come here. At the end of the rooftop, there is a section that is out of bounds, and it leads to another part of the castle. The partially buried in snow structure reveals what seemed to be another rest area. It is a pity that part is out of bounds.

We spent a little more time appreciating the beauty and the tranquillity this castle offers before returning to our car. The downward route seemed a lot short and easier, however, the slippery snow and mud make descending slightly challenging (well half the time I was walking into the knee-deep snow, after all, I am not sure when will be the next time I will come into contact with snow). As our car was driving back towards Qazvin, we went through the treacherous mountain road, up and down the mountains. As we were at the snowy part of the mountain, it began to snow! This is the first time I have seen snow! There is a part of me which hoped that we could stop the car, get out and play with the snow. However the road conditions do not allow us to do so, I think partially our guide is trying to get out of the mountains as soon as possible, if the snowstorm gets heavier, driving through it is going to be rather dangerous. As we were out of the mountains nearer to Qazvin, our guide told us we were lucky to have been to Alamut today. If the snow was in the morning, visiting Alamut will not be possible. I guess we have our lucky stars to thank for allowing us to see this ancient wonder.

Onward to Rasht

We drove on to Rasht, where we will be spending the night. En route, the scenery changed into what looked like a mining mountain, with heavy vehicles plying through the tunnels in the mountains. As the road leads us to this town, all of a sudden, it seemed as though the clouds have fallen onto the town, blanketing the sun from the town. The low clouds make the rest of our journey looked gloomy. Though on the map Qazvin to Rasht seemed close enough, this leg of the road took longer then I expected it. We arrived at Rasht at dinner time. After checking into the hotel, we headed out to find food ourselves. My friend wanted to get a pair of socks and we went to this sports apparel shop. The lady in the shop was friendly and started to chat with us. She then told us that most of the people in Rasht do not speak English, as there are very few foreigners travelling to this part of the country. We took the opportunity to ask if there are any good restaurants, she recommended one and we went there for dinner. She was right, the food in this restaurant is indeed good. The chicken kebab is very juicy and tender (by the way we pointed to pictures in the menu when ordering our food, it is amazing that the staff at the restaurant brought what we wanted to eat). We went back to the hotel after dinner to rest for the night.

Driving towards Rasht on the highway

The dense low clouds gave this area a sense of mystic

We can see low clouds ahead

This is a phenomenon that is not seen in Singapore

Persian Dinner

The juicy chicken Kebab

 

Qazvin – The Gateway to Alamut Castle

Today is rather uneventful. We spent the 5 hours driving from Kashan to Qazvin. The journey was tiring, though scenic, as the road was decorated with endless mountain ranges. Nothing much happened today. When we reached Qazvin after some 5 hours later, we checked into the hotel, and our guide went to rest for the day (I’d be exhausted after driving for 5 hours). Since we are not that tired, we headed to the town to explore a bit. Before we headed to the town, I was craving for some fast food and we came across this fried chicken restaurant. We ordered ourselves a 2 piece chicken. Not knowing that it came with fries, we ordered fries separately. When our chicken came, we realised we had over-ordered. For the first time after 7 days of no chilli, this restaurant saved us! Though they do not have chilli sauce, they have hot ketchup! It tasted like Ketchup, but with a splash of spiciness to it. Well, this is the closest they have to chilli sauce and I am very happy about it. After eating we headed to the town. On our way we saw this sign that says “Historic Monument”, so we followed it. After walking for about 30 mins, we came across a park and no “Historic Monument”. I felt so cheated and we decided to head back.

The Hospitable Iranians

On our way back we stumbled upon this garden with a very old building in it. There is a sign at the entrance of the garden that says “Chehel Sotun Palace”. This palace certainly looked aged and decapitated. Looks like no one bothered to do any maintenance on it. We decided to head back to the hotel since there is nothing much to do around. As we were walking back, we passed by this fruit juice store. Feeling thirsty, we headed in and ordered ourselves a cup each. As we were drinking, the staffs of the shop were very friendly and welcoming. Certainly like any other Iranians, we have interacted, these guys are curious with foreigners as well. After we had finished our juices, one of their friends joined them and asked if we wanna play pools. I told him we were very tired and we didn’t know how to play pools. We told them of our intention to get back to the hotel to get some rest. These 2 guys (their English is as limited as our Farsi), said something and followed us. We were getting a bit suspicious as to what they are up to. As we were near our hotel, these 2 guys signalled to us that our hotel is up ahead. This is the time I realised that they are afraid that we might get lost and not know our way back to the hotel, thus they took the liberty to escort us back to our hotel, making sure that we find where we suppose to go! How thoughtful of them.

In the evening we met up with our guide for dinner at a nearby restaurant and rested for the night pretty early as we have a long day to go tomorrow at Alamut Valley.

We had Iranian Kebab for dinner

Dinner time

 

Isfahan to Abyaneh

We practically spent half the day today travelling on the road. We set off for Abyaneh, a historical town in the middle of the mountains, after breakfast. The drive to Abyaneh was very scenic (like most of the roads we have been to), I saw the sceneries changed from deserts to snow-capped mountains zooming past my eyes as we were driving towards Abyaneh. The distance from Isfahan to the entrance of Abyaneh isn’t too long (roughly 2 hours). As we turned into the only way into the village, I saw this fort ruin structure at the far end. Our guide mentioned that this is one of the lookouts for Abyaneh, and he also told us to look out for caves that we would see along the way. These caves were used as a refuge by the locals some time back. The road towards Abyaneh was rather treacherous. The winding single-lane roads snaked among the mountains looked rather challenging to drive. However, our guide commented this is nothing, peanuts to those we will be seeing on our way to Alamut Castle. As though the snaking road is not challenging enough, along the way we came across a section of the road with one lane closed due to pipeline laying.

Driving towards Abyaneh

Driving towards Abyaneh

Driving towards Abyaneh

Driving towards Abyaneh. We started to see snow again

Driving towards Abyaneh. Iran has a lot of scenery to offer

Snow-capped mountains afar

Driving towards Abyaneh

Driving towards Abyaneh

Driving towards Abyaneh

Driving towards Abyaneh

Driving towards Abyaneh, when we see snow we know we are close

Abyaneh – A Village in the Valley

As the surrounding grounds became snowy, we realised we are closed to Abyaneh. We arrived at the village, as usual, the snow excites me more than the village. I was thinking more time to play with snow! Abyaneh looked very peaceful and very old. There weren’t many people around. We were told that the structure of the buildings in this village hasn’t changed much throughout the centuries. The pastoral village overlooking the snow-capped mountains makes it an ideal place for retirement. The materials used to build the houses of this village is mainly mud clay, as this has the effect of keeping the house warm during winter and cool during summer. As we were walking through the village, I realised the villagers were mostly elderly and young children. Our guide mentioned that the youngsters left the village to work or study in Tehran mostly. We visited this mosque, which was rather modest in size but offered stunning views of the snow-capped mountains around it. This is a rather good place for one to claim down and collect thoughts, maybe partially due to the cool weather. As we were walking in the town, playing with the snow, we came across a group of 5 Iranians. They were pleased to see us and did not hold back their “hellos” to us.

The Perfect Persian Garden – Fin Garden

We left Abyaneh, though the windy mountainous road that we came from and headed towards Kashan, our pitstop for the night. Along the way, we saw the nuclear power plant that created a lot of tension between Iran and some of the other countries. The drive towards Kashan did not take too long as Abyaneh is relatively near to Kashan. Our first stop in Kashan is the famous Fin Gardens. Now this garden has a rather unique feature that stands out from the other gardens we saw. There are water fountains throughout the garden, however, these fountains are an engineering feat at the time it was built. The fountains throughout the garden did not use any pumps or electricity, instead, it was based on the principle of gravity and flow that made the water in this garden spray! There are several big pools, where the water would channel to lower pools using gravity. The water from the Fin garden came from the spring of the nearby mountains as such the water is very cooling. We were told that this garden is especially cooling during summer due to the flow of the water and the temperature of the water in the garden. However, the construction of this garden was rather controversial at that time as it was deemed that the royalties used the citizen’s money for their pleasure. Our guide also pointed out that if you ask the Iranians about Fin Garden, they might not know where it is. If you ask them about the Fin Bath, they will know where it is due to a murder case that took place in the bath within the gardens. This murder case was plotted by the queen on the prime minister as the prime minister was the one who was being rather strict with how the national fund was being used. The Bathhouse within the Fin garden was still in great condition (better then the one we saw in Shiraz), from this Bathhouse, I can see how the different rooms and its structure. The murder of the Prime Minister was being displayed within the Bathhouse.

Tabatabaei House – A Traditional Persian House for the Rich

Leaving the Fin Garden, we drove towards the Tabatabaei House, one of the most impressive traditional house in Kashan. This large house has a total of 4 courtyards and we were told that the smaller sections of the houses are given to the children of the owner once they are married. The house has a summer and winter section. The area that we entered from is the winter section, where the family will interact indoors during the winter months. The summer section is essentially this balcony area, built on the second level of the house where the family, including the servant quarters, can sleep in during summer months when it is rather hot. There are 2 doorknobs at the main door of the house. The female visitors will knock using the lighter doorknob, while male visitors will knock using the heavier doorknob. The purpose is to allow the incumbents of the house to differentiate the sex of the visitors. As Persia is a very conservative country (even till today), whenever there are male visitors, they will only be entertained in the main courtyard, while the female family members will retreat to either their room or the rear courtyards.

The most impressive section of this house is the section used by the master of this house. The 5 colourful glass mosaic on the main glass window was certainly a masterpiece and light up the room very artistically, together with the colourful glass windows, under the sunshine, not only it blocks out the sun, the colourful reflection of the glass presents another piece of art. I spent some time walking around the house, absorbing the Persian art that is embedded in the building of this house, I also went up to the second level where the summer quarters are. Rather fascinating! We headed for the small mosque just next to the Tabatabaei House. The significance of this mosque is that this is where the 6th Imam is buried. At first, I thought we would be chased out of the mosque as we are non-Muslims. In some areas, mosques are out of bounds to non-Muslims. However I was wrong, instead of chasing us out, the keeper of the mosque brought us some tea and welcomed us. I am not too sure if it is the hospitality nature of Iranians, or the fact that the 6th Imam is buried here makes this mosque somewhat opened to non-Muslims. Whatever the reason is, I was glad that we were not being chased out. Due to respect for the Imam, picture taking was not allowed in this mosque.

Kashan Bath House & Kashan Bazaar

We headed for the public bath next. At first, I thought this bath would be similar to the other 2 bathhouses we have seen so far. Yeah, the interior is the same, there would be a waiting room, a changing room and a cleaning room. However the significance of this bathhouse did not lie with the interior, but the rooftop of this bathhouse. As we proceeded up the roof, the domed roof was visible from the roof, it looked like dunes in the desert and certainly looked like a piece of artwork. We were brought to the pump room on the rooftop where our guide explained the way the water was being brought into the bath in the olden days. From the rooftop, I can also see the mountains around Kashan.

After the bathhouse, our guide brought us to the bazaar. Well, this is rather boring as I was out to find more souvenirs, no such luck. This bazaar is catered mainly for the locals, selling the daily necessity items. However, the architecture of one of the halls of the bazaar looked like some ancient mosque. It is rather beautiful. The rest of the bazaar looked run down and lack of maintenance.  We soon exited the bazaar and headed back to the hotel.

Inside the Bathhouse in Kashan

This area is where the water was heated

This is the waiting room in the Bathhouse

The architecture of the roof is simply stunning

Domes covering the bathhouse

From the roof, we can see a mosque nearby

This area is on the roof, where water is pumped into different rooms in the bathhouse

The bazaar in Kashan

The ceilings in the bazaar are artistic

View of the mountain from our room

Watching the nightfall from our room

And the city of Kashan lights up

Persian Dinner

Persian Kebab

Persian style fish

A Home for the Royalty – Ali Qapu Palace

We started the day slightly later than the previous days. After breakfast, we headed for the Imam Square to visit the 3 monuments there. I would consider this as the second climax of my Persian trip, I have read so much about Imam Square and its constructs. Afterall there is a saying in Iran that goes “If you have visited Isfahan, you have been to half of the world”.

Our first stop is Ali Qapu Palace. The interesting thing about this palace is it is designed to confuse onlookers. From a different side of the palace, one would see the palace having a differing number of floors. This is done on purpose too so as not to let non-dwellers know how many floors there are in this palace.  We climbed to the Balcony level of this palace. From here I can see the whole of Imam Square and the 2 mosques that stand at the edge of the square. We were told this level is where the royalties used to watch polo from and also to host foreign dignitaries that would come into Persia and visit the kings back then. We climbed to the topmost level of this palace, which is the 6th level. The unique feature of this chamber has to be the musical instrument hollow ceilings. The purpose of the hollow is to allow music, that would be played from this level to flow down 1 level down, so those at the lower level can hear and enjoy the music. Back in those days, males and females are housed in different levels of the palace when it comes to entertainment. The males will stay on the 6th level where the music would be played, while the females will stay 1 level below. As I was climbing these stairs up the palace, it made me wonder if the builders purposely built this palace in such a way to “torture” their king back then.

The Symbol of Religious Harmony – The Imam Mosque

Exiting the Palace, we headed for the Imam Mosque next. This is the bigger of the 2 mosques in Imam Square and it was used as the main mosque in Isfahan. From afar our guide pointed out a structure that is not traditional in Islamic Mosque structure. We were told back in those days, to promote religious harmony between the Muslims and the Christians, they exchanged some building structures. We were told that we will be seeing a dome in a church later in the day.

As we entered the Mosque, the size of the courtyard alone is huge! At the courtyard, there are 3 buildings. The one on the right side is the one with Christianity structure subsequently built on. We went to that building, inside was rather large and there is a garden behind it. We then proceeded to the centre building. This is the largest of the 3 building. Our guide told us to pick a spot and stay there. He then took out a note and started to flip it. From where I am I could hear the note. We were then told that this mosque is designed in such a way that the sound will transmit from the centre of this building to any part within the mosque. I had seen this when I was taking a picture at the courtyard, nearer to the entrance into the courtyard, a handful of young Iranian girls were standing at the centre of the middle building and they were singing. I could hear them from afar, it was amazing. We then went to the left building, which was equally as big as the right building. We spent more time taking pictures in the courtyard then at the side buildings. We were told that the sheer size of this mosque is built so that different branches of Islamism do their prayers at the same time without interfering with each other. Such a design has religious harmony in mind.

The main entrance to Imam Mosque

The ceiling design on the main entrance of the mosque

The ceiling inside the main gate building

Colourful blue pattern design

The main prayer hall of Imam Mosque

Exquisite Persian Design on the ceiling

So much detail in the design of the mosque

The colour blue ceiling inside the main prayer hall of Imam Mosque

A huge prayer hall

Just love the Persian design on the ceiling and all over the mosque

The amount of detail that went into the walls and ceiling tells one how much the Persians love their mosque

The huge prayer hall inside Imam Mosque

The amount of detail that went into the interior of the mosque is unimaginable

Inside the Imam Mosque

The exterior of the prayer hall of Imam Mosque

Imam Mosque covers a huge area

Me in Imam Mosque

The main prayer hall of Imam Mosque. Notice the small building on top of the hall which does not have a dome

Me in Imam Mosque

The huge area the Imam Mosque covers

Inside the Imam Mosque

The Lady Mosque

Exiting the Imam Mosque, we went to the smaller mosque in Imam Square. This mosque was used for religious studies more than a mosque. It was loosely referred to as the “Lady’s Mosque” as it is the smallest mosque in this square and was used by the women for prayers. This mosque does not have any minarets nor any courtyard. Once we entered the mosque, a corridor was there to usher us into the main hall. This mosque is rather uneventful, perhaps the only thing worth mentioning is the basement, which was used for prayers.

The ceiling of the main hall in the Lady’s Mosque

Inside the Lady’s Mosque

The underground prayer room in Lady’s Mosque

The hallway that leads into the main hall

The illusive Forty Pillars Palace

Next stop for us was the Chehel Sotun Palace or the 40 pillars Palace. This palace originally has only 2 pillars, the other 18 was added to this palace by a later king. The palace got its name as 40 pillar palace as the reflection from the pool in front of the palace gave it extra 20 pillars. The palace is built as a leisure and a place to entertain guests, thus it is rather small in size. As we entered this rather small palace, I can see paintings of kings entertaining guests on the walls of the throne hall. These paintings are rather colourful at in good condition. The most important part of this palace does not lie with these paintings, rather a very old copy of the Quran in the centre of the throne room. The other room has other displays such as a wooden door, nothing quite interesting here though.

The 40 pillars of Chehel Sotun Palace

The main entrance of Chehel Sotun Palace

The open area of Chehel Sotun Palace

Entering the Chehel Sotun Palace

The mural paintings inside the Chehel Sotun Palace depict some battle scenes here

Colourfully designed ceiling

Some of the murals inside Chehel Sotun Palace

A very old Qu’ran

The Forbidden Palace of Persia – Hasht Behest Palace

After the palace, we went on to the Hasht Behest Palace. This simple 2 storey palace is in the middle of a garden. This garden was out of bounds to commoners as it is a royal garden, where the royalties come for relaxation. The garden is like any other garden we have seen so far, nothing worth mentioning. We headed into the Palace, it looked rather old. Other then that, there is nothing worth mentioning or even seeing here. Felt like a waste of time. After the Hast Behest Palace visit, we headed for lunch. As we entered the restaurant, an elderly man told us not to take pictures in the restaurant. What a waste! The Persian decor of the restaurant is nice. I ordered the traditional Isfahani food – Biryani, which is minced meat in the centre of 2 pieces of naan. I took pictures of the food anyways.

Hasht Behest Palace

Typical Persian Designed Ceiling

Looking out into the garden from Hasht Behest Palace can be very therapeutic

The Hasht Behest Palace is very simple

Inside Hasht Behest Palace

Inside Hasht Behest Palace

The exterior of Hasht Behest Palace

Birayani for lunch

The 33-Arch Bridge – Si-o-Seh Bridge & The Cathedral with an Islamic Dome – Vank Cathedral 

After lunch, we headed for the Si-o-Seh Bridge. This bridge is also known as the 33 arches bridge. This bridge was once the only bridge connecting the 2 parts of Isfahan. Here I saw a lot of Isfahanis hanging out. Other then the architecture of the bridge being unique, there is nothing eventful here. Serves more like a photographic point for travellers in Isfahan, other than used by the locals to cross between the 2 parts of Isfahan.

We crossed the bridge to the other side and headed for a rather unique cathedral. The Vank Cathedral is an Armenian Church, which has a dome at the top of the cathedral. Our guide pointed out that this is a symbol of friendship and religious harmony, as what we had seen earlier on at Imam mosque. It is a pity that we are not allowed to take pictures inside the cathedral as there are rather vivid paintings of the gods, Jesus and hell. We exited the cathedral and went next door to the museum. Here showcased numerous Christian artifacts as well as the culling of the Armenians. However, the centrepiece of the museum is this Armenian bible verse written on a single strain of hair, which is about 0.1mm wide. This hair was placed under a microscope and through the scope, the verse is seen.

Isfahan at Night

After the cathedral, our guide left us to wander around the Imam Square as he has some stuff to “settle”. We took the cab to Imam square and bought some souvenirs. As we were walking, we had a lot of “hellos” and “welcomes” coming our way. We stayed at the square till about evening time, when we headed back to the Si-o-Seh Bridge to take some pictures at dusk. The view of the bridge was rather artistic at dusk when the bridge glimmers with the soft orange light. After taking some pictures, we headed back to Imam Square to take more pictures of the Square at night. The square at night has some mysticism to it, it is beautiful. I felt rather worn out after a whole day of walking, time to grab some rest at the hotel, as we have quite a bit of ground to cover the next day.

Hasht Behest Palace at night

Si-O-Seh bridge at night is beautiful

Si-O-Seh bridge at night

Si-O-Seh bridge at night

Walking on Si-O-Seh bridge at night

Lady Mosque at night

Imam Mosque at night

Centre of Yazd – Jumeirah Mosque

Our first stop for the day is the Jumeirah Mosque in Yazd. As with Shiraz, this mosque used to be their gathering place for prayers and ceremonies. However, the difference in terms of structure is the height of the minarets of these mosques. Our guide told us that these minarets have another purpose other than calling for prayers, they are used as guidance for travellers in the old days. As Shiraz is surrounded by mountains, they have no use for tall minarets. Yazd, on the other hand, is in the desert, as such they have higher minarets to aid travellers finding this town. The other difference with the Jumeirah Mosque in Shiraz is that his mosque is no longer used for prayer purposes, it is used solely for ceremonial purposes. Nothing much was around here other than a reservoir across the street from this Mosque monument.

The 7 Centuries Fire in Zoroastrian Temple

We headed for the Zoroastrian temple, where it housed the holy fire that was burning for more than 700 years. As we arrived, there was a group of school girls here for a field trip. We walked passed them and they were giggling at us. Out of a sudden, someone from that group shouted: “Hello”, then came the “Welcomes” at us. As the girls are finishing the tour they left the temple grounds, and tranquillity was restored once the girls cleared the temple. We entered into the temple and saw only one glass panel and a small corner selling Zoroastrian items and that’s it to the temple. A rather modest temple with such a significant purpose. Back to the fire, it is burning on a goblet behind this glass panel. Too bad the reflections of the glass makes taking pictures frustrating. We did not spend a lot of time in the temple, as it is really small and the purpose is to see the 700-year-old fire and we did that.

Zoroastrian Symbol

The holy fire that has been kept burning for 700 years

The Zoroastrian Temple

Tower of Death – The Tower of Silence

We headed for the next stop – The tower of Silence, which is located in the outskirts of Yazd. The tower of silence is an ancient burial method for the Zoroastrians, as they once believed that cremating the dead will pollute the air and earth burial will pollute the earth. Thus they built these towers on a couple of hills, brought the dead up to these towers and allow the vultures to clean the corpse. After the vultures had reduced the bodies to bones, these are swept into the big pit in the middle of the tower.  Once a tower is filled up, another tower on the nearby hill is built and the burial will be done there. We pulled up to the base of the Towers of Silence, there are a few mud clay houses at the base and a reservoir. We were told that in the olden days, the families will accompany the dead in those houses for 3 days to help them cross over to the other world. As the houses are of different sizes, the bigger houses will be used by the richer ones. Before us was 2 hills both with the towers of silence. As the shorter one is full of local students coming for their field trip, we opted to climb the taller ones. As we were walking towards the hill, our guide said something. It was rather inaudible to me so I just followed them. The climb was more direct, but tiring as it was steep. We did not take long to climb up the tower, as it is not that crowded and we took a faster route. The entrance to the tower was about 3m from the ground, so we had to climb up that last ledge to reach into the towers. Inside the tower was a huge pit, where they used to push the skeletons of the dead in. The walls of the tower were damaged at one side, however, this gave us a very good view of the mountains afar as well as the tower on the shorter hills. We also caught a glimpse of Yazd city from up here. The view is just stunning and picturesque. We took some pictures here, caught some rest and headed down towards the car. As we were descending, I saw this route that is easier to climb, the slope is gentler and it felt more like a walk than a climb, but the only thing is it is round the back of the hill. Our guide told us the hill we just been up to was about 300m.

The Tallest Wind Tower in Yazd- Dowlatabad Garden

After leaving the Tower of Silence, we headed for the Dowlatabad Garden, which housed the tallest wind tower in Yazd. For the first time, I got to see what is inside the wind tower and felt the effect of the tower catching the wind. Standing beneath the tower is cooling as the wind just gashes down towards you. The garden has 2 parts, at the end where we were, is opened to the public; while the other end is private property. The garden looked rather unexciting to me, probably due to it being winter the plants are sleeping I guess. Our guide took us to this watchtower within the gardens. From here we can see the garden compounds and the area outside. Nothing else fascinates me here other than the wind tower. We left Yazd for Na’in shortly.

The wall around Dowlatabad Garden

Me at Dowlatabad Garden

The wall around Dowlatabad Garden

The tallest Wind Tower in Yazd

Inside the Wind Tower

The base of the Wind Tower

The building that the Wind Tower was housed

The building that the Wind Tower was housed

View of Dowlatabad Garden

An Ancient Mosque in Na’in

The drive to Na’in was scenic. This is the first time since my stay in Iran I have seen snow on the ground. As we approached Na’in, I was excited to see snow scattering all over the place. The purpose of driving to Na’in is for the Jame Mosque there. This Mosque, though not as big as the one in Shiraz, is decent in size. This is believed to be one of the oldest mosque in Iran, dating back to 8th century A.D. This mosque has only 1 minaret, which is rather tall and doubled up as guidance for travellers back then. Our guide pointed to some marble pieces on the ground and told us the significance of this marble is to illuminate the basement of this mosque, which was used during summer when it is hot to do prayers in the courtyard. We were lead to the basement, and it looked like a series of cave tunnels. We did not spend too much time around this mosque as it is rather small, plus we were more excited about playing with the snow outside the mosque then the mosque itself. Our guide led us to nearby ruins (about 2 mins walk from the mosque) and told us that this ruin was formerly a castle. I can still see the outline of the structure of the castle with some towers at the side, that is probably the watchtowers. As we were walking back to the car, I purposely walked on the snow and to play with it. We drove towards Isfahan, and on the way, the scenic snow mountain views never failed to captivate me. I was wondering to myself if I take this picture and not reveal the location to people, would they have thought this is Europe or Russia? As the snowy scenes zoomed past us, I would not have thought that I would see snow during this trip.

Arrival in Isfahan

The drive from Na’in to Isfahan is not too long (about 2 hours), we checked into the hotel and got settled down. As the sun has not set yet, we decided to head for the Imam Square to take some pictures and to walk around. Imam Square was known as “Half of the World” the time it was built due to the diversity of people and religion that was found here. Today it became a favourite hang out for Iranians and tourists alike. As we were walking in the square, we get curious looks and the usual “Hellos” thrown at us. We met this girl (about 12, 13 years old) coming up to us with her dad and her brother and started to strike a conversation with us. I can see that she is trying to practice her English and we allowed her to do so. As her vocabulary is not very strong (I can tell by the repetitive words she used), we engaged her in simple English. She looked very nervous about engaging us. I applauded her willingness to learn and her wanting to seize any opportunity she can get to brush up on her English. Reminded me when I was learning Thai, till now I still don’t dare to approach a Thai and talk to them in Thai. After we bided the girl and her father farewell, we went around taking pictures of the square during sunset. We ran into this group of 5 guys, who wanted to take pictures with us in front of the fountain.  We chatted a little and they told us that they were from Persepolis. From our trip to Persepolis earlier on, I did not recall seeing a town nearby. I thought they are taking us for a ride (which later I checked with my guide, and there is indeed a town nearby Persepolis. These guys are not lying after all). After chatting, the guys wished us luck and walked in the other direction.

Arrival at Isfahan

Entrance to the hotel we will be putting up

Imam Square in Isfahan

Picture of me in Imam Square

Lady Mosque in Imam Square

Fountain in Imam Square with Imam Mosque in the background

Picture of me in Imam Square

Panoramic shot of  Imam Square

Ali Qapu Palace

Imam Square

Close up of the Lady’s Mosque

Around the bazaar in Imam Square

Imam Square

An alley behind Ali Qapu Palace

Shot of Ali Qapu Palace in Imam Square

Shot of Imam Mosque in Imam Square

Imam Mosque lighting up for the night

Ali Qapu Palace lighting up for the night

Lady’s Mosque lighting up fr=or the night

Imam Mosque at night

Panoramic shot of Imam Square at night

We felt a little tired and walked back to our hotel. As we were walking back, we met 2 French travellers. We found out that we were staying in the same hotel, and we chatted along the way. We spoke about the places we have been to and the places that we are going, our countries and what we felt about Iran and the Iranians. The 4 of us agreed that Iran is a nice country to visit and the people are simply fantastic! What a nice way to end the day.

Persepolis – The Richest Palace Under the Sun

Today marks the start of our Iranian road trip and certainly the first of 3 climaxes of the trip. Our first stop is some 70 km away from Shiraz and we will end up in the next town at the end of the day for a well-deserved rest. Persepolis, the greatest treasure of the ancient Persian Empire was built at around 515 BC! When we arrived at Persepolis, we saw a large group of students on their field trip here as well. As we walked past them, we attracted a lot of attention as though as we are some sort of celebrities. The students are thrilled to see us and we had a lot of “Hellos” and “Welcome to Iran” thrown our way. The guide books are right, the Iranians are a bunch of welcoming people!

We arrived at the entrance of Persepolis, from here I can already feel the majestic of this palace, the 2 stairways leading up to the palace were designed in such a way that the host will always arrive first to welcome their guests despite setting off at the same time. Such ingenuity that was heavily embedded into the design and construction was seen throughout this palace. We ascended the stairs and what I saw at the top of the stairs was this vast landmass that once housed the greatest creation of the Persian Empire. The massiveness of Persepolis could be on par with the Forbidden City in Beijing. However, it is now reduced to ruins by Alexandra The Great during one of the wars. The first gate that caught my sight was the Gate of all nations, as it is here that all people, regardless of where you come from, has to pass through to access into the palace grounds. At this gate, I can see 2 huge horse-like statues. According to our guide, these statues have the head of a human, which symbolises wisdom, and the body of a bull, which symbolises strength. On these entrance, I can see it was heavily vandalised since 1800! It is a good thing that they had glassed up the lower portion of this gate to prevent more vandalism.

Passing this gate, there were some pillars on leading to the next gateway. These pillars are at least 20 metres tall and seemed to be used to support some shelter back in 500 BC. The next gate is similar to the first gate we see. However, the key difference is the statue being carved into the walls of these 2 gates. They too have the human head and the bull body, but they also have extra wings, which symbolises the Persian Power. Passing these gates are 2 Homas on display at a distance. Homas are the Persian version of a Gryphon, an Eagle head, lion body creature. These are the only Homas I see throughout the Persepolis. We came across this statue (actually a lot of them throughout Persepolis) that has a horse head and bull body. Our guide told us that this is a statue of a bull, though the head resembles a horse. There is a gate that showcased how this carving was being done on the gates. Pass this area was more ruins, practically the whole area was in ruins, every wall, every pillar. Some walls are better preserved with carvings of the kings and the soldiers seen on the wall, while others are not so well preserved.

Driving out of Shiraz

Some Mountains we saw at outskirt Shiraz

Walking towards Persepolis

Gate of All Nations

Gate of All Nations, which served as the main entrance into Persepolis

Carvings on Gate of All Nations Up Close

So much detail that went into the carvings

The pillars that support the ceiling serving as the corridor into the main hall from  Gate of All Nations

Ruins of Persepolis

Some of the carvings that survived the millenniums

Some of the carvings that survived the millenniums

Homas from far

Close up shot of the Homas

Some of the better-preserved carvings

Ruins of Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

This area of the Palace has been destroyed by its conquerers

This is believed to the queen’s bedroom, where the fire that destroyed the whole of Persepolis was started by Alexandra

Ruins of Persepolis

We were then lead to this shed that shelters some of the better-preserved carvings. It is common to see carvings of a lion attacking a bull, which symbolises a day of spring, with the bull representing earth and the lion representing the sun. The carvings here seem to represent how mighty the Persian Empires was at its peak, with convoys from all neighbouring nations coming to offer their well wishes to the Persian Kings. As our guide was explaining the stories behind the carvings, an Iranian lady seemed to be very interested and requested permission from our guide to joined us in listening to his explanations. Of course, our guide was generous to share the information with her.

Although this place is reduced to ruins, the massiveness and the grandeur can see be evident till this day throughout Persepolis. We were given time to explore the rest of the ruins. Our guide told us to get a good panoramic view of the whole site, we should scale up one of the 2 tombs nearby the ruins. And we did that, the walk up isn’t tedious or far, it is just 5 mins away from the base of Persepolis. On the way, we saw this well, which is supposed to be very old. We took a peek into the well, all I can see was pitch darkness and nothing else. We continued towards the tomb. Now the catacomb of the tomb was carved into the hills. At the entrance of the catacomb was carvings of the greatness of the king being buried inside. The catacomb was facing Persepolis, from here we did get a panoramic view of the palace. The grandeur of Persepolis can truly be appreciated here. On our way down, we met this group of 5 Iranian girls. They are as welcoming as any other Iranians we met, we started to chat a bit asking them which cities they came from and stuff. We continued walking around Persepolis taking picture of this great wonder. We met up with our guide at the entrance of Persepolis and headed to our next destination.

Ruins of Persepolis

Carvings that depict the life when Persepolis was at its Hay day

Ruins of Persepolis

Carvings that depict the life when Persepolis was at its Hay day

Carvings that depict the life when Persepolis was at its Hay day

Ruins at Persepolis

Carvings that depict the life when Persepolis was at its Hay day

Carvings that depict the annual tribute the nearby nations paid to the Persian King

Carvings that depict the annual tribute the nearby nations paid to the Persian King

Carvings that depict the annual tribute the nearby nations paid to the Persian King

Zoroastrian Carving on Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

The Tombs on the backyard of Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

Me at Persepolis

The Royal Tomb overlooking Persepolis

The Royal Tomb overlooking Persepolis

The Royal Tomb overlooking Persepolis

View of Persepolis from the Royal Tomb

The Royal Tomb overlooking Persepolis

Me at Persepolis

View of Persepolis from the Royal Tomb

Ruins of Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

Ruins of Persepolis

The stairways that lead to the entrance of Persepolis

Nashq-e Rostam – The Final Resting Grounds of The Persian Royal Families

The Nashq-e Rostam or Necropolis as it is loosely called is a place where the kings (and their families) are being buried. 4 catacombs are being carved into the mountains. The entrance of these catacombs is at least 10m high. It is amazing how they transport the caskets of the royalties into the catacomb itself. Our guide mentioned that the entrance used to be higher, due to erosion from the mountains, the entrance is now closer to the ground that we are standing on. On the entrance of each catacomb, carvings are evident. There is one big one that caught my attention, which seems to depict someone surrendering to the king. This seemed to be carved to remind people of the greatness of the kings being buried there. There are also carvings of battle scenes on the walls of these mountains. On one corner was a solitary cubic structure, which was believed to be an Achaemenid fire temple. But we were told that there were many arguments about the purpose of this structure. Nowadays no one knows for sure what it was used for.

Pasargadae – Tomb of The First Emperor of Persia, Cyrus the Great 

We departed Nashq-e Rostam for Pasargadae, the burial ground for Cyrus the great. The drive towards Pasargadae was scenic as I see mountains and mountains rise and fall before our eyes. As we arrived at Pasargadae, what I saw was a single mausoleum structure standing in the middle of nowhere. Our guide explained that this is the burial grounds of Cyrus the great. His wife and himself were believed to be buried, not inside the building, but within the roof structure of the mausoleum. Our guide went on to explain the grounds where this mausoleum stand is where one of the great battles that were supposed to take place. As Cyrus was supposed to fight his grandfather’s army here, his enemies deflected to his side as they did not agree to the cause of their battle. Thus the battle never took place. From the mausoleum, I can see a building, which was made known to be the palace of Cyrus. This modest-sized building looked more like a farmhouse than a palace. It seemed to suggest how modest Cyrus lived in those days. No wonder he was well-liked by his people as a ruler. We were then driven to see the next 2 structures. The first one we saw was this wall structure. Our guide mentioned that the purpose of this structure and the exact age is unknown. Next structure we saw was this huge platform, constructed on an elevated ground. This used to be the watchtower back in those days. The drive did not take too long before we were heading towards the desert city of  Yazd, where we would spend the night.

Driving to Yazd

Along the way, we stopped by this town, where we were shown an ice house. As this area is mostly desert, people keep ice and snow during winter in the underground chamber of this building for use during summer. We were then driven to the next town to see the oldest tree in Iran. This Cypress Tree is about 4500 years old. At first sight, I have no idea how old this tree is until the guide told us so. 4500 years later, the tree is still standing tall and lushful. As we journey into Yazd, the might of the Zagros Mountains was better appreciated when driving compared to flying. At ground zero, driving through these snow-capped mountains, it made me feel humans are insignificant. One sneeze from these mammoth mountains, we will be buried underneath the stones and snows. We arrived at Yazd some 2 hours later. The hotel that we checked into is indeed a gem in the deserts. It is located in the old part of Yazd, where the alleys were constructed to resemble some sort of mazes. If not for our guide I am sure to get lost in here. Now back to our hotel, from the outside it looked very ordinary and run down. However the inside is a surprise, this is the nicest hotel we stayed throughout the whole of our trip to Iran. The rooms are very cozy and large and the staff are simply wonderful and friendly. After checking in and leaving our luggage, we headed out for dinner. As my guide knew I wanted to try camel meat, he brought us through the mazed alleys to this restaurant that serves camel meat. The texture of camel meat tasted like lamb, except it does not have the lamb smell. 

The Maze Alleys of Old Yazd

We headed back to the hotel to rest for the night, on the way back, our guide brought us to this shop, where the shopkeeper was kind enough to show us Old Yazd from the rooftop. I had read on Lonely Planet that when in Yazd, we should get onto the roof of these building and see the old town from a different perspective. The view up here is indeed different, it felt like part of the set of “Prince of Persia”, certainly felt as if I can jump from rooftop to rooftop. As wind towers are characteristics of buildings in Yazd, from the roof I can see loads of wind towers on each of the buildings. I can almost see the whole of Old Yazd from up here as well. After taking some pictures, the shopkeeper said he has something to show us. Little did I expect he was trying to sell us Persian Carpets, felt a bit cheated though. Nonetheless, we had a more detailed lesson on how to differentiate the different types of Persian Rugs and why some rugs cost more than the others. Though we did not buy anything from him, the shopkeeper still kept his smile. We headed back to the hotel after leaving the shop to rest for the night, walking through the Old Yazd is amazing, as some parts are so narrow that only 2 person can walk side by side. At times cars were coming and we had to dodge for these cars. The walk is truly amazing.

Part of Old Yazd

Traditional Yazd housing

Through the alley of Old Yazd, most of the buildings have wind towers as a feature to cool the house in summer

Mazing through Old Yazd

View of Old Yazd from the roof of one of the buildings

We can see the mosque afar from the roof

Mosque view from the roof

View of Old Yazd from the roof

View of Old Yazd from the roof

View of Old Yazd from the roof

The quiet maze of Old Yazd

Building in Old Yazd

Quiet but safe street of Old Yazd. The only danger is getting lost in these mazes

Street of Old Yazd

Street of Old Yazd

Street of Old Yazd

 

Flying From Tehran to Shiraz

We woke up in time to meet up with our driver at 4.30 am who drove us to the domestic airport. Tehran at this hour is very different from what we saw yesterday. It seems like the city is still in slumber, there are hardly any cars on the streets and the journey to the airport did not take too long. Our driver was very dedicated and responsible, ensuring we checked into the right counter and entered the right gate before the leaves us. At the X-ray machine, my Cyrus cylinder crate got quite a bit of attention. The staff at the x-ray machine was curious what it is, our driver spoke to them in Farsi, they gave us a blank look and then signal for us to proceed on. Time has come for us to board the aircraft. A bus drove us to the tarmac, at the tarmac while waiting to board the aircraft, we were happily snapping pictures. After taking some pictures, 2 Iranian told us discreetly that we are not allowed to take pictures in the airport and told us politely to put our cameras away before they get confiscated.  We quickly did what was advised and boarded the aircraft. The flight from Tehran to Shiraz took about 2 hours, the flight was uneventful but scenic. We flew past the Zagros Mountains, which runs North/South to the west of Iran.

A quiet domestic airport terminal in Tehran

At the tarmac waiting to board Air Iran towards Shiraz

Inside the cabin of Air Iran getting ready to fly

Breakfast is served

A glimpse of Zagros Mountain

The Zagros Mountains from the air

Public Bath of Shiraz

We touched down 2 hours later, collected our luggage and our guide is already waiting for us. He introduced himself and briefly told us the itinerary for the day. As we are not able to check-in at the time we arrived in Shiraz, our guide took us to some of the attractions in downtown Shiraz. Our first stop is the public bath. We were told back in those days, not all household will have tap water, as such people don’t shower every day. However they need to shower every time they enter a mosque for prayers, thus this bath was built beside the mosque. We entered the bath and the first room, which was rather large is the waiting room. There are some carvings on the ceiling of this room, which depicts some day-to-day life of the locals then. Once we passed the waiting room the rest of the bath is disappointing, as this bath has been converted into a carpet museum and an arts & craft centre. Only the waiting room still looks like what it was before, the other rooms like the changing and the washing room do not resemble a bath at all. We did not spend a lot of time in the bath as it was not worth spending a lot of time in. We headed next door for the mosque after exiting the bath.

Mosque in Shiraz while driving towards the Public Bath

Entrance to the Public Bath

The exquisite carvings on the ceilings of the bath

Persian Folklore carved on the ceiling of the bath

The main waiting room inside the bath

Inside the Public Bath

A relatively simpler carving inside the bath

The Illusive Vakil Mosque

From the outside, Vakil Mosque does not seem to impress me a lot, especially after the disappointment I got from the public bath next door. I wasn’t expecting anything great before entering the mosque. Once past the door, my viewpoint changed. Perhaps it has been a long time since I have seen so much space, the first impression I got from standing at the door looking into the courtyard of this mosque was it is so carefree, so tranquil, could be the result of the absence of tall buildings around which gave me a view of the cloudless sky and the nonthreatening sunbeams, which doesn’t feel as potent as that in Singapore in midst of the winter here. We were told that the need for such a large courtyard so that place in Shiraz can gather here. The Vakil Mosque not only function as a place of prayers, but it is also a place of education and socialisation. We then went further into the prayer halls, this felt like a set from Lord of the Rings in the Dwarven mines. The columns were neatly arranged to give a rather mystical feel to the area. Our guide went on to explain the different functions on the mosque, I did not pay a lot of attention to his introductions as I was captivated by the mysticism of this place. Truly stunning!

The entrance to Vakil Mosque

Persian Styled Entrance to the mosque

The courtyard of Vakil Mosque

Entrance to the prayer halls of the mosque

The facade of the prayer halls

Inside the prayer halls of Vakil Mosque

Even the columns are carved to elevated it of its dullness

The intriguing patterns on the ceilings of the prayer hall

Looks like a page out of the movies

Inside the prayer halls

We were told this is where the priest sits to address the devotees

Me in front of the prayer halls inside Vakil Mosque

The Place Where Shirazis Gathered – Vakil Bazaar

We headed for the Vakil Bazaar, which was right next door to the Vakil Mosque. Our guide had explained that the purpose of building the bazaar next to the Vakil Mosque so that people can do their marketing after their prayers. This bazaar was similar to that in Tehran, except that it is not as big. One can still find day-to-day necessities here as well as some handicraft shops and shops catering to the tourists selling souvenirs. The Vakil bazaar was interesting initially, but they turned out to be repetitive after a while. Perhaps they do not offer items that intrigue me, or maybe I am just not a good shopper. I was skimming through the bazaar-like a zombie after about 5 mins inside. I was kinda glad when we exited the bazaar as it started to feel like a waste of time.

The bazaar beside Vakil Mosque

They have stuff for the locals to do their weekly marketing

Inside a typical Persian Bazaar

Locals doing their marketing and preparing for the Persian New Year

This section sells clothing

The open area inside the bazaar

Inside a typical Persian Bazaar

Tomb of Sa’adi

We were driven to the Tomb of Sa’adi, one of the famous poets in Shiraz. After parking the car, our guide took us to this ice-creamy opposite the tomb. Before our trip to Iran, we have come to know that the Shirazi ice-cream is rather unique and it is a must-try. We got a cup each and started to eat the ice-cream. It is indeed very different from what we are used to, the ice-cream is rather starchy and is very tasty but the scooping part takes a bit more effort. Our guide told us that they used animal fat to make this ice-cream, and it is not healthy to eat every day. After savouring the ice-cream, we headed for the tomb.

The tomb of Sa’adi was at the end of a garden. We were told the initial design of this tomb does not have this big of a garden, it was subsequently added by the locals as a mark of respect to Sa’adi and his teachings. The building that housed the tomb looked like a pavilion with a dome-shaped roof. Inside the tomb was Farsi writings carved onto the wall, which was some of the poems that Sa’adi had written There is an extension to the left when you face it from the entrance. This is where the greatest fan of Sa’adi is buried, however, it is locked at the time we were there, can’t enter it. From the outside, I saw some pictures and an empty room, rather boring. We were then brought to this fish pond, which was built underground. The fascinating part about this pond is not the fishes but how and where the water for this pond came about. We were told that the water is irrigated from the nearby mountains some 6km away. This water was also channelled to a second fish pond nearer to the entrance of the Tomb. After visiting the tomb, we were ferried to our hotel to check-in and get some rest, as the next attraction is best seen nearer to sunset. After checking in, we did not rest, instead, we spent the afternoon walking around the neighbourhood. Nothing eventful happened though.

A typical Mosque in Shiraz

The Streets on Shiraz

Walking towards Tomb of Sa’adi

This modest building is where Sa’adi is buried

Tomb of Sa’adi

Under this stone is where Sa’adi – one of the greatest poets in Persia was buried

Teachings of Sa’adi engraved on the wall where he was buried

This entrance leads to where Sa’adi’s greatest fan is buried

Walking around the tomb of Sa’adi

The source of the water in this underground pond is from the nearest mountain some 6km away

Even the underground pond has very intriguing Persian patterns on it

Tomb of Hafez

3 hours later our guide picked us up. Our destination next is Eram gardens. This looks like any other garden to me, except that it has a building right in the centre of the garden. Perhaps it is winter, all the plants have yet to bloom, I find this garden rather dull and has nothing special. We did not spend a lot of time in this garden, after about 30 mins later (which felt like a lifetime), we headed to Hafez Tomb, where another poet was buried.

When we were about to enter the tomb grounds, there were 2 men at the entrance carrying a bird trying to get us to do some predictions. We ignored them and went into the tomb grounds. Like the Tomb of Sa’adi, there is a garden between the entrance to the tomb itself. As we were climbing up the stairs towards the tombs, we came across this structure, which closely resembles the roman pillars. Past this structure is where the Hafez tomb lies.  The single dome-roofed pavilion stood in the middle, our guide told us that in the centre is where Hafez was buried, under the pavilion. However, the land around the pavilion is where his followers were buried! As the sun was setting, the pavilion was lighted up. It was beautiful! We spend some time walking around the tomb of Hafez before heading for dinner. The dinner was rather uneventful and we headed back to the hotel to rest for the night.

Around Eram Gardens

Surroundings at Eram Gardens

A Bald tree in Eram Gardens

Nearby hill

Fountains are part of the Persian Garden feature

Eram Gardens

Walking towards Hafez Tomb

This is the spot where Hafez was buried

Greeneries in the compound of Hafez Tomb

Even the ceiling of the pavilion where Hafez was buried received some serious attention Tomb of Hafez

Me at Hafez Tomb

Hafez Tomb at dusk

Night Lighting at Hafez Tomb

Hafez Tomb at night                                                                      Night Lighting of Hafez Tomb                                                                               Dinner Time                                                      These 2 glasses contained non-alcoholic beer                                                                    A feast for the night

Iran – A Misunderstood Country

My friend and I planned this trip almost 1 year ago, today marks the day we journey into this land where media and even my friends in Singapore deem to be dangerous. I read that this misunderstood country has riches in a culture that awaits those who “dare” to venture into its shores. The flight to Tehran was rather torturous, partly due to the constantly being awake for food or for landing into Colombo, where our flight makes a short stopover; partly also due to the position that I was trying to get some sleep that is giving me back and neck aches. Luckily the short 9 hr flight was over pretty soon. We spent another 2 hours transiting Dubai Airport and another 2 hours flying into Tehran. This is when all the fun begins!

According to my research, Singaporeans are given Visa-on-Arrival, so we headed towards the counter that marks “Visa” to get our visa done. When our turn approached, the staff at the counter asked where we are from. We gladly volunteered the information and told him we are here for a tour. He then gave us a blank look and quickly check what seemed to be a list behind the counter. He then gave us another puzzled look and directed us to head towards the immigration control as he said we do not need any visa, now this is very different from what people told me and my researches suggests. I approached the immigration control with some doubts about what I was told earlier on. At the customs, the immigration staff looked at my passport and then me and asked “Visa”? Not knowing what and how to answer, I said “No Visa”. He then nodded his head, punched something into his computer, gave me the stamp in my passport and then I realise I am in Iran! The whole process took less than 5 mins, one of the fastest immigration ever! After claiming our luggage, we met up with our liaison in Tehran. He held a paper with our names on it and was supposed to drive us around in Tehran. On our way to the hotel, the travel agent whom I had to liaise with called us, to ensure that we already arrived in Tehran and was brought to our hotel. She had confirmed that someone else will be meeting us later after we checked in to show us around Tehran.

Arrival at Tehran Airport

The Capital of Iran – Tehran

My first impression of Tehran when being driven from the airport to the hotel is there is so much land they have here. Iran is not as backward as I imagined. Along the way, there are road signs written in both Farsi and English. It became apparent that we have arrived in Tehran as the traffic suddenly built up. I had read about the horrendous traffic condition in Tehran, I did not expect it to be this bad. People are not driving according to their lanes, they merely squeeze into whatever space their car can be squeezed into. The distance between cars is so close that I can open the door of the car next to ours by simply stretching out my arm. What fascinates me more is despite the chaotic traffic condition, I didn’t see any traffic accidents on the road. Driving in Tehran needs a lot of guts and it involves both defensive and aggressive, and certainly one needs to be very decisive when driving here.

Golestan Palace – The Palace in Tehran

We met up with our guide for Tehran after settling down in the Hotel. Our first stop was the Golestan Palace. I like visiting Palaces as it tells a lot about life back when it was used by the kings. In my mind, I have always thought Palaces are grand, as it usually symbolises the power of the kings, especially when it is used to hold a reception for foreign dignitaries. I was slightly disappointed when we arrived at the Palace, it is not as big as I would imagine it to be. Golestan Palace has 4 main buildings within the compound. As we entered the Palace grounds, the first building that was almost immediately noticeable is one where the marble throne was placed. It is not difficult to spot the throne as it was placed in a very conspicuous platform that overlooked the gardens and the fountains in the palace grounds. As we walked around this building that housed the marble throne, I spotted a marble coffin. Our guide explained that this coffin was used by one of the kings has it is heavily influenced by European culture as there are angels carved on the cover of the coffin. We were told that the coffin is now empty, and placed here to display to visitors the extent of European influence in those days.

The next building we visited is the Leave Halls, where 3 halls are housed. This looks like the reception room and the living quarters of the royalties. The foyer of this building is decorated with mirrors, makes the architecture of this hall somewhat unique. We headed to the dining hall, where again the European style is evident here on the pillars. This rather huge hall was where the royalties dine daily in those days. The next hall we visited is the mirror hall, which essentially looked like a study room of some sort to me. This hall is rather small compared to the other 2 and was heavily decorated with mirrors. Makes me wonder if the king who built this palace likes mirrors or is merely using a mirror to make the whole place look bigger. To the left as we exited the mirror hall is the Coronation Hall. Now, this hall is the biggest of all 3 and has no trace of European influence in the styling. This hall, as we were told, was used not only for coronation events, it is also used to entertain foreign dignitaries as well. The next so-called hall that we visited in this building is the Ivory hall. It looked more like a corridor with 2 chairs and 2 huge ivories displayed. Hardly looked like a hall at all.

Walking towards the main hall of Golestan Palace

The Persian design leading to the main hall of the palace

The main audience hall, where the Persian King used to sit to address his audiences. The throne is made of white marble

Panoramic shot of the facade of the palace

The next building we visiting within the palace grounds is the Edifice of the sun. The distinctive feature of this building is the 2 tall towers and a slightly shorter clock tower. We were told that the original design of these towers do not come with the 2 pavilions that we see on top of these towers. It is later added as the king, after travelling to Europe, like their structure so much that he ordered his men to add these pavilions to the tower. These towers were the tallest structure in Tehran once upon a time. Too bad we cannot enter this building, else I would love to climb onto these towers and see the view from up there. To the right of this building is another building with 4 wind towers. We entered this building and saw that the main hall was again decorated with mirrors. The unique part about this hall is the doors that slide-opened vertically, used during summer to keep the hall cool. I find this building somewhat boring and uneventful. We went to this building that was converted to some kind of art gallery next. I was getting a bit restless by this time, not too sure if it is the art that is boring me or the jet lag is getting onto me. I did a quick browse through of this part and quickly exited the building. It seems this is the last stop of the palace.

 

Tehran Bazaar

As we were walking back to our vehicle, our guide asked if we wanna take a quick look at the Tehran Bazaar, the biggest bazaar in Tehran. We did not object to it and indeed we took a quick walkthrough of the bazaar. It is rather crowded here as it is close to the Iranian new year and everyone is out shopping for the new year. The bazaar was huge and was arranged in sections, some sections are selling textile, some spices and other selling clothing. One can find almost anything they need for a household here. We were brought to this lower part of the bazaar selling Persian Carpets. There are tons of shops selling carpets and some of them are nice. We were told briefly the different types of Persian rugs and how to recognise them. We spent about 30 mins in the bazaar before heading to our next stop.

Persian Style Art on the wall of the palace

This is where the stone coffin is house

Inside one of the buildings of the palace

Golestan Palace grounds

The Clock Tower at Edifice of the Sun

Inside the Mirror Halls

The Mirror Halls from outside

Inside of the Mirror Halls

Persian Rug section of the Bazaar

Tehran Bazaar

Tehran Bazaar

A Vault of Treasures – National Jewelry Museum

After some turns here and there on the vehicle, we arrived at somewhat looked like a bank. Before long I realised we were at the National Jewelry Museum. My first impression of the National Jewelry Museum when I first read about it was it is rather boring, perhaps someplace that showcases jewellery and nothing much. The security for the museum was very tight, all electronic equipment including mobile phones were not allowed inside the museum. What’s the big deal, I thought to myself, well just follow the protocols I guess. As we entered into the vault, we saw the famed Peacock Throne, decorated with gems and gold, the throne was very impressive and certainly cost a lot! As we went through the museum, I was taken aback by the number of precious gems, gold and jewellery that was up on display! A handful of any of these is sufficient to feed my whole family very well! As if I am not impressed enough, the crown of all jewels here was the Sea of Light – the largest pink diamond in the world! At first, it looked like an ordinary diamond, as one bend down and see the diamond at eye level, it is pink! I was jokingly telling our guide, the value of this diamond is enough to feed 10 generations in luxury! After going through the Jewel Museum, I realise it is very worth visiting! Never in my life, I have seen so many precious stones, jewellery and of course the largest pink diamond in the world!

National Museum of Iran

We headed for the National Museum after leaving the National Jewelry Museum. I was more excited about visiting this place as I had read that visiting this museum can give us a better idea of the history of Iran and how things come about. It was rated as one of the “must-go” in Tehran. As we had arrived at the museum, we were informed that we have to deposit our camera. Usually, it is allowed to be brought into the museum, but the Cyrus Cylinder was on display this period, therefore cameras are not allowed. As we entered the museum, our guide brought us to this gigantic 3D map of Iran and explained to us the different regions and the nomads. As we were going through the artifacts on display in the museum I was getting rather bored! It is not as impressive as I imagined it to be and out of the displays, I can only remember this 500,000-year-old tooth that belonged to a 14-year-old boy and this huge rock carving they took from Persepolis to be displayed here. The rest of the exhibits are bowls, pans, weaponry. Not my cup of tea. We headed to the 2nd floor where the Cyrus Cylinder was displayed. This artifact originates from Iran, and it is now on loan from the British Museum. What an irony, the country’s historical artifact had to be a loan from some other countries! This cylinder was fabled as the world’s first human’s right charter! As we exited the museum, I saw a replica of the Cyrus cylinder for sale, I immediately bought one. The packaging was rather unique, in a wooden crate box. Before heading back to the hotel to rest for the night, our guide brought us to this gate, which was used as a tourist symbol of Iran. Well, this gate certainly looked old, and behind this gate was what used to be a runway for aircraft. We snapped some pictures and headed back for our vehicle.

Entrance to the Tehran National Museum

This building outside the museum used to be the Tourism Bureau

This area used to be a runway for military aircrafts

Some governmental buildings outside the museum

As we were heading back to our hotel, we asked our guide if there are any good Persian restaurants around our hotel. We were pointed to this restaurant that is just around the corner and decided to give it a try after we leave our things in the hotel. We headed for the restaurant, seriously if the guide hadn’t pointed out we wouldn’t have known there is a restaurant here. The entrance does not seem to suggest what is brewing behind the doors. As we enter the restaurant, it looked very empty. No customers were in sight. We thought they might have closed and asked the waiter, he told us they have just opened for business and ushered us to a table. We ordered some kebabs and tea and found out that they got our orders mixed up after we finished the food and was chatting with the waiter. The apologetic waiter immediately brought some tea for us as what seems to be a gesture of apology, certainly hope these do not come out from his salary. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to rest for the night, as we were rather tired from the night flight, plus we had to wake up as early as 3.45 am the next day for our flight to Shiraz.

Typical Persian Food for dinner

The very inconspicuous restaurant near our hotel