Salam, Assalamualaikum,.........
Why Iran? Isn't dangerous ? That's the first impression when someone know your travel plan.
It is normal, though, considering all the bad publicity by the western news agency towards Iran.
My trip to Iran was incidentally happened in the end of April until early May 2012.
Tehran
City is so vast and so congested that getting lost here is inevitable.
But thankfully most of the streets i observed have signs in English,
though Tehran are still some areas without sign in any language.
The
first day was to familiarize myself with the surroundings where i live
in. Thanks God that He gave me no difficulty to remember the streets.. I
am staying in an apartment somewhere in North Kargar Street. It's a busy street
since it's in downtown Tehran and connected
the South and North area of Tehran. Its near the
Laleh Park and just few minutes away from University of Tehran and
Tehran Moddares University. I went to Laleh Park, Contemporary Art
Museum -- which i forgot to bring my camera *sigh* and a Sunday Market
near the Park.
Observation and Shock!
Weather
Surprisingly the weather is perfect ! Not too hot while i'm wearing my heejab and most of the time is cool.
I
think it is the best time to visit Tehran during end of April and early
May because after that the Summer will begin and it'll be 40 degrees
outside ! Big no.. no..
A glimpse of one of the express way in Tehran
Outfit
My
friend
is being very fussy with the outfit and mentioned the needs to dress as
modest as i could and try to look more like local ladies which i didn't. My friend also very irritated with my shoes and thought it'll hurt my feet
and insisted to buy a Mantou - a sort of long cloak all in black or
dark blue color. So, yes we did went to several malls to find a Mantou
but could not find a simple one until today :( I think, We'll try to
browse some shops in down town Tehran today. To my friend's satisfaction, we managed to buy a very comfortable shoes, Melli Shoes - a good reputable one -- with the socks - of course.
I took below picture when i visited Sa'ad Abad Palace. As you can see, they're different kind of style on how women wear their outfit in Iran. The young generation will use more casual outfit consisting of jeans or tight trousers with a black or colorful-thigh-long blouse or cloak and with a headscarf as shown in the left side of below picture. The official outfit for women in Iran is black or dark color and i saw some of university student or probably office staff will wear a semi-casual outfit as shown on the second lady from the right. Lastly, the traditional one is chador (Persian: چادر), is a full-body-length outer garment or open cloak worn by mostly student and older women as shown by the lady on the right side of this picture. I think there's no particular reason really for a lady choose a casual, semi-casual or chador. My friend said it will depends on from which area are they come from, the family background (religious or non-religious) and norm within their environment and lastly their comfort.
Eating
As many people said, its a paradise of beef, lamb chop, chicken, pickles and delicious bread and sweets. The first three days, i had either chicken or beef kabobs with a lot of amount of rice for lunch and dinner and bread with nuts, cream cheese, honey, jam, yogurt and juices ! To respect the hospitality, i am trying to take as much as i could but in the end it's just causing stomached for two days! To this experience, my friend is now trying to, either prepare or buy other food. I've tried Fasenjan (Its a chicken or Lamb or Beef cooked with Walnut and off course it comes with a lot of rice! -- just like rendang). Oh ho-ho, this is not the end, to every meal, please note that they put sooo many pickles, a lot of slice onion, grilled tomato, green salad and don't forget... Yogurt !
To complete the main course, they served a doogh (Persian: دوغ ,dūgh), its a ready-to-made sort of cold drink based on Yogurt. Actually its combination of yogurt + water + salt + mint ! I think, i can managed to have up to three bottles of doogh a day but you must be alerted, it can make you very very sleepy.
At first, its interesting now, all i can say i can not take it no more..........
This is the picture of one of the brand of doogh which is very delicious:
Transportation
Unfortunately,
most of taxi driver in Tehran - except those from Hotel, unable to
speak English and only able to read Farsi. So i keep handy the address
of the apartment in Farsi language .. in case i am lost. But so far, I've been walking around and around Kargar Street.
During
my first three days, I've tried taxi.. either shared, Mustakim or Darbast
(rented) to get into some places, much easier and much cheaper because they'll be no extra charge to park and it is difficult to find a space
for parking. All taxi driver are
driving their cars very fast ! The sheer volume of traffic can be very
overwhelming and makes crossing the streets like a game
of Russian roulette. However, after the initial shock, i am surprised
that there are not more accident. Every day, i felt as if i have had, at
least, three near-death experiences in the course of a single cab
drive, but in reality drivers are adept at getting you near to death
without actually killing you :)
Taking taxi with Mustakim can be very interesting, you will meet and know new people, exercise your farsi language to make conversation, having the chance to smell the traditional body-scent of Iranian people :p, having the experience as you one of the stuntmen in the one of the film of Fast and Furious and you can have online entertainment by listening to a very loud Persian pop or traditional music. Well, all you can do just to enjoy all of them :)
One of Tehran's monument is Azadi Tower (Borj-e Azadi).
A Y-shaped Azadi Tower or known as
Freedom Tower situated at the end of Azadi Avenue and was built to
commemorate the 2500th Anniversary of the Persian Empire in 1971. The
50m-high structure is a mix of 60's modern architecture with traditional
Iranian influences and its surrounded by a huge relaxing park compared
with a traffic congested surrounding it. Today, most of the time, it is a
focal point for demonstration and celebration too. My chance to visit
Azadi was very slim. The picture was taken when there was a Birth
celebration of Zahra - a daughter of Prophet Muhammad and the taxi
driver can only gave me a chance to take picture while he drove the car
around it !
Front view..with some different lighting..
Travel plan - overall
My main plan is to visit Isfahan, Shiraz and Yadz but my friend's plan is to keep me safe and sound inside Tehran :) As
of today, we have discussed my plan two nights in a row and with a
little bit persuasion and many consideration and giving so many promises
that i will sms my friend every two hours, if i'm lucky, we're going to
Isfahan tonight for a visit ( i hope i can extend my stay for one more
night in Isfahan). The rest, probably i will give a peace to my dear friend that i will be visiting few more places within Tehran..
Khoda Hafez for now, read more on Part 2 : Milad Tower
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