Thursday, May 17, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Journey to Iran - Part 3 : Imam Khomeini Mosque
Salam,..
I went to the well-knowned mosque in Tehran, the Imam Khomeini Mosque in one sunny day on my way to the Tehran Bazaar since the mosque situated within the Bazaar itself.
This mosque is very much a working mosque and one of the largest and busiest in Tehran.
I learn that the building itself dates from the early 18th century.
The courtyard can be accessed from several parts of the bazar and there will be hundreds of people pass through in front of the mosque and therefore it is possible for non-muslim to view and watch the pray or just to look around people passing by. They placed a small fountain in the center of the courtyard with some pots of plants and flowers that can creates a green environment in most of sunny day and hectic surrounding
I was taking some of these picture candid because i understand that usually photography is less welcome near the mosque.
It was a very sunny day, i was hiding in a shadow of one building across the mosque just to make sure that i did not burn myself.
When i took below picture, a man was yelled at me and he was talking in Farsi -- which i do not understand. A dear friend has been missing somewhere in the crowd, so i could not get a help.
However, I finally understand that women is not allow to enter the mosque.
These are the architectural artworks of Iran that i admired so much. They're all carefully and beautifully crafted.
While waiting - without knowning when my friend will come again - was walking through the courtyard and i saw many Iranian young couple sitting by the side of the fountain. Actually they just chatting and i would love to take picture of them -- but its not wise #advise from a friend# So, instead of people, i took some photograph of flowers again !
Salam,..
I went to the well-knowned mosque in Tehran, the Imam Khomeini Mosque in one sunny day on my way to the Tehran Bazaar since the mosque situated within the Bazaar itself.
This mosque is very much a working mosque and one of the largest and busiest in Tehran.
I learn that the building itself dates from the early 18th century.
The courtyard can be accessed from several parts of the bazar and there will be hundreds of people pass through in front of the mosque and therefore it is possible for non-muslim to view and watch the pray or just to look around people passing by. They placed a small fountain in the center of the courtyard with some pots of plants and flowers that can creates a green environment in most of sunny day and hectic surrounding
It was a very sunny day, i was hiding in a shadow of one building across the mosque just to make sure that i did not burn myself.
When i took below picture, a man was yelled at me and he was talking in Farsi -- which i do not understand. A dear friend has been missing somewhere in the crowd, so i could not get a help.
However, I finally understand that women is not allow to enter the mosque.
These are the architectural artworks of Iran that i admired so much. They're all carefully and beautifully crafted.
 |
| Can you read the calligraphy? |
 |
| Repainted |
 |
| Its actually one of the window - paced in one of the wall of the mosque. And they renovating it.. |
 |
| Look at that beautiful tiles on the doom |
 |
| Magnificent architecture ! and look at the calligraphy too ! |
Salam,..
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Journey to Iran - Part 1 : Observation
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
Journey to Iran - Part 2 : Milad Tower
On one sunny day in early May, we went to Milad Tower or known as Borj-e Milad. The Tower is part of the Tehran International Trade and Convention Center situated at Tehran North-West Highway road network. It is surrounded by four Highways (Hemmat on the north side, Chamran in the east, Hakim on the south side and Sheikh Fazlollah Nouri on the west). Getting there is very easy since the tower is new and most of taxi driver know about it. But you need to have Darbast taxi to go there and you need to bargain the price - depending from where you hop on.
The Milad tower and its exhibition hall from taxi window :)
According to the guide, the tower itself is meant for telecommunication tower with a revolving restaurant at the top with spectacular views of Tehran convention center vis-a-vis a world trade center, a five-star Yadman hotel with 500-room , though when it will open is unknown and lastly recreation and tourism center. Unfortunately, I don't have a chance to visit all of them because when i visited it, some of the places was either closed or not open for public.
After arriving at the Complex, we're asked to purchase a ticket to enter the tower. There's different price of ticket and its depends on how far or how many places we wishes to visit. We agreed to purchase three tickets that can gives us access to the tower's exhibition hall with open observation desk where we can see 360 degrees of Tehran City, Free Art Gallery and the sky doom - on the top of the diamond-shaped tower. Prior to enter the tower, we were asked to wait inside a lounge or waiting room displaying numbers of pictures of Milad Tower and some other interesting parts in Iran from various photographers.
Inside the lounge, we're sitting in a class-room type small exhibition room with small podium and miniature of Milad Tower together with a group of students. I think, this is why they asked us to wait. I think they established sort of certain time or number of visitor that can enter the tower. After we're all gather and sit quietly, a lady - which later i noticed becoming the guide for this interesting trip, started to talk in Farsi. Well, since i don't understand Persian language, I think she explained about the Milad Tower and its complex, such as background stories, history and mission and activities that can be done within the complex. #I do hope that my understanding is correct#. Well, along the way, they gave us a Persian brochure.
A view of the lounge from its terrace
A picture of Milad Tower at night taken by one of photographer - displayed in the lounge
Finally and fortunately for me, the Lady can speak English fluently ! Thanks GOD and blessed her and whoever the managing director to have her working there. She explained to me that the tower is the sixth tallest tower in the world and the complex has been established in 1995. Standing 435m high, including 120m antenna, the tower bears a striking resemblance to Toronto's CN Tower with the octagonal concrete shaft tapering from the base to a pod with 12 floors.
Before entering the lobby, we're escorted to take two escalators as shown below.
And since I am a tourist, I don't want to miss my chance to take some pictures.. Here are some pictures taken in the open area of lobby.
In the lobby, we're taking a lift that can take us to the 120th floor within 5 min! and then we enter the observation desk and the most interesting, of course the open observation deck where we can see the beautiful city of Tehran..
Anyway, the journey come to the end when we visit the sky dome where the lady explained about the story of Persian's love, norms, culture and family values. The artists has sucessfully described all of them into various metal artworks and placed it in the wall around the sky dome. I do grateful to have someone explains the story of the artwork so that i can understand eventhough a dear friend i think would prefer to talk in farsi :)
Oh i wish that i can remember all the stories. I remembered that the Lady mentioned about four essential elements in the world : Air, Earth, Water and Fire, and in Persian culture, all describes in some artistic forms #Oh God.. i forgot about it# and the artwork also tells stories about Love, Good and Bad things and also trying to convey a wish to God that Iran will always be in peace and prosperous.
#Now, i wish to visit the tower again and regret that i did not write down the story !#
Anyway, a trip will be meaningless without taking our picture, right? #tourist mode# or some objects - not related but beautify it !
Khoda Hafez..
The Milad tower and its exhibition hall from taxi window :)
According to the guide, the tower itself is meant for telecommunication tower with a revolving restaurant at the top with spectacular views of Tehran convention center vis-a-vis a world trade center, a five-star Yadman hotel with 500-room , though when it will open is unknown and lastly recreation and tourism center. Unfortunately, I don't have a chance to visit all of them because when i visited it, some of the places was either closed or not open for public.
After arriving at the Complex, we're asked to purchase a ticket to enter the tower. There's different price of ticket and its depends on how far or how many places we wishes to visit. We agreed to purchase three tickets that can gives us access to the tower's exhibition hall with open observation desk where we can see 360 degrees of Tehran City, Free Art Gallery and the sky doom - on the top of the diamond-shaped tower. Prior to enter the tower, we were asked to wait inside a lounge or waiting room displaying numbers of pictures of Milad Tower and some other interesting parts in Iran from various photographers.
Inside the lounge, we're sitting in a class-room type small exhibition room with small podium and miniature of Milad Tower together with a group of students. I think, this is why they asked us to wait. I think they established sort of certain time or number of visitor that can enter the tower. After we're all gather and sit quietly, a lady - which later i noticed becoming the guide for this interesting trip, started to talk in Farsi. Well, since i don't understand Persian language, I think she explained about the Milad Tower and its complex, such as background stories, history and mission and activities that can be done within the complex. #I do hope that my understanding is correct#. Well, along the way, they gave us a Persian brochure.
A view of the lounge from its terrace
A picture of Milad Tower at night taken by one of photographer - displayed in the lounge
Finally and fortunately for me, the Lady can speak English fluently ! Thanks GOD and blessed her and whoever the managing director to have her working there. She explained to me that the tower is the sixth tallest tower in the world and the complex has been established in 1995. Standing 435m high, including 120m antenna, the tower bears a striking resemblance to Toronto's CN Tower with the octagonal concrete shaft tapering from the base to a pod with 12 floors.
Before entering the lobby, we're escorted to take two escalators as shown below.
 |
| A view from the Lobby |
 | |
| The convention center with spectacular backgroud |
 |
| The entrance way to the complex |
 |
| the tower look like from outside lounge |
 |
| A spectacular scene of Tehran City - north or west? |
 |
| High school students viewed the city through the gate |
 |
| Another side of Tehran city - i think the big building down there is a hospital and its dormitory |
 |
| Beautiful ! the road shaped like a leaf.. just like Semanggi junction in Jakarta |
 |
| Look ! Who is there ? |
 | ||||
| Look.. Look.. don't you love it ? |
 |
| The metal artwork.. there's a story on it |
 |
| Another picture of Artwork |
#Now, i wish to visit the tower again and regret that i did not write down the story !#
Anyway, a trip will be meaningless without taking our picture, right? #tourist mode# or some objects - not related but beautify it !
 |
| Cheers and tummy-in ! |
 |
| Yes I wear my heejab :) |
 |
| Me again :) :D |
 |
| Wait !! Flashing water.. help! |
 |
| Ah... Never mind ! Just pose while the photographer taking the picture and getting wet too! |
 |
| A bowl of beautiful flowers in front of the ticketing booth welcomes you |
 |
| Those beautiful flower pots displayed in the lobby. I wish i can bring one home as a souvenir ! |
Monday, April 9, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)