The cities of Bam, Shiraz & Yazd
|
|
The cities of Bam, Shiraz & Yazd |
| Bam |
| We arrived in Bam on
September 18th after having fixed Troopie's suspension and spent the night
at Toyota's in Zahedan. Eastern Iran is not considered particularly safe
as it is an area through which a lot of drugs coming from Afghanistan are
smuggled to the rest of the world. On several occasions we were given
police escorts (once a gunman in the car, once two gunman on a motorbike
in front of us).
|
|
|
| Bam is famous for its old
city. It is a citadel of some 6 square km that was founded some 1800 years
ago and that was once inhabited by as many as 6000 people. On several
occasions during its history it was invaded and the population suffered
greatly. The attack of 1810 was so gruesome that the people of Bam decided
to leave the city permanently. Today it stands as it was left nearly 200
years ago : a small city where streets were not widened to accommodate
cars or trucks. A city that had thick mud walls to defend itself and did
not yet fear any attacks from the air.
|
|
|
|
|
| Kerman |
| From Bam we drove on West to
Kerman. Kerman is where we learned that Kathleen's parents had to cancel
their 10 day trip in Iran with us. We were to pick them up from Shiraz
airport and visit Shiraz, Yazd and Esfahan. We had been looking forward to
this holiday within our journey : we would no longer have to decide where
to go, where to eat or more importantly where to stay. We also hadn't
taken time to plan anything else of our journey through Iran. When they
told us they couldn't come because of professional reasons, we were
shattered. It took us several days to get over the blow and get going
again. Instead of sleeping in the car, we took a room in a hotel for 3
nights in order to make up our plans.
|
|
|
|
Kerman is where we started to visit what is so typical for Iran : mosques (left), bazaars (centre) and teahouses (right) ! At that time we were not "mosqued out" yet !
|
|
|
|
Iranian boys in the Kerman bazaar (left), the niche in Masjed-e Jame mosque pointing the direction of Mecca (centre), one of Kerman's many cake shops and its owner (right)
|
| Yazd |
| One of the things we decided
to do is to test Iranian hospitality a little further by going to the
hotels where we had been booked, explaining our case and asking the
management if we could use their car park and sleep in our car. This had
failed in Bam. We had been to the only hotel in town with a car park, had
had lunch then asked the management if we could use their car park. They
wanted 100,000 rials for this or US$ 12. We ended up paying 50,000 rials
for a room in a good guesthouse. In Yazd, we went to the 3-star Safa'iye
Hotel, the best place in town, where we had been booked with Kathleen's
parents. We were told we could use their car park for US$ 20 a night.
Having slept in Troopie in hotel car parks for free for the last 6 months
and having explained we were booked in the hotel we were quite impressed
by their level of hospitality ! Eventually the restaurant boss who had been
around the world on ships and spoke a little English turned up and
convinced his colleagues at the reception to let us stay for free.
|
|
|
| Islamic art doesn't allow
representations of any living creatures. Mosques are decorated with
colourful motives and graphics. The colours are chosen to be especially
bright in order to be seen in the bright sunlight. In Yazd, we were on the
lookout for 3 special things. The first are house doors on which men and
women have to use different handles to announce themselves. We still
haven't found out which is which (we didn't dare try it out !). The second
particularity to this part of Iran are wind towers : these stick out of
many old buildings in the city and are meant to catch every single breath
of wind to people's homes. The third are peculiar wooden shapes carried by
men on a special day as penitence to clear them of their sins.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Women in the back, men in the front. Spot the difference !
|
| Shiraz |
|
|
|
The tombstone of famous Iranian poet Hafez (left), bearded men here, there and everywhere (centre), stunning tile decoration.
|
|
|
|
Street life (left), with a local Mullah (centre), ever smiling kids (right)
|
|
|
We are doing well !
 |
||
| Southern Iran | Back to Trip page | The ancient city of Persepolis |
