Scenes from Half the World

Naqsh-e-Jahan Square and the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque, Isfahan, Iran

Aww, what the heck! Might as well finish posting pictures of Isfahan, since I’ve sorted thru them already. Besides, I’m kinda busy with work (a good sign in times of uncertainty, …like now). So, here’s another picture post!

“Isfahan is half the world,” so says a Persian proverb ~ 'Esfahan nesf-e-jahan'. The world must be a lot smaller then, but still, Isfahan has its own unique qualities that makes it a place well worth a visit. Pictures don’t do real justice to the place, go see it yourself!


Muqarnas (the hanging beehive-like formations) at the entrance of the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque


The interiors of the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque – this mosque was built as a private mosque for the ladies of the king’s harem – Isfahan used to be the capital of Persia during the Safavid Empire era


The patterns on the dome of the inner hall, coupled with the beam of light reflected on the dome, are supposed to look like a peacock with its tail opened, especially from the entrance to the hall. Whatever it is, it's still a sight to behold!


Naqsh-e-Jahan Square at night, north view. The square has a north-south alignment. On the north (in the background of the photo) is the Qeysarieh Gate, entrance to Isfahan’s Grand Bazaar. On the east (right side of the photo) is the Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque. On the west (left), is the Ali Qapu Palace. And Anu’s standing in front of the Shah Mosque on the south


The south-west corner of the Naqsh-e-Jahan Square with the Shah Mosque (Imam Mosque) in view – The huge square is surrounded on all four sides by shops selling souvenirs, trinkets, Persian sweets, Persian …you name it, and arches. Whoever built this place, sure has a craze for arches. "OK, let’s put an arch here, and there. And there, and there, and there… What the heck, just friggin fill all the gaps with arches!"


The shops around Naqsh-e-Jahan Square, Isfahan


Qeysarieh Gate, the main entrance to Isfahan’s Grand Bazaar (Bazaar-e-Bozorg), on the north of the Naqsh-e-Jahan Square


Isfahan’s covered bazaar, the Bazaar-e-Bozorg, closed for business! We were told that it’s the Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday! (In Dubai, the birthday was on the week before!) No, I don’t know how the Prophet can have different birthdays in different countries. Go ask a scholar!

Persian bazaars are interesting. They’re typically covered with vaulted ceilings that have holes in them (I guess it’s to let light in, if not it’ll be pitch black, right?). And they’re huge with a network of maze-like alleys! Nice, for some spy thriller movies, ain’t it?


For the love of arches! Told ya there's a serious obsession with arches in Isfahan – Imam Ali Square, Isfahan


Let There Be …Arches! Thirty-three to be exact – This is the Si-o-Seh Pol (33 Bridge), so named because it has 33 arches. How unimaginative can you get?


Khaju Bridge, Isfahan – It IS a bridge, despite the lack of water – heard they’d typically release water back into the Zayandeh River just before Nowruz, the Persian New Year in March. Not fair for us winter visitors!!! What did they do to all that water anyway?


More arches (what else?) below the Khaju Bridge, Isfahan


The gardens around the Zayandeh River …it’d be nicer if there was SOME water!


Khoda hafez! Till I write again...

Christians in Iran

Happy Easter Everyone! And since it’s Easter, I’ll leave a few pictures of a church in Iran. Oh yeah, there’re still Christians in Iran.




Vank Cathedral (Kelisa-e-Vank), Jolfa, Isfahan, Iran

Jolfa is an Armenian settlement in the city of Isfahan. They moved here in the 1600s and they’re still here today, retaining their language and culture.

Come to think of it, the Armenians are a pretty business-savvy people, isn't it? Their numbers aren’t large, heck, Armenia wasn’t even an independent country until the breakup of the Soviet Union in the 90s! But they’ve left quite a legacy throughout the world, (my part of the world, anyway). The Raffles Hotel in Singapore, & the E&O Hotel in Penang, were established by the Sarkies Brothers, Armenians who were from, none other than, Isfahan. And we’ve stayed in a quaint little hotel in the backpacker’s area of Kolkata owned by an Armenian family, the Fairlawn Hotel!


The church's interior










Frescoes in the church’s interior


No idea what this building is – you’ll have to know some Armenian or Farsi to find out I guess


Statue of a monk outside the cathedral’s premises

Jolfa is said to be the hip place for young Isfahanites to be. It certainly feels this way, with streets lined with fast food restaurants. Rumour even has it that Jolfa’s the only place that you can find shhh… wine, in Iran! No, didn’t try to find it. You kidding? This is an Islamic Republic, OK?!

Tips for an Iran Trip 2

Muqarnas (the hanging beehive-like formations on the top of arches) on the entrance of the Shah Mosque, Naqsh-e-Jahan Square, Isfahan, Iran

OK, here’s more on Iran, if you’re still not sick of it yet.

Hotels

The internet is great and it works in Iran. But not the hotel booking websites like booking.com, Agoda, TripAdvisor, you name it! (The US of A has a way of being a real jerk sometimes… But you can’t really blame them for making life difficult when you insist on calling them the Great Satan, can you?)

If you’re really worried about not having a room when you arrive, the best way to book your hotels in Iran is thru the old fashion way, call them, or email them. (Dunno the numbers? …You’ll be amazed on how much information you can find in Google Maps!). Iran has its own hotel booking sites (which have found ways to circumvent the sanctions by international banks). You can use them if you have a lot of money to fling around. (Yeah, they’re expensive.) It’s cheaper if you contact the hotels directly.

Iranians are wonderful people to deal with, the ones we met on our trip anyway. Once a reservation is made and a price is agreed on phone or email, you’ll get the room at the price agreed!

Make a photocopy of your passport and keep it with you though. Your hotel will insist on keeping your original passport for the duration of your stay. (Foreign printed reading materials are so rare in Iran that heck, passports will do. Just kidding. Keeping your passports is the rule unfortunately).


Our hotel in Isfahan, just next to the Naqsh-e-Jahan Square

Communications

Mobile phone rates are reasonable. Actually, a lot more reasonable than a country like the UAE I’d say. An IranCell SIM Card costs 20,000 toman (AED 20). Very useful for calling your driver and the hotels and for internet while on the go! The minimum top-ups are 5,500 toman (AED 5.5).

You’ll need your passport (or a copy of it) if you wanna get a SIM Card (here’s where the photocopy I was talking about earlier comes in handy, since your original passports would almost always be with your hotel.)

All our hotels had free Wifi, with the exception of the apartment we rented at Dizin. We even had free Wifi on one of our taxis! Internet speed is OK, depending on where you’re at. Whatsapp and your email will work (that’s our main mode of communicate with the hotels!). Facebook? Twitter? Are these compatible with the cultural values of the Islamic Republic of Iran??

Language

You can mostly survive on English in the hotels. Outside the hotels you can choose between Persian and Sign Language. We chose Sign Language (it’s easier). If you know Hindi or Urdu, you can learn the numbering system quite easily. Persian (or Farsi) is in the same language family as Hindi / Urdu.

Farsi (like Urdu) is written in the Arabic script with added alphabets for sounds not occurring in Arabic i.e. P, G, CH,… Knowing how to read numbers in Arabic is very useful. This is because many people don’t know our 1, 2, 3’s. They’ll write prices, telephone numbers, and addresses, in Persian numbers. …Or they’ll just punch it in their calculator if there’s one around. (Note: The Arabic and Persian numbers are the same, except for number 4).

What to Wear

Decency and modesty is the key to what you should wear.

In winter, this is easy. You cover up, or you freeze anyway (yeah, it’s freezing in Iran in winter).

In summer? …Just wear like what you’d wear in winter I think (to be safe). Minus some undergarments if you wanna stay cool I guess.

Ladies’ hair are indecent. Period. Therefore, headscarves for ladies are a MUST everywhere you go (outside).


Anu with headscarf, Chehel Sotun Palace, Isfahan

Food

If you’re a fast food lover, don’t worry. Iran has its fair share of fast food shops like MashDonalds, ZFC and Pizza Hat! Who cares whether there’s a spelling mistake in those names or not, the servings are twice the size of the real thing for half of the price!

Apart from fast food, there’re kebabs, rice and rotis the size of doormats. Really! I dunno what the rotis are called in Farsi, we ate them almost every day. We just call them doormats. They can be bought at the local grocery. We weren’t very adventurous with food on our trip (coz of the beef thing …Anu is Hindu). If you eat beef, I guess you’ll find more things to eat.
Note for the rice lovers: Beryan is NOT rice. Just because it sounds like Biryani doesn’t mean it is Biryani, OK? It’s a tasty flatbread sandwichy thing with minced mutton and beef (optional, in the shop where I bought it anyway, luckily). Rice is called Polo, as in Pulao in India / Pakistan.

Iranian food is pretty healthy, I think. Imagine putting dried fruits and pomegranate juice seasoning on your rice! Iranians drink lassi (or what they call doogh) like they drink water. There’s also beer! …But with zero alcohol content (bummer). Hey, it’s an Islamic Republic, OK?

Iranians love tea (instead of coffee, unlike Arabia). Hell, they love tea so much that all our long distance taxis that we took on our trip had hot tea to serve. And the driver could pour hot tea and drink it all, while driving. (Hey, isn’t drink and drive an offence here?!)

One very important thing before I forget, Persian food IS NOT SPICY. If you want your food spicy, bring your own chili powder or sauce (unless you know what chilli is called in Farsi).


Our Persian lunch, at Abbasian Teahouse & Restaurant, Kashan – Good place to have lunch in Kashan, good and reasonably priced – AED 60 for all this

What to Buy

Dried spices, dried fruits, handicrafts, souvenirs (made in Iran, unlike everywhere else where the god-damned things are made in China), ladies’ Islamic clothing like chador, niqab, hijab, etc. Kidding, everything’s available including modern lady’s clothing (in the cities). I bought a woolly Mongolian-styled hat for 20,000 tomans (AED 20) and a woollen scarf for umm 25,000 tomans (AED 25), I think. Hey, nobody told me it’d be so cold, OK? Brrr….


Wow, nice chador! That one’s even better! Wonder why they even bother dressing the mannequins?!?


Shopping near the Jameh Mosque, Isfahan, Iran

Working Days

Fridays are off like in the UAE, but Saturdays are generally working days. For some Iranians, they get half of Thursdays off.

Iran has its own calendar. Everything official (like the stamp on your passport and the food expiry dates in packages) are printed with dates from the Iranian Calendar. No, this is not the same as the Islamic Calendar. The Islamic Calendar follows the moon cycle, the Iranian calendar follows the sun. In Iran, it’s year 1395 at present, whereas in the Islamic Calendar, it’s year 1438.

That’s it on Iran. Here’re some photos.


Sheikh Lotfollah Mosque on Naqsh-e-Jahan Square, Isfahan


Horse carriages in the square, with the Ali Qapu Palace on the left


Naqsh-e-Jahan Square at dusk


Jameh Masjid, Isfahan, Iran


Portraits of the Supreme Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran – the late Imam Khomeini (left) founder of the Islamic Republic, and the current Supreme Leader, Imam Khamenei (right), at Jameh Mosque, Isfahan


Unadorned columns at the Jameh Masjid


Arches below the Si-O-Seh Pol (Thirty-Three Bridge) – Really, that’s the meaning of the name, coz it had 33 arches!




Chehel Sotun Palace, Isfahan – Chehel Sotun means Forty Columns – the kings of that time didn’t seem very imaginative with names huh?

Tips for an Iran Trip 1

Amir Kabir Dam, Chalus Road, Alborz, Iran

It’s the Spring Equinox! (In the Northern Hemisphere anyway). A quarter of friggin 2017 gone, and I still think of it as the ‘New’ Year!?!

The Spring Equinox holds great importance to some cultures. In the UAE, it’s Mother’s Day (…can’t miss it when they have a Google Doodle of it, can you?) In Iran, it’s the biggest festival of the year, Nowruz, the Persian New Year. It’s also the New Year of the people of the Baha’i faith (I had a colleague in Malaysia who’s a Baha’i), and the Zoroastrian community (Parsi / Irani) in India.

This time also happens to be the peak tourist season in Iran (so says the guide books and the hotel operators we spoke to in Iran during our recent visit last year). So, here’re some tips on Iran, for those rare people (like us), whose idea of fun are visiting 'interesting' countries like Iran!

Psst, I’m plagiarising my own work… I wrote something about visiting Iran for the Company magazine. They say they’re only gonna publish it in the next issue (and in the process, pay me a lil sum of money, hehe). Meanwhile, here’s a chunk of it!

Reasons to Visit

What's not to like about Iran?

There're lots of things to see - historical cities (e.g. Isfahan, with its beautiful square and unique mosques), ancient ruins (Persepolis, seat of the mighty Persian Empire, nope, didn't visit this trip, maybe next time), beautiful countryside (including snowy mountains where you can ski), and a trove of cultural things (it's the seat of the Persian & Shia cultures after all).
The people are friendly and forthright, once a deal is made, they don't renege on it (the ones we met anyway).
The costs are reasonably cheap.
And best of all (for me), there's still not many tourists around to spoil the experience, haha!

Visa & Travel Insurance

The procedure and cost varies according to which country you’re from.

Malaysians - Can fly directly to Iran and get a 15 day visa on arrival, free of charge! (I love being a Malaysian this way. We can go to so many of the ‘rogue’ countries without a visa! …Too bad Jong-Un killed his brother in Malaysia. Guess North Korea’s off the bucket list, till things improve. Sigh…)

Indians - Have to get a tourist visa before visiting. (What’s new?) We got Anu’s visa in the Iranian Consulate in Dubai for AED 150 (plus err …was it AED 15? For buying a shawl from a nearby sundry shop to cover her hair just so she could enter the Consulate… It’s called the Islamic Republic of Iran for a reason, OK?) The visa took 3 working days to process.

British – I heard would have to arrange trips with some authorized travel agency, before a visa can be granted. I'm not sure. I’m not British.

Americans – Same as the Brits, before Trump. After Trump, …forget about visiting Iran I guess. "You, citizens of the Great Satan!"

Getting a visa beforehand has its advantages though. When we arrived in Isfahan Airport, I had to get visas and buy the local travel insurance for the kids and I for EUR 15 per person. (It’s mandatory for all visitors, and takes …an hour! And yes, they quoted the price in Euros, the only time we saw that in Iran. If we pay in USD, they wanted 20 friggin $! Luckily, we had € with us.) And Anu? Since she’s already got her visa, the officers didn’t even bother asking about travel insurance for her!

So, to save time, you know what to do!

Costs & Money

Iran is not expensive at all. We spent 7,000 dirhams all in, including visas, air tickets, hotels, etc for a 9 days, 8 nights trip for our family of four. But of course, we're cheapskates, flying budget airlines & staying in 3 star hotels, and rented apartments, hehe!

The official currency of Iran is the Iranian Rial (IRR) but for some unknown reason, almost nobody in Iran speaks in rials. Those that deal with foreigners will almost always ask for dollars, currency of the Great Satan. (Guess hell money ain't that bad, huh?) The other Iranians use tomans instead. 1 Toman is 10 rials. Iranians are sensible people. Isn't it silly to tell someone that a bottle of mineral water costs 15,000 something (rials)? 1,500 tomans is umm... more sensible, isn't it? OK, slightly.

Exchange rate - Officially, it’s about 30,000 IRR to 1 USD (according to XE.com or oanda). If you change USD in Iran today (you’ll probably not find IRR outside Iran anyway, especially if you’re in a West-alligned country like the UAE), you’ll likely get close to 40,000 IRR to a dollar. For Malaysians or those from the UAE, this conversion is dead easy, 1 ringgit (or 1 dirham) = 1,000 tomans or 10,000 rials!

In Iran, your international credit cards and ATM cards probably won't work. (If you insist on calling the country that controls the world's finances the Great Satan, do you think they'll make it easy for you?) So, make sure you bring all the money you need in cold hard cash, preferably in satanic currency, i.e. US Dollars. (They fetch the best exchange rates!) Try to have some dollars in small denominations. Isfahan Airport has no money-changer after Immigration, and during holidays, the money-changers in the city are closed! (We reached on a Friday, and ended up asking our hotel to pay for the cab fare and put it on our hotel tab!)

OK, that's all for now folks. Getting too long for 1 post. Will continue...when I find time again. I'm off on a 2 weeks vacation! (No grand plans this time round, back to the family in India. Hey, it's been 2 years since our last visit, OK?)

Meanwhile, here're some photos of Tehran.


Azadi Monument, Tehran - The most well-known landmark of Tehran is actually in the middle of a friggin roundabout, at a very busy intersection. You'll definitely see it especially if you're heading west from the city. At the time of our visit, it's 'beautifully' surrounded by progress - construction works, machinery, barricades, etc. And cars (of course, it's a roundabout, OK?)


Mausoleum / Shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini - humongous place! From the grandeur of the place, you'd think he was some kind of god, if you didn't know better


The Streets of Tehran, Iran


The management of the hotel at Lalehzar Street, Tehran where we stayed for 2 nights. Tehran was something like a stopping point for us to go up the mountains. We didn't actually go anywhere in Tehran, ...except for some shopping (of course, what d'ya think, with the wife around?)


Lalehzar Street, or what I call 'Light' Street - every shop is a lighting shop! Tehran (the part where we were at anyway) seems to be arranged like supermarket aisles, with different streets for different items!


This is the 'Clothes' Alley - Berlin Alley, Tehran


And for ladies' shoes and bags - Bagh Sepah Salar, Tehran