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

A Glorious Day in Picnic-Land

The countryside at Gluringen, Valais, Switzerland

Here’re more views of our journey from Täsch to Lauterbrunnen. This was on the same day as our stop at Grimselpass (previous post). Nice days like these (i.e. sunny days) ain’t very common during our 2 week trip to Europe! So we took full advantage of it!


What's Switzerland, without a little bit of rolling in the grass...? Like how they do it in the Bollywood movies! Haha


This is my mommy's idea of fun? Putting me here with all these flowers??


A church (I think), Reckingen-Gluringen, Valais, Switzerland

I love these short picture posts! But I don’t want my diary to become just a travel picture album! Still, once in a while, the temptation’s too great to resist. So, here goes another picture post, haha!


The hanging bridge across the River Rhône connecting the main road to the village of Mühlebach. In Google Maps there’re 2 names shown, Hängebrücke Fürgangen-Mühlebach, and Hängebrücke über Rotten. Huh? Hanging Bridge over Rotten?? Is that the German name for the Rhône?? What a name, huh?


Well, that’s the Rotten River that’s made it so difficult for the people of Mühlebach to go anywhere, until somebody built the suspension bridge over the river… No wonder, they call it Rotten!


View from a gas station at Stalden, on the road between Täsch and Visp
(Note to self: the name of the gas station where we took this shot on Google Maps is Tankstelle Schwick …just in case I want to know later on in life, where exactly this view is from… ahem)

Summer Snow Adventure

And there, that little patch of white on the mountain, was where Justin saw his first snow. “Let’s go, mommy!” – Grimselpass, Switzerland, Aug 2015

For a contrast to our road trip in the UAE, here’s where Justin found some summer snow during our 2015 summer vacation in gorgeous Europe! (Gorgeous, when the weather is good, that is!)


Downhill view, from the ascend to Grimsel Pass – We were driving from Täsch (Zermatt) to Lauterbrunnen in the Jungfrau region


Grimsel Pass, Switzerland


The Totensee in Grimsel Pass


Beyond Grimsel Pass – the murky lakes are the Grimselsee (where the waterfall is), and ...watch this, Räterichsbodensee! (Don’t ask me how it’s pronounced, OK? I found the name in Google Maps)


Another view of ...here goes, Räterichsbodensee and the lands beyond, from the mountains at Grimsel Pass – Just look at the clouds ahead, guess the good sunny days won’t last long eh?




Snow found! No bigger than a room, like what I said in my earlier post…


Mission accomplished, returning to base (i.e. car)…

UAE's Mountain Rush

Our roadside camp, on the road to Wadi Bih & Jebel Jais, Ras Al Khaimah, UAE

Finally downloaded the photos of the time we got stuck in a jam going up the mountains that I mentioned about in my earlier post.

To cut the story short - There was rain. We wanted to see a wadi (dry river), with water for a change. Found Wadi Bih on Google. Packed food & tent, and went. Got stuck in massive jam up the mountains before reaching wadi. Parked at roadside. Set up camp, ate food, took photos, fooled around and went back home.

Found out the next day that the jam was due to SNOW falling on the mountains! In the UAE! Jebel Jais to be precise.

Here’re the photos. Of our roadside adventure I mean. No, don’t have photos of the snow. Didn’t even know about it then. And even if we’d known about it and continued on, we’d probably reach only at night!


Hello! Ain’t this a nice place to put up camp? Tree full of thorns, plenty of rocks if you wanna have a rock fight, no water at all, unless you bring your own, nice view of barren mountains and traffic jam, nice honking and music from passing cars…


Anu and the jam – see those cars behind. We had no idea where they were going or why there were so many cars, …until the next day


Wow, rocks! What else can I say?


More view of rocks, mountains and the jam…


Still, no rock or jam is gonna stop us from having fun!






Photo time!


Time to go! One last shot of the mountains before the sun sets