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Diary This is Jan's diary. If you want to receive this diary by mail, write your mail on the contact form.
‹ Previous (17/06/2008) MONTH Next (2008-08-16)› ‹ Previous (2009-09-19 - Pakistan) COUNTRY Next (2009-10-08 - Turkey)› Iran Teheran (see on map) 23/07/2008:
On Monday the 14th we arrive to karaj, at about 30 kilometres of Tehran, and there we found the friendly couple of Couchsurfing, Azade and Amir. We parked in the calm street in front of their home and the day after in the morning we directed towards the embassy of Pakistan, taking a shared taxi for the 500 metres that separated us from the station (10 cents of euro), going up to the efficient train and later metro up to the centre of Tehran (15 cents of euro), and two more shared taxis (12 cents of euro each). The total stretch had us occupied an hour and a half, but it was worth not to go by car, because the traffic of Tehran is terrible and because, although we could have found some hosts in the centre of Tehran, Azade and Amir were formidable. Once in the embassy, and about twenty minutes after waiting in a chaotic queue, they informed us that we would need a card of recommendation from our embassies (those that we had in Ankara were not valid). the same day we went to the embassy of Spain where they could make us the letter and also to the embassy of Romania, where they commented that they would have the letter ready the day after. But on Wednesday, the Romanian consul was about not to deliver the letter to Alexandra arguing that it was very dangerous to go to Pakistan. And likewise presented it to us different Iranians and even a Pakistani that we found on Saturday in the embassy of Pakistan (on Wednesday they had holiday, added to the weekend: Thursday and Friday). Unfortunately, on Saturday we arrived at 11 at the embassy of Pakistan, and arguing with us that they only attend from 9:30 to 10:30 they made us return the day after. For the third time we returned to the embassy to deliver the forms. In the fourth, yesterday Monday, we payed the cost of the visa (only 50 $ between both) and in the fifth, today, we have collected finally the visa. We did not think that we would be so much late to carry out the visa of Pakistan, but in a certain way it went well, because yesterday David and Maria arrived from their tour through the North of Iran and we could find each other again, although in Hamadan we had said goodbye as if we did not have to see ourselves again for two or three years until we arrived Spain. On the other hand, it was also good to make use of the great hospitality of Azade and Amir, with which we feel very at ease and maintain very interesting conversations, which helped us understand better the country where we were. Azade is an engineer and works in a thermoelectric station and Amir is a computer scientist who works from home modelling objects in 3D. the home is small, but decorated with a lot of taste, in which we spent quite a lot of hours connected to Internet, looking the television (mainly Alexandra) and conversing. Azade told us that the economic situation of Iran is not so good, with much inflation,reason for which recently they had selled their horse and buyed two good bicycles for which they also appeared very keen in exchange. In the train, a businessman that we had met, also explained to us that the average class in Iran had lost economic power because of the current president, who does not apply the correct economic policies. On the contrary to all the information arrived from Iran, Azade also commented that in Iran there is good political in favour of the woman, for example there is full equality between the salaries of the men and women. Even so, Azade detested the norms of dressing and the duty to use the veil, especially in summer. And even if the men had some norms of dressing more relaxed, Amir also considered unfair some of the Islamic norms, as that of not being able to swim in the pool beside his wife or to sit together in an urban bus. Anyway, Amir was not too predisposed to criticise the Iranian government, arguing that it was dangerous, because in Iran the political power and the religious power are joined, and if you criticise they can accuse you of criticising the religious leaders, that it is the same to criticise the Islamic religion or to question the same Allah. Due to the duty to take the veil and only to show the face, Azade told us that the nose is operated by many girls of the city to be more attractive (the visible part), and, apart indeed from crossing some admirable noses, we also saw perfect noses, and some with the signs of the recent operations. In the embassy of Romania we met a boy, Mihai, that was studying in Iran. He told us that he has a girlfriend, but that he will not get married because he does not want to convert to Islam. On the other hand, he also told us that the foreign media do not want to publish positive news about Iran. For example, he explained us that there are regions in Iran where the women do not take veil (Kurds, afghanis and others). Anyway, that is an exception, because two days later met Maryam, a 19 years old girl born after the revolution, that explained us that since two years ago there are numerous police of the dress in the street, that censures the women if they paint too much the face, show too much the hair under the veil or dress too tight clothes or show more skin than the rule. the police of the dress can even put a girl in prison and not leave her go out until the day after, that the parents have taken a more decent dress to her. That's why, Maryam explained to us that in the street all the world takes a mask, even if the social reality is very different. For example, in the north of the city, where Maryam lives and the middle and rich classes in general reside, there are streets supervised by individuals where the girls can walk without veil. In any case, they always have to be pending of the presence of "basijis", normal people who do not doubt to report you to the police for any critical comment or behaviour out of the rule. In the meeting with Maryam there was also a German traveller that was going to Asia on bicycle, Markus, and with which we maintained a discussion about whether the people supported the Islamic government or not, then the majority of people that we had found (basically members of couchsurfing) seemed very critical, although in the last election the Iranians chose the most Islamic and most radical party. Apart from maintaining interesting conversations about the political and social situation of Iran, a day Azade explained a very interesting curiosity of the Iranian calendar, which is different to the occidental one and to the Islámic. The Iranian calendar of 12 months starts the first day of the spring, and surprisingly, the Iranians celebrate the change of year in the same astronomical minute of entry in spring, so much are 12 in the midday as the 4 of the dawn. On the other hand, the Iranian calendar has the years from the Hijra or migration of Mahoma from Mecca to Medina, the same beginning as the Islamic calendar, with the difference that the Islamic calendar is lunar, about 11 days shorter than the Persian calendar, which is to tile; therefore, at present they are in the year 1387 and 1429 for the rest of the Islamic countries. Finally, we had a little more time in Tehran to visit some of the relics of Iran, standing out above all, the biggest treasure of the world, the museum of the Jewellery of Iran or of the jewels of the crown, which contains the most important collection of jewels of the world, that they were compiled by the Shahs of Iran during the 2500 years of monarchy. The collection, strongly protected, contains tens of objects (swords, crowns, thrones, jugs...) diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires... Among these, there is a magnificent globe of the world that contains 35 kilos of gold and 51000 precious stones, representing the oceans with emeralds and the continents with rubies and diamonds. We also visited yesterday accompanied by David and Maria, the old embassy of the United States, that was occupied by iranies students later in the revolution, and retained 52 people for 444 days with the excuse to be spies or to work for the big Satan, expression that we have seen in numerous graffiti in the exterior wall of the old embassy. We have also visited the museum of the martyrs, which is in front of the old embassy, which exposes information about different martyrs that fought against the bloody war against Iraq, in which were obliged to cross mine fields to find safe crossings towards the enemy positions. The museum also had a section dedicated to some martyrs who had fought against Israel (with suicidal attacks) and another showing numerous Islamic leaders murdered by the terrorist group MKO. This movement, also called People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI) had fought against the Shah, but, its Marxist ideology was confronted later with the Islamic ones, that killed thousands of its members in reply to two terrorist attacks of this group. --- When i interviewed Azade opined that the main problem of the world is the lack of energy and the waste of it, all together provoking wars. We should show to the people how to use less energy and to look for new alternatives to the polluting energies. as engineer she can help personally investigating about new alternatives. Azade did not want to be on the camera while asserting that the main problem of Iran is the waste of the energy because of how economy is. Azade feels happy, although she tries to worry for the happiness of the others trying to help them, if she could help them would be happier. The secret of happiness is satisfaction. Esfahan (see on map) 25/07/2008:
At about 150 kilometres to the south of Tehran we visited Qom, a sacred city for the Muslims Shiites, where a big mosque rises up on the tomb of Fatima, the sister of the eighth Imam Reza (Shiite leader and descendant of Mohamed), that also died on Iranian lands and was buried in Mashhad. I entered the big mosque built with bricks and decorated with marvellous mosaics of porcelain, and without anybody noticing that the non Muslim me has entered up to the interior, I went for rooms full of mirrors until I arrived in front of the decorated tomb of Fatima, where the mullahs (religious men) with turbans on the head and women completely covered up in black worshiped the tomb, while watchers with plumes of colours supervised that nobody made photos in the sacred temple. After Qom we kept going down towards the south of Iran, crossing a sterile desert, with the little transparency of the air, turning the colours off and concealing the mountains in the background. Anyway, when we reached Kashan, we realised that Iran started to show us its most charming face, for in Kashan there were some pretty houses built in the eighteen and nineteen centuries. The houses, which belonged to rich traders of crafts and carpets, show the splendour with which they lived, with exquisite rooms decorated with reliefs, paints, mirrors, church windows... and with a view to intimate interior courtyards with trees and ponds. In the afternoon, we took refuge of the heat visiting the Fin gardens, with numerous channels of water where we could soak the feet, although they quarrelled me because i had the trousers raised up to the knee showing my hairy legs (In Esfahan they told me off again because i was wearing a T-shirt that showed the back when i crouched down; it is curious that to Alexandra, the most rebel with the norms of dressing no one said anything, but I already accumulate two warnings and she none). The following destination, Abyaneh, was found in the mountains and we thought to pass a night fresher than the previous ones. While we went there we could observe the strongly protected nuclear facilities of Iran with watchtowers and numerous antiaircraft defences. Anyway, by being built near a very common route, I thought that on the contrary to the American propaganda, perhaps they did not have to hide too much. Today in the morning we have visited Abyane,an old village with the houses worn out a bit and built with red clay. For the main street, apart from crossing with many Iranian tourists, we also crossed with some local woman, dressing colourful skirts that arrived only to the knees and were covered with one long veil of lighter colours. Some of the local men also distinguished themselves by dressing some wide trousers of a black material. 30/07/2008:
In the middle age, Esfahan was known as Nesf-and-Jahan (half of the world), because to visit it meant having visited half of the world, due to its beauty and to the marvels that contained. And although Esfahan was outside destroyed partially during an Afghan conquest in the eighteenth century and the new maritime routes nullified the business of the silk route and likewise of Esfahan, this city could still be considered as one of the prettiest cities of the world and undoubtedly the most beautiful of the ones visited until now in Iran. Esfahan is a calm city, with the streets shaded by the trees and numerous parks with fountains to take refuge of the heat. Besides, Esfahan preserves exquisite historical legacies, highlighting the enormous Imam square (or previously called Naghsh-i Jahan), that is the second biggest in the world (after the Tianmen square, in Pekin) and for sure one of the most charming. The square is surrounded by two levels of doorways of Islamic aesthetics, under which a part of the big bazaar of Esfahan settles. Most of the square is covered by lawn and flowers, where every night, as the heat is turned off, tens of families extend their carpets and relax, while they take tea or eat fruits. At one end of the square the mosque of the Imam rises up, described by the locals as the most precious mosque of the world, and probably it is, containing all the walls and domes covered by painted tiles that configure some dense, harmonious and marvellous trimmings. Of similar beauty the smallest mosque of Sheikh Lotfollah ascends, to the lateral of the square, in front of a big pool. On the other end of the square the covered bazaar is extended, through which one is able to walk two kilometres with calmness, with the cheerful vendors but without them pressuring you to buy from them. When finishing the bazaar another of the historical relics of Esfahan is the mosque of Jameh, with more than seven centuries of history built and rebuilt with different artistic techniques. I should not forget either to mention the popular bridges that cross the river with numerous Iranian families relaxing under their shifting boards; and the dream-like palaces, surrounded of forests, that seem to have risen up from the stories of the thousand and one nights. In one of these palaces there were some delicate paints, some of which they showed sensual girls showing the breasts. I found it remarkable that, on the contrary to what the European church had made during the middle age, the religious regime of Iran had not erased these paints. In any case, I think that i should also mention the only negative point of the city: the tourism that it always ends up corrupting, because in some sites, for the first time in Iran, they tried to cheat with the price. Despite passing five wonderful days in Esfahan, not only we were visiting monuments and relaxed in the parks. We wasted a whole afternoon to buy a new tyre to replace one that had burst before entering Esfahan and wasted another morning to extend another month the visa in Iran. While we were at the police station, I met again with Santiago, a traveller from spain that i had already met in Kashan. Santiago travelled for some months following a route similar to us, although afterwards he went to Afghanistan and through other "stan" countries .Apart from talking for some hours with Santiago, we also had occasion of talking a good while with Meisam, a student of computer science that still had to make the military service. Meisam explained us that when finishing the university he should do 20 months of obligatory military service, although the option of not doing it is not too recommendable, because then you do not have the option of leaving the country (except to countries with saint mosques: Aràbia Saudí, Iraq and Syria), you cannot work for the government, you cannot buy yourself any house, not even having the option of getting married. For this reason, in his university there are more girls studying than boys, although somebody also explained to us that when it became obligatory to wear the veil at school (in time of the Shah it was prohibited), many traditional families started to register the girls in the schools. When questioning him on the government, Meisam explained that the previous day they had hanged 30 people in Tehran, as punishment to offences as drug dealing, murder, robbery and adultery... Last year 300 were killed, the majority hanged, but also some stoned to death(killed with stones), that it is the punishment that receives a married woman that commits adultery and her lover in specific cases. Answering to our questions, Meisam explained us that if a man is found with a prostitute (or not), the two are obliged to get married with impossibility of divorce, since in such a case, the man has to pay with a part of his body (a leg, an arm, an eye, the head...). Finally, Meisam surprised us explaining that he was not Muslim and that not even so alone believed in God, therefore, theoretically according to the Koran, any Muslim should murder him. Afterwards he explained the motifs of not being religious, "if you do not think, you can be part of any religion created by the man, but when you start to think and realise that the religions are made by humans and not by God, you do stop believing inevitably". Afterwards he gave me a digital book forbidden in Iran for its contents: "God Delusion", by Richard Dawkins, but also forbidden in Europe, because I had not paid for the copyrights. 31/07/2008: Today it is exactly one month since our entry in Iran and, while we crossed a burning desert towards Yazd, we have had once more a discussion about Iran and its people. In spite of the Islamic government of the country - fanatical according to Alexandra - I think that Iran is one of the best countries to travel on the planet, then apart from being economic (we have only spent300 € in a month including food and diesel) and to have good cultural and touristic attractions, its inhabitants are the most hospitable in the world (together with Sudan). It has already happened some times that they have invited us to eat or to dine, and many more that have given us bread, fruits and vegetables; they offered us even money once. And not only that, apart from being hospitable-related, the Iranians are honest, in general opened and interested to know foreigners. But Alexandra does not value so much these positive aspects because for her it weighs too much the duty to wear the veil, partially because it is a too great ideological collision, for she would be partisan of forbidding it in Europe. On the other hand, according to Alexandra, the fact that a country is governed by a dictatorship (besides Islamic) discredits it as a country favourable to tourism. In any case, even so, Alexandra feels moderately at ease in Iran, because often she declares that she would prefer spending more time visiting the country, although maybe also because she has fear to go in Pakistan and she wants to defer the entry so much as she can. Persepolis (see on map) 03/08/2008:
Persepolis is admirable, but it had to be even more in the antiquity, when it was the capital of ceremonies of the Persian Empire, that Alexander the great decided to burn it. I would dare to say that Persepolis would be part of one of the seven marvels of the world if Alexander the great wouldn’t have wanted to take his revenge with the Persian king Xerxes, the troops that about 150 years before, had arrived up to Athens and had burned the Acropolis. In any case, the history justifies the action of Alexander the great explaining that the incident was produced in a night of drunkenness in which he was influenced by a courtesan of Athenian origin. Although it remains little of the former palaces, the things that remain are formidable, highlighting some big doors adorned with winged horses with the face of the king Xerxes, very high columns (of 20 meters) that were part of the central room, the numerous covers of the room of the thunder, but especially, the magnificent reliefs that adorn numerous stairs and walls representing welded, kings killing mythological creatures or fights between lions and buffalos. They also appear among the reliefs, different representations of Faravahar, the main symbol of the Zoroastrian monotheistic religion, founded by Zoroaster quite a lot of centuries before Jesus. Although formerly the Zoroastrianism was the main religion of Persia, at present they only subtract little less than one million faithful, divided up among India and Iran. Proof of this is the temple of fire in Yazd, which we had visited two days before. Yazd is a ancient city that preserves an old town with narrow alleys, some of them covered by succession of small domes, and with the houses built of mixed mud with straw, also although they highlight different houses of rich merchants, some converted into hotels. Typically of Yazd, in the summit of many homes, are some towers with vertical openings connected to the rooms that stand out under, that were used to hunt the wind and to direct it towards the interior of the habitats. The qanats, canalisations of water carried out at more than twenty meters (up to 200 m) of depth to prevent the evaporation during the hot summers, are also typical. Yazd had been a shelter for the Zoroastrians from the beginnings of the expansion of the Islam in Persia, preserving at present only one small community among the predominant mosques. This small community maintains the flames of a temple of the fire, which burn uninterruptedly since about a thousand years ago. To the outskirts of Yazd there are the towers of the silence, which were used till few years ago according to the Zoroastrian tradition so that the bodies of the dead men were cleaned by vultures. From Yazd, we have gone towards the south, to Shiraz and the next old cities. First we visited the ruins of Pasargadae, without too much interest, apart from the tomb of Cyrus the great, the founder of the Persian Empire. More interesting were the tombs of Naqsh-and Rustam, excavated in the wall of the rock and containing interesting reliefs. And of course Persepolis, that we visited yesterday afternoon and another time today in the morning, to finish enjoying it with all the possible angles of light. Shiraz (see on map) 08/08/2008:
Shiraz is known as the city of the poets, of the wine and of the flowers, with evidence of production of wine since more than 7000 years ago. And perhaps it is thanks to the famous wine that Shiraz was the cradle of important Persian poets and sufísm, among which it stands Hafez, a worshiped sufí poet of the fourteenth century that wrote poems of love, mystical and others dedicated to the wine. And even if at present the wine is prohibited in Iran, Farzan, a boy that we meet in Shiraz, told us that many people still produce it at home. In fact, it is noticed that Shiraz is a more modern city, because through the street quite a lot of women do not dress in black, take tighter dresses and the colourful veils. Also there are women of the qashqai culture of nomadic origin that dress coloured dressed, that Alexandra compared with those of the European gypsies. Shiraz was interesting through its bazaar, which - according to Alexandra - was the most interesting that we had visited during the journey after Marrakesh, and not only for its pretty architecture, but also for the diversity of products. Alexandra was being lost for three days through the bazaars while I visited other monuments, as the fort of Arg-and Karim Khani, done of bricks and without too much interest. More interesting is the Regent mosque and the mausoleum of Shah-and Cheragh with curious mirrors decorating the domes of the interior. Yesterday i also visited the gardens of Bagh-and Eram, of a thousand years of antiquity and with a pretty palace of the 18th century. There I passed for Iranian and I only paid 50 cents of dollar (the normal price for the majority of monuments) instead of the 4 dollars that they asked for tourists. And today, before leaving towards Kerman, we visited the pretty and calm mausoleum of Hafez, the poet. While we visited the mosque of Regent, we met some Catalans who visited Iran for about twenty days. We went to eat together some hamburgers, and in the middle of the conversation one of them asked me: was "it difficult for you to relax when initiating the journey"?. At first it seemed a meaningless question to me, but I remembered afterwards the first months of stress when i travelled through Europe, with the sensation that i did not have time to make everything or to visit everything. With this question I realised that it is a lot of time that the journey passes off very calmly, without numbering the visited things or well-known people, but the quality of these visits and friends being so much more important. We do not have deadlines and we advance when the desires of knowing something surpass the desires of extending the knowledge for what is old. It is probably due to this lack of pressure that lately I am experimenting on many moments of conscience (Mindfulness), feeling everything that happens inside of me and my surroundings while my brain is observing in silence. In Shiraz we made another good acquaintance, Farzan, that invited us a day to his pretty home. Farzan told us that Iran is good because you can make all you want, even if it is hidden. For example, a day he suffered a theft at home and as the police came, they saw that he had alcohol in the bar without commenting to him on anything. Or for example, in Iran it is illegal to have satellite dish, even if all the people have it. One of the problems according to Farzan was the isolation, for example it is complicated to have visa to travel abroad or to have credit card to buy through Internet. That his girl that came afterwards under the veil took it out imediatly , Farzan explained that he met her in one of the many "prohibited" parties, afterwards they kept maintaining "prohibited" meetings in the parks (only the men and women of a same family can be together). Later they had sexual relations, naturally forbidden, as many other youngsters of his age, although many girls have sexual relations avoiding losing the virginity, because it would obstruct the wedding. And to finish presenting us examples of prohibitions that are not followed, Farzan took us to a supermarket where we found cans of German sausages produced with 60% pork meat (logically the ingredients were not translated into Persian). Kerman (see on map) 13/08/2008:
We did not plan on being so many days in Kerman, but different factors have made us be almost one week. Going towards Kerman we had an electrical problem with an injector of the car, which we were a whole day trying to solve. On the other hand, Kerman was the last point from which Alexandra could return towards Tehran, Turkey and Romania, before entering the "dangerous" Pakistan, done by which the exit was also deferred a little. But the main reason was Hamed, our host from Kerman who treated us with a splendid hospitality. So at ease we found, that David and Maria caught us up on the road two days ago and we met again after saying a definitive goodbye in Tehran. We met with Hammed on Saturday in the afternoon and after walking a little through the bazaar, he invited us to a tea in a local place, talking and offering us a good dinner, we decided the day after to help fix the electrical problem of the injector and to go afterwards to eat in the adjacent town called Mahan. And it was very well that he helped us with the car because we had to visit about 10 service points that kept directing us from one to the other before one of them detected the connection that failed and fixed it. We decided to visit Mahan later , and we decided to accept the invitation of eating at the house of Reza a friend of Hammed and also one of our contacts in Kerman. He was a man that worked for the government, he seemed a good Muslim, maybe strict and his wife had the hair covered even at home, but surprised us opening a bottle of wine that he himself had produced at home. And in the afternoon, we left at last towards Mahan, visiting first the gardens of Shazdeh (or of the prince), occupying an uneven ground with two pretty buildings connected by a rank of small ponds and cascades. Afterwards Nematollah Vali, a founder poet of an order of the dervishes, we visit briefly (because they wanted to charge an excessive price for being tourists) the tomb of Nur-eddin Muslim sufís that lived ascetically and indifferent to the material possessions. On the following day Monday, Hammed took us to his company that markets pistachios. As on the previous day, Hammed did not have too much work, then most of his workers are illegal afghan immigrants and had run away in a temporary way, for some days before he had received information from a policeman that informed him about being a raid in search of illegal Afghans. Ironically, on the way to the company, Hammed complained about every day being more corruption between the policemen and the judges. Hammed showed us in the company all the machinery that he had for the procession of the pistachios explaining to us that annually they exported an average of 3000 tons of pistachios to Europe. Afterwards he invited us to eat at the house of his parents, and it is not surprising taking into account the volume of his business, his home having two big floors covered with handmade carpets and a basement with a big pool. The mother of Hammed cooked a delicious rice of a sauce of meat and vegetables, and some equally exquisite prawns that I devoured with avidity. The afternoon we spent it in his house explaining us different histories as his visit to the Mecca with the intention of discovering God, but he did not discover it, because he did not find the explanation to so many useless deaths, due to the hunger in Africa, the wars of the world, or the natural disasters, as the earthquake in the town called Bam, where on 26th of December 2003 an earthquake left 30.000 deaths. He explained this while remembering the despairing task of digging up and burying thousands of dead men, while the cd player was reproducing a song of an Iranian singer that also died during the disaster. Later, we met with another friend of Hammed also called Reza who was lodging David and Maria, our friends.The surprise was nice, we embraced and immediately the anecdotes of the last days, start to be explained, among these the verbal admonition that they received when the police stopped the private car in which they travelled because David had the arm around the shoulder of Maria. The day after we met again with David and Maria to visit together the pretty covered bazaar of Kerman, some converted Turkish baths museum and the interesting mosque of Jameh. In the afternoon we caught a taxi up to the curious museum of the holy war, where there are exposed different documents, images and junk cars compiled during the raw war of 8 years between Iraq and Iran. On the outside, there is a big levelled area with numerous tanks and 4x4 with lance missiles and a good recreation of a battlefield, including bunkers, nests of machine guns, a lake (emulating the river Shatt to the-Arab, the union of the Eufrates and Tigris) and hundreds of metres of thorny thread. The night returned and we met with Hamed and his friend Reza, which took us again to the gardens of Mahan (David and Maria had not visited them yet) and afterwards to dine again (was the only time that after a lot of insistence they accepted unwillingly for us to invite them). And today at night, after a day of rest and work, we all have met again and have gone to dine in a park stretching on the lawn, one of the few actions (together with the possibility to camp in public parks) that are allowed in Iran and are forbidden in good part of Europe. While we dined, Reza has surprised me wondering whether i believed in the theory of evolution of Darwin (or that our ancestors were monkeys), a theory that contradicted the Islamic or religious beliefs. I declared that naturally i believed, and afterwards have dared to explain (while all listened to me very interested) my vision of the history, in which during the middle age, the church or the Christianity were against the science (for example burning the heretics that opined that the earth was a planet turning around the sun), while the Islam was open to the science totally, having the best libraries, mathematicians and scientists. However, at present, according to my opinion, the Islam is closed to the science (because this contradicts some of its beliefs) while the Christianity tries to adapt to the science, so that the scientific initiative has settled in the occidental world mainly. Finally, after declaring that tomorrow we will initiate the road towards Pakistan, we have said goodbye thanking them for the great hospitality. David and Maria had agreed to travel with us, at least up to the first city of Pakistan, so, they also said goodbye. A little sad by our decision, our hosts have expressed their healthy envy for our journey, Hammed that had commented on the difficulties to travel for the Iranians, and not so alone to obtain visas, but because the familiar relations that maintain are very strong and it is difficult to break the links. That seems the exact thing that it is happening to Alexandra, which even if she has decided to follow the journey towards the "savage", a bag full of doubts keeps arising. --- In Kerman I interviewed Hammed that sais that the main problem of the world are the conflicts among religions, for example the conflicts provoked by the Taliban’s, conflicts that possibly will grow in the future. The solution would come while knowing other cultures and that all the religions have something positive, which is what he tries personally. The main problem in Iran is the economy and the lost of the Iranian culture on the part of the youth. The solution for the economics would be to invert better the natural resources that the country has. he personally tries to improve the economics of the country, improving his company. Hamed is considered happy because he has work, hobbies, friends... he would be happier improving the work. The secret of the happiness is to understand that the life changes, and that we are not in the centre of the world. Pakistan Quetta (see on map) 16/08/2008:
Part of the history was being repeated, Alexandra stole the protagonist role to the new colleagues of journey, David and Maria, while we travelled together with the autocaravan towards the border of Pakistan. In the morning, Alexandra was still shown relatively soothed and with a slightly bad but controlled humour. We stopped to visit the big citadel of Rayen, built with bricks, mud and straw, which was not affected by the earthquake of the 2003, although it was on the road to Bam. Alexandra had headache and did not visit the castle, but she had sufficient humour to cook some delicious macaronis for the four of us. We ate in the park behind the walls of the old citadel under the shadow of the trees and next we followed the journey towards the border, without stopping neither in Bam nor in any other place for the danger of kidnappings that occasionally took place in the area, in the hands of Afghan bandits. We were expecting to arrive to the city of Zahedan before getting dark, but seeing that we did not arrive, Alexandra kept becoming nervous, and more when in a mountain pass we saw that a car stopped to collect ten Afghans that were hidden behind some rocks. Finally, with the already sun gone down, we arrived to a police control where we asked whether we could park on the side to sleep protected, but surprisingly they answered us that no and that we had to go to the small village more in front. But this dusty place was full of immigrants who did not inspire too much confidence and we returned to the police control to insist of sleeping there. At first they seemed to accept our request, but they told us afterwards that they will escort us to another town where we could sleep better. In this moment Alexandra started to lose the nerves, but seeing that we could not negotiate with the strict Iranian policemen, we followed the car of police which had to escort us. But once gone out from the village, the car of the police stopped in the middle of the darkness and of the mountains, making us stop also. Out the car came about four armed policemen and an officer that seemed to mistrust us in the same way that we mistrusted him, approached. He started to make questions and even to try to enter the autocaravan, but the hysterical shouts that Alex addressed him made him give up, finally returning to the car and driving about 50 kilometres further on where another police control was and where in theory we had to sleep. But without trusting the policemen there, we suggested reaching Zahedan and the officers found it well if we waited for a different car to arrive in order to escort us. And like this we made it, and after some other suspicious stops through the path and exchanges of the cars that escorted us, we reached Zahedan, where we parked in front of a police station. Tired of so much adventure, I brought the table of the autocaravan down and I turned the seat of the driver to create a wide sufficient bed for David and Maria, and we fall asleep automatically, except Alexandra. The day after we wake up early, to cross punctually the border with Pakistan, but when we were preparing to leave, Alexandra declared that she could not hold anymore the stress of crossing borders and that she left towards her home. In front of the stunned David and Maria, I declared to her that if she made the suitcases i would not let her return, on the contrary to Istanbul or Tabriz. And convinced, Alexandra started to prepare the suitcases, but as she finished them the doubts of always started to arise and to comment that she did not wanted nor could go. But I was already tired of these situations and threatened her that if she stayed i would throw to the rubbish her adored elephant, a threat severe enough so that she decided to go out of the car once parked in front of the bus station, to buy the thicket towards Kerman and to go up on the bus after giving eachother a brief embrace and kiss. Next I went towards the autocaravan where David and Maria still waited for me amazed. Without conversing a lot, we covered the 90 kilometres from Zahedan up to the border, where we passed the troublefree Iranian formalities and Pakistan with even less problems. In fact, the Pakistani officers were some of the nicest in the world, offering us tea with milk and even inviting us to eat, and we could not refuse after situating in front of us three dishes of delicious seasoned rice. While we ate, we talked with the officers about the best point where to spend the night, then according to the information that i had about the road up to Quetta, of about 660 km, it was not in such a good state and was dangerous going during the night, for the bandits and for the closeness to Afghanistan. Anyway, the policemen informed us about some small village about 150 kilometres away, called Nokkundi and which had a customs control where we could spend calmly the night. We got out from the border without remembering that from now we had to circulate for the left, but the first car that we crossed with made us adapt immediately. We kept driving about two hours through a big desert plain, and finally reached Nokkundi, where some officers of customs stopped us. They were already waiting for us, because immediately they offered to park in their enclosure and they offered tea and after walking through the village full of lorries painted of a thousand and one colours, they invited us to dine, a delicious meat dish highly seasoned and hot. Among the officers of the border there was one that talked quite good English and immediately he started to talk about theories that we had already listened to in Iran, explaining that Osama Bin Laden was an agent of the CIA and that the Taliban’s are financed by United States, reason for which the Pakistanis hated the Taliban’s. Even, thought that the attacks of the twin towers were work of the CIA (to allow the United States of attacking the Arab countries). he also opined that the attacks of the trains of Madrid were work of the CIA, confirming me it is very easy to de-inform when the information is far. Anyway, the three of us were in silence, and we did not comment on anything either when he stated that the feminism of west was invented by the governments to gain more taxes with the work of the woman, or that the Jews were the cause of all the problems of the world. On the other hand, there was another nicer policeman that commented that the Pakistanis believed in God, which had suited them with one of the best lands of the world, with mountains, beaches, desert, forests and all the possible fruits that you can imagine, a real gift of God. We started to sleep early, to wake up early and to be able to arrive before darkening to the city of Quetta the following day, today. But this morning i have woken up at four, without being able to sleep again. Perhaps i missed Alexandra, but on another hand, her absence allowed me to dream thrilled with other possibilities for the journey, as that of stretching my stay in India to a total of four months or of painting all the autocaravan as if it were a Pakistani lorry, which are true mobile works of art. The road towards Quetta was going parallel to an omnipresent train line, crossing an infinite plain with some mountains hidden behind the distant storms of sand. At first, the asphalt was perfect, but little by little this went denting different times to give rise to tracks of sand and stone that reminded me slightly of those of the north of Kenya until finally it disappeared. In any case, David was driving different hours in my place, allowing us to arrive at dusk at the beginning of the city of Quetta. We called to the host of David and Maria and he told us about the park where we could find him, although to arrive, we had to cross all the city during more than one hour using the horn at all times to make the way among bicycles, rickshaws (tricycles), cars, buses and lorries, all of them also doing with the sound of the horns and trying to advance me from all sides. ‹ Previous (17/06/2008) MONTH Next (2008-08-16)› ‹ Previous (2009-09-19 - Pakistan) COUNTRY Next (2009-10-08 - Turkey)› |
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