I don't know what perceptions people have of Iran and her people, but you could not possibly know much at all until you have set foot in this country. The only real clues come from other people's blogs/articles, and even then we fall short of a true understanding. Shiraz, a city in the southern of Iran, is my first landing point and I'm surprised how developed and modern it is. But even for me or anyone to be surprised that it is modern, is to raise the question 'What were we expecting and why?'. I don't know what I was expecting, I guess if I'm surprised it's quite modern then I was expecting something that isn't.
Shiraz, and I can only speak for this city at this point, has a well developed and functioning CBD. Roads are well paved and populated, foot paths the same. There are endless shops and arcades selling anything you can imagine, arranged into zones much like Singapore and much unlike Sydney. If you want to buy women's shoes, there's an entire street dedicated to it and the choice will spoil all but the most wealthy. The same sort of layout applies to most products, like things are clustered together. Some shops I liked seeing were ones dedicated to the repair of certain things, such as blenders, vacuums, fans, speakers; common appliances which in Australia we prefer to throw out than repair. I also saw a shop that sold only sewing machines - I can't remember ever seeing one of those anywhere else. There was also a man with a little stall that repaired or sold parts for hair clippers. Back home, if you wanted to fix something it usually required an obscure dive into the third or fourth page of a google search result; and really lets face it - anything past the first page and you're getting pretty desperate!
Other cool things I saw:
- There is a dedicated bus lane in the middle of the road, it is well used and serviced
- on the side of the roads there are huge gaping channels for rainwater to flow, but there hasn't been any rain in three years. At least they're ready for the monsoons unlike India where you need a dingy every time it rains.
- there is a dedicated team of hard-working street cleaners who are always sweeping or mopping. They don't take lunch breaks at half-past-every-hour unlike some municipalities I know of
- There are many many banks here, kind of like India where you have Bank [Insert Word]
- There are bubblers by the roadside, with clean chilled water free for consumption. The water tastes a bit mineral-rich here, but is otherwise quite safe to drink
- There were few beggars but they still exist, they beg in Farsi, the official language of Iran
- I saw a lot of book shops, that says that there is clearly quite a demand for books. That says a lot about an area, a lot. I think I saw one bookshop in all of Delhi's main bazar strip and adjacent alleys.
From my observations and in my humblest opinion, Iranians are ridiculously good looking. The men are all models and the women the same. I would take photos to illustrate the point but women generally shy away from cameras and I haven't been here long enough to know the limitations of photo-pervalism. Just take my word for it that even with their head partially covered by scarves, event the most illiterate of men will start penning poems in hope of courtship. I asked a local about their thoughts on this and they agreed with my thoughts, but added that Iranian women are highest in the world for nose-jobs apparently (the local was a member of the CouchSurfing community I met with). And despite all the beautiful women, I didn't see any heckling or wolf-whistling from men. That's something you see quite often back home and it really pisses me off. Maybe it does happen here, at night, on the weekend, in another place, I don't know. In my 6 hours walking the streets today I didn't see anything close to harassment.
The men are also quite often very well groomed and dressed, and with my 5 o'clock shadow (or perhaps 5 week...) I felt embarrassed that I had not done more before stepping out of the hotel. Overall I felt a real sense of pride in their appearance. It's a complete surprise to what I was expecting (yea expectations are wrong!).
Here are some pics which I can't post much of because the net here is pathetic (1 snail per minute aka 1SPM).
Poor frame composition, but whatever.
Took this photo from the pedestrian overpass.
Currency. Clockwise from top left: 5000, 20 000, 100 000, 500 000. Unit is Iranian Rial (IRR). $1US - 30 000 IRR. All prices are specified in Tomens however, which means you drop the last zero. Therefore $1US - 3000 tomens. Bloody confusing and you often find yourself shortchanging the seller.
Prices (in tomens)
- cup of 'juice' which is really 10% fruit juice + water + lots of sugar - 1500 (50 cents)
- apple flavoured 'beer' / cider from the hotel bar, likely higher that average (non-alcoholic) - 2000
- bottle of coconut juice - 4500
- hot dog (very long one) - 6000
- entry into a pretty shit botanic garden - 15 000. This is pretty expensive because the government recently reintroduced dual pricing (tourists pay higher than locals). Should be 5000 normally, or less.
- lunch at a traditional Iranian style restaurant, where you sit elevated on carpets and take your shoes off. Really relaxed style which I love. Oh yea, the price - 12 000
Tomorrow I'm going to Persepolis, which used to be the capital of the world apparently. Should be awesome. I'll keep you posted.
Totally jealous Mo. Intersting to see that reality and our perceptions are so opposite.
ReplyDeleteStay safe
Cheers