All posts related to travel and touring in Iran.
Iranian Geniality – one reason I stay in Iran They ask me why do you stay in Iran. This is one reason: chance to do extraordinary things, like witness a renowned musician’s jamming session in Mashhad, northeast Iran. And at the end of the session, around midnight, he feeds me too! The musician Tonight..
stay in Iran partly because ALWAYS there’s something going on. Today it is helping make more than a ton of “nazri” food – food that is considered holy for both the people who make and those who eat it. For me, I just can’t pass up free food – which is plentiful during Iran’s numerous religious holidays.
Iran is where you can stumble upon a ancient Zoroastrian lookout by accident – and find out it’s not even on the map, let alone protected. Do it in a tank-like 4WD, perfect vehicle for Iran’s dangerous roads.
Persian hospitality and quick friendships are hard to avoid anywhere in Iran – especially when you’re in the country. On our weekend autumn getaway near Mashhad, we ate a lot of traditional food, we also visited the shrine of a local Shia saint who almost instantly answered my prayer!
My stay in a simple country home in Iran’s countryside was unforgettable – even if wife and I had to sleep on the floor. No Internet, no TV, no phone calls. We had no choice but wind down and notice the beauty of autumn in northeast Iran, near Mashhad.
Kings consulted with him, lions bowed to him and his fans claim he folded time and space. But what Sheikh Abol-Hasan Kharaghani is most famous for is his respect all people, regardless of race or religion.
It is a strange thing in Iran: they have less but they are more generous. It should be the other way around, says a Swiss friend who just finished her second tour of Iran.
“Bacon” sandwiches, 700-billion toman apartments and joyful sidewalk shoe shiners: it’s impossible to just walk for the sake of walking in the wealthy northern Tehran. Irony is everywhere.
Millions of Iranians scramble to find smarter tools to circumvent new government censorship. But you need to already possess smarter tools to download new smarter tools. Iranian Catch-22. But Iranians already got Ph.D’s in circumventing barriers.
You think Joe Biden’s inflation is bad? “I go buy cough medicine for my kid. It’s now 25,000. I say, ‘my dear man, it was 15,000 this morning! How can this be?’”
Here in Mashhad, I’m subject to the rulers of Iran. Their wish is forcing me to remember the analog world.
And for that, well, I’m thankful.
I don’t care that IranAir has old planes, broken toilets and no AC in the middle of the summer. The entertainment makes up for it all. I’m on a 25-year-old Airbus A330 going from Frankfurt to Tehran and I’m about to witness an amusing replay of the Iranian cat and mouse. It’s ten minutes after..