Pars Kerman

... the town of Mahan which has a wonderful Sufi shrine and the extraordinary Shazdeh (Prince's) Garden featuring Cyrpess trees and an impressive cascade of water brought to the site from nearby mountains by extensive subterranean tunnels called Qanats. In itself it is one of the bst gardens we have both seen but its context- a barren, deserted valley between bare mountains - makes this lush place even more remakable.

Bam was once home to one of Iran's finest sites, the Arg-e Bam. The mud-built citadel is one of the largest adobe building in the world. This enormous citadel on the Silk Road was built before 500 BC and remained in use until 1850 AD. It is not known for certain why it was then abandoned. The entire building was a large fortress in whose heart the ...

... remain closed until the evening. That said, beyond the Iranian staple of rice, kebab and bread, we found Iranian food to be really poor and very limited. The concept of vegetarianism doesn't exist in Iran. It just doesn't make sense to them. On several occasions when I asked for something without meat, I was offered either chicken or something with sausage ...

Destination 73: km63'523 Das Wichtigste erledigt, jedoch im Hotel so schlecht geschlafen, dass ich sehr uebermuedet bin. Erste Longdistance- Fahrt um an Trip Taftan-Quetta in Pakistan zu gewoehnen. Nacht in Kerman. XXXXX The most important work done but slept so bad that I feel very tired. First long-distance-ride to get practice for the drive Taftan-Quetta. Night in Kerman.

There is a different atmosphere in Kerman; different from the other Iranian cities. The city feels more dangerous and you can see more poor people begging on the streets and some gypsies harassing the tourists. The highlight of my stay in this area was the day tour and one night I spent in the desert. The Kaluts of Dasht-e Lut desert near Shafi Abad are amazing!!! The day started with a separate visit to the citadel of Rayen ...

I haven't been able to update this blog for a few days because there are not many internet cafes in this part of the world and I have done a lot of travelling. I left Shiraz after an overnight stay in Kerman, it was not a pleasant journey, the bus was boiling hot, left early in the morning, and for most of the journey I was starving hungry. On Iranian buses they often show dubbed Indian films. About 1 hour after leaving Kerman a film was shown and it was the usual love ...

As I explained in the last log, Bam was hit by a massive earthquake on the 26th of December 2003. In fact, at Tadek's wedding, we met a couple who had left Bam on the 25th of December. What was even more of a coincidence was that they left Phuket on the 25th of December 2004 !!! Spooky !!! We went the shared taxi ride to Bam, and as usual, the price was sky high, until we told them we would walk the 175 Klm's !!! Once a proper price was agreed, we were driven to the ...

Bam was devastated by an earthquake in the early morning of 26th December 2003 when over 26,000 people were killed. Amongst the dead were only a few tourists. All of the town's people lost family members and many friends. It's nearly two years since the quake and alot of these people are still living in temporary accommodation. Some in tents and some in metal containers. Most are too frightened to move into proper housing in case of another earthquake and, of course, lack ...

Before we go anywhere, I have to explain a little more about the buses in Iran. Now we take Volvos normally, but to make it more comfortable for yourself, you need to sit on the right hand side as there is more room, so, whilst in Yazd, when booking the ticket, we asked for seats 1-2, 5-6 or 9-10. We were given 5 and 6, so we were both happy bunnies !!! We jumped into our cab, and the Extemist was a nice fellow, who charged us less than we are used to paying. This was going good ...

By now we'd figured out the better seats in the bus to have so secured some for our journey to Kerman. It was an early bus and I wasn't in the mood to take **** from anyone, especially after the last episode with the attempting-to-split-us-up thing. I was determined to get what I paid for on this journey!! We spotted someone in our seats already. I was fired up and ready to rumble! David took the backpacks round and I went on to fight for my seat. I showed the bus boy our ...