Breaking the rules (kind of) in Esfahan
Trip Start
Apr 21, 2008
1
142
225
Trip End
Apr 20, 2009
Esfahan,
Iran
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The bus ride was cheap (30 cents), like everything else in Iran. My daily budget here is about $25/day and I think it will be more than enough. I wasn't to sure about where to get off thanks to the shitty map provided by Lonely Planet. An old local man noticed that I kept looking out of the window and back to my map and he could see that I was a bit confused. He didn't speak much English but he understood here I wanted to go and he motioned to me to just relax and he will let me know where to get off. Suddenly the seat next to me emptied and a young man from the other side of the bus jumped at the opportunity to sit next to me. He wasted no time to put his hand on my knee and giving it a quick shine before asking me if I needed help. I told him I wanted to go to Amir Kabir Hotel and he replied that he knew where it was and that he would show me where to get off. You have to love the Iranians. They are always more than happy to help out a foreigner.
I arrived at my hotel a little after 8 am. I couldn't go into my dorm room as people were still sleeping. So I left my bag behind and decided to check out the city. I didn't really have a plan besides walking south along the main road. The first thing you notice is that all the women here wear the black chador. They are covered in black from head to toe. In Tehran, a lot of the women just wore the head scarf. The city at first glance seems a lot more conservative then Tehran.
After wandering aimlessly for a few hours, I decided to be a little more organized and see some of the main sights. I ended up going to the Jameh Mosque (biggest Mosque in Iran), the main bazaar (Bazaar E Bozorg) which is 2 kms long and built in the 16th century, Imam Square (2nd largest square in the world after Tianamen Square in Beijing), Imam Mosque and the beautiful Si-O-Seh Bridge. I was actually kicked out of Jameh Mosque when I first arrived. At the entrance to the square in front of the mosque, there was a sign that indicated that the square was closed. However, it was possible, based on the position of the sign that someone was just storing it there and was not meant to inform people of anything. It just seemed like it was in a poor location to inform people that the square was closed. I did hear the imam praying and it was possible that the square as closed until the prayers were over. I asked 2 men if I could go to the square and they motioned me to just go through. So I did. I walked around for about 5-10 minutes before I noticed a group of women talking to a man while pointing at me. I knew this wasn't good. I walked towards the man and he pointed to the exit. So I left. I waited until the prayers were over until I returned. The mosque was impressive as was the square itself. A middle aged man approached me and started talking to me. Again, he just wanted to know who I was, where I was from, what I thought of Iran, etc. he also asked me some questions that I was uncomfortable answering (i.e. what do you think about our government, what do you think about women having to wear head scarves). I was starting to wonder if the guy was an undercover government official. I have no idea if they actually exist but I didn't want to be too upfront with my answers. Let's just say that my answers were all politically correct. Any politician would have been proud of my response. He then asked a lot of questions regarding my trip. The same questions I had to answer when I went to the Syrian Embassy in Tehran (i.e. where did you go before Iran, where will you go after Iran, why did you pick these countries). My imagination started working overdrive and I started thinking if the Syrian govnt had a tail on me to help them determine whether I was a spy or not and whether they should issue a visa to me. I never took this thought very seriously. Our whole chat lasted about 40 minutes and then I moved on.
The bazaar was the next stop. Because it was in the middle of the afternoon and it was Ramadan, most people were at home. Therefore the bazaar was quite dead. The bazaar and the streets in general come alive at around 5 pm. While walking through the bazaar, some of the vendors would approach me and say hello and welcome me to Iran. After the bizarre, I made my way to Imam Square and the Imam Mosque. The square is just beautiful and enormous. I just walked around the square for a while. A young teenage girl passed by me very quickly but sneaked in a "Hello'. Too bad I cant talk to the women here. I would really like to know what they think about living in Iran as a woman. I eventually made my way to the mosque which was disappointing as their were scaffoldings everywhere inside so you couldn't really see much.
Ý eventually made my way back to the hostel. Ý was starving. Ýt is Ramadan so Ý cannot eat in public. Since Ý was outsode for most of the day, Ý hardly ate. Ý did sneak in a few cupcakes though. Most restaurants are closed during the day but Ý did come across a bakery that was open. Before going out to find something to eat, Ý checked into my dorm room. My dorm room was actually just a room with 4 small mattresses on the ground. Ý picked a mattress and thre my backpack on top of it. Ý was paying 4 dollars a night for the mattress which Ý thought was a good deal. Ý ended up meeting 2 other people staying my my room - an older gentleman from Holland named Joseph and a young woman from Ýreland named Mary. Both were travelling alone. Ý spoke with both of them for about an hour. We eash traded tracvel stories which is customary when you meet other backpackers. You never know what tips you can pick up along the way.
Ý finally went to find something to eat. Ý found a small restaurant nearby and bought two sandwiches at a total cost of one and a half dollars. Ýran is so cheap! Thank God as Turkey was so expensive. The owner of the restaurant said that Ý could pay tomorrow when he noticed that Ý only had big bills and he didnt have change. The man actually trusted that Ý would come back and pay (which of course Ý intend to do). Ýranians are so trusting. This sort of thing would have never happened back home.
When Ý returned to my hostel to eat my sandwiches, Ý met 3 other people - Connor from Ýreland, Gallo from Portugal and Claudia from Germany. Again, all were travelling alone. All of them along with MAry were going out for a bite to eat. Ý decided to join them even though Ý already bought supper. Ý knew Ý would enjoy their company.
We left our hostel and walked to the restaurant which was in Ýmam Square - 20 minutes away. We joked that the locals would be shocked (and probably envious) to see a group of men and women walking together. We were breaking the rules but as foreigners this rule really doesnt apply. This does not happen in Ýran. You are only allowed to walk with a member of the opposite sex if you are married to them or they are a family member. SO most of the time you see men walking with men and women walking with women through the streets of Ýran. Ýt is one of the things that sticks out the most when Ý walk around. ALong the way to the restaurant, the locals would say hello to us. We even have people yelling hello from their cars and motorbikes. We always make sure to say hello back. Ýt is so funny. We stick out so much - especially walking in a group.
Before going to the restaurant, we had to wait for Connor who had some alcohol transaction to tajke care of. He basically promiused someone that he would transport alcohol for him to SHiraz - his next stop. Connor is a brave man. Ý would never do it. Ý am not sure how many lashes he would have gotten if he got caught. MAybe he would have just been kicked out of the country. Regardless, Ý dont think Ý would have had the guts to do it. He went to meet his contact but came back 20 minutes later empty handed. His contact never showed up.
The restaurant we went to was really nice. Ýt was very Ýranian. We were seated on a carpet (on a raised platform) which acted as our table for the night. The food was super good and super cheap. Just how Ý like it. The dinner conversation was even beter. Ý am always amazed with how backpackers could gel so quickly most of the time. Ý guess we are always so happy to see another English speaking person, especially if you have been travelling alone for a while.
GAllo had the best stories. Ý liked listening to him the most. The guy has been to several places in the world and it seems like he has 2-3 interesting stories to tell for every country he has been to.
After our dinner, we went to a sheesha place so we could drink some tea and of corse smoke from a sheesha. Because we had women in our group, they gave us a table in the back away from the groups of men. Ý enjoyed smoking the sheesha. Ýt is definitely something Ý am going to get for my apartment once Ý get back home. While we were smoking, Ý noticed a boy who was no more than 10 years old staring at us. At one point he had this look of disgust and turned to his parents to say something about us. Ý looked to see what was happening at our tablet o see what the boy was so shocked about and the only thing Ý could pick out was that Connor was pouring Mary )a women) a cup of tea. Perhaps it isnt customary for a man to pour a women a cup of tea in Ýran. Anyhow, Ý will never know for sure what that boy got so excited about.
After dinner we walked back to our hostel. Ý stopped by the small restaurant where Ý bought my 2 sandwicjhes from earlier in the evening and paid the guy the money Ý owed him. He was happy to see me.
When Ý got back to the hostel, the rest of the group decided to continue their talk in the courtyard. Ý was too exhausted so Ý went to crash in my room. I really enjoyed my day ýn Esfahan. It ýs such a great cýty. I look forward to seeing more of it tomorrow.
Dino Vagabond
