Abyaneh Village

Trip Start Jul 09, 2008
1
7
9
Trip End Aug 03, 2008


Loading Map
Map your own trip!
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
shadow

Flag of Iran  ,
Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Abyaneh is a conglomerate of mud and clay homes dating back to the Sasanid era, that cling to the edges of mountains. Its streets are narrow and winding, and provide a glimpse into the lives of the villagers more or less unchanged over the centuries - their ancient clothing and dialect, combined with the preserved architecture, led to Abyaneh's UNESCO distinction. It was a quiet stay in the village - there is only one hotel and restaurant in town, so all tourists gather at the same place. We met a nice couple and their two children there; Hos is an Iranian man who immigrated to New Zealand and met Cornelia, a Swiss woman in English classes. They fell in love, got married, settled in Nelson, NZ, and had two lovely girls there. This was Cornelia's first time to Iran, and her first time meeting his family, who live in Mashad. She described her arrival as overwhelming; at 3:00 in the morning, dozens of family members had been waiting for hours, and when the emerged, she was showered in bouquets of flowers, as women in chadors swept up the children and sobbed joyfully, while men video taped the event. We spent the afternoon and evening with them, and it was nice to have some added company.

We passed Natanz, the site of Iran's contested nuclear program. For kilometres approaching, you see hundreds of anti-aircraft artillery, armed by young and sleepy soldiers ambivalently lounging in the crushing heat of the desert. It's alarming at first for a Canadian not used to seeing guns at all, until you realize that those artillery (and sleepy, 18 year old soldiers) aren't going to blow much up. When you actually pass the nuclear facility, it's not at all what the media would have you to believe. It's guarded, but not heavily. A small complex of modern buildings, it's clearly demarcated and generally not at all hidden. Apparently our guide is the official translator when the IAEA comes to town, and according to him, the IAEA has been fine with everything they've observed there - which the UN appears to confirm. He has very vociferously denied the possibility of anything but a civilian nuclear program. I told him I didn't care either way - even if Iran is building nuclear weapons, why do some nations feel they have the right to dictate over other nations as to who can have weapons and who can't? But he insists that there are no plans to build weapons any more. And his arguments are pretty rational. For starters, no one uses nuclear weapons anyway because of that wonderful little word called détente, so why waste money that could be better spent on infrastructure? Furthermore, he suggests that for Iran to ever use a nuclear missile on Israel would be suicidal - not only would Israel retaliate equally, but the jet stream would carry the atomic fallout right back to Iran and poison its own people. From my own observation, I have to say that Iran is desperately in need of energy. Scheduled power failures occur in every city, daily, on a rotating basis. Generally they last a few hours, and are necessary to conserve energy, because much of the water-generated hydro electrical plants are suffering due to drought. Iran's pollution is crippling, so coal-fired energy is not remotely an option, and the country really doesn't have the resources to generate power in any other way - except for maybe solar. I am not trying advocate for or against nuclear energy, but merely saying that once you are there, you realize the stupidity of this nuclear standoff. Iran needs energy. Whether or not they are building bombs, too, I don't know, but I couldn't care less. America has enough of them to blow up the world seven times over, so maybe we should be more afraid of them.
Print this entry Tabriz hotels