Friday 31 August 2012

Erzurum to Bingol, Turkey (31 August 2012)

Today, Malaysians at home would be celebrating 55 years of Independence. Selamat Hari Merdeka Malaysia! 

We, on the other hand, started our day in Erzurum visiting Ataturk Musem and walking the streets of Erzurum.

ATATURK EVI MUSEUM:

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Thursday 30 August 2012

An unexpected day out with two Turkish families (30 August 2012)

In the morning we drove towards Horasan, a town in Erzurum Province, East Anatolia where we stopped at a river bank and had our breakfast of tea and egg sandwiches. We lazed around enjoying the river view and I did some reading. Soon two friendly, cheerful Turkish boys, dressed in only their swimming trunk, came by and chatted with the few english words that they knew. They invited us over to their picnic spot but we declined. After a while, they left. Twenty minutes later the same boys came back, accompanied by another boy and their two older sisters. They also brought with them two live trout.


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>> Cheeky little boys.


The live trout they brought us >>
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Wednesday 29 August 2012

Bijar to Bazargan (26-29 August 2012)

We left Bijar at 11.30am after breakfast and washing Our Sorento. Minutes later we came to a police check point and went through it without much hassle.

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 >> Rock formation on a hill just outside of Bijar. Looks  like a bird’s head complete with beak. Mum sees it as two lions fighting. What do u see?



Border crossing to Turkey (29 August 2012)

Today we attempted our first border crossing at the Bazargan / Dogubayazit border crossing. Before we made the crossing, we stocked up on bottled water and some basic food supplies. We also fueled up - diesel is far more expensive in Turkey. There are shops selling Turkish third party insurance in Bazargan, Iran (look out for signage reading “Sigorta”), so we bought ours. 

Saturday 25 August 2012

Hamedan (25 August 2012)

Our morning in Hamedan started with a search for the tourism office. We were expecting it to be located in a row of shops or a standalone building in a park, as was the case in most cities. However, after asking a few locals, we find ourselves walking into the Art Faculty of one of the university in the middle of the city.

Friday 24 August 2012

Qom to Hamedan (22-24 August 2012)

23 August 2012 – We started the day early wanting to see the Holy Shrine in Qom. We drove towards the Holy Shrine hoping to find a parking spot, the street was busy made worst by a crowded Taxi stand at the end of the street. This is where it happened, an unmarked taxi was backing out into the street, we all thought he would stop to let us pass, traffic was crawling, but he kept backing up and the inevitable happened, he backed straight into Our Sorento’s back wheel and scraped the side bumper. Dad got off and inspected the damage. Seeing that the damaged was light and the whole bumper stayed intact, Dad got back in and drove off, of course after showing his displeasure to the errant taxi driver. This totally ruined our visit to Qom and we made our way out of the city to visit Jamkaran Mosque.

JAMKARAN MOSQUE
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In the outskirts of Qom, we find ourselves at Jamkaran Mosque, a sacred place and a popular pilgrimage site for Shi’ite Muslims. The mosque was undergoing some major renovations to add a new entrance gate, amongst others.
According to Wikipedia, “Local belief has it that the Twelfth Imam (Muhammad al-Mahdi) — a messiah figure Shia believe will lead the world to an era of universal peace — once appeared and offered prayers at Jamkaran. On Tuesday evenings especially large crowds of tens of thousands gather at Jamkaran to pray and to drop a note to the Imam in a well at the site, asking for help with some problem.”

There is an interesting history on how the Jamkaran Mosque came to be built, click here and take some time to read all about it.


Tuesday 21 August 2012

20-21 August 2012–Isfahan

Isfahan was a joy to visit. This is mum and dad’s second visit, having been here previously in 2008. So, I had the benefit of a personal tour guide taking me around all the places of interest. Another bonus point was that there was no getting lost in the city. We visited some places both during the day and night. We skipped the Zoroastrian Fire Temple as we had already visited the one in Yazd and figured that the one in Isfahan would be roughly the same thing.
We started our tour of Isfahan with a visit to the Armenian Quarters.

Sunday 19 August 2012

17-19 August 2012 – Yazd & Naein

On 17th August 2012, we traveled from Aburkah to Yazd. Along the way we had a picnic lunch at Mehr Spring before reaching Yazd at 6.20pm.
Mud house at AburkahAt Mehr SpringOur watermelon cooling off in Mehr Spring
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Thursday 16 August 2012

16 August 2012 - Sightseeing at Persepolis and surrounding areas

We woke up early as usual and made our way towards Persepolis, 60km away from Shiraz. We were greeted by a row of trees on both sides of the road as we entered Persepolis. After paying 5,000 Rials each we were in.
Persepolis was founded by Darius the Great in about 518 B.C. as a symbol of his power and a magnificent setting for celebrating New Year Day (or Nawrooz Festival) which coincides with the Spring equinox (c.21st March).

Wednesday 15 August 2012

15 August 2012–Shiraz

We spent the day walking round the city and local bazaars. Here are some pics.
Karim Khan Citadel and surrounding park >>
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Vakil Bazaar >> This bazaar is large and sells everything from carpets, sweets, cooking spices, oils, tea leaves, cooking utensils etc. As we walked through the bazaar we find ourselves in Rouhoullah Bazaar and then on to Haji Bazaar.

Tuesday 14 August 2012

14 August 2012 – Travel from Lar to Shiraz

14 August 2012 (Tuesday) – We were at the park in Lar and had our attention on organising the car and before long, we noticed that my Iphone had gone missing. I was really devastated as my Iphone had helped us in many ways since we arrived. We have been using it to chat with my sister in Glasgow and friends back home and in the US. The translation app has been helping us hold conversations with the many friendly Iranian we met along the way. It was also the means by which we have been communicating with the pump attendant to buy diesel. We have also been using the maps on Iphone to check that we are going the right way. Sigh… we'll just have to be more careful with our gadgets in future.

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Iran–Bandar Abbas (8-13 August 2012)

We arrived in Bandar Abbas International Airport after a two hour flight. It is only 7.35am. We hung around the airport before takıng a taxi to Rajaei Shahid Port to meet Mr. Ali Askari, our English interpreter, and Mr. Maziar, the shipping agent who will help release our Sorento from captivity. Ali and Maziar got to work immediately and took Dad to the customs office to arrange for custom clearance. We were told that it will take a few days before we can be reunited with our Sorento. Seeing that it is going to take a few days, we checked in at Hotel Amin.

Sunday 5 August 2012

Iran–Tehran (5-7 August 2012)

We arrived in Tehran International Airport on 5th August 2012.  The flight was pleasant with minimal turbulence. It took 7 hours and 45 minutes to get to Tehran. We were not expecting any food to be served on board, so we were pleasantly surprised when the beef kebab and chicken kiev arrived. The flight was filled with Iranians returning from their holidays in Malaysia.  They were happily swapping seats and chatting away throughout the flight.  A lady sitting next to us across the aisle chatted with us. She told us about the exchange rate and gave us pistachios (gaz in Persian). She also cautioned us to be mindful of our safety and not to trust easily those who we will come across. Her family bade us farewell and wished us a happy and safe overland trip.
It was a breeze to go through immigration and customs in Iran. We changed a little of our USD for Rials before leaving the airport.
About us

When we first started to let people know of our plan to drive from KL to Europe, we received mixed reactions - some were enthusiastic and gave suggestions for the trip, some were less so and must have thought we were out of our minds leaving the creature comforts of home. Thankfully for us this is not the first time. We did a 1 month stint around Thailand back in 2009 and thoroughly enjoyed it. What made the trip memorable were the people we met along the way (never mind the language barrier, there is always a way around it) and the cultures and ways of live we had the privilege to see. This time around we are attempting a longer trip – traveling from KL and we hope to make it to Glasgow before winter starts in full swing. If all goes well, a return journey driving back to KL. We’ll be doing all of these in our 2003 KIA Sorento which had served us well in all our previous trips.