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.


 >> 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. 

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.

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

 


















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.

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.

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.

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).

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 >>

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.

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.

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.

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.