"I Love You, Iran..." Iran by coceng

What ? I love you, Iran ?!
Well, for people who don't go travel much (you know who you are !), you won't understand this feeling anyway.
I am not being patriotic here after all Iran is not my country !
Loving Iran for all the safety during my travel; Meeting nice people with whom friendships were striked; Seeing the ancient historical sites; Wandering around getting 'lost' in it all....That's what make me loving Iran !

I went to Iran. In May 2006.
I wanted to see the cultures, the people, the historical ancient sites scattered through this vast country. Iran is linking the Middle East & Asia as far as history can remember & on the modern maps, this can clearly be seen.
I also wanted to quench my curiosity of this country that we all read in the newspapers almost everyday.
Prior to reaching Iran, I made a good planning, a year planning. I wanted to see what I wanted to see. I wanted to meet Iranians (getting in touch with them either on the Net or in situ) so that maybe I would have a better understanding of their country.
2 weeks I had the time. 2 visa-free weeks (for Malaysians).
In 2 heat-scorching weeks, I had to rush. Covering as many places as possible. Snapping photos either by walking around the cities, towns, villages, ancient sites or just clicking my camera away while looking through out of the windows from busses & taxis of the journey that I made around Iran.

Historical ancient sites are plenty around Iran; It’s great not able to see any male tourists with protruding armpit hairs & female tourists with their seen-through/shaped through t*ts blaring at their front; Tourists (not very many of them…) dressed ‘conservatively’ here.
Female tourists just only need to cover the hair on top of their head; They could still show their pony-tails, their ears & whatever colour their hair would be. In the big cities, this is the case.
In the countrysides, flashing strong colours is best avoided. Grey, brown, white (the so-called earth colours…) & a scarf would be appropriate…

Black is surely not the colour for us tourists, that’s for the locals women.
Local women cover their whole body accept their faces & their hands & oh, they make sure you can see the fringes of their hair as well.

It’s rare to find local men sporting Osama bin Laden’s long beard. Only the clergymen would look like that & rarely we see them on the streets. A goatee would just do for men above 40’s (most are clean-shaven anyway) & the young people still being trendy like anywhere else in the world !

Plastic surgery is an ‘in’ thing here. It’s funny seeing Iranians walking on the streets, even just talking with their mates in the park…still having bandages around their noses & on their faces ! They want to look good; From the front & from the side…

Almost all cheap hostels have squat toilets; Foreigners (solo or otherwise) are put in one single room which contains 2 to 3 beds; Transports are dirt cheap if only you know how to use them. Taxis are cheap by western standard but for backpackers, it’s best to negotiate.

In ALL cases traveling around Iran, it’s best to learn Farsi beforehand (I didn’t !) & bring a Farsi-English dictionary is a good idea (I didn’t !); Still I ‘talk’ with them, the Iranians…Whether by English or hand gestures. I survived.

I brought back the memories of the hospitality of its people. Like WOW !
The dust of the ancient sites still stucked to my sandals & shoes. The sweat of being there still lingering in my un-washed laundry.
The blazing heat baked my whole body with rashes & burns.
There are of course all the pros & cons about Iran from my views. You will read about them in my everyday diary in each places that I was in. Come on, I was just being honest in my observations…

All of these are in the name of the experiences of me, myself & I being in Iran !
Another Successful Trip !

• Pros:Rich In Ancient History !
• Cons:People Are Scared Of Visiting Iran; The Visa Thing Is One Of The Drawbacks...
• In a nutshell:It's A Great Pleasure Knowing Iran By Being There....