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IRAN: 25.04. - 30.05.2001
Distance: 2375 Km
Ascent (in total): 10965 m
Preface: Salam (peace) is the
way to say "hello" in Iran! Desert, desert and more desert,
that's what most people in Europe imagine, if they think about the
Iran, but this is of course just one part of the realaty. The North
of Iran and especially the region around the Caspian Sea is completely
green; even a bit like Ireland! Thanks to a good irrigation system
there are also big beautiful parks in the dessert cities. The hospitalety
and friendliness of the Iranians is unbelievable and you have to
experience it on your own!!!!!
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Women in Iran: Despite, or because the woman are forced
below the scarf (the Tschador is not a part of the culture in Iran.
It is normally found in Afghanistan), the women in Iran are the
most open minded women we found so far in the moslem world! Normally
the moslem women were very reserved, but here in Iran they always
started to talk to us, they gave us cookies or they even invited
us! To show, that they are not willing to wear the scarf, most of
the women in the bigger cities wear it in the middle of their head,
so that most of their hair can be seen and sometimes it is a wonder,
that the scarf does not fall off. Women are also supposed to wear
a dark coat, but nowadays many just wear a colourful, well fitted
version of the oldfashioned black one. And now the best: Woman who
join a shared taxi with four unknown men are completely normal!
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Arriving in Iran: As soon as
we arrived in Iran, the winter was over! Although we're still on an
altitude of 1300m above sealevel it was already spring. The trees
had already many leafes and there were flowers on every meadow. On
our second day we met an Iranian cyclist on his racing bike straight
behind a truck. He slowed immediately down, and together with us he
cycled up a steep hill. On top of the hill a friend on him had a small
shop and so we're invited for a tea ad for our first lessons in Persian
("Khoda Havis" means "hello"). |
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A cycleshop in Tabriz: In the
mountains in Turkey we met two cyclists from New Zealand, and they
recommended us a bicycle shop in Tabriz. There was no real need for
us to visit a bicycle shop, but we promised the Kiwis to greed Saheed
Mahhoud, the chief mechanic of the Iranian Cycle Team and the ower
of the show, from them. When we arrived at the shop, we had just enough
time to take off all the paniers from Nadines bike, when one of the
mechanics already started to check her bike. In the meanwhile we got
something to drink and somme cookies. Faster than the wind the mechanic
cleaned the suspension, the break cables and the chain (with petrol).
As soon as Nadine bike was fixed, they were already eager to check
my bike. After everything was fixed, the problems started: we tried
to pay! We tried very hard, but all our attempts to pay were refused.
At least Saheed accepted a signed photo from us (the one from our
homepage) for his shop. Then we're invited from the mechanic for lunch.
Together with him and a member of the Karate national team we went
to eat a Pizza. |
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Iran or Ireland? From Tabriz
we cycled to the Caspian Sea. After the last minor pass we cycled
through a tunnel when we suddenly arrived in an absolutely amazing
green and beautiful valley. It looked moe like Ireland than Iran;
meadows and green forests as far as the eye could see! The 45 Km ride
from 1300m down to sealevel was indeed a great downhill :-))))
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Yaser: We just had cycled 20
Km along the coastlaine of the CaspianSea (the biggest saltlake in
the world), when we stopped in a small village to stock up our cookies
supplies. We got everything and were already back on the way to our
bikes, when a young man came towards us and invited us for lunch.
It was still a bit too early for lunch and so we agreed to have a
cup of tea. At home Yaser told us proudly, that after some cyclists
from Norway and from the Netherlands we're already the third cyclists
he's able to welcome in his house. We became immediately friends and
after about one hour we finally agreed to stay overnight (normally
we had to cycle 50 Km more, because our Visa was only valid for 4
weeks and we had to cycle a total about 2000Km in Iran). In the afternoon
we strolled along the beach and visited some of his friends. Then
Yaser asked us, if we could cook some German dinner and so we
started to create a small menue. We cooked a potatosoup, spagetthi
with a tomatoesauce (from fresh tomatoes) and for dessert some German
pudding. The cooking itself was quite a disaster! First the gas cooker
had not enough power and it took nearly half an hour until the
milk for the pudding was boiling. Then so much starch went from the
spagetthi into the water during cooking, that everything became a
thick slime! Fortunately Yasers mother came to rescue us with a big
pot and so we managed to save the spagetthi! The potatosoup was quite
good, but the spagetthi were by far to hot (spicy) for our hosts (exept
of Yasers cousin who loved it). They're not used to chilly at all,
and even the tiny amount we used was much to hot for them (I think
they would die immediately if they go to a restaurant in India :-)
). Fortunately we still had our pudding, and although we had made
2 portions everything was eaten within a couple of seconds. Yasers
cousin had brought his videocamera, and so I think they are
still laughing about the 2 Germans running around their kitchen trying
to cook something. After dinner Yaser became alive and started a great
dancing performance together with his aunt (of course also on the
video!). On the next morning, the hardest part: we had to say "good
bye" toYaser and his mother. But thanks to internet and email, we're
still in contact. |
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Back into the mountains: After
a couple of flat days along ricepaddies, at the Caspian Sea, we cycled
back into the mountains. We had to cycle about 1600m uphill and from
kilometre to kilometre it became drier and the traffic heavier. Especially
the trucks blew extremely much exhaust fumes into the air. Quite dangerous
were also all the tunnels because there was no illumination and many
truckdrivers refused to turn on their lights. Due to fact that there
was also no ventilation in the tunnels, breathing was quite a problem
and it took us always some minutes to recover when we had arrived
back in the fresh air. |
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Traffic in Teheran: Already our
guidebook had warned us from the traffic in Teheran and suggested
not to visit the capital of Iran! A friend of us had deposited some
equipment for us with a family in Teheran and so we had no choice
but to cycle into the mess. The guidebook was absolutely right:
it was a nightmare!!!!! Alrerady many kilometres before the city,
the road became a motorway with 6 lines! Everybody was speeding towards
the city center. On the most junctions were neither traffic lights
nor policemen to coordinate the mess and so the courageous ones had
the right of way! The golden rule to cross a road was to just start
to cross it and to hope, that the crossing traffic would stop! The
use of the indicator was also not known in Teheran. Worst off all
were the shared taxis, because as soon as the driver saw a potential
customer, he immediately pulled to the side without further notice
and stopped. Quite often it was mere luck that we were not killed
from a shared taxi. |
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Accomodation in Teheran: Finding an accomodation was also
quite difficult, because the guesthouses were either not allowed
to acoomodate foreign tourists, or their managers didn' want to
give us a room or they tried to make a big deal with us and the
prices suddenly skyrocketed. I spare you the details , but after
3 hours we finally managed to finde a guesthouse! Nadine was taking
shower in the communal womens bathroom, when suddenly someone shouted:
"Misses, Misses, open the door". After Nadine did't open the door
a men pulled the plasticbag out of the keyhole and tried to look
into the bathroom! I went to the reception and reported the situation
to the manager, a very friendly men, but he couln't find out
anything. Normaly we would have left the guesthouse immediately,
but this was the only guesthouse where we were able to find a room!
While I was shaving myself in the mens toilet, the porter of the
hotel (a young boy) came, talked a couple of sentences to me and
dissappeared. When I came back to our room I found the porter standing
in our room talking to Nadine. I asked about the reason for his
visit and was told, that he just wanted to say us, that there is
a restaurant within the hotel (why didn't he tell me this in the
bathroom?). The woman of a man is completely tabu for other men
(death penalty for adultery) in Iran. I went back to the manager,
told him again what has happend, and that I'm quite sure, that it
must have been the porter who was looking into Nadines bathroom.
The manager appologized again, but the porter told the manager that
he was working somewhere else (a straight lie). In the evening,
Nadine was doing our laundry, the porter came again and told her,
that he is loving her! I went again to the manager, but he was already
at home and soI told our problem the night duty on the reception.
Next morning, we're about to leave, the manager came to me, told
me that he had already heard about the problems we had and apologized
for our troubles. Then he told me, that he'd already thrown out
the porter early in the morning.... For us a sad and happy
story. Sad, because the way many moslem men behave is not really
nice for Nadine. Sad, because the porter lost his job. But happy,
because the manager showed, that the moslem communety is not willing
to tolerate inpropper behavior against women.
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Fam. Mohammadi: Sandra, a friend of us
and a flightattendant, depositet some equipment and spare parts for
us with a family in Teherean. We arrived in the afternoon, and immediately
after saying hello, we're sitting in front of a delicious watermelon.
So far we met many people on our trip, but very seldom we felt so
welcome and nearly a part of the family and so we agreed to the invitation
to stay for the night. The family had four daughters, and each of
them spoke pretty good english (One of them even German, although
she was too shy to speak it. Without any reason, because her grammar
and pronaunciation was very good). The mother was a bit dissapointed
when she found out, that we're vegetarians, because in Iran many people
eat hardlymore than meat. But now she became very ambitious and created
an awsome dinner!!!!!! Later in the evening the husband of Elham (the
second eldest daughter) came and we had quite an audience to show
our pictures from the journey. Usually we planned to leave after breakfast
in the next morning, but we didn't manage, because while I did
some maintainance work on our bikes together with the father, the
mother was again very busy in the kitchen preparing lunch. Instead
of sitting on our bikes we again enjoyed a delicious meal. Elhams
husband left work a bit earlier and together with him and the 3 younger
daughters we went to visit the museum. Usually women are supposed
to wear a scarf and a black coat, but now we learned, that there are
many options to vary colour and shape. Finally the girls we're dressed
in very colourful and fitting coats, quite different from the normal
dress, but still within the law. Nadine would have been the only one
with the old fashoned dress, but she got borrowed a more beautiful
version. We're a bit late and so we nearly had to run through the
museum. Especially the very beautiful made copies of the Coran (Qur'an)
we're very impressive! They looked more like beautiful paintings to
us.On our way back home Elham felt sick again and so, she went again
(like on the day before) to see a doctor. We're quite shocked when
she returned with a infusion still connected to her arm. At least
Nadine, as a nurse, could take a bit care of Elham. Normally we'd
planned to bake some German cookies and a cake in the evening, but
now we'd to cancel it. Good luck, Elham felt better next morning and
so Nadine showed her to bake a cake. We're a bit confused which temperature
to use to bake the cake and after the cake was still not ready after
one hour we changed to a higher temperature. The cake still didn't
want to bake propperly and after we found out, that the scale in the
oven was in °F instead of °C we again increased the temperature. After
2 hours, the cake was at last ready. Finally after lunch we had to
leave. From the awsome food of the last days more than strengthened,
we managed to cycle 81 Km towards Qom in the afternoon. |
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Qom: Qom is Irans religious centre, and is often named the
"holy city". After we just managed to escape a sandstorm we arrive
in Qom in the late afternoon. On our way into the centre we pass
several very beautiful mosques and a funeral procession, where the
open coffin is caried through the streets. We're looking for a internet
cafe and different from internet cafes in the rest of Iran, there
we're seperate ones for women and men. The mens internet cafe was
closed and so Nadine went to the "For womens only" internet cafe,
while I was waiting outside. While I was waiting the owner of the
internet cafe, a woman in her fourties, came out and brought me
a cup of tea. After all the work was done, we left Qom around sunset.
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Semi dessert: Normally we expected
to see lot of of dessert in Iran, but as you already know it
was quite different from Turky until Teheran. Even now we never got
the same dessert feelig like in Egypt or in Jordan. We cycled through
Iran in Spring and nearly everything wasat least a little bit green.
We're quite surpirised, that the cenre of Iran although it is not
hilly has many tablelands and most of the time we're on an altitude
betwenn 1000m and 2000m (highes pass 2200m). First the vast tablelands
seem to bee very boring, but for me the vast landscape with mountains
anthe horizon is very relaxing. Unfortunately due to heavy traffic
and stong winds it wasn't completely relaxing. |
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Esfahan: From Arash, a friendly
well German speaking fellow in Teheran, we got the mailadress from
Shirin, a friend of him in Esfahan. Shirind also speaks German and
offered us to show us her town. After we had managed to find a small
guesthouse, we met Shirin in the aftgernoon. Together with her we
visited the "Palace with the 44 pillars" and strolled around the Emam
Square. The Emam square measures 500m x 160m, and is sourrounded from
many small shops, two impressive old mosques and the old palace. Unfortunately
the entrance fees were 15 times higher for tourists than for locals
an therefore too expensive for us. Shirin was a bit sad that we didn't
go into the mosques but she didn't say anything. At last she showed
us an old Christian church. The Church was built from people from
Armenia and each squarecentimetreof its inner walls were paintet extraordinary
beautiful. Next to the church was a small museum with a special exibition
about the Armenians. There we learned, that in 1915 about 1,5 mio.
Armenians were expelled from their country from the Turkish army.
We're quite surprised, that the whold world denied to recognice the
fate of the Armenians but are still pointing upon the Germans. |
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Day of the museums: On the next day Shirin told us,
that today the entry to all museums would be for free; it was the
annual day of museums. No wonder, that the whole Emam Square was completely
crowded with locals. Of course we also used our chance to see
the palace and the mosques. The first mosque was constructed with
three huge halls with a vast atrium and with several small gardens.
Especially the size of the huge halls, which were completely covered
with blue ceramics, were very impressive. The second mosque had just
one big dome for praying. The dome was so constructed, that it was
iridescent like copper; really awsome! From the palace we could see
the whole Emen Square and because it was already evening we're able
to see everything during sunset and finally in the night when everything
was iluminated.
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Making carpets: In Kupaeh, about
90 Km east of Esfahaqn, Ali a taxidriver invited us for lunch to his
house. While his wife was perparing lunch, Ali showed us how the world
famous carpets of Iran are made. At least in this family the "loom"
for making carpets was right in the middle of the living room. The
carpet was made from Alis wife (no childrens work), and it takes her
1 - 2 years to make a carpet depending to its size. For a 2x3m carpet,
one years work, they get about 800 $US! So if we're planning to by
a carpet, we kown now where to order it! |
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Sitting in a well: We got some
good tailwind an so we managed to cycle already 70 Km in the morning.
Like during the last couple of days it was with 36°C pretty hot and
so we're really hapy when we found this well (fontain) in a small
town. Before the locals realised what was happening we were sitting
on the side of the well and cooled our legs in the water. Unfortunately
we couldn't sit in the well for the rest of the day and so after a
short stop for some icecream, we went back on the road. When we stopped
cycling in the eavening we had cycled 142 Km, the biggest distance
since Egypt. |
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Dessert: Finally around Yazd
it became more dessert like. There was merely any vegetation and the
temperatures had reached 40°C in the shadow. Due to the strong sun
(we were mostely above 1500m), the dry air and the wind our lips were
cracked and aching. It was so hot and dry, that our noses started
bleeding. Fortunately the are many small tunnels below the roads and
so we managed to escape from the heat at least during our breaks.
Hard to belive, that 4 weeks ago we were sitting in the snow! |
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Mosque with a holyshrine: After
a long day we arrived in Anar, a small town, just to buy some food
before looking for a place to pitch our tent. As usual we attracted
a crowd of children, and finally their English teacher invited us
into his house. We were just sitting with tea and some cookies in
front of his house, when a friend of the teacher arrived. Actually
the teacher had invited us to stay overnight in his house, but now
he insisted, that we would have to sleep in the mosque. We expected
to meet the Pasadran (guardians of the revolution) who would ask for
our marriage documents, but nothing happened. Instead the very friendly
warden of the mosque (I think it was not the Imam) welcomed us and
just asked us how many days we're planning to stay. We were told that
the mosque has a holy shrine, an therefore some accommodation for
the pilgrims. Then we got our own room and off he was. We already
had spent a night in a church in Jordan, but a night in a mosque with
a holy shrine is indeed very special! |
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The holy shrine: Normally we're quite reserved with
visiting religious sites and especially in visiting mosques, because
we don't want to disturbe anybody. But now we're already in a mosque
with a holy shrine and after all pilgrims had left the mosque, Martin
went to visit the shrine. Besides the beautiful shrine also another
room was very impressive. The room was completely covered with mirrows
and due to a chandelier hanging down from the roof, the room was sparkeling
awsome! |
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Shiraz: We had some good tailwind
for acouple of days (we cycled distances up to 162 km) and so we arrived
in Kerman earlier than expected. We decided to use the extra time
to visit Shiraz, according to many Iranians their most beautiful city,
by bus (the time was too short to cycle everything). But our trip
was not really successful. First as Christians we're not allowed to
visit a mosque with a holy shrine. We're a bit surprised because we
just slept in a mosque with a holy shrine a couple of days ago, but
we didn't say anything. The entrance fees for the most sites here
were even more expensive than in Esfahan and tourists were charged
30times more than locals and so we decided not to visit anything.
We're quite surprised, that the muslim government of Iran dosn't follow
the instructuions of the Quran, where it is said that a good moslem
should support, travellers (like poor people) and where it is also
said, that a moslem is not allowed to make unfair prices. Insted of
visiting the sites we spent the afternoon in the park and in the very
beautiful bazar. |
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Haman: One of the sites we visited in Shiraz
was a historic hamam. The hasmam is a bathhouse and the one we went
to visit was now used as a restaurant. The hamam was decorated very
beautiful and so we sat down. We expected that a waiter would come
to take our orders, but nothing happened. Some students were sitting
next to us and they told us, that you have to place your order on
the counter at the entrance. We had no change to do so, because one
of the students was already on the way to order some tea for us. Togehter
we spent one hour in the haman before they went to a concert and we
back to the busterminal. |
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Bam: Bam is an acient town with
a huge castle. Normally a visit to Bam is on the scedule of every
tourist, but in decembre 2003 a huge earthquake destroyed everything.
Unfortunately not only the castle was destroyed, but also nearly the
whole town. Probably around 40000 people died! Before the earthquake
about 90000 people used to live in Bam, but nearly the half of them
died or is missed! In Kerman we were told from an university professor,
that there are now about 200000 people living in Bam. Due to the good
national and international aid, many poor people went to Bam. At least
all these families are well cared for at the moment, but nobody knows
what is going to happen in the future. We're not keen on to visiting
a place were people are suffering and still mourning for their dead
relatives and friends and so we canceled Bam from our scedule. On
the picture you can see Bam before and after the earthquake. |
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Do you speak English? If you
think about Iran, you immediately think about the problems between
Iran and the USA. So it was not surprising, that some of our friends
told us, that it should be nearly impossible to comminicate in English.
We already reported several times about the friendly Iranians and
their great hospitalety, but it also turned out, that many people
in Iran speak very well English and also enjoy it. A bit unusual is
that the governmet thinks it is more important to read and write in
English than to speak it. Therefore most English teachers don't speak
to their pupils in English at all! Instead they just practice grammer.
In Shiraz we even met an English teacher who was teaching since 10
years, but her skills in speaking were as good as the ones from a
pupil after 4 years learning English. Already earlier we were a bit
confused to hear that many people speak English with an American accent.
Finally we found out, that because the teachers don't speak with the
pupils the pupils watch american videos and so they learn the american
pronounciation. We also could never see hear that the Iranians hate
the USA. It's even vice verca, many of them would like to meet some
Americans or would like to visit the USA. With the experience with
their own governmet they now very well, that the citizens of a nation
are not as bad as its government! |
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Belutschistan: Belutschistan is a vast region between Iran,
Pakistan and Afghanistan. Belutschistan is inhabited and controlled
by tribes and famous for drug smuggeling, weapon smuggeling and kidnapping
since many years. We decided to cross this region by bus and so we
took our first 550km stage from Kerman to Zahedan with the nightbus.
We arrived in Zahedan at about 5am but from here it was still 80 km
to the bordertown Mir Javeh. As we found out there was no public bus
heading to Mir Javeh and the only option seemed to travel with a strange
guy who offered us ride in his minibus. We didn't choose the bus option
for safety reasons just to end up in some ones minibus at 5am to be
shutteled out into the dessert. So we waited until abut 7am, found
another and even cheaper minibus and two hours later, we arrived at
the border to Pakistan. The border crossing porcedure was extraordinary
fast (about 3 minutes together for immigration and customs office).
We threw our last Iranian money into the donation box and left this
country with its very friendly people. |
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