$1 = 31,600 Rial
Gas- 10,000 rial
No McDonalds to compare like Lonely Planet
What to say about Iran. It's a big desert, one salt and one not. Plenty of minerals being mined. Long drives from Turkmenistan, the start point, to get to the 'sights'. The mandatory cover up is fussy and hot. Scarf around my neck is especially hot. Tends to make me a bit testy. Using the neck cooler, this helps. If I didn't tie the scarf well out of the way, straight away it fell into the squat toilet when I squatted. I'm a fast learner. Zoroastrianism seems to have less smiting than other practices. They were too peaceful, probably why they dwindled. Did see the, still burning, holy flame. It's fed with wood, not like the modern gas ones.
People are so welcoming, plenty of smiles to collect. We wave at hundreds from the truck.
It is a festival- Muharam-honoring a past Oman Husein. Black is worn by the men, big gatherings to repeat his words, co-ordinated rhythmic chest slapping and a bundle of chains over the shoulder by the men. Women behind a fabric fence with the children. Tea is supplied in copious quantities and food given to the poor.
Sweets abound in many forms. Special shops with a plate of samples to choose your favorites before placing an order. Lovely little muffin of cardamom and pistachio.
In Yadz, one building was a mosque style and when lit by pale blue lighting on its deep blue tiles was breathtaking.
Many accomodations have been small, airless cubes. Suffocating.
If a man has sex with a married woman- death.
If a man had sex with a virgin-2 years jail.
If a man has sex with another man-death.
Don't know the penalty for the woman.
Persepolis is the only ancient ruin I have seen that has three capitals on each column. This whole area was only used for New Year ceremony.
Ladies toilet outline has a scarf on her.
The stone shops all have the pieces in long slabs, ripe for cutting tiles.
Ayatollah Kohmeni's tomb has many gold minarets in a hugh complex.
Under the overpasses there are terraces of ivy, making it a wall of green.
Cars are fixed at the side of the road, in front of the shop, the size of a small cafe.
Us tourists look very rag tag and the locals look very smart- fashionable, not the chador wearers.
Mosques decorated with three themes: geometric, floral, calligraphy.
I expected more soaring tile coveted buildings, much like the 'Stans'. I clearly did not do my homework.
I was lucky to get in, three other US citizens applied, they did not get the OK.
