I am getting caught up on Dane's posts from Iran, so here are 2 that I missed earlier. Enjoy!! - Brenda
Subject: Iran Travel #4
Things just keep getting better and better. We took our bus on a 6 our ride from Kerman to Yazd today. Our hotel is magnificent. The hotel in Tehran and Kerman were nice, but they were large and impersonal whereas this hotel in Yazd is built in the traditional Persian style with central fountains and canals running through the building. The food is excellent, best we have had this trip, being prepared by the Chef who once was employed by the Shaw. Apparently, he was allowed to stay.
We visited a couple of mosques and look at a few carpets today. The architecture her is very traditional, not the new construction you see in Tehran and Kerman.
I went for a walk today by myself and had two meeting with Iranians. As I was walking by a iron gate welding shop a friend of the proprietor stopped me to talk politics. He said he taught English at the university. He was very direct with his questions.
"Where are you from?" "What is the population of America?" "What do you think of the people of Iran?" "What do you think about the tensions between Iran and the United States?" "Do Americans love war?"
After my answers, he said to me that Iranians like Americans and want them to come here. He said Iranians don't want war with America. He thanked me for my time and we both went our different ways.
Then after a short walk further I crossed the street and started to walk back to the hotel. Another man crossed the street, took out his cell phone and said, "It's for you." I looked at him. Then I took the phone and said "Hello?" You know, like your supposed to do. The man on phone had seen me walk by earlier. He called his friend to come get me.
We chatted for a little bit but ran out of time. Provided there is time I may meet up with him again before we go to our next destination. These are ordinary hard working Iranians who are very interested in meeting and talking with Americans.
We saw a very interesting thing today. On our way out of Kerman ALL of the trucks loaded with goods for transport were lined up three deep, a quarter of a mile long waiting for the only open gas station in Kerman. These guys must have to wait 2 or 3 hours just to fill up. We were allowed to cut in line because tour buses has some kind of special license. We filed up with 175 liters of diesel.
Well that's it for now.
Tomorrow we're going camel shopping.
-Dane
