Iran 2

Esfahan, the country's former capital. This city has everything you would expect to find in a beautiful city, a nice big river with bridges to wander over while enjoying thr cool breeze, a great big central square with a grand royal mosque, palaces, gardens and of course the bazaar! The mosque is incredible, it's decoration is stunning, made up of mostly blue tiles making use of their natural colours, lapis lazuli as well as yellow and green. The central dome is from where the caller sings out to the city to come to pray, the dome is 36m high and standing in the centre you can quietly rustle a piece of paper and hear it echo around the dome. The building took 4years to complete in the 1600s and stands as magnificently now as ever it did.

A friendly city, we are often approached and welcomed to Iran or asked where we're from, while this is high season and a popular tourist destination we are the only westerners some have seen this season, Iran gets only 400,000 tourists a year which is sad because people are missing out by not coming here. Half the truck leave Esfahan with a carpet as one of the shop owners is friendly with our guide and his shop was never seen without one or several of us having tea and chatting. Some of the truckers spent the evenings with him and his family picnicking outside his shop and chatting till late. Iranians are great picnickers! You always see them dotted around, they just pull up at the side of the road and have a picnic! In Esfahan they picnic along the riverside all evening and sometimes well into the night. The local food seems is all kebabs or falafel, other specialities are the popular carrot jam and gaz which is pistachio nougat, yum!

A broken lamp in a room led to 3 of us going to a mans house for tea and falafel (they really are very friendly!!) and to 'talk about our cultures and the economy'! A very pleasant evening picnicking falafel and salad on the living room floor though i seriously have no idea why they have a dining table in the same room!!

After Esfahan we headed a bit more into the desert where buildings take on a more traditional look, small brown buildings with smooth curved or domed rooves. The type you've seen on tv with camels around them! This was the look of our next stop, the city of Yazd. We stayed in the Silk Road Hotel in the old town which is just perfect as your traditional desert rest stop. You can easily get lost wondering the many streets on Yazd along it's alleys under archways and through short tunnels. There's such a relaxed safe atmosphere here it's hard to believe it's a city and not just a sleepy village. Yazd is thought to be the oldest city in the world having been continually inhabited for over 7000 years, it's my favourite part of Iran. You can't help being drawn in by its history, it's warm friendly atmosphere, the lovely people, the rich silk fabrics in the bazaar and it's all round quaint beauty. Even old delapidated buildings manage to look great as rain slowly melts their mud into smooth chocolatey lumps.

Our guide Muhammad chats to business owners who then invite us in to watch them work making sugar cones, copper and tin pots, fireplaces. The baker showed us how he stretches out their naan bread over a mould and then reaches into the oven and slaps the bread onto the inside of the wall next to the fire. When we wanted to buy bread from him but he refused to take any payment as we are his guests! It's hard to find fault in Iranian hospitality, such a generous and warm culture.

That night we went to watch saheb azaman, a traditional show of strength and fitness adopted by Iranian men from a work out previously used by soldiers 1000 years ago. Due to a lack of paying tourists this is now just a fitness class for men but was still interesting to watch. 

I was sad to leave Yazd but we must push onwards to Pakistan. We bushcamped outside Bam and in the garden of a hotel in a border town near Zahedan. Our first escort didn't materialise but we shall be escorted from here until well into Pakistan. After 15 days in Iran we've had about 6 or 7 not travelling and covered 11,000km since leaving London.