Pakistan/Iran/Turkey - Part 2
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INTO IRAN FROM PAKISTAN

There was no change in topography when the train crossed into Iran. The sun had set in. A pitch dark had pervaded outside. The smugglers had left leaving me all-alone. I became terrified. Anyone could barge in through inter-connected compartments. I am chicken at heart. Fear of mugging haunts me. I had TCs of $1,000, a credit card and five notes of $50 each. All these were individually wrapped and stashed at various places. One $50 note was capsuled and dropped in a vitamin pill bottle. Another was tucked away in the trouser-belt. I kept on roaming my hands back and forth checking my inventory. The body language would deter any predator.

ZAHIDAN, 20th April 97

It was past mid-night when the train pulled into Zahidan, 92 km from the border. I was amazed with flood lights and water fountains. Soon I spotted a serie (inn). I was given a comfortable room for only one-dollar. The old man was with me. I deemed it my responsibility to get him to his folks in Tehran. Next morning we went to the Bus Station. First, I got his Tehran address translated into Persian. Second, I had him boarded a bus for Tehran, 1700 km away in 35 hours. Third, I range up his folks and alerted them of his arrival. Having suitably disposed him off, I felt relieved and returned to the city centre. I stayed there for two more days and spent seven dollars in all. The purchasing power parity of dollar was surprising. I figured out that prices were atleast ten times lower than those in USA.

Zahidan appeared a relaxed city with wide tree-lined avenues. It was a good place to have a taste of Iran. I started from breakfast. Hot tea, cheese and local bread were abundantly available. In addition, one can have asal (honey), mast (yogurt), khorma (dates) and khameh (soft cream) for breakfast. Halva shekari is used as a sweetener. It is a kind of paste made of sugar, butter and sesame seeds. Iranians eat hot and fresh. I opted for honey and yogurt. I sprinkled it with dry fruits to make it delicious, hearty and wholesome.

After filling my belly, I roamed in the market. Iran religiosity was its most striking feature. Males were modestly dressed, many wearing western clothing without tie. Some wore aba (cloak) of black colour. Females had covered their hairs with scarves and bodies with long coats. Only face, toes and hands were visible. "Women Only" was written at many places making it "Out of Bound" for all males. Despite hustle and bustle of the bazaar, there was calmness. Per chance, I went into a water pipe café and had a few puffs of cooled down smoke.

"If you haven't seen Shiraz, you seen nothing," muttered the innkeeper, Agha Hussaini. "Shiraz is full of artists, scholars, nightingales, poetry and roses. Go and see tomb of Hafez (a celebrated poet) and delightful Eram garden," he continued. His chatters moved me but Shiraz was far away in the South, not on the road to Tehran.

DESERT JOURNEY

I took a early bus for my next destination, Kerman, some 600 km from Zahidan. The bus passed through a vast desert, Dasht-e-Lut. It seemed impossible to cross it except through the single road over which the bus was running at full throttle. Dasht-e Lut was a sand and stone desert. It looked inhospitable and virtually uninhabited.

"Aab, Aab", I heard someone saying over my head. When I looked up I found the conductor with a water tumbler. He said something clinching his throat and tilting his head to one side. He meant that if I did not sip water, my throat would become bone-dry from hot winds, choking me to death. I grabbed the container and took two big gulps. The conductor had to distribute water every 10 minutes.

KERMAN, 23rd April 97

After an 11 hours, I reached Kerman. It was an ancient city with several stunning mosques and a ruined citadel. The town was clean, no garbage in the streets. I took a room in a nearby guesthouse. Soon, it was dinnertime. I was feeling awfully hungry and looked for a good restaurant. Iranian cuisine was heavily based on rice, bread, fresh vegetables, herbs and fruit. Meat was usually lamb or mutton, minced or cut into small chunks. It was used to add flavour and rarely dominant except in kebabs.

Next day, I went to a museum. It was previously a public bath, now a most interesting sight. The main doorway was covered with murals of animals. Also worth seeing was the Art Museum containing a large number of tile-work pictures. In another gallery, there was a display of photographs depicting scenes from the Iran-Iraq war and its effect on the civilian population.

YAZD, 25th April 97

I left Kerman on the night-bus. It had reclining seats. The desert was continuing and there would be nothing much to see. By early hours, the bus reached Yazd, 337 miles away in approximately 7 hours.

Yazd turned out to be a medium sized town. It had many historical buildings like Alexander prison, large wind-bells and wall paintings. There was a high tower. Narrow and dark stairs led to the top. I went up resting in between to catch my breath. Once there, I was spellbound by the magnificent view of the town and its suburbs. The new houses were built on old designs discarding European styles. Villages followed a rectangular pattern with high mud walls and flat roofs. I saw a lot of greenery all around. Among sand dunes, there were trees and bushes like tamarisk, poplar, date palm, acacia and willow.

I met many foreign tourists mostly from France. As per their advice, I decided to go by train to Esfahan hardly at a distance of 285 km

TRAIN JOURNEY

The train passed through Desh-e Kavir, which mingles with Dasht-e Lut described earlier. US forces had landed in Kavir Desert in 1980 in an abortive mission to rescue hostages held at American Embassy in Tehran. Kavir was a rainless region and barren except for some oases irrigated by qanats (canals).

ESFAHAN, 28th April 97

I reached Esfahan in the after noon. It was not as hot as Yazd but rather pleasant. I was out of the desert and into greener pasture. Esfahan was one time capital of Persia and designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage site. The famous rhyme Esfahan nesf-é jahan (Esfahan is half the world) was coined in the 16th century to express the city grandeur.

In the evening I had a walk. Most remarkable feature was a big square, roughly seven times larger than San Marco in Venice. Besides, Emam Mosque looked majestic with cool blue tiles. Within walking distance, I found more mosques, palaces, bridges and gardens. It was a city for getting lost in the bazaar and dozing in beautiful gardens.

At night I went to a traditional restaurant. There were singers, both professional and amateur. Though I did not understand a word of Farsi, I was bewitched when listening to poems in the local dialect.

Esfahan was famous for its carpets. There was a bazaar having carpets of various colours: the scarlet, green and yellow Kashan, the red-blood and black Turkoman. A shopkeeper, Agha Mossadegh, recalled the past: "At one time, I had three hundred children making carpets with their delicate fingers. Now, child labour is banned. Adult are no match. Carpets are not as fancy as they used to be."

AIR SAFARI

By moving around, I found out that air-fares were very low. The catch was that you had to book far in advance. A footloose and fancy free traveler like me could not afford advance booking. Still when an opportunity came, I jumped on it. An airline agent of Kish Air offered me a ready seat on its 44-seater plane to my next destination, Qom. Flying at medium altitude, I get an exceptionally attractive view of Iran territory. I saw the colors of the desert and the striking profile of mountain ranges.

QOM, 1st May 97

Hardly 125 miles away, touching Qom was just a hop-on, hop-off affair. Qom was a holy city of Shi'ite Muslims on the River. There were many religious schools dedicated to teaching of Islam. A large number of Students had come to Qom from all corners of Iran. (It takes at least 20-30 years to master the Quran and Hadith to become an Ayatollah.) Qom was the center of movement against Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi that ended up with toppling up his regime in 1979.

My feet were aching and legs quaking. I dived into a restaurant. The waiter greeted me by saying, "Chelo kebab?"

"Anything else?"

"Chicken rice."

"Chelo kebab would be ok"

"Kheili khub!" the waiter said happily, he meant "Very good!"

He went away and returned with a number of plates containing raw onion, yogurt, white rice and butter. Finally he brought a plate of kebab, about nine inches of grilled meat, pulled off the skewer but still sticking together. That was delicious indeed.

TEHRAN, 3rd May 97

From Qom, I boarded a bus reaching Tehran in about three hours covering 125 km. The bus station was quite out of town. An Iranian offered me a lift, in his private car, near to Ayub Bridge where I had a friendly family from Pakistan. "Do you live there?" I asked. "Yes but I do it for money," he said curtly. He quoted a small price. Later, when we drove, I noticed that he was picking up passengers and dropping them off on the way to Ayub Bridge. He safely delivered to me to my friends. They had a small but well furnished flat in a four-storied plaza. In the evening, they took me to the roof-top. I was amazed to see snow-clad mountain, Alborz. It was a little hot on the roof top but quite cool inside flat because of a desert cooler. ( It just draws dry air and passes it through water to make it little cool ).

Tehran, the capital, was a modern city but had retained its past. It had several good museum and historical buildings. It was a large city, cool and shady. Its roads were overarched by trees like chenars and walnut. The safety and security were superb. I moved freely without any hassle. Many a times, I got lost but not for long. I just asked for a bus to Emam Khomeini Square. Once there, I could restart my sight-seeing. Buses were cheap. Tickets could be purchased in bulk. All buses had the same fare. (Just peel off a ticket and pass it on to the conductor, no question asked). One day, I went upto Shaheed Motahari Mosque with its eight towering minarets. It was a good place to view the city. Albroz mountains were in North and a tall Telephone Office in South, both being landmarks of Tehran.

Of all the places, I enjoyed an easy stroll in Tehran Bazaar. An endless maze of alleys, a criss cross of narrow passages. Light filtered down from the openings at the top. Everything from fine carpets to silver wares to aromatic spices could be found here. There was a separate section for each trade. Skilled workers was busy in weaving capets or making copper work, a la viva live display of craftsmanship. There were rows and rows of art and antique-dealers. They were offering, at throw-away prices, pictures of Shah Abbas ( the great king), of Leila and Majnun (the great lovers) and of Rustom (the great hero).

THE MOUNTAIN TRAIN

Having spent more days in Tehran, I wanted to rush to Turkey. But the border was about 910 km away and nearest town was still ahead. This dampened my enthusiasm. I decided to have a break at Tabriz, about 650 km away. The route was mountainous and winding. Elborz Mountains rose steeply, west of Tehran along Iraqi and Turkish borders. Unless I sit on front seat, I always had a headache. So I decided to take a train though it had a longer route at 736 km or 86 km more than the road. It was a lovely journey and offered panoramic view of the terrain.

TABRIZ, 10th May 97

When the train neared Tabriz, the landscape turned awesome with shady roads, parks and lakes. One could see a large red cliff overlooking the valley of the Tailkel river which ran through Tabriz. There was an old village, Kandovan, with the houses dug into the rocks at high altitude. The rocks looked like pyramids.

Since I had a small pack, I swiftly went out of the station. As many as dozen taxi drivers raided me. I submitted to one of them and the rest started a brawl over loss of business. The taxi took me to a private guesthouse which turned to be a best ever backpacker in Iran.

Tabriz was reputed as a center of Oriental culture. It produced high quality ceramics and carpets containing birds, floral and hunting scenes. Population of Tabriz was rather mixed: Armenians, Turkomans and Kurds. They were working on the roads side by side wearing long leather boots, woollen headgear, and multi-colored fabrics. The Blue Mosque of Tabriz was a sight. The central dome was 16 meters in diameter and decorated with finest mosaic with golden inscriptions. Pious Muslims in their turbans, robes and Turkish Slippers moved in large number on the call of each prayer.

BAZARGAON, 11th May 97

Another 260 kms travel would take me out of Iran and into Turkey. The roads passed through the mountains were quite hazardous. At long last, I entered Turkey and found myself in more friendly atmosphere. Turkey and Pakistan have long historical ties and are close allies in soico-economic and political fields.

Continue to Part 3