The Iran Trip - part 2

the traffic was horrible and we were dead worried that we'll miss the local flight to isfarhan. upon checking in we're told that the flight was rescheduled an hour latter (unfortunately there was no official flight delay notice on the information board). nevertheless, they were very apologitic and handed us a lunch pack - a packet of faily large size kebab, local fruits, salad, cookies and a can drink (by my standard, a very heavy meal indeed!). at the airport, met a fellow malaysian, a former MAS engineer, now a part time consultant with air mohan, the second iran airline. few of his fellow workers at mas, mainly senior flight attendents are also with the airline training the staffs. onboard the fokker 100, we're again served with a fairly heavy lunch (kebab as usual). again i keep thinking, why are they so generous with food. minus the budget airlines, all other airline will only serve some refreshment for a 35 minutes flight !.

the traffic in isfarhan was definitely much better and within 20 minutes were were at our hotel. en route to the hotel we passed by the kuala lumpur avenue, a street name after kuala lumpur following a special colloboration between the 2 cities ( there was this jalan isfarhan, near the sogo shopping centre in kuala lumpur). the hotel was stategically located in the city centre and facing the river zayendeh. unfortunately the hotel charged usd 5.00 for an hour of internate connection.


(the city of isfarhan)

i'm amased as i soon found out that this is one city with so many beautiful ladies (young and old alike). honestly i have never seen this phenomena ! even a middle age beggar with a young daughter (the only one i saw on the street) was beautiful ! the young people were also extremely friendly. knowing that we were visitors to their city, they would give you a welcome smile and would initiate a conversation. by the way, there were not many tourists in this city. through out our stay we only met 2 brittish couples from birmingham and stoke on trent and an eccentric australian gentleman from brisbane. most people that we met were excited to know that we were from malaysia (they call it malaysium). kuala lumpur have make quite a reputation in the city as a numble of young people we met were looking forward to further their studies in universiti islam antarabangsa, multimedia university, or universiti putra malaysia. there was also this young lady who proudly told us she'll enroll in islamic studies in university of malaya in january.



(a cute shy little lad of isfarhan)



(even the ladies in traditional chador are approachable and very friendly. they even invite us to their house for tea)

the people in this city just love to go out in the park and have an open picnic. the picnic area on the hill slope over looking the city was packed with people on a friday afternoon. of course i was quite surprise to see so many gentleman at the park at that particular hour ( or do they take friday prayers lightly !)



(an isfarhan family who insisted that we join them on their outing)

Apart from the iman square with an old palace of shah abbas, the grand bazzar, the mosques and the historic bridges overlying the zayendeh river, there are not much attractions for the visitors to the city. and like tehran, this city of 3 million people are also full of shopping malls and high street stalls. as friday is a public holiday, one will find that the city is fairly deserted on a friday morning till late noon. the activities started again after 4.30 pm when the businesses resumed and will last late into the night.


the indigenous people of isfarhan are natural and skill craftsmen. within the city there are numerous craftsmen putting their skills in the numerous gallaries specializing in carpet making, silverware and copperware.



(an typical isfarhan craftsmen hard at work)


the best carpet from iran, be it the normadic or city type usually come from qom and isfarhan. and as expected there are numerous shops and gallaries selling carpets in the city. visited a few of those gallaries. really fell in love with this particular masterpiece .... but then it was beyond our mean. A hefty usd 20K for a piece of 6'x9' size carpet !. wow ! i wish i had that amount of money to spare ...





and again what i like most about this city is the many nicely decorated restaurants.we just can spend hours in the restaurants admiring the deco !




but alas, despite the numerous and varied decos, the food is a real set back. unlike in malaysia, we're bless with numerous selections to choose from.

(a typical lunch consisting of local pita bread, salad, kebab of chicken or mutton) and the 'masam' soup). and despite that, i survive very well on the menu in our 10 days trip to iran. and i proud that i didn't need to open any of my maggie mee pack !