Hospitality
How can we explain the Iranian hospitality? Well, at first we intended to stay 1 month, than maybe a week more and finally we are still here after almost two months. Within the last weeks we had a lot of possibilities to experience this hospitality, which is really unusual for an European. It is something really special and it makes this country unique. Here hospitality means a lot of things and it ranges from the people on the street greeting us with all the English they usually know (Hey mister!, How are you?, where are you from? and welcome to our country!) to truck drivers offering us oranges or other fruits, to car drivers stopping us to ask if we need some help and then leading us to our next destination. As well we got a lot invitations to tea or dinner and it is not unusual to be invited to stay for the night from people that you have just met on the street. The best way to discover Iran is just to open yourself to it, and the rest will follow naturally. We did it and we enjoyed the time a lot.
Anyway to write down all our experiences with Iranian hospitality would take ages. We will tell you just few examples, so you can have an idea of we are speaking about:
On our first day in Iran, we tried to meet with Perla, a nice and pretty girl who spoke Italian who we had met on the train to Tabriz and who had invited us to stay at her place for a couple of days in the same way we in Europe are used to invite someone to drink a coffee in a bar. Unfortunately she did not come to the meeting point. As our European mobiles does not work in Iran, we asked some men on the street to help us and to call her with their mobiles. They did it of course and it turned out that she was waiting at another crossing with the same name - and we turned out to sit in the strange car of the men who phoned to her. After a couple of meter the car got broken, and the driver picked up a second person on the street who had a car (I do not know if they knew each other), he explained him the situation and the new guy drove us to our friend!
Another story happened in the city of Na'in. We were supposed to call a friend of a friend (his name is Rohab) who we had never seen nor spoken with, to meet him to go to the town of Khoor in the desert to spend new year's celebration together with other friends we had met few days before in Esfahan. Matteo called Rohab and after a few minutes he just asked us to hand him the first Farsi speaking person passing nearby. We did it and the first farsi speaking person passing nearby talked some time on the phone, then hung up, and then he picked up a friend who had a small motorcycle and they accompanied us. They drove in front with the motorcycle and we followed them with the bicycles. After some searching and asking they stopped in front of a house. It was not the house of the friend of a friend (Rohab), as we thought, but the one of a friend of him (Mohsen), who was already in Khoor with Rohab. So, we stayed there for a couple of hours, we took a shower, we ate delicious food and chatted with his lovely family, which actually did not know us. In the evening they accompanied us (I mean the whole family of 5 people plus Matteo and Mascha in a car as big as a Fiat Panda) to a square where we took the bus to Khoor. And all that happened even though we did not know nobody of these people before we met them.
This scene is also typical: we were cycling trough a city. Just arriving after a few days on the road. Somebody in a car stopped us and gave his mobile phone to Matteo. The phone call was a little bit strange but at the and it turned out out that the driver couldn't speak any English, but as soon as he saw us he called his friend who spoke English and was a cycle tourist as well, because he was sure that he would have wanted to meet us. After a couple of minutes of waiting on the next square, the cyclist showed up. He was exited to meet some other cycling tourists and invited us to his place. Which was actually his friend's place, but the evening turned out nice and we even went together on a one-day trip few days after.
The last story it a proof that fortunately not only Iranians are hospitable. On our third day in Iran, we met a russian couple in a park in Teheran, we started to talk and after a while they invited us to their place if we would ever be near Bandar Abbas. Well, some weeks later we really arrived in Bandar and called Vladimir, who ist working here. His wife, who was here just on holidays had already left a few days earlier. And now we are already at his place since more than a week - our record in one place on this jurney. And we're enjoying the time a lot, relaxing and gathering strength for the next weeks on tour.
Bandar Abbas
Bandar Abbas, or just Bandar as the locals call it, is the biggest and most important container port in Iran. It is quite different from the rest of Iran. First it is much warmer, and just like in Europe the people from the south are different. They have more temperament, wear much more colourful clothes (the women as well! It is so good to see some other coloures instead of the all black shadors). The Bandaris, as they are called are quite mixed. They come from Iran, of cause, but you can also find lots of Indians, Africans, Pakistanis, Afghans and many Arabs. So apart from other faces, we observed as well other food - a lot of food stands on the streets - but also other behaviour:
Once we had a strange discussion with a taxi driver. He wanted to be polite and asked us if he could drink. We were quite stunned at first, but then we understood that he had a can of beer in his hand, and not an Iranian 0% beer, but a real one. He, afterwards was quite stunned that we did not want him to drink while he was driving the taxi. And it all ended up with a long discussion about drink and drive...
Another story happend on our trip to Hormoz Island. According to Iranians, we went there with fabolous wether: it was raining. Hormoz is a tiny island a couple of kilometers from Bandar with a small fishing village and a portugese fortrest from 1500 AD. As we examined the castle we could find a lot of different stones coloured in brown from far away, but if you come closer you'll see blue ones, green ones, orange and red ones. It was quite amazing. Later on we learned that this island is famous for its different coloures of sand.
When we returned to the harbour, we found a lot of people waiting. There were rumours that no boat will be leaving that day bacause of the stormy sea. Actually there were only a few waves, but the boats a small and all open. Finally one of the fishermen agreed to go, but he charged more than double the price (as we found out later). The trip back was like riding on an attraction at the "Oktoberfest" in Munich, but maybe not as save...We enjoyed it, but some of the passengers were quite afraid, maybe they could not swim and of course there were not any lifejeckets on board. Despite some girls were crying of fear, Matteo incited the direver to go faster. We arrived, all wet and shaken, but exited and happy.
More chapters on Iran following soon!
How can we explain the Iranian hospitality? Well, at first we intended to stay 1 month, than maybe a week more and finally we are still here after almost two months. Within the last weeks we had a lot of possibilities to experience this hospitality, which is really unusual for an European. It is something really special and it makes this country unique. Here hospitality means a lot of things and it ranges from the people on the street greeting us with all the English they usually know (Hey mister!, How are you?, where are you from? and welcome to our country!) to truck drivers offering us oranges or other fruits, to car drivers stopping us to ask if we need some help and then leading us to our next destination. As well we got a lot invitations to tea or dinner and it is not unusual to be invited to stay for the night from people that you have just met on the street. The best way to discover Iran is just to open yourself to it, and the rest will follow naturally. We did it and we enjoyed the time a lot.
Anyway to write down all our experiences with Iranian hospitality would take ages. We will tell you just few examples, so you can have an idea of we are speaking about:
On our first day in Iran, we tried to meet with Perla, a nice and pretty girl who spoke Italian who we had met on the train to Tabriz and who had invited us to stay at her place for a couple of days in the same way we in Europe are used to invite someone to drink a coffee in a bar. Unfortunately she did not come to the meeting point. As our European mobiles does not work in Iran, we asked some men on the street to help us and to call her with their mobiles. They did it of course and it turned out that she was waiting at another crossing with the same name - and we turned out to sit in the strange car of the men who phoned to her. After a couple of meter the car got broken, and the driver picked up a second person on the street who had a car (I do not know if they knew each other), he explained him the situation and the new guy drove us to our friend!
Another story happened in the city of Na'in. We were supposed to call a friend of a friend (his name is Rohab) who we had never seen nor spoken with, to meet him to go to the town of Khoor in the desert to spend new year's celebration together with other friends we had met few days before in Esfahan. Matteo called Rohab and after a few minutes he just asked us to hand him the first Farsi speaking person passing nearby. We did it and the first farsi speaking person passing nearby talked some time on the phone, then hung up, and then he picked up a friend who had a small motorcycle and they accompanied us. They drove in front with the motorcycle and we followed them with the bicycles. After some searching and asking they stopped in front of a house. It was not the house of the friend of a friend (Rohab), as we thought, but the one of a friend of him (Mohsen), who was already in Khoor with Rohab. So, we stayed there for a couple of hours, we took a shower, we ate delicious food and chatted with his lovely family, which actually did not know us. In the evening they accompanied us (I mean the whole family of 5 people plus Matteo and Mascha in a car as big as a Fiat Panda) to a square where we took the bus to Khoor. And all that happened even though we did not know nobody of these people before we met them.
This scene is also typical: we were cycling trough a city. Just arriving after a few days on the road. Somebody in a car stopped us and gave his mobile phone to Matteo. The phone call was a little bit strange but at the and it turned out out that the driver couldn't speak any English, but as soon as he saw us he called his friend who spoke English and was a cycle tourist as well, because he was sure that he would have wanted to meet us. After a couple of minutes of waiting on the next square, the cyclist showed up. He was exited to meet some other cycling tourists and invited us to his place. Which was actually his friend's place, but the evening turned out nice and we even went together on a one-day trip few days after.
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| with Vladimir in Genu |
The last story it a proof that fortunately not only Iranians are hospitable. On our third day in Iran, we met a russian couple in a park in Teheran, we started to talk and after a while they invited us to their place if we would ever be near Bandar Abbas. Well, some weeks later we really arrived in Bandar and called Vladimir, who ist working here. His wife, who was here just on holidays had already left a few days earlier. And now we are already at his place since more than a week - our record in one place on this jurney. And we're enjoying the time a lot, relaxing and gathering strength for the next weeks on tour.
Bandar Abbas
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| Fishmarket in Bandar (yes, its blood...) |
Once we had a strange discussion with a taxi driver. He wanted to be polite and asked us if he could drink. We were quite stunned at first, but then we understood that he had a can of beer in his hand, and not an Iranian 0% beer, but a real one. He, afterwards was quite stunned that we did not want him to drink while he was driving the taxi. And it all ended up with a long discussion about drink and drive...
 |
| on the wild boat trip back from Hormoz |
Another story happend on our trip to Hormoz Island. According to Iranians, we went there with fabolous wether: it was raining. Hormoz is a tiny island a couple of kilometers from Bandar with a small fishing village and a portugese fortrest from 1500 AD. As we examined the castle we could find a lot of different stones coloured in brown from far away, but if you come closer you'll see blue ones, green ones, orange and red ones. It was quite amazing. Later on we learned that this island is famous for its different coloures of sand.
When we returned to the harbour, we found a lot of people waiting. There were rumours that no boat will be leaving that day bacause of the stormy sea. Actually there were only a few waves, but the boats a small and all open. Finally one of the fishermen agreed to go, but he charged more than double the price (as we found out later). The trip back was like riding on an attraction at the "Oktoberfest" in Munich, but maybe not as save...We enjoyed it, but some of the passengers were quite afraid, maybe they could not swim and of course there were not any lifejeckets on board. Despite some girls were crying of fear, Matteo incited the direver to go faster. We arrived, all wet and shaken, but exited and happy.
More chapters on Iran following soon!
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