HALi BABA JOURNAL

 Last day…I’m ready to leave…not in I’m Having a Bad Time way, but my span of attention has wandered and I can barely absorb any more information. Before we leave Kashan we visit the Historic Houses…essentially oversized compounds built by wealthy merchants in the late 1800s…they’re nice but unfurnished and 💤💤 The last stop, about an hour away, is the city of Qom. This is a religious center and the second most important city in Iran (Islamically speaking)…it’s got a pretty impressive mosque and shrine complex that’s really hopping…lots of non-Iranian Muslim tourists…the atmosphere is bustling but not festive as people seem down with some serious praying. As non-Muslims we need to be escorted by a special guide..everyone is exceedingly friendly although the Q&A session in the International Visitor Center was a little awkward.  I’m now at the airport hotel…my flight is at 6:15AM so I have to leave at 3:00AM…gonna call it a night..bedroot (goodbye) Iran.

 It’s about 2pm and we’ve just arrived in Karshan…a dusty high desert city of 400,000 or so. It was a 2 hour drive from Isfahan and we made a couple of stops on the way. The first was another mosque…💤…no pics. The second )stop was the village of Abyendah. It was about 20 minutes off the main road and was pretty cute. They style themselves as an historic village (2500 years old…their dress is a little different and the architecture unique. Another rest period at our new hotel and then off to...another mosque...then a palace and garden...y'know these kinda places are nice, and if you lived in Karshan you'd probably go there with your family or with your gf on a date...but honestly they're not world class tourist sites and visiting every one of them is getting a bit tedious. Then we were off to the Grand Bazaar...after a few minutes of walking around in what seems like an endless 1970s 14 Street collection of cheap toys, clothes and household goods, I decided that I was bazaa...

 I'm taking my mid-day break but thought I'd start this entry early. I'd have to say that my interest in more touring is waning. I've had a really interesting time so far and I'm glad I took this trip but the actual sights/sites aren't really what made this trip special. It's been the culture and the people of Iran that has been the real pleasure and surprise of this experience. I can't stress enough how "normal" things are here. People aren't getting together at teahouses when we're not around and talking about driving Jews into the sea...or planning rallies to show support for the Iranian nuclear program...nobody is chanting Death to America when we pass by...EVERYONE is just flat out friendly. The downside is that travel adventure-wise it's not got a lot of diverse attractions. Basically, you've seen one mosque, you've seen them all. Oh some are more grandiose than others but essentially it's the same theme. There are...

 Isfahan is generally considered to be Iran's crown jewel and it's easy to see why. Broad tree-lined boulevards and a public square...Naqsh-e Jahan now Emam Khomeini Square...is spectacular. It's said to be the second largest public square in the world and seem to be the center of life in Isfahan. From morning to night it's filled with Iranian families mostly just hanging out and eating. There are 2 large mosques and a palace that dominate the square and they are attached by arched buildings with storefronts. In back of the storefronts and running like rabbit warrens is a bazaar that must spread for several square kilometers. Closer to the square vendors are selling tourist items...further back it could be anything. Since many of the tourists are Iranians from the parts of the country the tourist souvenir items tend to fall into the 3-D winking Jesus category or Persian carpets...generally speaking the prices for carpets has been high and I haven't been tempted to b...

 Mostly a traveling day. We left Yadz around 9-ish and had a 3 hour ride through the desert to Isfahan. Along the way we stopped at a "cow well"...wtf? We it turns out the it's a traditional centuries old irrigation system. They harness a cow to a rope and pulley system and the repetitive walking and pulling of the animal brings the water up from the well and dumps it into a thingee that goes out to the fields. Doesn't sound particularly earthshaking and hardly a reason to drive 40 minutes off the road into the desert. But what made this unusual was that the cow will only work if the owner sings to him. When the owner sings the cow happily walks up and down an earthen ramp pulling away. If someone else sings...no deal. I have some video...let me know if you want to see it. Anyway it was a good photo op for 10 minutes or so. We continued on to Isfahan and checked in our hotel Since we had the evening free we walked over to Emam Khomeni Square…second largest public squa...

 We started out early before it got too hot...our first stop was a garden in the center of the city. Roughly 20 acres it was built in 1140AD and has a summer and a winter palace at either end of a long reflecting pool. One of the defining characteristics of large buildings in Yadz and other surrounding desert cities is the "wind tower". A tower structure of several stories that rises over the building and as the wind blow through acts as a cooling system...the wind is channeled through the by hollow passageways and was a primitive A/C system. The palaces here had wind towers as did many of the buildings in the old part of Yadz. After strolling through the garden we next went to a Zoroastrian Fire Temple...Zoroastrians are an ancient religious sect that have been in Iran for millennia and have been allowed to peaceably co-exist. I asked if there were any Jewish temples that were similarly preserved but Reza, the guide, was unaware of any in this area. Since my interest level w...

 It's not that I've been all that busy, that I skipped posting yesterday, but rather that I've been falling asleep earlier then usual...probably because of the heat. Yesterday we left Shiraz and drove about an hour out into the desert to visit the tomb of Cyrus the Great. It was pretty underwhelming...think of it as an Iranian Plymouth Rock...most non -American tourists would have node of what the big deal was of a rock in an iron cage...same here...just some blocks of rocks in the middle of nowhere. The saving grace is that our guide had arranged for us to have a lunch meal at the home of a local woman who operated a small restaurant (2 tables) out of her home in the village. She prepared a traditional meal of stuffed chicken (walnuts, pomegranate , raisins , seasoning) that was delicious...traditional side dishes, some kind of yogurt drink...a good time was had by all. We then drove another hour or so to our hotel in Abarkuh...a dusty little town with narrow winding stree...