Shiraz, Iran. 31st December 2024.

The rain I’d found on the way into Shiraz was still there to haunt me next morning. So, with breakfast eaten I just caught up on the internet.
Once the rain had stopped six of us went out. Tom – Belgian; Max – Dutch; Max – Spanish; Rebecca – Australian; Shafireh – Iranian; Me – Irish. A right old international mixture. Spanish Max and Tom speak excellent English, as does Shafireh. I still mostly can’t understand a word Dutch Max says.

We walked round to Vakil Mosque. A pleasant place. Big and open, as I’ve discovered that many mosques in Iran appear to be. It was built in the 12th century, long predating the other royal buildings in the area. ‘Vakil’ means ‘Regent’, the title used by  Karim Khan, the local ruler.

Next was Vakil Historic baths. This was a bathhouse originally built for royalty in the mid-18th century, but became available for ordinary people. Shafireh reckons people would go once a week, mostly businessmen. There were dentists, barbers, medics and masseurs, and other services too. The building itself was beautiful, with tiled arches and walls. Wax models were set out in dioramas, which told the story very well.

We then went to a café in the square. Coffee and creamy, honey flavoured Russian cake was the order of the day for me.
We walked across to the Arg of Karim Khan. A massive fortress, with one of the corner towers leaning over. It was raining so we decided not to go in as it involved a fair bit of outdoor walking. Save it for a dryer day. The whole area was part of a complex of royal buildings, which included the Vakil Bazaar as well.

Rebecca and Sharifeh went out later and returned with enough food to feed the five thousand. They cooked, the rest of us helped where we could.
Later on the homemade wine and Rakki were broken out and the new year’s eve party commenced. Lots of chat and laughs. A bit of dancing too. Everyone was having a good tim. Then the police arrived to spoil the party. Hamid (the owner) told us all to go to our rooms and take the alcohol with us. So that was that. We left Hamid to talk to them. I wouldn’t be surprised if money changed hands. I suppose a hostel full of foreigners would be an obvious target. Happy New Year!

There’s never a rush to get up after a party night. But somehow we all managed. I’d cooked some breakfast but the others needed food. So we all went out for some lunch before heading off to look at some places.
Firstly we needed a money changer for Rebecca. We found one near the Arg of Karim Khan. He was sat at a table with bundles of notes in his hands. He tried to put some cash onto her card but it wouldn’t work. So she ended up with big wodges of Rial.
While this was happening a couple of young guys were walking past and taking a bit too much interest for my liking. So Max and I stood watching them, with our backs to the money changer. They wandered off after a while. It was probably all innocent, but who knows? There’s money changers all over the place, often on the streets, like these were.
On that topic, it’s easy to change up Euros, Dollars, GBP or any other major currency. The rate will be what’s on the currency conversion app that I mentioned previously. There’s almost always an exchange shop in any of the bazaars. But, somewhat surprisingly, jewellers will also do that business too.

We took a long walk down to Qavam House. It used to be a semi official government building and was used for entertaining foreign dignitaries.
It has a mirror area at the front but inside it has some fabulous decorations, especially the painted ceilings. The interior doors were beautiful too. Beneath it was a museum with various artifacts in there.

It was quite a long walk back, in a biting wind. Sharifeh was explaining to me about how much Iranians earn; the cost of rent; the price of a car. She said they export most of their gas to Bahrain and have to import petrol. She reckons there’s going to be a huge increase in fuel prices soon. It seems like the people are going to suffer even more.
She was also talking about how they might end up with a monarchy again, which sounded odd. The monarch would be the senior religious leader out of a committee of religious leaders. I think that’s what she meant anyway. This year could be a big one for Iran. Positive? Who knows. I could only hope.
Back to base for some food. Sharifeh helped me download the Snapp taxi app. Rebecca had taken a taxi to Persopolis and it was stupid cheap. So I planned to do that the next day, possibly with Max.

But before that we were going to see the pink mosque, which has to be seen quite early in the day.
Sharifeh had been planning to get an overnight bus to Tehran but she’d been advised the road was closed due to snow! Backgammon took up the rest of the evening, with me as a spectator. Iranians are mad keen on this game. But Rebecca kept playing them out of the door. She’s an ace! Fortunately for them she doesn’t play for money.
In the morning the four of us went to see Nasir al-Mulk Mosque, AKA Pink Mosque. And what a fabulous place it was.

The decorations inside are mostly pink, of various shades. The mosaics were beautiful and looked different to most other places. But the most delightful thing about it is the stained glass windows.
We’d come in the morning so as to get the sun on the correct side of the building. Although kept hiding behind the clouds, we managed to get enough of it to capture the effect. When the sun shines through the stained glass windows it projects beautiful patterns on the carpet. They looked wonderful. I just couldn’t take enough photos, they looked so good.

The internal columns looked good too, with their pink paint. Thethe other buildings were also pink patterned, but with a much paler effect. They didn’t photographso well. There was a museum to look around with pottery and other artifacts.
After that we split up. Max and I went back to the hostel prior to getting a Snapp cab to Persopolis. That cost 2.2 million. Max gave the driver 2.5 and the cheeky bugger kept the change until he told him off to give it back.

Persopolis is amazing. It reflects all those pictures I’ve seen of ancient art in terms of the style of dress, hair etc. Picture books coming to life. The statuary is excellent, as are the carvings of mythical figures on the gate pillars.

The city is, of course, in ruins but there’s enough left to get an idea of the layout and size. Very few ordinary buildings remain but perhaps there weren’t any, given that it’s a palace.
It was built around 500BCE for the Persian king Darius I and was used until Alexander The Great conquered it in 330BCE. Subsequently all the wooden buildings burned to the ground. The city’s purpose seemed to be largely ceremonial, particularly relating to the Persian New Year, which occurs at the Spring Equinox.

It was also the place where rulers from far points of the empire would come to swear their loyalty and offer gifts to the king. Many of the bas relief carvings showed this story.

As we left we were approached by a taxi driver who offered to take us across to Naqsh-e Rostam, to see the tombs of the kings, then back to the hostel, all for 3 million Rial. Maybe a bit more than we needed to pay but it made things easy and saved messing about.
The four tombs are built into the cliff face. One was never finished. They have bas relief carvings beneath and above, all relating to the king’s life. They sit up in the rock wall, with no obvious access.
We were glad to get back in the taxi and out of the biting wind.

I was due to leave Shiraz the next day so I was pleased when we all went to a nearby restaurant for a good, and surprisingly inexpensive, meal. Rebacca’s Russian friend, Lena, came along with Ali, her Iranian boyfriend. A very good way to part company from the people with whom I’d become good friends.

My next destination was Yazd. I had two reasons for going there. The first was, of course, to visit the tourist places. The second was to get my visa extended. The initial forty five day period was due to expire very soon.
There had been a lot of discussion in the WhatsApp groups about which city was the best for this task. Some seemed to want you to wait a week while they did it. Others only hours or days. And the length of the extension received seemed to be based on what mood the officials were in. Yazd was one of the quickest places. But first I had to get there.
I knew it was going to be a tough ride and I didn’t help myself by leaving much later than I wanted to. Everyone gathered to see me off, or to watch me make an idiot of myself as I rode up the steps and through the gate! I’m pleased to say I was not that day’s entertainment.
Even so, by the time I’d been to an ATM and refueled, it was midday before I was properly on the road. And it was an extremely difficult ride. It was bitterly cold and at times I was wondering if I was going to make it. The road went up over 2300 metres. Fortunately I spotted a café at a service station and stopped to eat and warm up, just in time. A nice cup of coffee and some cake did the trick. But further on the road went up even higher, to over 2500 metres. So I was frozen once again.
As I came nearer to Yazd I was riding alongside snow and I saw people at the side of the road with fires lit, picnicking. I was amazed. What on earth were they up to?

Google announced a long traffic delay and wanted to turn me off the main road. I was a bit concerned about how a side road might be with the snow so, foolishly, I ignored it. The traffic got very jammed up. ‘Sunday traffic’ all the way.
Then Google offered me another alternative route so I took it. This time it did take me onto a dirt road where the water in the ruts had frozen. So I turned back to the main road and suffered the jam. I was able to get past a fair bit of the traffic by riding on the outside edge of the road, assisted by my main beam to encourage some of the cars to move across.
Eventually it cleared up and the last 30 kilometres of the road was straightforward, albeit in the dark. But by then I was in a built up area, with street lights.
Eventually I reached the hotel after easily the toughest ride I’d had on this trip. The main lesson here was to LEAVE EARLY!!!
The hotel I’d booked was very nice. I had to go down some steps that led to a large restaurant. The rooms were off it. The room wasn’t very big but it was WARM! I had a shower just to get properly warmed up. I had food there and it was a very tasty camel stew with potato and rice. A great way to recover from a tough day.

Outside the hotel was a car park,where I was confident the bike would be safe enough, locked and covered. There was a German couple staying in a camper van in there too.
I slept right through until 9am. I suspect I was tired! As most of you will know, it’s not the physical exertion that wears you out on a long day’s travel. It’s the mental strain that does it. But some breakfast soon fixed that.
Today’s main job was to get the visa extension. And that proved to be remarkably easy. I called a Snapp cab but the first two didn’t find me. It may be because I didn’t refresh my location after moving from outside the mosque to outside the bank, about two hundred metres away. After each failure the price went up. So it cost be 50p instead of 30p. Oh woe!
At the visa centre everything was quick and smooth. I got a form from a policeman inside. He took me to talk to another guy. I asked him for sixty days – No, only thirty. So I asked for forty five days – No, only thirty. Oh well, thirty will have to do.
They took 50p off me and stamped the new visa on the back of the photocopy of my passport I’d brought with me. The whole process took less than 30 minutes.

I decided to visit some places on the way back, the first being the Zoroastrian Fire Temple. Google said it would take more than an hour to walk there, I took 45 minutes. It was a lovely day for walking in the warm sunshine.
I was disappointed that I couldn’t go right inside the temple. I could look at the brazier with fire in it through a window. A kind of Everlasting Flame. The garden wasn’t accessible either. But there was a photo gallery and a very informative museum to look at. This religion is what was in Iran before Islam came along.
It’s a monotheistic belief, and it’s book is the Avesta. It’s centered on the struggle between good and evil, and it’s focussed around the worship of Ahura Mazda. Today’s Iran regards it as an official minority religion and it still has some cultural influences today. And here’s where you can find more information.

It was time for coffee and I found a place nearby. Then I walked up to the Amir Chagmagh Complex. This is a large public square with a mosque and bazaar at one end, a large water feature in the middle and various other things in the streets around the edge. There were pretty flowerbeds in the centre too.

There was a large wooden contraption in one corner, which had no signs on it and so I had no idea what it was. It could have been some kind of wheel but it was ovoid.
I had a look inside an old water cistern which was now a wrestling ring. Lots of photos of wrestlers on the wall and the ring had various clubs, or something like them, round the edge. It would be good to watch a match there, I thought. There were four wind towers on the roof of the building, designed to draw air through it. Lots of buildings have them but I’m puzzled as to why there are sticks in the walls of them.

I spotted a sign for a motor museum but it was closed. I planned going back to the square next day for a better look round.

I walked back to the hotel, going down some alleys off the square on the way. I saw a couple of interesting buildings, also with wind towers with sticks. Later on I Googled what the sticks were for.
The idea is to use them to support sections of cloth or reed, which are often wetted. They can be used to divert the wind into the building more effectively and the water on them will help cool the air. So now I knew and I was glad of it!

I called into the mosque near my hotel and took some photos. There were signs outside it pointing  down some lanes, suggesting various places to visit. Another job for the next day. Once it got dark I popped out to photograph the illuminated mosque, and it looked very good. The lights always do something special to these buildings, giving them an aura of gentle mystery.

As I’d promised myself I would, I wandered through the lanes that ran down the side of the mosque after breakfast. The buildings were all plastered with mud and tended to be quite close together.
There was a sign to an art museum but I didn’t find it. So I just wandered round the lanes for a while. Then I went back down to the Amir Chagmagh Complex. I tried the motor museum again but that was closed. Not much luck so far.
But things improved. I went to a museum about the city’s ancient water system and had a very enlightening time learning about the Qanats.
This is the system of aqueducts and tunnels that brought water from aquifers and wells to the city. Now replaced, of course, but they’re still there and have water in them. There’s water flowing under the building that houses the museum. They were first used about 3,000 years ago.
The system is about 75kms long and water feeds into it from different sources. Maintenance workers had to keep the tunnels in good shape. They used to wear white clothes so they could be seen easily in the dark. Those same clothes would also act as a shroud should they happen to get buried by a tunnel collapse!

The museum had lots of photos, most with captions in English, plus various old bits of equipment. The house itself had been built by a merchant and had five floors, three of them underground. All very fascinating.
A guy at the museum spoke English so I showed him a photo of that big wheel type thing and asked him what it was. He told me it was a Nahkl and said it was used for ceremonies . It needed up to two hundred men to carry it. It was mostly used for funerals, he said.
I went back across the plaza to try to find a way into the mosque that was attached to the bazaar, but failed. So I searched for coffee and eventually had to walk back to ta side road near to where I was staying. Google marked four on the map but I could only find one. Thankfully they had cake.
On the way back to my hotel I came across a group of female students celebrating their university results. I helped them take photographs and we had a good chat.

Shiraz and Yazd had both been great places to visit, especially Shiraz because of the great company and a chance to celebrate with friends.
But it had been cold all the time and wet some of it. Now I was going to head south, down to the coast where the warm sun was shining. I was looking forward to wearing shorts and a T shirt instead of two pairs of thermal underwear. See you there!