Day 115/116 rest days Tehran, Iran

I did a bit of wandering around last night, including going past what used to be the US Embassy, now referred to as the “Den of Espionage”, it was very noticeable in that there is essentially no graffiti anywhere in Iran and all the paintings on walls and buildings are pleasant scenes, but on the walls around the ex-US Embassy one found:

In daily speak, the US is referred to as “The Great Satin”

We went to a local cafe for lunch, this is a common style of seating:

A sort of make your own lunch:

 One of the many murals on buildings around Tehran:

One of the new riders (Doug) had arranged for a personal tour guide for three days, I joined them for the day yesterday.  The guide, Homan, was extremely knowledgeable on essentially everything, he is one of the Lonely Planet authors for Central Asia.  Iranians are extremely proud of their country and its history.  Some of my notes from our day:

The west portrays Iran as an extreme Islamic country, however Iran is very open to the presence of other religions, e.g. Christian (pic below is of an Armenian Church).  Also Iran is home to the 3rd largest collection of active Jewish synagogues.  This doesn’t balance with how the West portrays Iran.

Turkey is the bridge between East and West, Iran is the crossroads.

Homan, corrected me, the written script I am seeing is Farsi, not Arabic - they are the same, but Farsi has a few more letters.  I have been trying to learn the script - I can now read numbers.

We went to the carpet museum, an amazing collection.  As most of you know, one of the measures of carpet quality is the density of the knots - the term is Radj or Raj which is knots per 7 cm, e.g. a 60 or better Radj  carpet is very good.  Knots per square inch is the more common western standard, so 60 Radj is the equivalent of 474 KPSI.  

A couple of the carpets in the Museum:

The trading routes used to be called the Spice Road, until Marco Polo came along and for business reasons called it the Silk Route.

Iran is the only Shia Muslin country

Formally booze is forbidden, but behind private closed doors, no problem finding wine (especially some very good home made) - the Shiraz grape is originally from Iran, and the beer (again you-brew) was excellent.  I had the privilege of being invited to a home (apartment), so I can testify to this.

Rode the subway system (very good, very modern), out to see the Azadi Tower.  Other than the Farsi signage, this was like every other rapid transit system in the world, there is also signage in English.  Because I’m in Iran, one difference…The first and last cars (or two) are reserved for women only.

The Azadi tower (Borj-e Azadi) was built in 1971 as a celebration of 2,500 years of the first Persian Empire.  The pictures don’t do justice to how large (50+M high) the tower is.  The extensive grounds surrounding the tower are commonly used for major demonstrations, including (1 million +??) during the 1979 revolution and the post election crisis of 2009.

I also wandered the Tehran Bazar:  a massive complex of alleys, some 10km of alleys!  In its very chaotic way it is very well organized, all the spice merchants are together in one area, the carpet dealers together in another, etc. In fact all over Tehran (and I expect Iran), all the stores of a type are located together, bicycle shops are here, hi-end women’s fashion over there, plumbing supplies in this section, etc.,  I spent time at the Bazar having tea with two (of probably 500) carpet merchants.  I really liked this carpet (hand knotted silk), except it wouldn’t fit in my bike bags…

This is one of many carpet merchant buildings, it is 4 floors high each floor with 20+ carpet merchants:

Riding in a taxi here is an experience in itself - everyone is absolutely comfortable with 3" clearance between vehicles, people etc.,  All the "rules of the road", painted lanes, direction signs etc., are guidelines at best.