Hormuz Island

The first island we visited in Persian Gulf was Hormuz Island. The name may seem familiar now if you follow latest news and heard about Strait of Hormuz.

We went there by small boat with some local people and two goats. Amazing journey. The boat was going very fast so we had to hold on to whatever we could.

First we visited an old Portuguese fort. We didn't know that then but we do now that it's called Fort of Our Lady of the Conception, as it states in Wikipedia (vide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_of_Our_Lady_of_the_Conception_in_Hormoz_island ).

View from top of the fort

View of entrance

It faces another fort (or castle) on Qeshm Island. we found a guide and he showed us around. the fort is almost forgotten and it falls apart because there are not enough funds to take better care of it. We could see how the ground level changed, especially when we entered the church within the fort. The columns seem really small now but you can imagine how high they once were. The good thing is that you can clearly see that arches are made of coral (well, it was 16th century).

There is also a small exhibition of things found there (especially military, like cannons or cannonballs).

After visiting the fort we had to rest because of the heat and sat by a shop. There were children staring at us. Some of them were too afraid to come closer but had to do it anyway, since we were sitting right next to the entrance, trying to catch a patch of shadow. We had some water and continued.

Mohsen invited us for a ride by a boat around the island.

And that's something really worth doing. The island is very diverse, it's covered by sedimentary rock and volcanic layers but it's also very colorful from iron (reddish), salt (white) and shiny mineral on beaches. We could see that water created some caves and it would be very exciting to go canoeing around Hormuz.

The only thing that spoiled the view was litter and crashed boat. I mean, it was not very dirty and i know people live there and it's no reservation but that one thing took away the feeling of visiting a place where civilization hadn't come yet. And some beaches look like such a place. We got off to walk around a bit and saw a cave where water came during high tides.

I don't remember exactly if it was before or after the ride around the island but while we were waiting for another boat, there were some kids playing in the water and when they saw us, tourists, they were shouting "Mister! How are you? Thank you!". We didn't react (except of laughing a bit), so they gave up after a while.

If you ever be around, visit Hormuz and enjoy. But if I ever go back, I guess it will be in December or January :)

Persian gulf we are coming

We were supposed to meet Mohsen aka our Brother aka Master Mike at the bus station in Shiraz. He was going to travel with us to the South and show us some places there. As a student of tourism he knew a lot about the country. I was surprised by the amount of tourist guides for almost every place in Iran. Unfortunately, they were mostly available in Farsi or Arabic language, but still just looking at the photos you could create a picture of this amazing country in your head. Some of our friends advised us not to go to the South in summer, but we decided to go anyway. For the future references, we don't advice anyone going there during summer :-)

Waiting for Mohsen, we found a nice green spot in front of the Station. Some time later Mohsen showed up and we moved into the station building for ticket hunting. Ticket hunting is pretty popular sport in Iran. There is a lot of bus companies who are selling tickets for various destinations with various prices around the country. We just wanted to get to Bandar-e 'Abbās, old port city on the coast of Persian gulf. The city remember even Darius the Great and Alexander the Great too. Nowadays it's still important as a major Iranian port mainly for imports and touristic layover for these who wants to visit Qeshm and Hormuz islands.

We spent one night in a couchsurfer's house. He was Mohsen's friend who actually wasn't in the city but his brother let us in.

There is one rule valid for all bathrooms in the South. In every bathroom there is at least one reptile which size is directly proportional to the size of bathroom where it lives. When we were passing by public bathrooms we joked there is a crocodile living there. At the beginning it's uncomfortable to share bathroom with small reptile but after first use of bathroom you realize why they live there.

The reason are huge cockroaches living in the hole serving as a toilet. Some of them are even jumping when something is falling down to the hole which is so strange and creepy. Especially if you don't wanna miss the hole, you have to come pretty close and this small bastards are jumping up to 20 centimeters. Getting bit from them is something what could bring you nightmares and fear to use toilet again. They have a big antennae which are used for exploring. I don't know how they are hiding in the hole but they could survive everything. :)

Despite all creatures living in bathrooms you are safe. During summer day people are not walking on the streets if they don't need to. Mostly sitting in cars where various unit of air conditioning is a must. Temperature is not falling under 26 °C during the night and keeping around 40 °C during the hottest part of the day. For someone living in the central Europe this temperature is devastating.

We didn't know that until we got off the bus in Bandar-e 'Abbās. It was around 4 o'clock in the morning and we almost experienced thermal shock. The temperature outside was 33°C, while in the bus there was only 16°C (you gotta love air conditioning!).

Persepolis

We wanted to visit the ceremonial capital of ancient Persia very much. At first, it was supposed to be the furthest we get in Iran but our friend Mohsen encouraged us to go to an island in Persian Gulf. But let's go back to ancient times.

Persepolis was established around 515 BC and was famous for its greatness and then, maybe even more, for its destruction in 330 BC.

Persepolis now doesn't look very much like a city. Most of the buildings are just outlined by short walls, there are no roofs, gates and columns are reaching for the sky.

We also went uphill to see tombs on the hillside and to watch the city from above. We also drank Kofola which we brought all the way from Slovakia.
The taste was still same as home, even after thousands of kilometers by hitchhiking.

Although a lot of reliefs and sculpture from Persepolis are now in museums around the world (among others National Museum in Tehran, British Museum and Metropolitan Museum) the place is still unique.

When we were hanging around close to one tomb we met Khamron. He was sitting in the shadow and waiting for us. We were so surprised by meeting him there. He travelled 13 hours with friend who was our driver from Sarche to Persepolis just to see us for few hours. Would you do that?

Khamron

Shiraz, the city of poets, literature, wine and flowers

After the night in the desert we walked around Esfahan once more and left the city in the afternoon, heading to Shiraz by VIP bus. VIP bus had bigger chairs than regular bus and there was only 24 of them, we could almost lay down after unfolding them. The journey was quite pleasant, we got some water and food in funny bus-shaped boxes.

We arrived in Shiraz in the evening. It was getting dark but you could feel feast everywhere. It was the night Ramadan ended. Lots of people were walking around, having picnics everywhere they could find a patch of grass (even green zones between roads).

inside of citadel

Karim Khane Zand's citadel

We found our host and spent the rest of the evening in his flat. We learned to play Backgammon, a game very popular in the region (also called Nard or Tavla). And we got totally crazy about it.

We spent the next day walking around the city and realized that the most interesting monuments of ancient Persian culture were actually outside Shiraz. But we visited Karim Khane Zand's citadel and baths.

Citadel was beautiful from outside but once we stepped inside we were quite disappointed. Almost all paintings on the walls were destroyed during revolution. There was just a few things worth seeing.
That was valid for all parts of the city which we saw. But people were great as in any part of Iran with small exception of Sarche.

Our host was quite a rebellious man, he was partying, playing poker with his friends and drinking whiskey. In other words, doing things that are nothing special for us in Europe but can get you into real trouble in Iran.
Half of our group decided to go for the underground party and the others stayed at home to rest for next day.

Persian Desert

Our friends suggested that we spend one night in the Varzane Desert. we thought that was a great idea and prepared for the night outside the city. We took our sleeping bags, some food, etc. and met with everyone at the bus station. It turned out that our group was bigger than we thought. And more international. From what i remember there were Persian, Turkish, French, Slovak and Polish people :)

Our Persian friend was shouting in English: "Don't tell anyone that we are going to the desert, it's forbidden!" Everyone on the bus station could hear that. With all backpacks and everything it was pretty obvious where we are heading. Our friends made a deal with bus driver who took us to the desert and was supposed to come for us next day at noon. The ride took around three hours and it was a tedious journey in small bus, high temperature and dusty air.

When we arrived there it was already dark. We had to set the fire, so some of us went looking for wood, then we had a very nice dinner.

We also brought some wood with us in the bus. Some people are quite often going into the desert for parties, bringing some musical instruments and having fun with no one around.

It was getting colder and sand was everywhere, so we wrapped ourselves in scarves to breathe more easily. We also had to put our trousers into socks, in case any scorpions were around and tried to bit us.
We couldn't see much but night is perfect for watching the stars. There were millions of them right above us. I know they're always there but seeing them is quite impressive. We (me&Martin) slept only in our sleeping bags, despite the tales of scorpions. They were not the worst kind, from what we heard from our Persian friends.
Fortunately no scorpions paid visit to us during the night. But the cold did. It was such a terrible cold like in Frankfurt in February after concert of Stars = which means really really cold.

We woke up in the morning and it was getting warm very fast. And we walked around admiring dunes and observing people who learned paragliding running down the dune.

Jumping a bit and exploring desert before it was extremely hot. Then our bus came and we left for Esfahan.

Text in italics added by Matoo