 Sarf mikoneh
Photo essays: Trip to Iran
New: Isfahan
>>> Persepolis
>>> Shiraz
>>> Tehran
>>> Sari
>>> Dizin
By Sayyad
Updated January 22,
2003
The Iranian
I am Sayyed, an Iranian-American living in the United
States.
My dad called me one day and told me "Sayyed Jan,
you can't afford a vacation of your own so if you like to
come to Iran I will pay for your ass."
So having been in Iran before
and having liked Ghormeh Sabzi and Kabab,
and really wanting to go to Kish to stay at that fancy Dariush
Hotel on Baba's expense, I said I will come.
I packed up
my laptop and $800 Canon PowerShot G5 camera and headed to Dad's
house to go to Iran.
In Iran I did not get to go to Kish because my Dad
liked to go to places where he had relatives. I traveled
to Sari,
Isfahan, Shiraz and obviously Tehran >>> See Shiraz
Last time I was in Iran I was 14 and
had good memory of cheap Ab Talebi (fresh melon juice) and pizza
and here I was 22 going back to renew the memories of teenhood.
Every time I spoke in English people asked my dad, "Sayyed
doesn't understand Farsi?" My dad in response would say "nah,
mifahmeh, behesh fosh bedid?" (No, he understands. Swear at
him and see.") Then everybody would say, "Naaaaaah
ekhtiaar daarid." ("Noooooo! We would never be so direspectful.") >>> See Tehran
We took the Firooz Kooh route to go to the north and
eventually to Sari where many of my father's relatives reside.
I mostly took pictures of the Bazzar and the fruits in there.
The deformed carrots seem to be my favorite. Sari is small a
community
but so much cleaner and nice than Tehran and that's why I
really loved the place. My dad loved Sari so much that he wants
to buy a house over there so he can go hang out with his relatives >>>
See Sari
We took a plane down to Isfahan. I noticed a sign in some Isfahani
Bazaari stores that said something like no bargaining: "no
chooneh". I tried to make a bargain having heard from my
Iranian friends that in Iran bargaining is more complex than
most political dramas. So I offered 3000 tomans to a guy who
was trying
to sell me a ring for 4000 tomans and he said "baasheh" ("Ok") >>> See Isfahan
Later
my dad tried to make bargains in Isfahan stores. Every time we
gave a lower price the guy said "nah aghaa, khodaa vakili
baraaye maa sarf nemikoneh" ("God is my witness, I won't make
a dime, sir."), yet he lowered the price when the skillful cousin
of my dad threatened a walk
out
after
twenty
minutes
of chooneh.
Some other shopkeepers took out their calculator
every time and calculated to see if our offer is worth it;
I was like
you know the price stop acting dude!
On a positive note, Isfahan is the most organized
city of Iran. Generally it does not
have ditches full of waste water. For me the Chaharbagh
river walk and Meydan-e Naghsheh-e Jahan are the three most exciting
things about the city. The downtown
of Isfhan is arguably the Chaharbagh Avenue itself. It extends
from
Shohada
square to Darvazeh Dolat and then to Enghalab where Sio-seh
Pol bridge stands.
For visitors I have a warning: Do not wonder
around Darvazeh Dolat and Shohada in the evenings because god knows
they are really
busy.
Isfahan's Nazhvan Park is an interesting place
to go for a pick nick. It is a park which you can drive
with a car for miles into it from both side of the
river.
The most fascinating place though is the river walk;
it extends basically from near Nazhvan Park to
Pol-e Mozorgmehr. It covers many miles of parks and sides walks
adjacent
to the river on both sides. There are bridges like
Pol-e Vahid, Po-e Felezi, Sio-seh Pol, Pol-e Ferdosi,
Pol-e Choobi, Pol-e Bozorgmehr and Pol-e Shahrestan on the
river.
In Dizin where I had my snowboard from America,
I found myself looking at Iranian rich boys and girls. I snowboarded
from the top
to the halfway and went back up for a new rounds and that is
why my dad sitting on the bottom could not take good photos of
me >>> See Dizin
I hanged out about two weeks in Tehran. I really
did not find Tehran streets straight forward. So I just had my
father write down an
address for me and I would tell the taxi driver to take to this
address. I basically went out with friends of my own Iranian friends
who reside in the U.S.
I ate lots of food and lots of burgers which
tasted like Koobideh. What I hate about Tehran is its
pollution and really lack of any environmental measures in the
city. I also disliked Tehran restaurants because they did not
serve "Ghormeh Sabzi" my favorite Iranian food. In fact I don't
know why
everybody
eats Kabab and pizza outside of their homes.
I visited this American
guy who was forced by his dad to live in Iran for a year. Tony
had an apartment with a very nice view and he had found ways
to get his hands on alcohol and grass so he was sort of not extremely
unhappy.
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