Kerman and Shahdad Kalut

As we were two, we decided to take taxi instead of the bus. Only reason was to get a dinner in Kerman before going to sleep. It took around 7 hours and 70 eur. On our way we did not see too much, as the nature in most parts of Iran we were in, is nothing special, mostly desert looking with tufts of grass/bushes then and there. We passed our first total police check. Iran is trying to minimize drugs trafficking. Apparently it is pretty easy to buy them and it is becoming big issue for Iran. Usually police checks are friendly with tourists. We were really questioned only once during our 2 weeks trip.


If you plan to buy wool carpet, it is the place. For silk carpets (but in reality also for woollen) the best is Isfahan. As we were basically out of the high season, we got the best price there.

City itself is not so interesting (it is more interesting outside of it). You need less than one day to see what is worth to see. Masjed-e Jameh mosque and bazaar are the highlights. We spent quite a time walking on bazaar. When you are there, look also into Imam Mosque. There are not so many places to eat. We had a dinner in Akhavan hotel traditional restaurant. It had a fixed local menu but it was good. It might be also one of the best options for sleep. Hotel owner could make you several good deal going around. It is worth to ask him.

Finding good places to eat in Iran is a challenge, but in Kerman we found it most difficult. In our experience the Akhavan hotel restaurant turned out to be the easiest and probably the best option. We spent couple of hours trying to find restaurants from TripAdvisor, walking around the city, but with no luck. Then we were asking from people on the streets and in the end one local family drove us to a restaurant bit out of the centre which was quite new. It was an adventure, but in the end we managed to get our bellies filled, enjoyed live music and shishka. This is something you need to take into consideration when trying to find restaurants in some cities.

The highlight of the visit to Kerman was Kalut (Kaloot) desert (Shahdad). We took a guide with the car to visit Rayen, Mashan and the desert (1 day). Rayen is a one of the best so called mud castles. It was really interesting to see it. On our way back we looked into Bagh-e Shahzde. In fact it was the best Persian garden we saw. It is about 1,5 hours nice walk. We had nice lunch in Mashan, food was good and interestingly they were using some kind of sprinkler system in the restaurant. At first it was strange but in the end we realised it made the climate in the restaurant much cooler.

We decided not to sleep in Shahdad. It is always possible to stay there till sunset and shoot your pictures, but we did not have luck. Previous day there was a sandstorm - heavy clouds above us. The good side was it was not so hot, but the heat was still insane. Phones and cameras started lagging already a minute or two after taking them out. But the desert itself was one of out highlights of our trip. You can see nepka park (sand hills around local trees). Very strange symbiosis of trees and the desert. We looked on (that time) tiny very salty river. It was really salty. You can see further down the spring salt lakes. We shot many pictures from the top of sand towers (mountains). Very different and interesting view. The guide showed us also underground water channels (qanat) from mountains (around 17 km long) (old traditional way of irrigation and getting drinking water). Amazing. Some of  the shafts could be 400 m deep. Complex system with lot of handwork. There are many of such systems in Iran. You should pay a visit to one of them, if possible. On our way we had a look on 900 years old cyprus tree. And it was not the oldest one. In May we could still see some snow on top of their 4000 and plus mountains.


We were quite lucky with our guide as well, he spoke really good English and was able to explain some things about Iranian culture and give insight to way of life of the youth of Iran. He explained how lots of young people are struggling to find their purpose. Which makes them turn more to drugs and alcohol or the opposite, they shut themselves off the world, by getting stuck in digital world. There aren´t so many things kids can do on their free time and if there are, those things are way too expensive for most. Also he explained the universities are overproducing students in many areas, so the ones who have their degrees have no chance of finding jobs on their field of study and end up with empty pockets, living off their parents. But then again you can see similar problems in some western countries as well.

It takes time to get to Kerman but it was worth to go there to see Kalut and a way to there.

Before our trip

The idea to visit Persia has been in my head pretty long time - long history (it has been great empire), rich in culture and architecture, interesting nature. For different reasons it has been like hidden gem.  Many strange rumours in press did not help to make final decision. Several of my good colleagues made a trip in 2014/2015. In addition to confirming interesting sites to visit, they all assured Iran is more secure than Brussels (that's even before bombing).

We started preparation of the itinerary based on our friends' comments and recommendations. After reading also TripAdvisor forum and some other sites, we prolonged our stay in Iran – 2 weeks instead of 10 days.  We decided to leave Tabriz and trekking for next time and to add several smaller landmarks on our way back from Shiraz to Tehran.

Tips from several TripAdvisor forum posts were extremely useful to prepare and shape our trip. Unfortunately getting invitation/reference number (LOI) and visa took longer (maybe not always). At the very end Dutch travel company Alarco was very efficient (and good in communication) for invitation/reference number and key2persia was very good to book our hotels. Keep in mind that Iran is now "hot destination" for tourists, but according infra is behind the increasing needs/demand so during high season book hotels in main cities well ahead.

Getting visa seems to be pretty often quite a bit of hassle (first of all timing and trips where passport is needed). We followed advice to buy a visa on airport. For that you just need LOI (letter of invitation with registration number) and buy for some 15 EUR local insurance (for US and UK citizen it might not work). I made it in half an hour, for Markus it took longer.

We found LonelyPlanet book and TripAdvisor forum extreamly useful for setting up preparatory work and defining suitable hotels.

Shiraz

We took a night train to Shiraz. Highly recommendable. There are very good trains, very good service and it is in time. For Europeans also very cheap. Keep in mind to buy ticket before and before check-in it is needed to get a stamp from local police booth which you find in the train station. Simple and quick procedure - you just present your passport, get a stamp and that's it.

We travelled together with two local men from Shiraz. Their English vocabulary was around 30-40 words, but we had pretty long and interesting conversation. One of them was retired military officer and the other lawyer, both returning home.

Shiraz railway station is out of the city, so you need to take taxi. It is well organised - you tell what hotel and you pay immediately. Cheap and fast.

Shiraz is a capital of Fars province and it is a former capital of Iran. It is quite modern and lively city.

The highlight in Shiraz is definitely Shah Cheragh. You get guide free of charge and you need to have one if you want to take photos. We had very nice open minded and good English speaking guide. Photos were only allowed when he was around. It was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. We felt it is a holy place. It has also modern part of mosque and is architecturally very nice. Interestingly we got a leaflet apologising what happened in Paris and Brussels. Islam in Iran is pretty moderate and you don't see anything indicating radicalism. We talked to many people and they all were pretty tolerant to other religions. Most of them were very "western" friendly. We never heard anything negative about US, rather people were criticising their own government.


Nasir al-Mulk Mosque is pretty small compared to Shah Cheragh but it was worth to visit.

Yazd bazaar was not worth to pay a visit (compared to others).

On our way to the city was Karim Khan Citadel. It is nice piece of architecture and pretty well renovated.

Next day we took a taxi to Persepolis. It was ca 1 hour drive and 1,5 hours to look around. Its just ruins but worth to visit (keeping in mind its history). As Naghsh-e-Rostam is nearby (15 min drive), take an opportunity to visit also these tombs. You will see important part of the history. As it is so touristy place there will be people trying to convince you to come see their village, offer themselves as your guides to Persepolis or similar. It was the only place in Iran we saw sellers/guides being so aggressive and it wasn´t even high season. But then again we got a contact there for a guide who took us from Jazd to Esfahan. (About it you can read in our post: Trip to Esfahan)


In great hotel Zandiyeh (one of the best hotels we stayed in Iran) we took Iranian bath. Basically it is classical hamam but pretty good value for money.

When you know about the wine, you expect to see large fields of grape. We saw few abandoned plots of grape, but that's all. We heard rumours that some local people still do some wine for family use, but it is almost dead business there. Younger people brew homemade beer as well, but mostly moonshine called arak (anis spirit). Supposedly it is not too hard to get arak, but we would still advise caution when asking around. Iran has moral police visiting celebrations and noone takes the risk bringing alcohol to these events or appearing drunk in public. Private gatherings as we understood are a different story. Also when bringing alcohol with you, be prepared to explain that it is for medical reasons or something similar as some consider drinking alcohol sickness. 

Tehran

My Turkish Airlines flight Brussels-Istanbul was late – gates closed 5 minutes before I managed to run to the gate. Markus left for Tehran alone. I slept 2.5 hours in 5 star hotel and arrived some 13 hours later.

After arrival I rushed to buy a visa. At first is needed to buy local insurance (some 15 eur). The counters are nearby.  I presented my letter of invitation with reference number, paid and in some 15 minutes the visa was in my passport. Markus spent for this procedure more than hour and I more or less 30 minutes.

We bought rials for 100 eur to be able to pay for 1^st day expenses. Exchange rate difference between airport and city was pretty small. It took for us some time to find right area in the city to exchange currency. When you find one, there are several or many nearby.

We did not know about new option of Iranian tourist card and we brought quite a lot cash with us. In many places in Iran you can pay by card, but only with local ones. Except few carpet shops who had also international card terminal. after our trip we discovered tourist card and I will add information about it (from TripAdvisor) as it is useful information.

" It is a card in Iranian Rial which is issued for tourists against foreign currencies received from them with designated expiry date and it can be used in whole Iranian banking system. A Tourist Card is given to clients with exclusive passwords. There are two passwords for each card. First password is to be used when the card is used to buy by POS and the second password is used for internet buying. Both passwords can be changed by the holder of the card.



Specifications of Tourist Card

1- It can be used through whole Iranian banking system



2- Cash can be withdrawn only in BMI ATMs.



3- Funds can not be transferred to Tourist Card



4- Cards can be used to buy through internet, their passwords can be changed and funds can be transferred from Tourist Card to other cards.



5- The remaining cash in Tourist Cards can be converted to foreign currencies and paid to customers.



6- The expiry date of Tourist Card will be the date when clients’ visas are expired.



7- The limit of charging these cards in $ 5,000



8- Customers can be informed about the remaining balance of Tourist Cards through Bank Melli Iran’s website (www.bmi.ir), all ATMs throughout the country and all POS systems.



9- Customers can take billing statements and be informed about the breakdown of their Tourist Card transactions in BMI ATMs."
We did not manage to buy local SIM card on airport – it was closed for a lunch. Later it took some time to find a place to buy it. So, it is recommended to buy it on airport. We bought 5 GB internet time and call time for 600 000 rial. For 2 weeks it was enough for two.  

As it was Saturday lunch time there was not so much traffic and I was in hotel in some 40 minutes.  Hotel was located in pretty good area but it was far away to be 3 star hotel. In European terms it was rather a hostel. But it was clean enough and many our sites were in walking distance. If you are looking for real 3 or 4 star hotel, be prepared to pay over 100 Eur. For the last day we did not manage to book a hotel – so we stayed in Qom, what was not so bad option. Hotels there are cheaper but not sp easy to find a good hotel. During high season hotels in main cities should be booked ahead.

First day we decided to walk around leaving sites for next day.

Tehran metro is very good to move around. On rush hours it is crowded, so with rucksacks it might be a challenge (we took taxi to get to railway station).  I would advise to print metro map out and to bring with you (http://www.mapsofworld.com/metro-maps/asia/tehran.html).

We took a metro to Valiasr Square and took a long walk on this Tehran high-street. In Iran it is pretty strange arrangement for shops. You see several quarters only electronic shops, after several quarters only cloth and so on. We did not find any place to exchange cash or to buy SIM card. We got hungry and we started to look for a restaurant. We could not find any. Later we discovered there were plenty of them on the other side of the street. As we wanted a lamb shaschlik, it took pretty long time to find a proper place. At the end, the lamb was great (one of the best we got in Iran).  

We paid a visit to Armenian Church – Sarkis Cathedral It was closed and we discovered later that Armenian Church in Isfahan was more interesting.

The next day we visited Golestan palace. It is nice place with nice inner square. The mirror mosaics were something new for us. We visited also several small museums there, but as usual in Iran, museums are pretty poor / not too much to see. So, next time we would skip them.

National museum of Iran was slight disappointment (like most of Iranian museums). You can skip Islamic part. But in pre-Islamic part we found very interesting pieces of pottery (dated 4000-5000 years BC) and remains of man from salt mine. In Islamic period part the best piece was Paradise door.

The jewellery museum is definitely a top museum in Iran. It is small (it took around 45 min) but interesting. Keep in mind that it is required to deposit all your belongings. I was afraid about my big amount of cash, but it was safe.

Highlight of our Tehran visit was trekking in Darband. We followed TripAdvisor recommendations and went on Friday. It was crowded but you can see all kind of local people. The path is alongside of small river and there are many nice restaurants/shisha places. You can enjoy shisha or meal sitting on the platform on the river. We stopped trekking in last restaurant to enjoy shisha and water melon.   

After trekking we went to Saad Abad Complex. It was a nice walk in huge park. White Palace and Green Palace are both worth to visit. From other museums only dishware and automobile museums where worth to visit.

From that we saw,  last shah lived compared to other royal’s pretty modest life.

As a summary: Tehran has crazy traffic and air pollution. It depends from your interests, but we would say two and half days in Tehran is enough.