A Day at Aunt Minoo’s

Waking up at Aunt Minoo’s house, Samira had made breakfast for us. We had some eggs and the traditional bread and cheese. Elmira and Arsalan were studying for their final examinations, and I had a chance to catch up with each of them. Samira and I went to the local coffee net where I had a chance to catch up on email and help Samira set up her new email account. My parents were at my Aunt Farzaneh’s house and called us to say that one of my Mom’s distant relatives was there and wanted to meet Samira. This poor girl constantly gets marriage proposals and other such offers but really has no interest in such things right now. Out of respect for family, Samira and I took a cab to Aunt Farzaneh’s house to drop me off and also meet this man that was looking for someone for his son. She stayed for a short while, and then went home to get ready to take me and my Dad out.

Samira came and picked us up in a taxi, and we went to meet Nadir, her friend, at his university. This campus was interesting because it was on the back end of the former Shah’s old palace. Shah Mohammad Reza was the former ruler of Iran until the revolution in 1978. This, his main palace, was turned into a museum and is now used as a tourist attraction. Some of the buildings of Nadir’s university were Prince Reza’s old playground and private school grounds and laboratory. The swing set he used to play on as a kid was still right there in the middle of the school grounds.

The university was hosting a cultural festival on its campus that had gone on for the last few days, and this was the last day. They had booths all over the courtyard representing different ethnicities that live in Iran. Iran is a very multi-cultural country. Having enveloped many countries during the reigns of some of its foreign kings and having been invaded by many foreign leaders has led to a very colorful cultural landscape. Besides the Fars (what are considered true Persians hailing from the province of Fars in Southern Iran), Turks, Kurds, Afghanis, Lors, Baluchis, Pakistanis, Arabs, and ethnicities from many of the former Soviet states bordering Iran call this country home. Each has its own unique language or dialect, tradition, clothing, culture, music, and, most importantly, dances.

After taking in the festival for a couple of hours, we all headed to Darband, an area at the foot of the mountains known for its restaurants and tea houses. On the way there, we stopped at a small shop called Ab-Anar-e Mohammad (Mohammad’s Pomegranate Juice). This place satisfies the Persian taste for all things sour. Sour trumps sweet as the official flavor of Iran. You can get a variety of sour tasting juices like pomegranate or barberry. They also have Pomegranate ice cream, slushies, concentrate, and fruit roll ups. Nadir told us the story of this guy Mohammad who started this business, which is now a franchise all over the city with units selling for $200,000 (no typo, franchises are expensive here). He started out selling water in the city of Abadan and raised enough money to buy a truck. He moved to Tehran and started selling pomegranates out of the back of this truck. After a while, he got enough money together to start one of these stands. Now, this guy that has a fifth grade education is a multimillionaire.

We made our way to Darband after the sour treats. Darband parking at the foot of the mountain, we walked up the road amidst the tea houses and shops that lined the path. The newer restaurants they have built here are absolutely breathtaking. Each one has multilevel outdoor and indoor seating and is carved into the surrounding mountain. The older tea houses and restaurants are still intact and have some of the same appeal. The tea houses are called ghahveh khooneh in Persian, which is actually a misnomer. Ghahveh khooneh actually means coffee house. It turns out that for centuries, Iranians enjoyed coffee over tea. It has only been about a century that the culture has turned to tea. Now, tea is so engrained in the Persian culture that anyone who drinks coffee is accused of being “Westernized”.

We finally stopped at one of the tea houses and picked a deck next to the flowing water. The sound of this river was overpowering. We ordered a hookah and some tea and enjoyed the weather, which was rather chilly that night, the ambiance, and the company. We then made our way down the mountain and went to get some dinner at a burger joint called Bobby Sands. Persians eat dinner rather late, and it was about 11 pm by the time we got to this stand. We got four burgers and ate them in the car since this place had no seating. It was like one of those pizza joints that just serve out the window onto the street. The name of the place, Bobby Sands, sounds familiar, but I just can’t place it. Since the day was winding down rather quickly, we decided to head home.

Kish (Day 3)

We got up early today, around 6:00, and headed for the beach. After changing at the locker room there, we headed for the water. I wished I had had some snorkeling equipment. The water was clear and pristine with no algae or muck to speak of. It was also extremely calm. The waves were mere ripples due to the light breeze that passed over. The white sandy beach was spotted with shells, and a short swim from shore provided a view of some breathtaking corals at our feet. Just on shore was the largest and most extravagant hotel on the island, Hotel Dariush. Named after a prominent Persian king from about 300 B.C., the hotel was designed to look like the buildings at Persepolis, the seat of the ancient Persian Empire located just outside the modern city of Shiraz.

Just behind this hotel, we could see the beginnings of a development that we later found out at a booth in Paradise Mall were a series of high-rise apartment complexes with units for sale called Sun City (www.shahraftab.com). When developed, this will be 14 buildings, each either 7 or 14 stories with an arrangement that provides a view of the beach for about 70% of the units. The units range from 500 to 3500 square feet with a price of about $180 a square foot. This complex comes complete with all the amenities of a hotel – waiters for your parties, dry cleaning, furniture cleaning, wireless internet, sports complex, water sports complex, and a commons area with live music. We were very tempted to buy a unit right there on the spot.

After swimming, we went back to the hotel and cleaned up and headed to breakfast. Over breakfast, we had another heated debate, this time about religion versus science. It started with a discussion about stem cell research and then went from there. We went to Paradise 2 Mall one last time to walk around, and went to a booth where we got all the information about Sun City. When the call to prayer at lunch was announced throughout the mall, it indicated the closing of the mall for the afternoon. This call to prayer, or azan-e-namaz, is announced three times a day in Shiite Muslim countries in public places – at dawn, around noon, and at dusk.

We rested back at the hotel, where I updated my journal and packed. Around 4:30 we checked out and headed to the lobby where we waited for about 1 ½ hours. The hotel shuttle took us to the airport where we checked in and waited for a while. I once again marveled at the 3D models of the Flower of the East development project (www.floweroftheeast.com). When we went to get our boarding passes, the guy there said that my Dad’s luggage was too big, and he had to check it in. This was a bag that was considered carry-on on the way here, so I decided to get into it with the guy just for kicks. I accused him of never having left the island, and he gave me some silly excuse that extra baggage in the cabin would create turbulence problems and mess with the flight of the plane. Deciding he was no longer arguing at my level, I let it go and we boarded the plane for Tehran.

The flight home on the Russian Topolev jet was short and smooth. Rather than the Southwest Airlines peanuts, we got a dinner of kebab and rice. I sarcastically remarked to my Dad that the bread was the only thing missing, when I turned around and the stewardess was standing above me with a tray full of bread. Dad and I started another political discussion that just heated up as the plane landed. After picking up my Dad’s bag from baggage claim, we went outside where my cousin Saeid and his wife Sholeh were waiting for us. They took us to Aunt Minoo’s house where everyone was waiting. We all looked at the pictures I had taken on my computer and had some more family time before falling asleep.

Kish (Day 2)

Today we got up early to eat breakfast. Over breakfast, we tried to plan out our events for the day, which was virtually impossible given the horrendous map that the hotel had given us. With a traditional Iranian lack of attention to detail, this thing had symbols and numbers that did not correspond to the key at all. We just decided to go to some of the malls, starting with what we were told was the biggest one – Paradise 2 Mall. We walked to this mall and marveled at the construction around us. Somewhere along this path, I decided to start a Chiropractic college on this island. Paradise 2 Mall was a beautiful mall. This one was far more organized and the stores, unlike the other malls, had proper merchandise display that was not too cluttered. This mall was connected to Paradise 1 Mall with a covered walkway. This mall was older and more indicative of a modern Iranian bazaar.

On the way back, we stopped at Olive Mall again before returning to the hotel. At the hotel, we had a lunch of bread and cheese that we had brought from Tehran and left in the fridge and had a heated debate about architecture and city planning. In the midst of this debate we stood over the bag of cucumbers and sour plums that my Aunt had given us and finished every last one. Iranians are very partial to cucumbers and anything sour as a snack or treat rather than sweets.

After taking a nap and waiting out the mid-day closings, my Dad and I decided to pursue separate activities. He went and rented a bicycle and rode around the eastern coast of the island. I went to Maryam Market to find out where to get a better map of the island. Just like everything else here, everyone gives you a different answer. The hotel directed me to the market, the market directed me to a newsstand behind an abandoned building across the street that didn’t exist, the cultural center nearby that I went into directed me to the Kish Airlines building across the street, and the information desk there said that the office I was directed to was closed and handed me the same crappy map that I already had but in English.

Venus Mall next door provided me an opportunity to check my email at one of its coffee nets and upload my latest journeys to my blog. I then went next door to bowl at Maryam Entertainment Complex. I had received a 25% off coupon from the hotel when we checked in, so I bowled for an hour for $15 U.S. The lanes were brand new but horrible. I think the surface was a synthetic plastic rather than varnished wood, and all the balls were drilled for bowlers that bowl straight. Needless to say, the ball had no rotation down the lane. The guys that I bowl with would probably say it’s because I always bowl bad, but even they would have to admit that my balls usually curve too much rather than not at all. All in all, it was a frustrating experience. There were a few guys on a lane a little ways down, and one of them worked at the alley. He kept coming over to my lane and looking over my shoulder as I bowled. It just added to my frustration. I think his intention was to be attentive and helpful, but his approach was different than what I have grown used to in the U.S. I have encountered this a few times since I’ve been here, and I’m still trying to get accustomed to it. I think by the time I am, I’ll be back in Houston.
After bowling, I headed back to the hotel but stopped at Olive Mall for one last look around. Back at the hotel, Dad and I caught up on our separate activities and then called it a night.

Kish (Day 1)

We got up at 4:30 am today to go to the resort island of Kish in the Persian Gulf. After going through two sets of metal detectors and getting our boarding passes from a ticket agent that did not even ask for identification at Mehrabad Airport, my Dad and I got on a Topoloff jet plane headed for Kish. The flight almost straight South took about 1 ½ hours and was very smooth, despite the fact that the plane was a Russian fossil. Arriving at Kish International Airport, we saw an advertisement for a PVC pipe company that used a picture of the skyline of downtown Houston (a little bit of home on the other side of the world)! Outside, a van awaited us that took us a couple of miles to our hotel, Hotel Maryam (Mary, in English). Looking down the main hotel strip, I could not help but compare this place to Las Vegas, or what Las Vegas probably looked like when it was first being developed. The island is absolutely gorgeous with modern housing, hotels, shopping areas, and miles of beaches. The architecture here is everything I knew that Iran could be and hoped that more of Tehran would be. It is about 10 miles long by about 8 miles wide and sits slightly north of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.
We checked in to this hotel, and to my amazement, its entertainment complex, which is in a separate location, has bowling and billiards (www.maryambowling.com). I recently finished a bowling league with some of my friends back home, and I’m sure that they would appreciate the fact that I get to practice my horrendous skills here. After eating breakfast in the hotel and resting for a while, my Dad and I decided to walk around. When we first started walking around, everything was closed. We asked some locals and realized that practically the whole island shuts down from 1-4 pm for lunch. So we went to the beach.
This is the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. The coastline of the U.S. on the Gulf of Mexico is extremely murky, not necessarily due to pollution but due to the currents that suck up mud from the bottom and fill the shoreline with the nasty brown color. Here, that problem does not exist. Clear blue as far as the eyes can see. The locals on the pier were extremely friendly and warm. One offered a one-hour trip around the island for about $35. The man in the booth on the pier was renting out pontoon boats with clear bottoms and marketing it as a natural aquarium. He even said that one can go at night, where they drop a light to the bottom of the water.
We went back to the hotel because it was way too hot and decided to wait out the lunchtime siesta back at the hotel. At dusk, we took a walk back down to the main strip and ducked into one of the shopping malls. These malls are the same as the malls that we have in the U.S. except that there did not seem to be any big department stores and some of the shops have this uncanny ability to cram two store’s worth of products into one store. The prices were comparable to the U.S. Some things were more expensive and some were less expensive. The only difference is that in the U.S we buy goods with the buying power of a $3000 a month average salary and over here they buy goods with the buying power of a $300 a month average salary.
The whole island is what is considered a free trade zone, where you pay no import taxes or customs taxes for your goods. Iran also has no sales tax to speak of. The whole culture has centered on trade for thousands of years. A sales tax would probably be a huge insult to that culture. Tehran served as a midway point on the Silk Road, a trade route that extended from China to Europe. The country’s main exports include handmade rugs, copper goods, other handcrafts, pistachios, caviar, and obviously oil and natural gas.
Dad and I then decided to take a taxi to the local aqueduct. This is an underground structure that was discovered in recent years. A German investor came in and further excavated and renovated these waterways. The idea is to turn it into a museum of handcrafts, a restaurant complete with a stage for a band, and a traditional shopping area for merchants to sell handcrafts and other goods. For now, for about $2.50, they give tours of the vast tunnels with detailed information about the excavation project, the natural history of the rock formations, and the ancient history of the island and how the aqueducts were used in the past.
We then took a bus back to the main strip. On the bus, a couple of locals sitting near us answered some of our questions. Land is fairly expensive on the island. One guy was selling a 2500 square foot plot of land for about $60,000. Development on the island is very interesting. In order to expedite progress, a developer has a short window in which to finish a development project. This is usually about six months. If the project goes over, there are severe fines. Development began on the island about 20 years ago and really took off about 10 years ago. Everywhere you look, people and machines are working around the clock to meet their deadlines. A paved walkway that was only halfway done when we walked out in the morning was near completion on our return to the hotel at night.
Stopping in the middle of the strip, we went into another shopping mall that was even larger and more beautiful that the first. Next to it was the Maryam Entertainment Complex. Affiliated with the hotel we are staying at, this complex has a 16-lane bowling alley on the first floor, an expansive billiard and snooker hall on the second floor, and an unfinished food court on top. Looking in the billiard hall, there was a bar in the middle. This is very ironic being that they don’t allow alcohol in this country. Or do they? Well, kinda. They have non-alcoholic malt beverages with advertisements all over the place.
Deciding to get in some bowling later, we headed back to the hotel. On the sidewalk on the way back were some busts of recent Iranians of note in the realms of science, art, and culture. Iranians are very attached to their prominent people. When a building is built, everyone wants to know who the architect was. When a song is sung, we argue over who originally wrote it.
We ended our night with dinner at the local KFC (yes, KFC). This building was a blend of modern architecture and old-school outdoor seating with the benches I have described before. The fried chicken was really good. It didn’t have the Colonel’s blend of 11 different herbs and spices but was good nonetheless. The fries were the best fries I have ever eaten. Sometimes you have to go half way around the world to get good fried food!

A Day in the Park

Today we got up early to meet my cousin Samira downstairs for a trip to Jamshidieh Park. Mom, Dad, and I went with Samira and met Nadir, a long-time friend of Samrira’s, before the short drive up the mountain. Looking into the entrance to this park, the breathtaking view took me aback. I was entering the Garden of Eden compared to the dusty roads and alleys we used to get there. The whole park is paved with gray stones, and trees cover all of the walkways. Pavilions are interspersed throughout where women’s groups or youngsters playing guitar and singing had gathered. Waterways trickled in the middle of some of the walkways and steps, adding a tranquil sound to the surrounding scenery.
Flowing water is very common to the Iranian landscape, especially Tehran, since it is located in a valley with mountains to the North and East. This is why many businesses and residences all over the country have ponds with fountains. Many Iranians in the U.S. still have an affinity for decorative water. A little ways up the mountain, the park ended and a hiking path began alongside a wide creek. We stopped there to take pictures, and I videoed my Dad, the poet of the family, reciting a poem while standing next to the water.
We then went to my Aunt Minoo’s apartment for lunch. Her family lives in Phase 1 of Ekbatan, a series of large apartment home buildings that basically form a large village or small town. There are three phases, and each phase has its own shopping areas and grocery market. My Aunt Farzaneh and Rouhi live together in Phase 2. Aunt Minoo had made a stew with a vegetable that is a cross between celery and artichoke. My other Aunt Farzaneh (Uncle Houshang’s wife) had just arrived into town as well from Atlanta, GA. Everyone is coming for my cousin Pejman’s wedding in a week and a half. It’s interesting seeing someone that you see all the time in the U.S. on the other side of the world.
After a long nap, Samira and I went down to the local shopping center to walk around and use the internet at a local internet café (coffee nets, as they are called here). The interesting part is that most of them are just internet businesses and do not serve coffee or anything else for that matter. We spent a couple of hours looking at websites and talking, catching up on a lifetime of being apart. The shops were also very interesting. You could find anything you needed without ever really having to leave Ekbatan. Banks, clothing, barbers, electronics, groceries, internet, and many more products and services are right at your fingertips. After leaving the shops, Samira and I walked up one of the streets alongside Ekbatan to her dad’s sandwich shop called Haida. Haida is a franchise very similar to Subway. There are about 30 located all over the city. Uncle Jamshid owns one of them. We ate there and continued to catch up on each other’s lives.