The 5000 Project

The bus stopped on the border nearing midnight, thankfully (although I knew beforehand) visas were available on the border, just a simple form needed to be filled in and $10 paid for a 21day tourist visa. No photo needed for the application.

I arrived in Yerevan, the armenian capital at 8am – quite a small but joyful city – I befriended an iranian guy on the bus, and we decided the first thing to do was to find a bar and enjoy a nice cold pint of beer or 2, after spending too long without beer in iran. We walked through the main street trying to find a dodgy looking bar that might sell cheap beer, we admitted defeat and sat down at a yuppie bar, as all bars in yerevan look like yuppie bars; to our pleasant surprise, however, the beer was still dirt cheap at ~$1.50 a pint.

After a few day-pints, I parted ways with my buddy and roamed the city for a bit before meeting with my couchhost, her apartment was located right in the centre of the city – perfect location, excellent stumbling distance from the many hipster basement bars that were scattered around the city centre; my host ensured I enjoy much of the armenian youth lifestyle in yerevan, I was sufficiently beered. One night I was a little too beered, causing head injury after slipping on steps leading up to a bar toilet – I blame it on the sudden shock of alcohol in the system after a month in Iran. Most of the youth in the bars were actually iranian students living a much more liberal life in armenia, a refreshing change. Other than drinking lots of beer, I also visited the Armenian history museum; extremely informative museum highlighting the deep armenian culture, a very old civilization – awesome ancient bows and swords were on display, primitive yet very creative in design. The museum also brought the genocide to the attention of visitors, after WW1 the ottoman turks killed ~1million armenians through executions and forced marches during the process of deporting them from turkish controlled lands. The Turkish government has never apologized for the event, some turks claim that it was a band of kurdish mercenaries hired by the turkish government that performed the harsher-than-anticipated deportations – Armenians believe this is a weak and convenient excuse. During the history of armenia, the country managed to gain a few enemies, most of which surround the small isolated land. Oh and the russians had a turn here too, handy for my as I hadn’t forgotten the few russian words from central asia.

After a few fun and relaxing days in yerevan, I headed to the outskirts of the city to fetch a marshutka van-taxi to the next town, Foolishly, when arriving close to a marshutka stand, I was conned by a taxi driver. The man gave me a very good deal to the next town (Hrazdan) he showed me a note equivalent of $1 as to show how much it would cost when I mentioned the town name – I mentioned the town name again to be sure and again he showed the note, for some reason I believed him, the town was close and I thought maybe transport costs were similar to iran, also he had a trusting face. When arriving in the destination town, he informed me that it was $1 per kilometre not $1 to the destination that we confirmed before I arrived in the taxi – I was about to protest this obvious con until he took down the taxi light above the car which displayed $1(of armenian dram)/Km in glowing neon – I had no argument. I paid the man $15 worth of local currency (6000 dram) and got out of the car.

From this point onwards I decided to never take a taxi again, this was the very very final straw for taxi drivers world wide, too many times they have tried to con me with some creative angle – Never again. This is when I gained the courage to hitchhike on my own as much as possible, armenia is the point of expensive; it only gets more expensive from there on. I put my hand out, with the thumb proudly shining in the sun, together with my big fake smile – it took about 10seconds, first car, students eager to talk with a foreigner. It took one more car to get to the next town of Sevan, it was so easy, to the point that I was a little disappointed that I didn’t have to actually hike a few kilometres through the floury snow and beautiful mountains on a nice sunny day.

Sevan is a tiny town (every armenian town is tiny except for the capital city) near a giant lake. On the edge of town there was one hotel on a hill with a broken sign, it looked like either it was abandoned or it was used for horror movies – I walked 3km to the town centre through thick snow. This is when I noticed that the hotel I passed was the only option for sleep, many taxis wanted to take me there, the locals didnt even think there was a hotel in town. It was getting dark so I hiked back up to hotel after having a feed of kebab and buying a cheap bag of oranges. I arrived at the hotel, it really was a shithole, after a bit of polite shouting a man arrived knowing no english – I bartered a price down from $20 to $14, this was the cheapest and only option, else freeze to death in the heavy snow outside. I took it, begrudgingly, yerevan was to be the only place in the country that listed couchsurfers – there really was no other option (honestly). The next morning I woke up early and hiked through the town again, I wanted to see the lake side before heading to the main road to hitchhike again. The lake was quite vast and impressive; and frozen at the shore level for quite a way out, noone was around, noone seemed foolish enough to be outdoors in the extreme cold conditions. I started to feel the cold, the day’s hitchhiking had begun. The first car took me to a tourist site, as he was heading there anyway, turned out to be one of the oldest churches in the world, built in ~60AD, then burnt to the ground by Genghis and his buddies and reconstructed a few years back. It was still very impressive as the construction wasn’t new, it was just recompiled by the stones that remained. I hitched to Dilijan on a small truck and a later a 4WD.

Dilijan was a beautiful town in a miniature mountainous green valley, with icing snow on the top. I stayed another expensive night in the cheapest guesthouse in town, bartered down to $14 without breakfast – Although after having a good conversation about my trip and my remaining funds, she threw in a massive breakfast free of charge. I got back on the road and hitched a Fruit truck to vanadzor, then one car to alaverdi – the guys in the car gave me beer and a sandwich, as they were celebrating… something, the language barrier made it difficult to know what exactly, they charged me $1 when I got out.

After checking out a few places, I found a room for $15 (once again, bartered down from $20) although it was a bit of a hike from the centre. The next morning I took a cablecar (30c) to a hidden town on the top of a mountain, which was the real alaverdi and housed an amazing indiana jones style cathedral right on the very scenic top of the peak. I walked about 4km before a car hitched me to the Georgian border, bypassing a huge avalanche blocking the main road on a cliff-face by diverting through a small town, I could see the extensive damage when we returned to the main road. I walked 2km to the georgian border, the cheerful georgians gave me a free stamp in the passport, valid for 360 days tourist visit. I wondered why they didn’t just add 5 more days to make it a full year. I stepped in Georgian soil, it felt colder. It was.

So, Just read the nice intro to the iran overview post and I’ll resume from mashhed. This post is meant to compliment the overview post, I tried not to double up on info.

Mashhed:

The holiest city of iran, the bus ($2) took me through a modern city from mud huts in the surrounding desert. For the first time in months I saw signs of modern civilization, but as modern as it looks I still couldnt take money from a bank ATM, due to international sanctions I had to ensure I had enough USD beforehand, which I took out from an ATM in Uzbekistan. One other oddity was the written language being even more difficult than chinese, just because the numbers were also different – it made finding buses and houses rather challenging until I managed to learn the characters. I couchsurfed with an iranian couple in mashhed who are planning to immigrate to either canada or australia due to the difficulties in iran, I provided helpful information. The next day I went out with their friends to the tomb of Ferdowsi, an ancient poet who’s writings have affected iranian culture in a huge way, he wrote in persian even though arab invaders at the time were pushing to convert the country to arabic. His stories are also metaphors for fighting against a religious government; as such the tomb, regardless of its massive popularity, is on the outskirts of the city and less advertised as a tourist attraction. Today phrases from his poetry are used in everyday conversation, it has merged into the lexicon of the persian language. Many people almost worship ferdowsi as something to hold on to when so many muslim influences are overtaking old traditions. The main tourist attraction in mashhed is the holy shrine of… some imam (there are 12 imams in the shiite religion) for more info on this, flick back two posts for the iran overview. During the last couple of days staying with my host, the parents of the wife came to visit, upon leaving back to tehran, they invited me to stay with them – I accepted, although in hindsight I believe it may have been tar’of (see previous post).

Tehran:
12hr train ride ($7) was a similar experience to most other sleeper trains, although being the only foreigner I was invited for a coffee with one of the train dudes – he first asked if I was Muslim, when I replied with ‘no’ it seemed to open the flood gates for controversial discussions on the problems of Iran. He provided tips as to where I should visit in Iran, of which I used as a handy guideline. Upon arriving in Tehran, I followed my hosts to a taxi and we arrived at their house – one of their daughters knew a bit of English, other than that it was rather hard communicating. The family was quite conservative, the prayer times were obeyed and the government controlled television stations were on the TV, news portrayed opposite to western media (first house I entered that didn’t have an illegal satellite connection). Although I felt a little confined, they were fantastic hosts, cooked amazing meals and ensured that I was never left hungry. Offering to help in the kitchen was fruitless, as this is the realm of the women – almost culturally illegal for a man to enter. When guests arrived, the men and women sat seperated. During the day I visited the incredible history museum rich with persian history and the jewels museum, showcasing many stolen treasures from the persian empire’s rein – one of which was a globe of the world comprising solely of gems. The hosts washed all my clothes and ensured my bag was packed with enough food to make it to the next destination, I thanked them for the interesting cultural experience and hospitality (well, attempted to with the language barrier) and took a 7hr bus ($5) to esfahan, or Isfahan, its all the same.

Isfahan:
I stayed at a hostel in isfahan ($5/night, no internet). Isfahan central was very modern, heaps of sporting goods stores mainly, quite odd; just a few streets out from the centre though and you find yourself in an ancient suburb with old mosques and a roofed-bazzar that seems to be a tunnel that goes on forever, splitting occasionally. The Bazzar was a photographer’s dream, with light shining down through the dust via different shaped holes in the arched roof, it provided light for the carpet and date vendors – many characters drinking chai while working hard selling goods in ancient constructions mazed within the main above-ground tunnel. In my opinion this bazaar and the surrounding buildings in the same suburbs was the highlight of isfahan, many people also come to the city to see the old bridges over the river – I wasn’t too impressed with the bridges. Might be worth mentioning here that kebabs are reasonably rare in iran, they hardly ever have turkish-style donar kebabs, only sausage style shishkebabs cooked over coals. The most frequent and cheapest meal is the common sandwich, packet burger meat heated and thrown in a baguette with some salad and sauce, served with ‘doog’ yoghurt mixed with water drink, for ~50c in most areas of Iran, a great traveller’s meal. I took a bus to Yazd ($6, 4hrs).

Yazd:
Very awesome old town, every building was mud-brick. The older buildings have ancient air-conditioners build in known as wind-catchers; they consist of vents and flaps that channel the cool air down while sending the hot air up – ancient technology that works quite well – not so good in winter though ;).  I couchsurfed in yazd in an actual hotel! the waiter was the host and offered a bed free of charge in the dorm, with free breakfast – at first I thought I was going to have to pay for the bed when I check out, I was pleasantly wrong. The host was a very liberal guy and my stay in the hotel was very much a well deserved rest hanging out with many other backpackers – one guy was attempting to cycle from south australia to scotland, made my trip look like a holiday (which, I guess, it kinda is). I hired a taxi with a few other backpackers and we took a trip to a Zoroastrian temple, the original religion of Iran, a monotheist religion that believes some god will rise from a lake somewhere in iran, they believe in the power of light vs dark, not unlike the force. The temple was actually a newly built shitty block of houses within the face of a huge rock mountain, it was meant to be the mecca for zoroastrians world wide, the prime pilgrimage location – a hole in a rock-wall where some imprisoned princess poked a magic stick which created water and saved her life… something like this anyway. On the way back from the temple in the middle of the desert, we visited another ancient town that had been abandoned, it overlooked a field that used old aqueduct technology for irrigation – a narrow bridge was also used to channel water over a large chasm, it was an amazing place to walk, I could easily imagine what the old civilization would have been like. In Yazd I played underground pool, drank illegal moonshine and won $20 in an illegal game of poker, not naming names or locations ;) I collected my earnings and fled to Shiraz.

Shiraz:
The wine is actually named from this town, some french guy took a clipping from a grapevine and introduced it in france. Today, however, with alcohol being banned it’s rather difficult tasting some shiraz in shiraz; unless you know people, which I didnt when I was there. I stayed in a hotel dorm for $6 for just one night, and headed to the great perspolis with a japanese dude, the palace of several persian empires, Cyrus (who was benevolent and kind to other nations retaining their culture, received gifts from afar), Darius and Xerxes (not so nice). The site was epic, some old pillars still stand even after alexander the great roamed through and burnt it all to the ground. The backdrop held two mountains, each with a giant tomb wall and door carved into them, for xerxes and darius. I took a bus to Shush.

Shush/Shushtar/Dizful:
I arrived in shush at 6am, it was still dark when I walked to the cheapest hotel in this tiny town. I waited for the hotel to open, a man walked out, I asked him how much a room costs he told me – $10 – I decided to hitchhike to the tourist site of this province instead of sleeping, the man offered me a convenient ride. I hitched three cars to get to where I wanted to go, unfortunately I left my big bag in one of the cars when he gestured for me to get out at a boomgate,I thought he wanted me to get out and pay, so I planned on getting back in the car before he zoomed off with my bag. Amazingly the guy ended up noticing that my bag was in the back and he drove all the way to the tourist site that I thankfully mentioned when I was in the car – Damn lucky. I arrived at the tourist site. It was an old ziggarut , four sided pyramid (or quadramid) thing that is actually an old christian relic unearthed by some french dudes – unfortunately for the french dudes, the weather turned bad and most of the unearthing broke down to become mud within the earth – with a smooth unattracting whistle they rebuilt the ziggarat with new bricks and hoped noone would notice. It was pretty noticable. It was also not a very big tourist attraction, some local guy in yazd told me about it, there were no visitors to this site – I was stuck in the middle of nowhere next to a brick shithouse. One of the ticket guys (who didnt charge me or give me a ticket) gave me a free tour of the… bricks – and then introduced me to his mates, who seemed to be building mud-brick constructions around the zig, most probably to make it look like they too were ancient constructions a few years later. After a few arabic words, hardshakes and smiles; they gave me a shovel and I helped them work for a bit, it felt good contributing to a pretend-ancient building. Gradually they all stopped work, served some chai and each person got out a container of different food – there was fish, chicken, rice, curry; all greatly nourishing after they force fed me until I could eat no more. With the plate of food and the cup of chai empty, I said goodbye and hitched a ride back to the main road by a photographer guy who rocked up to take some photos of the zig – my only way out arrived at a perfect time. I hitched to shushtar, the hotels were expensive so I kept hitching to disful. Once again the hotels were expensive… no couches to crash on and the weather was too cold to camp. I took an overnight bus to sleep and provide transport to Hamadan ($7).

Hamadan:
I arrived in a vague dream, it was dark and snowing, 5am. Nothing was open and I couldn’t keep my eyes open, I headed to a mosque, there were people preparing for the morning prayer – I gestured for sleep and they found a corner for me with a curtain and some blankets. 1 hour of blisful sleep, and then bam – the agonizing moans of muslim prayer, intensified because it was friday – the guy was practically crying over the loudspeaker, just behind the curtain. I was so tired that I slept through it until 8am, one of the mosque dudes gave me some bread with cheese and nuts and a nice cup of chai – I was most pleased. I thanked them profusely and headed out to heavy snow in search of a cheap hostel or hotel. All the places I checked out were full as it was an iran holiday for the next couple of days (they have something like 30 holidays a year, which makes up for the fact that they only have 1 day off a week, which is fridays). Feeling tired and lost, a local youth noticed me in the street, he couldnt help with accommodation but he helped me find a bus ticket to Tabriz (another overnighter) and let me rest at his house during the day. Later we went for a walk, I observed a game of footsol in the park; small-scale soccer game, the same as what was popular in indonesia. I thanked my day-host graciously and hopped on yet another overnight bus for tabriz, the snow was now very thick and from this point onwards I would see nothing but snow for the next month and a half.

Tabriz:
I arrived in Tabriz greeted by a couchhost! at last a response from couchsurfing, I was in great need of a shower and rest – unfortunately for me the host was working during the day, so I roamed around the city while waiting. Tabriz was a very clean and modern city, almost disconnected from the rest of iran, many people are azarians – more similar to azabajanians than iranians, and proud of the fact. Tabriz used to be the iranian capital, before it was invaded a few too many times so they decided to move the capital for strategic reasons – not to be in the corner of many other bordering nations. My host was a regional sales manager for a government funded cigarette company, his wife worked for the welfare system – she didnt like his unethical job, it was quite an odd scenario. I stayed in an apartment for myself which was owned by a friend of my host, I slept very well after a nice hot shower. I hiked up the mountain above tabriz the next day, the following day after this my host took me to a town 30km away which held dwellings carved out of caves within the faces of the many surrounding mountains – I was told this was similar to cappadocia in turkey, after visiting cappadocia I’d have to say the turkish ones were more impressive :).  I met a french guy in Tabriz who had been hitchhiking from france and was trying to make it all the way to antarctica with absolutely no money. He hitchhikes for transport, couchsurfs for accommodation and dumpster dives (looking in dumpsters) for clean food. He showed me a plastic air-gun that he keeps in his bag, for shooting pigeons which he eats for emergancy food. I was amazed at his ambitions, I was fairly certain I wouldn’t be attempting this extent of adventuring in my lifetime but wished him luck for his future. I won another $25 playing illegal poker in tabriz, bans on gambling just seem to produce quite a number of underground card games, just as the ban on alcohol forms many underground parties.

I hopped on the bus out of Iran, looking around as many businesses were going broke due to the economic sanctions and poor government decisions, The exchange rate went from 1600 tomans to the USD when I first arrived in iran, and by the end of my 25 day visit it was at 2200. I left the crippled but brilliant iran for the *green yet snowy christian fields of armenia.

*green yet snowy isn’t a metaphor for anything

I wake up in another town, another country – nihow, salam, priviet; how much does it cost, please show me on the calculator. Poruski Niet, I do not understand. Adjust the timezone, check the exchange rate, ignore the taxi drivers, Ignore the hawkers, Ignore the beggers; the art of looking forward, adapting to ignore the human sensory instinct, “Hey Hey, Mister”, “Taxi”, “Motorbike”, Ignore the beeping horns, Ignore the desperation. Do you have dorm accommodation? Do you have anything cheaper? Skula sum, Khe-lee pool – That is too expensive, Walk away, “Wait Mister Mister – $5”, Walk back. Find a way out, must keep moving, too expensive. Yes I am travelling alone, No I am not married, I am happy to walk, No the town is not far it is only 2km. No I do not want additional salad and additional rice that costs more than the main meal,  No we do not want to pay together please split the bill.. Please stop shouting at me – please stop dragging me to your taxi, please let go of my bag. Thankyou for the free ride, but I do not wish to be taken outside of the town to your friend’s expensive hotel in the middle of nowhere. No, I do not wish to partake in a tea ceremony. No I do not believe in allah, No I do not believe in god, I will repeat myself if you do not understand. Yes… Kangaroo, australia, Robota? I worked in computers back home, Yes Australia is good but it is very expensive, No I can’t take you to Australia. No I am not Iranian, that is not my passport photo; that is my iran visa, please turn to the first page of the passport. Tashakor, XieXie, Merci, Spaciba – Thankyou so much for your help, without people like you in this world, travelling would be much more difficult. I’m not sure why you are still speaking with me, it is quite clear that we have established that I do not understand your language and you do not understand mine. Yes I like your country a lot, No I do not think your neighbouring country is full of thieves and murderers.