bicycle west
bicycle west
Few believe me until they travel there. Iran is a beautiful country. People are very friendly. It seems that the difference between politics and people could not be bigger. After writing about my experiences of canoeing and kayaking, I started reading about my experiences Iran. In most areas I visited, there was not much water, especially east of Isfahan.
I was on my bike at the time, crossing the north west to south-eastern Turkey to Iran. It was a journey of about 6 weeks and parts through all regions of empty deserts. Not everyone can manage the cycle in a desert for a few days but I loved him. Bam to Zahedan to 550 km and it was wonderful. In other areas I found a lot of hospitality. Believe me, there is no country in the world where you can find more hospitality in Iran. Example?
Usually around 1 pm I was looking for lunch. And many times Local Iranians invited me to join them and the family for lunch in their homes. There was always this way. First enter the house the room with friends, drink a full bodied black tea with sugar rocks, then go to the lounge for lunch.
In the lounge there rarely had tables and chairs. A table linen was on the floor, the dishes arrived and everyone came home and eat. Mostly, men, Women and children were around and women usually did not wear the headscarf, which is outside mandatory. Believe me, Iranian women are beautiful.
After lunch my host offered me more tea, but once I would like to make a suggestion to leave was always answered the same way. "You can not go sir, dinner is almost ready" (remember that flying.
Before 8:30 pm dinner was finally ready. At 9.30 my host usually tells me where I could sleep while driving a mattress on the floor and me tell where to find the toilet and bathroom. "What time do you rise? 7 hours? Well, I'll come with breakfast!" Was the comment I usually got.
At 7 o'clock sharp, he would knock on the door. Then we went to the living room and breakfast hot fresh bread, cream cheese, apples, homemade yoghurt, and as always black tea with sugar rocks. Btw, you do not put the rock sugar tea instead of soaking and suck the sugar! After breakfast host usually came with fruit and bread for the road. "Perhaps you will not find a place to eat! "Well, I've always been able to find a place to eat and many times I had to refuse the food they wanted me to make as I could not bring everything on the bike.
What is Iran, which is the story you rarely hear. But it is also the story that tells you that people are people everywhere. And Iran has been one of my favorite countries to Travel, life is something different though.
Peter van der Lans is a Dutchman who lives these days in Sitiawan Malaysia. After years of traveling, he cycled from Holland to Malaysia, stayed a months in the Middle East, a year on the Indian Subcontinent and 2 years in China plus a year in the UK, he settled himself in Malaysia.
Sitiawan was the perfect place to write a website about Pulau Pangkor Later he wrote http://www.bicycle-adventures.com, an ongoing project about his journeys on bicycles. A third website: http://www.yangshuo-travel-guide.com he recently build. In the years in China, he lived in Yangshuo and he thinks he can tell the story about this pretty little town in China.
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