When the rain eases I can hear the sea from my tent. I almost reached the coast last night but was accosted outside Bushehr by Jamshid who took me home and to a party. A drive into the desert; a tent where crosslegged shepherds, their women silent in shadows, passed pipes packed with more than I first realised. Moreish, I kept my wits if not my tongue, wasn't robbed and, head soaring, managed to insist we drove home gone three. I was awake late dreaming, dead sleep at dawn. This morning, skin crawling, I refused a breakfast rerun and rode straight to the beach to bathe my itchy mind. I've still a headache. Persian hospitality!
Its been raining almost since I left Shiraz. Motorists here leave no room for error or conditions and I've seen loads of crashes these three days; two in immediate aftermath. Each oncoming car adds itself and persons haphazard to unhelpful chaos. Following suit I was reprimanded I think, pushed away, by an elder lady for attending to a young woman in shock and blood. Feeling profoundly uneasy I left her fussing the casualty's hijab. Obviously its not about me, but there's a diversity interview question in there somewhere. This morning, behind a sickeningly staved-in lorry-cab, a line of men salvaging fruit boxes into a line of pickups, lest they perish...
It'd be a shame not to have any regrets so despite the must-see fanfare I didn't daytrip to Persepolis. I wrote cliches home about preferring mountains to ruins (much older and still going strong) but really there's so much to see between the sights I hardly care for them. Sorry Sadj but I've seen quite enough this week... I'm exhausted! I slept one night bunked with workers at a cement factory, another camped in a dry riverbed; tonight I've a sodden dune. Days have been fast downhill, losing altitude and latitude (I think?) until the Persian Gulf where mountain magnificence gives way to a fairly fetid swampscape stuck with palms and eucalyptus. Damp air, big insects and once a camel; like a different country. Its good to be along the sea again after so long inland, and nice not to navigate... I'm enjoying a new feeling of South Asian difference. Fingers crossed for sunshine, any day now.
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And, in the morning it shone and the swamps dried up. And the day after that there was an internet computer for a muddle of photos
It'd be a shame not to have any regrets so despite the must-see fanfare I didn't daytrip to Persepolis. I wrote cliches home about preferring mountains to ruins (much older and still going strong) but really there's so much to see between the sights I hardly care for them. Sorry Sadj but I've seen quite enough this week... I'm exhausted! I slept one night bunked with workers at a cement factory, another camped in a dry riverbed; tonight I've a sodden dune. Days have been fast downhill, losing altitude and latitude (I think?) until the Persian Gulf where mountain magnificence gives way to a fairly fetid swampscape stuck with palms and eucalyptus. Damp air, big insects and once a camel; like a different country. Its good to be along the sea again after so long inland, and nice not to navigate... I'm enjoying a new feeling of South Asian difference. Fingers crossed for sunshine, any day now.
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And, in the morning it shone and the swamps dried up. And the day after that there was an internet computer for a muddle of photos
your moka (italian coffee maker) looks very dirty, have you still had your coffee addiction?! Is there good coffee in Iran?
ReplyDeleteTake care and enjoy my friend!
Alex & Cécile