Iran ! Let s switch off the television

Iran !

As personally expected, there are lots of ideas , mostly western ideas, that need to be reviewed or changed !! I think everyone should have that opportunity to come here to see what Iran really is ... And then think just a little bit about why medias and powerful people of the west want to show that really untrue image about Iran!

Why do some people impose their views to a country that has probably the most ancient and rich culture in the world ! Of course, the Iranian government is not good, and i discovered how much the iranian people here don t like their government and their crazy president and there are lots of things to be improved in Iran, like women status for example... but Iran people are not terrorist, are not against occident !

And i discovered how much people here are well educated, humble and have managed to preserve their culture from the western "one-way-of-thinking". Iran, the previous Persian Empire, has a culture claiming to have started around 4 000 before Christ. There s so much to learn in Iran about their history, their architecture, their religions (Zoroastrians, Sufism, Islam), their religious distinction with the other muslims which are sunnites while Iranians are Chiites, so on.

So please, switch off your television and come here to see what Iran really is ! !

So my first stop in Iran was in Tabriz. The 3rd biggest city in Iran i think. A nice place actually where i met a nice person, Vincent. I visited the bazar, some mosques. I went for a walk on the hill surounding the city. Walk that ended under an incredible rain..even storm! I never had to do such a walk, 15 minutes at least, under such a storm!

Also, i discovered how much eating will be a problem in Iran as it was in Turkey. One more "meat country" !

Next step: Tehran. More than ten millions inhabitants, cars, a lot of pollution....A big city like New-York or Istanbul ! But i like so much taxi rides in evenings in such cities...Everything seems to be so big and crazy. Also, Tehran is the place to see the evolved society of Iran. That s the place where every new thinking current is starting and is the place where our ideas of Iran can, the most, be hurted. I met Maryam and Dovoud her husband via the hospitalityclub. I stayed 3 days in Tehran and they offered me the opportunity to meet really interesting people. The 1st day i visited the bazar, which is of course really huge. In the evening, i was invited to a "house party"....where iranians drink alcohol. But in a reasonable way. I met interesting people. These days i discovered the double lie of iranians : outside (women covered) and inside (almost like in Europe).

The week end on friday, i was also invited by Dovoud to an artist exhibition where i was again invited to taste some iranian hand-made wine and met a really nice familywhose man was a critic-journalist and was in 1979 one actor of the islamic revolution. We had a relly great talk about the revolution, the propagandist media, the US policy and so on.

Next day. Direction Kasan, 200 km south to Tehran. 1st real experience of hitchiking....and it is working really well! As i expected the people are not used to see hitchiker and then stop by curiosity. GreaT! An ice-cream on the way, a small ride in Qom the city on the way...and they drop me to take a bus to Kasan for the last 100km.

In the bus, i meet 2 iranians girls. Really friendly they offer me to help me to find a hotel and to show me about Kasan the next day. Who sait it was impossible to have any contact with girls in Iran ??! Of course, they ask me to answer, in the case someone is asking about what i m doing with these girls, that i m a friend of the father...

In the evening, i find myself the only man between 10 women for the diner in the park and a visit to a friend of them wich is a professional Tar player, the traditional persian instrument (from which is coming the guitars for example)....Antoher example of the wonderful persian culture....

Today, i spent the day with these ladies visiting Kasan and its historical houses....

Tomorrow i m leaving for the mythical Esfahan !

Derniers moments en Turquie

Me voila arrive au "pays des mechants" depuis 2 jours et...
ca va j ai toujours ma tete ...et mes deux mains....
et je pense pouvoir esperer la garder le temps d etre au Pakistan.

Mes derniers moments en Turquie donc...
A Erzurum, la derniere grande ville a l est j ai ete accueilli par un hote de l hospitalityclub tres sympa. Meme la ville en elle-meme est pas super genial, j ai passe un bon temps avec mon ami Mustafa a echanger de la musique...
Aussi, Erzurum etait la permiere ville 'vraiment musulmane' j ai envie de dire...pas de nightclub, les femmes en noir etc...

En plus j ai fait le bilan poids (avec mon jeune ami ici sur la photo) de mon mois "pain fromage" en Turquie. Ya que de la viande ici!

Kebab a longueur de journee, non merci!
J ai resenti aussi une grande difference par rapport a l ouest. Ne serait ce que sur les routes qui sont dans un etat lamentable (le 30km/h est de rigueur!)
Et puis c est carrement plus pauvre qu a l ouest. Plus de mendiants, notamment des femmes toutes en noir la tete recouverte. Juste une main qui depasse.

Apres Erzurum, je reprends la route (une des plus splendide qu il m ait ete donne de chevaucher. les montagnes dementielles. les steppes!!) sous la pluie toujours direction Dogubeyazit! La derniere petite ville avant la frontiere avec l Iran. Au pieds du mont Ararat (5100m) . Un mythe impressionant !
D offic, je croise tous les types qui font le trip comme moi vers l inde ou la chine.
Un dernier the, une derniere biere et direction la frontiere le samedi matin.

Bilan turc assez bon pour les paysages de l ouest a lest.
Les gens d offic toujours cool...meme si j ai eu droit a quelques experiences assez speciales...avec des mecs un peu excites qui sur la fin m ont peut etre rendu un peu parano avec les hommes ici...C est ce qui arrive dans un pays musulman qui se liberalise a fond, ou les jeunes passent leur temps sur Internet...et n ont que tres peu de contact avec les filles...soit!
Ya pas mal de trucs assez bizarre en turquie...a moitie en Europe mais toujours en Asie....
La turquie, pas ideale pour les vegetariens!
La turquie, je comprend maintenant l expression "fumer comme un turc"!
La Turquie, europeenne ou asiatique...difficile a dire...

La frontiere iranienne! j y passe 10h pas pour moi mais a cause d un probleme d organisation du personnel de douane et le check des camions qui se stoppe.
Bref j ai quand meme deja mon camion pour Tabriz et je tue le temps avec le chauffeur. Un magicien hypnotiste qui n est chauffeur routier international que pour pouvoir voyager en Europe et ainsi participer a des concours de magie en Italie notamment ! Apres les tours de carte classiques, il me fait un tour impressionnant!
Mon poing ferme, il depose de la cendre sur ma main...apres qques minutes de concentration, j ouvre ma main la cendre se trouve desormais a l interieur ! IMPRESSIONANT ! !
Finalement on quitte les customs. Une petite nuit de plus dans le camion et me voila apres x arret pour reparer le camion, le the...a Tabriz !

Cappadokia

İ m now almost finishing my journey through Turkey. after 5 weeks. İ have now reached the half of my way to İndia...
İ m ın Dogubeyazit at the moment, the last town 40 km before the border with İran.
And it is time for me to give some pictures about the last 10 days.

First the way from the coast to Cappadokia: some really special hills with really few vegetation.










Cappadokia:
=========
The Cappadokia is situated south of Ankara and is a small region where volcanic activties some thousands years ago and sedimentation with wind and water have created that world-wide unique relief !
İt give really wonderful sceneries, small villages with some kind of chimneys in which are built houses...

Guzelyurt - Selime :

Goreme : (ou le village des schtroumfs)
A wonderfull place full of colours... where i put my tent for 3 days.










Ucishar :




















So Cappadokia is a wonderful place ideal for children (i can imagine i would have liked it to walk these places beeing younger) and architects i guess.... A dream-lıke place !


Following are some pictures of the road from Cappadokia to Erzurum. Back on the silk road heading east. A long and difficult way because of the really bad state of the road to go upto 2000m hıgh. A really basic road narrowing in hıgh altitudes valleys... Not yet the steppe but already really nice plateaus...
After that 2 days journey (700km approximatively), i can defenitively say how much Turkey is great fore its wonderful sceneries...and mostly for its mountains..İ saw so much different types of mountains in here !

Pourquoi tant de gens vont en Turquie ?

Une question simple a laquelle la reponse m a vıte saute au yeux une fois a İzmir.
Ca fait presque deux semaines maintenant que je l aı quitte donc ca fait deja loin , mais bon en y pensant , je revoit une grande ville assez belle et riche. Avec une allee longeant la mer assez sympa. Et puis le ferry qu on prend pour aller d un cote et de l autre de la ville. Et dire qu il y a des gens qui prennent ce ferry chaque matin pour aller au boulot...trajet incomparable avec les embout pour joindre Bxl !

Aussi j ai ete heberge une fois de plus via l hospitalityclub chez deux types assez sympa, assez habitues des "travellers on the way to İndıa". Leur petit appart avait une vue ıncomparable sur la mer. İmaginez le plasir de prendre le petit dej le matin avec la vue ! Qui plus est, le turkish breakfast est royal : pain et fromage, tomates, omelette, olives, le çai...Bref le debut de journee parfait avant d aller flaner dans les rues...

3 jours max a İzmir et direction les plages!
Premiere etape : Gököva
Une petite station tres peinard avec d offic une plage a faire rever et une eau turquoise.
Bref , l image parfaite pour magasine de vacance. - jours aussi. logement en tente dans un pseudo-camping.










Deuxieme etape: Öludenız
Plus petit encore, mais plus oriente tourisme occidental (Gokova c etait plus pour les "vieux turcs"). Mais bon la saison n ayant pas encore commencee, ca reste tranquil et agreable. 1 nuit de camping pil-poil sur le lagon qui a entre parenthese ete classe, dit on , meilleur plage du monde (ca m etonne qu a moitie...). Bref le pied! Ensuite, apres la rencontre de qques amis francais je me vois invite a la "cabbac valley"...Pas trop mal non plus. On y reste, avec le couple de francais et leur fils et une allemande et ses deux gamins 3 jours. Juste assez! Gladouille au soleil.... et puis c pas mal de passer un peu de temps dans une ambiance plus "enfant"...
Les vacances dans les vacances!!












Troisieme etape: abandonnee car yan a pas su decoller de Oludeniz... Peut etre me comprenez vous en jetant un coup d oeil aux photos...

Fini la plage, j ai repris la route direction la Capadoce...mais bon le chemin est pas des plus droit.
Et des plus facile pour le stop...İl me faut redescendre jusqu Antalya, remonter jusque Konya et enfin arriver ici a Aksaray...
J avais un peu peur pour la route mais comme d hab ma bonne etoile ma aide et jai fait le tout en 2 jours, tranquil!...pas dans les conditions d hygiene les meilleures...mais bon, la route,c la route!