Shiraz Sunday
This was a day of mooching around and enjoying what Shiraz has to offer. But there was big oil business to be done first!
I don't want to rely exclusively on the kindness of strangers when I need an oil top-up - especially I am going to be riding in more remote areas I suspect. Although to digress slightly, almost every Iranian I meet wants to help if they can.
So I get detailed instructions from the receptionist on where to go - there is a whole street nearby devoted to automotive needs. (A bit like Halfords except friendly and good value)!
I am looking for 'roghan' for a 'motor' - my first stop is a shop selling car light fittings but the owner grabs me and route marches me down the street to the right place where I get a litre of Total 20:50 for about $3.
A few of the other shops
The battery shop?
Roof racks -r-us
(And there were two of the shops side by side)
Then on to the cultural elements:
Mosque Nasir el Molk
Through the bazaar- a lot cooler than outside! At one point I get odd looks because I am now in the ladies underwear section
I end up walking 2 Kms to the Hadez mausoleum - on the way I drop in on the quiet and charming Imamzadeh Ali Hamze (I have abbreviated the name!) whose floor is all tombstones and where the tomb of Emir Ali lies.
Then I mooch around in the Hafez gardens for a couple of hours as it's leafy and cool. Hafez as you all know (like I did before this trip is Iran's favourite poet and lived in 14th century). I resist the offer to buy a volume of his work as I couldn't bear adding weight to the bike.
Walk back through park where I talk to a young hydraulic engineer - he wants to do a PhD and rated Delft. He was very Impressed when I mention qanats (of which more in a later report).
I seem to be living well within my budget but want to change some more USD before heading East. I end up money changing alongside a Chinese couple from Shanghai.
End the day with a fast food experience on the receptionist's recommendation (after I declined the $30 posh restaurant a taxi-ride away).
It looks crowded but some of that is the off spill from two cars who have bumped into each other.
A note on motorcycles: they all seem to be based on the eternal Honda 125 4 stroke engine, just different badging and (rarely) a ponced up one with disc brakes. Ambitious badging on this one doesn't change that reality:
And this is the closest to a super bike- a plastic kit
And on car driving- no street is too narrow - indeed this photo does not do justice to the narrow gap the car just cleared!
Early night tonight and off to Kerman in the morning!
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I then forsook the GS and shared a taxi with a Dutch traveller out to the desert, to the Kaluts 140 Kms east - I was glad I did as the heat was searing and the winds high. At least that helped me make one decision- the idea of riding 900 Kms across that desert (the Dasht e Lut) toward Mashhad in the Northeastern part of Iran has been knocked on the head!
