Oct 9 - Today is just a continuation of Day 188, as we are still awake and at the airport. Plenty of lines and flights leaving even at this hour. At the FlyDubai ticket counter, the agent spends a lot of time with our passports, reading, consulting with his fellow agents, and otherwise not quite sure what to do. Finally he asks for our PCR test results, and what are the last four digits of the purchasing credit card. This question throws me, since buying online airline tickets while overseas is tedious and frustrating. I sometimes try three or four card before finding one that will work. Hence, I never know which card I used for any particular ticket. It takes five tries to get the number right.
Our trip today is two flights, connecting through Dubai. He prints the tickets and warns, “You need to report to the airport police when you arrive in Shiraz.” This is not welcome news to me and I decide he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Eat some outrageously expensive crap airport food and sit around the gate, eyes glazed over with weariness like everyone else in the lounge. Thankfully our 02:15 flight takes off on time, and though I’m not hungry, eat the dinner they offer at about 03:30.
The plane, according to the in-flight mapper, curves around outside Iraqi airspace to the north, through western Iran, and across the Persian Gulf. The bare, mountainous terrain of the Zagros looks awesome and surreal in the dark orange light of dawn. Landing in Dubai, we fly low over the numerous land-creating projects that now contaminate the sea. All is beige or light blue. Catch a glimpse of the Burj Khalifa tower off to the south of the airport, all 163 floors and 830 meters of it. Want to go up to the observation decks? According to the webpage, packages start at about US $110 (viewing at night) or more like $150 in the day.
Dubai International Airport is a crowded riot of people, like IST but not as modern. A slow bus takes us from the plane to the terminal, where the transit lounge is crammed full of passengers. Hear a smattering of many languages here.
Back onto a FlyDubai plane as the sun rises higher and begins roasting the city. The bus out is a mix of well-off Iranians returning home, a few Arabs, a group of old Japanese women, and a mix of others, like us. Janet dons her abaya, which is technically not Iranian dress, but is a strongly conservative precautionary move on our part for Iranian immigration authorities. However, the obviously Iranian women on this flight are generally ignoring their hijabs, at least the part where it is supposed to keep all the hair covered. Only a few women here (Arab) are wearing near full face coverings, though one is showing her henna-stained forearms and hands.
The short trip back over the Gulf and across the Zagros mountains affords an incredible view of the deformation of this range. Textbook double-plunging anticlines are everywhere, and the tilted, eroding beds are crisp and clear without vegetation to hamper the view. Just before landing, pass over Maharlu Lake, an expanse of dried salt flats with one small water-filled portion that is strikingly red in color.
Shiraz Airport is a lot smaller than I expected. This is really where the rubber hits the road so to speak, as the following tale will tell:
Since I have been traveling independently, there has not been an easy time to visit Iran. The 1979 Revolution happened when I was still in school. After this the US Hostage Crisis (also 1979) cemented the animosity between the USA and Iran, long before I could contemplate going there on my own. In 1992 I was offered help by an Iranian friend to try, using their family as a reference, because at that time it was a possibility. But logistically it wasn’t an option for me. Watching the presidents come and go, I was impressed with Muhammad Khatami (1997-2005) and felt that he was putting Iran on a course that might thaw relations. But it never got off the ground, and under subsequent political leanings in both Iran and the US, things have never improved. Looking forward from today, I still don’t see where that improvement might come from, considering the sorts of future presidents either country might end up with. So, my plan to wait for such a day was discarded in favor of doing it the hard way. In my initial research into this plan, I discovered that visas are relatively straightforward for most nationalities, except three: USA, Canada, and the UK. For these, visiting Iran can only be contemplated as a guided tour, from start to finish. This just about eliminated my interest, until I researched Iran-based tour companies and found that there were several options that were not that expensive (less than $200/day). All foreign-based companies were priced significantly higher. I initiated contact with three companies, starting in about November 2021 (in anticipation of a visit in about October 2022). By January, I selected the tour company Destination Iran, based in Tehran, and fixed both the tour content and specific dates. The tour I decided was two contiguous tours, each a bit over a week in length, that coincided geographically so we could go from the first tour directly to the second. Having done this, I then set it all aside since the prices couldn’t be fixed until April 2022 (after Nowruz, the Iranian New Year). In early May I was informed that prices had increased significantly, mostly due to tightening sanctions. It was still within my comfort range, so I went forward preparing some written documentation (job resumes and letters of personal introduction). We were already traveling by this time, so this work had to collate with everything else we were doing. I had to fix dates for everywhere we were going to be, up to October, so that I could sort out what Iranian embassy/consulate we would visit to get the physical visa papers. I chose Istanbul, and the week of Sept 18-23. Then there was the issue of payment. The initial terms were that I pay half the tour about four months in advance, which coincided with when I needed to initiate the visa process (it takes an estimated three to four months for approval of USA citizens). Turned out that due to more and more sanctions, it had become extremely difficult for a company in Iran to obtain funds from abroad and was impossible to source from a US-based account. I was unable to get this part done in a timely manner. I had been led to believe that the Iranian tour company would need to be paid before issuing a ‘guarantee number’. This number, submitted to the foreign ministry, would be used as a final requirement for issuance of the visa. However, since I had not paid, I assumed that I could not receive this number. This turned out to not be true, in that the tour company I was using issued the guarantee number anyway. So, through the months of July and August, I decided not to worry about the parts I couldn’t control and just gave all the other information, including evidence of our paid flights in and out of the country. By about September 15, I received a digital copy of the accepted visa applications for the three of us (they accepted Odette about two weeks earlier). Upon arriving in Istanbul, we went first thing the next morning to the Iranian consulate in Sultanahmet. We were informed that visas were only processed the following day. Back the next morning, early, and got in the long line again. This time we were able to get in the building and take a number in the waiting room. The process of the issued visa was simple enough, just paid the visa fee, supplied a printed copy of the visa acceptance forms, and in return we got a printed visa (no stamps were placed in our passports). Meanwhile, the tour company had made all our hotel reservations without any payment from us. I was eventually able to sort out a payment method, very much at the last minute. The only thing left were the PCR tests, which Iran still requires from visiting foreigners. This we did in the days leading up to the flight. Of course, Odette was coughing a lot in the week leading up to that, so that added a level of uncertainty to the outcome of the tests. But they were negative, so that resolved this last little problem. Layered on top of this, starting September 16, the morality police in Tehran caused the death of Mahsa Amini, age 22, who was not wearing her hijab ‘the right way’, while she was being ‘re-educated’ in morality police custody. At the time of her arrest, she was riding in a car with her brother, so not even walking around in public. This seems to have been the final straw in the patience of many people in Iran, at least in the larger cities, of tolerating the strongly conservative leanings of the government. Like with the Green Revolution in 2009, people began taking to the streets in large numbers, but unlike that earlier movement, the involvement of women was much greater. Leading up to our departure date, protests and demonstrations in multiple cities were getting a lot of international attention. Ominously, I could no longer communicate with the tour operator by Whatsapp, or any other messaging system for that matter, due to a government crackdown on social media. Despite this, we found ways to get a few messages across, just enough for me to know the name of the guide who would meet us at Shiraz airport. Also, to confirm that all was still ‘open for business’ so to speak. At this point I was relying quite heavily on those messages to not just pull the plug on the whole adventure. Janet and I discussed it, deciding that we would not waver from the plan, and would only be stopped if the flight didn’t leave. Videos of burning cars and chanting protesters be damned. So, this background color out of the way, we stepped into the immigration building of Shiraz airport. I honestly still didn’t know how this would go, but I could not think of any critical document I had missed. There was a redundant passport check before getting into the immigration line, and when they officer saw the nationality, asked where our visas were. I got the pages out, he did a cursory, five second check, and said “Welcome!”, waving us to the immigration line. The officer at the immigration window stamped our paper visas (again, nothing in our passports), and that was it. We collected the two check-in bags and strolled through customs without any further ado. Omid, our guide, was in the outer terminal, and must have saved a photo of me on his phone, as he knew who we were right away. The city of Shiraz is mostly flat, but runs right up against steep, craggy mountains on almost all sides. The only level area leaving town is to the southeast, where it runs into the previously mentioned Maharlu Lake. The sides of the streets are a chaos of tiny shops and huge, lumbering buildings, most of which look to be from the 1970’s. Traffic is thick with cars buzzing across intersections pell-mell and doing sudden U-turns just about anywhere. It has a definite Middle Eastern character, both modern and heavily worn antique-y at the same time. Much of the Arabic script used on the signage is identical to the modern styles of the Arab world, with a definite minority using the more fluid, ‘cursive’ Persian lettering. First order of business is to change some money. The office we go to is happy to give me 295,000 rials to the US $ without receipt, meaning that the black market rate applies. As one would expect, Western sanctions on Iran have rendered the rial an unstable mess, and it fluctuates dramatically. We check into the way-too-fancy Karim Khan Hotel, but apparently this is what counts as the ‘budget option’ for the tour package. Being as accustomed to months of basic rooms, it feels like a luxury.
After collapsing for a few hours in the room, we meet up with Omid downstairs at 16:00 for a few hours of quick touring while the sun is still out.
First stop is the Shrine of Ali Ibn Hamza. It was built in honor of a relative of the fourth Imam (Ali Ibn Husayn). To give a sense of the importance of that, Shi’a Islam honors twelve Imams who constitute the bloodline of the prophet Muhammad. The 12th Imam, has been ‘living in occultation’ since 874 and is set to return at some future point (similar to the ‘Second Coming’ of Jesus Christ).
This shine is an excellent example of the Shiraz style of architecture, with a dome that was carefully engineered to be supported on a thinner base than its widest diameter further up.
The courtyard in front of the shine is full of gravestones. They are flat and basically serve as flagstones. To be buried near the shine of such an important personage is highly coveted.
The inside of the shine is quite dazzling. Shine interiors in Iran, unlike in mosques, are sometimes covered in intricate mirror fragments. This style is relatively new (last few hundred years) and has grown more complex as the technique developed.
Next stop is the tomb of Hafez Shirazi. This poet (1315-90) is probably the most famous within Iran and was a life-long resident of Shiraz. He is particularly known for his couplets, and deft use of Persian meters (sequences of long and short syllables). The place of his tomb used to be a large cemetery with many graves, but the growing importance of his work meant that over the years, the area around his tomb was expanded at the expense of other structures. It now occupies a large central area with flagstones and surrounding gardens.
There are a lot of local people here today. We are told this is an extremely popular place to visit for Iranians, as everyone is well acquainted with his poetry, and young couples come here to find inspiration for their feelings toward each other. “They sit in the gardens around, and if they are lucky, maybe can get some kisses in”, Omid says.
We get dropped off at a street corner, and we walk down the busy avenue. There is an area here thick with money changers. A lot of offers are called out to us, but I don’t hear any specific rates quoted. At the end of the avenue is a large roundabout, and we dodge the many lanes of traffic to get across to a large park area by the Arg of Karim Khan, a renovated 18th century fortress.
FUN FACT: The name ‘Iran’ comes from ‘aryan’, the self-identification of the people who formed the early recognized civilizations in the region. This is in contrast the Persians, who are a smaller group originating from the area of Shiraz. The term Persian became widely used internationally because it was associated with the Achaemenid and Sassanian Dynasties, both based near Shiraz. But the peoples of the wider region are more accurately identified as having Aryan origin. This is why, in 1935, Reza Shah of the Pahlavi Dynasty went to great trouble to alter the international records and change the officially recognized name from Persia to Iran.
Iran