Ka Pai Kiwis

Hello everyone. We are having a wonderful time in Iran. I am keeping the posts up to date but we are unable to add photos so we will save them and flood you with info at a later date. It is probable Turkmenistan will be the same so bear with us. We are back on Facebook thanks to VPN.  

What did I think Iran was like? Islam Mosques everywhere Muezzins call ringing out day and night Angry young men chanting death to America Being looked at with suspicion People praying 5 times a day Mullahs wandering the street making sure people are behaving themselves Police state. Hospitable people ( I have read about this) How many of the above things are true?  I am not sure but I will tell you this from my observations. We have traveled in the North west, north and east as far as Quchan. There are relatively few Mosques in Iran. There is little calling to prayer by the Muezzin that we have heard. Most of the mosques that we have seen in Iran have been built in the last 40 years. The only police we have seen are traffic police. Not sure who the guy in the SUV was. ( see Cars of Iran post) It seems that only a small minority of Iranians are practicing Muslims. They practice Shi’a Islam here, most of the rest of the Muslim world are Sunni. So when the mulla...

Yay only 100km today. Last night I heard the muezzin call to prayer for the first time since being in Iran. Islam is not as big here as I had expected, however the influence of the Islamic regime is everywhere. A very pleasant drive through a predominantly rural area, with crops of rice, tobacco, tomatoes etc. It is very hot so we have checked in to our hotel where we will rest for the afternoon before venturing out when it is cooler. The internet is not so good here and many sites are restricted. No Facebook or Stuff or BBC. If I search for news on Google I can get to some sites, ironically news sites ( and I use the term loosely) like CNBC are easy to see. I have found Reuters though. We ventured out about 5 and found somewhere to eat. We then visited the towns main attraction, a large brick tower dating back 1000 years. Quite an unusual sight and it is a world heritage site. It acted as a beacon on the original silk road route, it is 62 metres high and very distinctiv...