 Yazd, Iran |  Tabriz, Iran |
|---|
alhea houtman
Iran
Iran?!
“When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself”
by Earl Nightingale.
Let me be honest, Don’t judge a book by its cover was a little too mainstream and I’d like to quote it from someone different, with the same meaning but different words :) Iran is a place where you should not judge them or label them and yes! It’s impossible for others to make zero internal judgments about them. Humans, every time we meet someone new or find something new, it is normal for others to judge them. Judgments are expectations based on our mindsets and then most of us have a bunch of questionnaires or create attitudes towards others, that’s totally normal! Here are some examples that we could make; “is he Mexican?”, “is she nine?”, and etc. Which is totally fine… and I can’t just tell everyone to stop judging others which could be impossible, it's the same thing as telling you to look at the sentence without reading it…
(DON’T READ ME, DON’T READ ME, DON’T READ ME)
See? It’s totally impossible for you to look at it without reading it :) I’m here to remind all of you to have faith in others and let them do their thing. Try to understand them, everything in this world such as wars, problems, issues, and etc. We lack the amount of communication which causes a lot of misunderstandings. We need to let them speak for themselves before others start gossiping or discussing something that is unnecessary. Not long after your issue could contain a bunch of misleading statements. So to all those people out there, after you speculate or give an assumption about others make sure and try to have faith in them… let them speak and explain the things that they do, why does it matter? Why it became an issue towards others? And many more.
Iran, Iran was one of the countries that I have never thought in my whole entire life… I would be able to visit. I heard a lot of rumors about Iran, about what’s currently happening in Iran about the terrorists, the people there, and the country itself. Apart of me thinks that what they said could be right, about the bombing and what’s happening in their country. But also a part of me thinks that what if the same thing happened to me in Pakistan? Of how I see Pakistan with my two bare eyes, I see Pakistan as one of the most peaceful and helpful countries in the whole entire world that I have been to. At this point, I was thinking about the same thing too, what if the same thing happened? Bad things that I hear about Iran are different from what I see?
The second we got to Iran from Pakistan, I was still a bit terrified but I was okay with it. I’m fine now! At the point where we’re finished with the border of Pakistan and moving on to Iran… it was one of the hardest times :( I was really sad about leaving Pakistan, I really was. I already miss the long hour drives even though we still have a long way to go! But I already missed Pakistan very much. Then the second we were waiting for the immigration process, we’ve met our friend Hamid! He’s our lifesaver, we really need him at this point, we were very clueless. Hamid is always loved to help and get through immigration for tourists! Even though he lives far from the border.
We didn’t even contact Hamid and he was there! Isn’t that incredible? Among other overlanders, Hamid is known as the “King of The Border in Sistan Baluchistan Province”. He works for the Iran Tourism Department. Therefore, In Iran and Pakistan, it has been very hot, as in HOT HOT HOT! My mom, if she gets out of the car she had to get back in, she has to pull her sleeves out and open the door that way. My mom said that “it felt like having a hairdryer blowing towards your hand at the highest heat!”. We’re very honored to be able to meet Hamid! As we get into immigration, me, my sister, and gemma. We forgot to use the right attire, so we head back in the car to get a headscarf and our jackets. We were a little terrified at that point, but it’s all right. After the immigration, we head to the hotel. Later on that night, Hamid asked us to do a little shoot with him at a Museum, specifically the history of Iran. What were we doing there? Make sure you stay tuned for the book!
But then on the process of the shoot, there were some other times and the person that was in this marvelous and amazing store decided to give us a souvenir for the shoot. As we finished shooting, we thought that it was just a warm gesture to look good for the people. But at a point where we were about to leave and he said “you forgot your souvenir!” we thought that it was just a really small gesture to show to the world but in this case, they’re actually giving it to us! We couldn’t thank them better, and we couldn’t be happier.
Evidence of how Iranian people are very loyal and kind; In Yazd, Zach & my dad decided to get a hair cut. They decided to get the hair cut in the hotel, it is not technically in the hotel but it's still one area with the hotel. As they were about to pay, they didn't want to be paid it was very strange. They were very happy to cut Zach's hair! Then we stayed in this hotel in Kerman, it was one of the nicest cities I have ever visited with my family. Anyways, we get a free dinner from the hotel, we also got one of the best dinners there. We couldn't be any happier to be there, the food was served by one of the kindest waiters named Mr. Mohammed. What's interesting is that he can speak for more than 5 languages, he said he is fluent in Arabic & Persia. Persia of course! because Iranian speaks in Persi. Meanwhile, Pakistani speaks in Arabic, they have the same Alphabet but a different way of reading and language too. It's basically like, English & Indonesian. We use the same Alphabet, but different language, meaning, and words!
Iranian foods are one of the best foods I have ever tried, it is very unique but it tastes delicious. Anyways, we've spent one of the best nights in Kerman, and we're very thankful for it. Tehran, it is the Capital City of Iran. Therefore, we get to meet one of our friends there too and we also get to eat dinner with the Ambassador! I really enjoyed the food and their company :) the Ambassador has a very amazing family, we're very grateful that we have gone that far and we're able to meet such a lovely family. Yes! We also went to visit the popular Milad Tower, it looks very beautiful at Day & Night. How the city are full of lights and also the Milad Tower, lights up! Milad Tower, it is a multi-purpose tower in Tehran, Iran. It is the sixth-tallest tower and the 24th-tallest freestanding structure in the world. It is located between Qarb Town and the district of Gisha.
We also visited this place called the Shahzadeh Garden, it is near the Kerman Province. The Shahzadeh Garden is the 9th Garden that is on the list of the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). The Shahzadeh Garden means "The Prince's Park", it is a historic Persian Park located near Mahan in Kerman Province, Iran. What's fascinating is that it is located in the middle of the desert, where there is literally nothing in your left and your right except for the huge mountains and the sands too. Therefore, from afar we can easily spot it, it is also placed on the road between Bam fortress and Kerman. Imagine in the middle of nowhere, on the desert you found this amazing place that is filled with the water springs and there are a bunch of them! as you can tell on the outside you see nothing but sand, but inside this Garden there are fresh living trees, the water springs are flowing calmly, the fresh grass, the beautiful flowers and many more. It seems impossible to imagine but they are literally like to different places in one. This is one of the beautiful places I have ever been to so far in my whole entire life.
Once, we were a couple of days away from crossing to Turkey. We were in Tabriz, there was news that pops up in the TV, therefore the United States of America’s President, Donald J. Trump. “The Report of Iran capturing CIA spies is totally false. Zero Truth. Just more lies and propaganda (like their shot down drone) put out by a Religious Regime that is Badly Failing and has no idea what to do. Their Economy is dead and will get much worse. Iran is a total mess!”. Meanwhile, as I saw outside the hotel’s window… Iranian people are doing their normal daily activities, nothing is wrong. Even though their economy is down, their relationship with other countries is not as good, and people have bad perspectives of Iran. They’re still able to survive with the slightest bit that is left, they’re able to still be happy, and live happily. Therefore, we all should know that we all should make this world a better place and break these borders, find new perspectives to see, look in a different way, be open-minded, and be able to help one another.
One of the things that I love about Iran is that here the people are very loyal :) especially men in Iran are very loyal and have great respect for women, they care a lot about women. This is what I want the world to know, Iranian people aren’t like whom you think they are, they’ll help you when you don’t know where to go, they’ll direct you. They don’t even want to get paid because they just want to have dinner with you, they choose dinner and spending time with people rather than money, because they know they’re not going to repeat the decision they’re going to make. Let me tell you something, we need more people like that in this world, we need people who’ll choose majority love and family rather than a piece of paper that has a huge amount of money. We need people who care about the world and would risk it to make it a better place.