– 2014 Getting away to Middle East Dubai Iran 1 Month Trip
I arrived at Yazd from Kerman by train at around 12ish at midnight. In order to save some money for hostel and don’t want to get into the town in the dark, I stayed at the train station. There is wifi, socket, drinking water, toilet here. All basic human’s needs exist. However, it was a little bit unnatural to stay here as only me and some other passengers were here. As train departed, there were only 2-3 people staying here as me. I did not dare to lie on the couch. Instead, I just lied on my backpack and kept 30% of awareness. Only me was in the station when time was 5-6am.
Sky lighted up around 7am, I decided to walk into the town. As it was cold and there was plenty of time, I used the little map in the book and lastly arrived to the hostel after 1 hour and a half. Along the way there was nobody, and just a few cars passing by.
After arriving at the Silk Road Hotel, I rested a little bit and started my first day for city tour. I went to Jomeh Mosque, Amir Chakhmaq Complex (Takyeh Amir Chakhmagh), Alexander's prison, khan-e lari (Traditional house with 150 years history of Qajar), Dowlatabad Garden (Bagh-e Dolat Abad) (Tallest wind tower in the world).
Silk Road Hotel, Yazd, Iran
Quite good backpack hostel
The hostel I was living which included all you can eat breakfast only costs IRR$150,000 per night for 8 people dormitory. Cheap!
Jomeh Mosque, Yazd, Iran
Jomeh Mosque, Yazd, Iran
Interior design
In Yazd, you can walk between the mud wall and you won’t know where you are until the end of it. It was just like a big maze, you are like having adventure while walking through it. You need to know where you come from so that you can leave there without getting lost.
There is one interesting thing to look around. You will see the door knockers are different for left and right. It is because people inside the house the gender of the person knocking the door and found a same gender to open the door. The one which gave a deeper sound is for male while another is for female.
Khan-e lari, Yazd, Iran
Khan-e lari is a traditional house, there is an underground bath place. With colorful glasses on the wooden window and ceiling decorated with mirror, this created harmony and silence.
I like Bagh-e Dolat Abad most as it is amazing. Standing under the wind tower, you can feel the strong wind coming from above. All the things, octagon symmetrical architect, dome shaped ceiling with beehive shaped construction, mosaic wooden window…There are two storeys, looking through the second storey is completely different from what you have seen on the first one.
While going to Bagh-e Dolat Abad something happened. Holding the map I don’t know how to get there. I asked a woman for direction. At first she explained with me with simple English, after a while she decided to take me there with her daughter with her car. We arrived at the front door of the wind tower. People here are nice.
Bagh-e Dolat Abad, Yazd, Iran
Super beautiful and gorgeous
Inside of Bagh-e Dolat Abad, Yazd, Iran
Inside of Bagh-e Dolat Abad, Yazd, Iran
Inside of Bagh-e Dolat Abad, Yazd, Iran
The technology of Iran is brilliant, if not, how can they be survived in hot summer? Apart from wind tower, ice house also make use of technique qanat to build. Qanat is a special irrigation system for desert area. To know more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanat
Yazd, Iran
Winder tower combing with Qanat
The second I went to some more distant spots with a tour including an abandoned little town Kharanaq, Zoroastrian pilgrimage Chak chak and city Meybod.
The guide said that Kharanaq had been abandoned for 35 years. You can see a lot of mud house in Yazd. What surprised me was that the mud houses here were covered with a layer of snow. With the nearby snow mountains landscape, the scenery was gorgeous. I was glad I came here with this season. The guide also explained that there was a series of things to do in the bath, firstly you need to wash the feet, then massage, and lastly wash your body.
Kharanaq, Yazd, Iran
Every year in June pilgrims come to Chak Chak as it is a secret place for Zoroastrian. It is in between nowhere and you can only see mountains around it. Chak chak means ‘drip drip’of the water. When you enter the architect, you will found that floor is wet as water is dripping from the top.
Symbol of Zoroastrianism is the symbol of a building in Causeway Bay.
Fire temple (Atashkadeh), Yazd, Iran
Symbol of Zoroastrianism
Fire temple (Atashkadeh), Yazd, Iran
Feeling of silence
Fire temple (Atashkadeh), Yazd, Iran
Everlasting Flame
I don’t know if the one in Hong Kong also an everlasting one. What I want to say is Zoroastrianism is not worshipping the fire, the fire symbolized purity. They only worship the God (Ahura Mazda). The symbol of Zoroastrianism is not their God, it is also a symbol, if you want to know more, please visit:
http://www.zoroaster.net/indexe.htm
I found the symbol of Zoroastrianism is a very special one. Three layers of wing and with a ring in one hand. When I saw that building’s logo in Causeway Bay, I wanted to know more about this religion.
Most of the Hong Kong people don’t know much about this religion. Finding the attractive spots and religion of Iran made me understand about Zoroastrianism. It affected Hong Kong in a lot of ways, including Tsim Sha Tsui XX street, Star Ferry, University of Hong Kong, etc. Please visit http://bbs.cantonese.asia/thread-19459-1-1.html to know more.
It seemed I talked a lot about this religion and Hong Kong. Let's start again with Chak Chak. If you take a look outside from Chak Chak, you can only see layers of mountains. There is no other building nearby. The weather was good when we went there, mountains are covered by a thin layer of snow. It was so silent there. I was glad that I had a chance to come to Zoroastrianism’s important place of pilgrimage. As this is an influential religion in Hong Kong in olden days, it made me want to know more about it.
Chak Chak, Yazd, Iran
View seen outside Chak Chak, you could not see other buildings out there
Chak Chak, Yazd, Iran
Building by the mountain
Chak Chak, Yazd, Iran
12 petals symbolizing 12 months
Chak Chak, Yazd, Iran
Decoration inside
After Chak Chak, we went to Meybod. This is another town, which is a mud town with at least 1800 years old.
Meybod, Yazd, Iran
We mainly went here for Narin Castle (Narenj Qaleh), ice house (Yakhchal) and pigeon house (Kabootar Khaneh). Narin Castl is an old castle. It seemed pretty old.
Ice house is where Persian stored the ice in Winter for Summer. They used straw to separate each layer of ice in the house.
Ice House, Meybod, Iran
Ice House, Meybod, Iran
A big ice house, there is ladder getting down to the bottom
And there were a highest record of 4000 pigeons living in pigeon house. This house was mainly used to collect pigeons' excrement as fertilizer.
Kabootar Khaneh (pigeon house), Meybod, Iran
Apart from the spots I mentioned in this passage, there are also other places to visit, water museum, Saheb A Zaman Club Zurkhaneh, etc. Yazd is really a good place to visit. Apart from the religious Fire Temple, Chak Chak and XXX (I didn't go, you need to find guide/drive to go there), the mud house and ally gave me mysterious feeling. You can also know more about Persian old technology. This is a must go city!
Next: Kashan, producer of rose water and with a lots of beautiful architecture
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My Itinerary:
Dubai (1 day)-> Sharjah (Where the ferry was) -> 1. Bandar Abbas (1 day) -> 2. Kerman (1 day) -> 3. Bam (0.5 day) -> Kerman (1 day) -> 4. Yazd (2.5 days)-> 5. Kashan (Abyaneh , Maranjab) (3 days) -> 6. Tehran (2 days) -> 7. Sanandaj (Palangan) (2 days)-> 8. Kermanshah (2 days) -> 9. Isfahan (3 days) -> 10. Shiraz (3 days) -> 11. Bandar Abbas (2 days) -> Sharjah (Where we took the ferry)-> Dubai (0.5 day)
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