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Showing 1-25 of 38 results
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Surprises in Iran
Blog: A Traveler's Library - 30 May 2011
Books for Troubled Times in the Middle East Destination: Iran Book: Saved by Beauty: Adventures of an American Romantic in Iran (NEW May 2011) by Roger Housden Roger Housden‘s Saved by Beauty combines an enticing travel guidebook with a philosophical memoir as he travels in Iran, seeking the beautiful culture he first fell in love [...]This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library.
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Dining With Al-Qaeda
Blog: A Traveler's Library - 23 May 2011
Books for the Arab World in Troubled Times Destination: Middle East Book: Dining with Al Qaeda (2010)by Hugh Pope Every Monday for a while now, I’ve been writing about books that might shed some light on the current internal struggles of countries in the Middle East (as well as Iraq and Afghanistan as the center [...]This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library.
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A Persian Poet
Blog: A Traveler's Library - 16 May 2011
Books for Troubled Times in the Arab World Destination: Iran (Persia, 12th Century) Book: The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, translated by Edward Fitzgerald (1917) The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam*, a rather slim book with its ivory slip cover and front embossed with green, red and gold twining roses held an honored position in my parent’s living [...]This content is a post from: A Traveler's Library To comment on this post or search for related information, click on the link to A Traveler's Library.
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Iran trip costs update
Blog: arnika round the world - 17 December 2010
Its my busiest week at uni and what better way to procrastinate that updating my travel costs spreadsheet. I have updated from my Iran trip earlier this year. So if your heading to Iran and wondering about costs etc check it out for a rouge estimate for a budget trip (sleeping in hostels, local transport [...]
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Day 269: Under the skin of Iran
Blog: Diaries of a Vagabonding Couple - 16 November 2010
Mural outside the ex US embassy in Tehran (*see below for the story) Last night in Iran. Tomorrow our Silk Road chapter begins. A little excited about the upcoming journey, a little nervous about the unknown, a little fazed about adapting to another new environment. In retrospect, Iran wasn’t quite how I imagined it would be. A lot more developed, a lot more open, a lot more en mode. The
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Day 259: But isn't booze here illegal?
Blog: Diaries of a Vagabonding Couple - 15 November 2010
The 33 arches bridge spans gracefully across the Zayandeh River, Esfahan I'm intoxicated and so is Big Evil who's driving us around Esfahan for a taste of the "nightlife" here. KF is in the backseat saying silly things, clearly a tad drunk. We're halfway through the bottle of vodka Big Evil had just bought from the neighbourhood dealer. This is a side of Iran I never imagined of experiencing.
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Book Review and Interview: Iranian Thriller
Blog: A Traveler's Library - 12 November 2010
Destination: Iran Book: NEW Cemetery of Dreams (October 2010) by S. Mostofi I was not sure Cemetery of Dreams by S. Mostofi would make it to the Travelers’ Library, because I’ve had bad results with self-published books. However, this historical thriller was a pleasant surprise.
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Day 262 & 263: A Red Village, A White Salt Lake
Blog: Diaries of a Vagabonding Couple - 4 November 2010
Red village of Abyaneh spilling down the mountainside Abyaneh: the red village Made a stop in Abyaneh, a small Zoroastrian village south of Kashan. Heard about this place from many Iranian friends so decided to drop by and see what the fuss was all about. It's on the way from Esfahan to Kashan anyway. Abyaneh's villagers (women in traditional flowery outfits) Yep, Iranis love this place,
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Day 257: House of Strength
Blog: Diaries of a Vagabonding Couple - 28 October 2010
Inside an Iranian House of Strength Zurkhaneh, the house of strength, is a traditional Iranian gym where men go to exercise and frequent “performances” are held. Our LP highlighted this as an interesting window into Iranian culture but I couldn’t quite understand our guidebook’s description: “A group of men, standing around the perimeter of a lowered pit, perform a series of ritualized feats
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Day 256: Windcatchers in the desert
Blog: Diaries of a Vagabonding Couple - 27 October 2010
The full moon rises behind mountains in the horizon, the twilight sky slowly turns dark. There’s no better soundtrack to this serenity than the soothing echo of songs coming from mosques left, right and center. It’s prayer time and the singing voices carry so much grace we are left silent standing on a rooftop overlooking a panorama of mud brown houses. We’re in Yazd, an ancient Silk Road city
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Day 254: My name is Jumong
Blog: Diaries of a Vagabonding Couple - 25 October 2010
Nasir-ol-molk Mosque, Shiraz “Jumong!” a little boy yelled with glee as I passed by. I smiled and walked on without a clue what he was referring to. Then another, and another, greeted me with the same. “Jumong! Jumong!” I couldn’t walk around Shiraz without being noticed and called “Jumong” or asked with a curious grin: “Jumong?” Soon before long I was catching on... Vaulted arches of
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Day 252: The Million Star Hotel
Blog: Diaries of a Vagabonding Couple - 24 October 2010
Crumbling Sand Castles at Kaluts Spent the night in Kaluts, a desert filled with sand castles. These tall structures, believed to be formed by wind erosion, became walls for our makeshift ‘hotel room’. We fell asleep right there in the open, beneath a million stars. Moein, our driver, had everything we needed in the boot of his car. I can’t believe how he managed to pack it all in – a carpet,
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Infrastructure War: How Trying to Fix a Problem Can Sometimes Become a Fight
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 21 October 2010
by Sam Kendall KF12 Tajikistan Currently there is a conflict brewing in Central Asia. The conflict is between a few different countries, and the cause is infrastructure. We've learned how infrastructure can raise costs of microfinance. Learn how it can raise costs of regular items, and the cost of nationalistic tendencies. (with videos)
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Day 245: From Iraq to Iran
Blog: Diaries of a Vagabonding Couple - 15 October 2010
From Iraq to Iran : The Hamilton Road Took the Hamilton Road from Arbil (Iraq) to Orumiye (Iran). Long ass journey for a short distance because most of it is on winding mountain road built by Kiwi engineer Archibald Hamilton from 1928-1932. Read about the spectacular scenery from LP and scenery did not disappoint. Sun baked mountains, lush blonde pastures (looking like they've been shampooed &
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Dangerous Travel
Blog: Landlopers - 14 July 2010
I was recently talking about travel with a friend, and the concept of difficult travel arose. His position was that he would travel to any locale, regardless of the potential danger. I argued that it was inherently irresponsible to knowingly put yourself in a dangerous position; that being safe on the road is any traveler’s [...]
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Day 465: Breakfast Of Champions
Blog: The Odyssey Expedition - 30 May 2010
Sat 10 Apr; In what has to be the most touching thing that’s happened to me in the last 16 months of traversing the globe, last night on the bus from Shiraz, the little old lady (she must have been in her nineties) sitting in front of me who didn’t speak a word of English, turned [...]
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Day 464: Percy Police
Blog: The Odyssey Expedition - 30 May 2010
Fri 9 Apr; Last night’s taxi took me to the coach station and within minutes, I was hurting down through the good night towards Shiraz near the Gulf. When I arrived in the morning, I knew that there were defo no boats to Kuwait, but I was having trouble working out from the ferry company [...]
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Day 463: All Back To Mine
Blog: The Odyssey Expedition - 29 May 2010
Thu 8 Apr: The train pulled into Tehran central at around 9am. I fannied about for a while trying to find somewhere that would change my US dollars before heading off to the Indian embassy. Some of you might remember a few months ago we ran the story about Mr. Samaddar, the chap from India who holds [...]
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Day 462: The Herat of the Matter
Blog: The Odyssey Expedition - 29 May 2010
Wed 7 Apr: Part of the reason I’m doing The Odyssey is to prove that the world is a lot more open than people think. If I, an ordinary bod from Liverpool, can step foot into every country in the world overland using just my British passport and a winning smile, then I think we [...]
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Dubai’s Terminal 2
Blog: Sophie's World - 28 May 2010
According to the Dubai Airport website, the renowned Dubai Duty Free covers 5 400 square metres of shopper's paradise. Well, it's certainly not located in Terminal 2. There's only one shop in Terminal 2. A rather uninteresting one at that. That, and just a few cafeterias. Dubai’s Terminal 2 is a post from: Sophie's World
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The trans-asian express: a very long train ride
Blog: arnika round the world - 11 May 2010
The 80 hour train ride from Tehran to Istanbul involved a lot more that just sitting on the train. We had heroin smugglers, drug dealers, long border crossings, 2am ferry rides, and of course getting left behind in the middle of Turkey. The bus takes 40 hours, and despite the very long, slow train I [...]
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Tehran- the politics come out
Blog: arnika round the world - 9 May 2010
Before Tehran the politics of the country seemed more like a pain in the ass than actual reality, however in Tehran you are reminded that the government are in fact a little crazy. If you have read any information about Iran you will realise they are not so good at foreign relations. Clearly no one [...]
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Tehran traffic rules
Blog: arnika round the world - 6 May 2010
While in Tehran, visitors must take note of the unique traffic laws to avoid death/injury Motorcyclists are exempt from any road rules Helmets are optional on motorcycles but not advised as they may affect carefully styled hair Always look both ways, even on a one way street, as buses have lanes which they drive down [...]
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ancient villages and nuclear power plants
Blog: arnika round the world - 6 May 2010
I was sad to leave Esfahan, but my time in Iran was running short. I was off to Kashan, a smaller town on the way to Tehran. The buses are great in Iran, cheap and very good quality. Nice new, air-conditioned buses, unfortunately with TV’s which play a constant stream of terrible Iranian soap operas. [...]
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Stuff Europe, I’m going backpacking in Iraq
Blog: Backpackular Spectacular - 6 May 2010
So you’ve been to South America? Lame. You’ve travelled India? Real original. Don’t even bother mentioning Europe. Why don’t you go somewhere a little bit more challenging? Somewhere that’s still fresh from war. Or is still at war even. Stuart Lachlan Moore is 23-years-old and has just returned from a trip to Iran and Iraq. [...]
