Shiraz, Central Iran, Tradition, Culture and Such Lovely People

A very comfortable night staying with Ashkan and his parents, a lovely family,  another awesome breakfast, this family were very much into natural and healthy food, (great) and we could not leave without more gifts of fresh honey and dates. Jakob left to cycle south on his way towards Tehran, Dubai and other places around the world over the next year. But as we now have limited time we decided to head south by bus and work our way back up.
So Tabriz to Shiraz, a really long way! 1300 km or so.
We cycled to a bus terminal about 16 km out of town. This was where the long distance buses departed from. As soon as we said our destination, (before we got to a ticket office) in our case Shiraz, we were literally grabbed and taken to a bus. It said VIP, I guess it was when it was new. Anyway, not too bad a trip considering we left at 2 pm and arrived at 9am the next morning. We found a fairly central budget hotel and spent the next few days looking around the city.
Shiraz was quite different from Tabriz. It was much more conservative. The first thing we noticed was most of the women were wearing chador, being covered in a black shroud of fabric. Like a big black sheet that they put on top of their already covered hair then clutch it around themselves just leaving their faces showing, as opposed to a lot of the younger women in Tabriz who barely had their hair covered and also wore makeup, jeans and high heels.
We spent most of our time around the old city and Shohada square walking through the many bazaars, visiting the huge fortress and of course the stunning old mosques. The tiles and colours are very stunning. (photos) This city actually dates back to 2000 BC!
We visited one of the holiest Shiite sites in Iran, Aramgah-e Shah-e Cheragh, (Mausoleum of King of the light)  an incredibly beautiful shrine, women enter through a separate area to the men, I had to be even more covered (photo) but the fabric/chador was provided and the women got me all sorted, sorry,  I won't try to explain the religious meaning behind it all. Visitors like us are very welcome but also provided with a volunteer guide who shows you around and explains things. (Photos)
Iran is steeped in History, tradition and culture. The people can explain the reason they do everything and also the philosophy behind it.
Being cut off from the rest of the world by international sanctions seems only to emphasize this. Most tourists come on organized tours but there are a few hardy independent travelers like us.
There are no ATMs or banks that will take foreign credit cards. We had to bring enough cash to last our whole trip and extra in case of emergency or if we wanted to fly out or stay longer. We did feel a bit uneasy carrying so much money.
Also lots of websites are blocked without a VPN. No Facebook or Blogger or any foreign news reports on Iran. But most people get around it, all acquiring VPNs and illegal satellite TV. It seems rules are secretly disregarded a lot.
Thursday and Friday are 'weekend' days here. But this week Saturday and Sunday were public holidays as well because of Ashura,  the annual Imam Hossein mourning time, the major celebration - actually celebration is not really the right word, it is more of a memorial or remembering time - being on Saturday night followed by a family day on Sunday. All week this soulful mourning music has been playing all over the city. This is very important in Iranian life and I don't mean to trivialize it but merely report on what we saw.
Every night there were many groups of men parading the streets with drums and self flagellating (hitting themselves) over each shoulder to the beat of the music with this heavy looking chain instruments of self harm! (Photo) They continue this for hours and there is no doubt they would be in real pain at the end of the night. (Iran has banned the actual self harm, using swords and cutting but this is still done in other countries)
It is quite a sight to see and was particularly intense on the Saturday evening. So many people. In fact we, all of a sudden, became very uncomfortably jammed, crushed, in among too many people, thankfully a guy near us could see that and whizzed us across the road through the middle of the parade. Phew.
It made me think about NZ at that same time with everyone gearing up to watch the All Blacks play in the world cup, 88 million people here, most never having heard of, or interested in the word 'Rugby' and mourning annually for Imam Hossein who died in 680 ad, some 1500 years ago. Just one small part of the amazing history, culture and tradition here.
Next day, on the bike - a day to truly remember
Shiraz to Persopolis - 65 km
Across the waterless river, up the hill, passed the old city gate and on our way. Not many trucks today but plenty of cars about, people off and about to meet up with family and friends.
15 km and out of the city area the first car stopped to say hello and handed us a 1.5 litre bottle of cold lemon drink.
We stopped at a garage to fill up with petrol for our cooker, free...
A couple stopped at the same time, so nice to see you, have a good day and handed me half a cake, a tin of lollies and a bottle of water.
2 km further on a car pulls off the road and holds out 2 ice creams... We are still not sure how they had 2 spare ice creams in their car but suspect they saw us, got them at the garage then turned around and followed us. Anyway, much appreciated.
Ice creams downed, on our way again and a big truck pulls over, the driver comes running back towards us washing bunches of grapes on his way, a big smile as he hands them over, no English spoken but none needed!
A few quiet kms until a couple with a baby flag us down. The woman spoke English very well, she worked as a translator, her husband spoke French having worked in Europe some years ago. They asked if we would do them the honour of joining them for lunch at his mothers, it was just 5 km away on our route so we quickly agreed, and off we went following the white car.
Turns out it was more than joining his mother for lunch, it was the whole family! But what an afternoon. Great fun people.  Good food, lots of photo showing and conversation about NZ, our travels and interesting discussions about Iran. One young man, a university student, quickly sorted a VPN on my phone. After the meal the older ones headed off for a nap.
The ladies were concerned about the tan on my feet, should have worn socks...  they are still being a bit patch work from wearing sandals, I think I am the only one who considers it a real sign of freedom, everyone else is horrified... Anyway out came the henna treatment, (photos) great fun.
We turned down the offer to stay and continued to our destination with more gifts of apples, toffees and pomegranites being bestowed upon us along the way. Our bags were overflowing, (we were secretly glad watermelon season was over)
What an extraordinary day, such friendly generous and hospitable people.