Monkeyrockworld

We left Matteo Tricarico in India, during his Travel For Aid odissey across Asia into Europe… after a short stint in Dubai, Matteo is now in Iran, a fascinating country full of culture, deserts and very hospitable people… his Iranian adventures continue, and the following is the chronicle as penned down by Matteo himself…

In such arid places the human presence is bound by the arbitrariness of Mother Nature, and in particular of one of her daughters, Geology, that acting like a magician, guided by whim and caprice, decides where to pour the chemical compound that makes 70% of our body. Made of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen one, it is also the most common element on the surface of this planet that we have mistakenly called “Earth”, but that for its two-thirds, and rising!, is covered by water. For 200 kilometres I covered during those past two days, Geology has decreed that not one drop of water would come out of the ground, so no villages could be established. Therefore, on May 7, despite having almost doubled my minimum provision of water from three litres to five, I run out of it, and by noon my throat was dryer than the surrounding soil. I decided to break one of the golden rules of the good traveller’s manual in tropical countries: never drink from any source other than a sealed bottle. With ample signs, I stopped a truck that was marching in the opposite direction and I asked for  “hab”, water in Farsi. The driver showed me the tap of a small tank housed between the driven wheels and the first axis of the trailer, it opened, I filled a bottle that I drank in a gulp without breathing. (more…)

We left Matteo Tricarico in India, during his Travel For Aid odissey across Asia into Europe… after a short stint in Dubai, Matteo is now in Iran, a fascinating country full of culture, deserts and very hospitable people… his Iranian adventures continue, and the following is the chronicle as penned down by Matteo himself…

[...] Now we leave this place, and I will tell you of the big city of Iadis,  all its business and its custom. Iadis is a very nice and large city in Persia with active business. There they weave silk and gold cloths, called Iadis, exported to many lands. They worship Mohamed. Leaving this city, the man rides seven days through a plane, and there is no dwelling but in three places where one can cherish. Then we ride to great amusement; there are very beautiful savage donkeys. [...]

With these words, Sir Marco Polo describes the city of Yazd, where I dwelt between April 30 and May 5. Still today, the textile industry trolls  the local economy, although the drapes manufactured are no longer golden, but of cotton, synthetics and wool. I do not think that the city centre has much changed from the time when it housed Sir Polo 700 years ago. The maze of narrow streets, no wider than one and half metre and broken in a continuous zigzag to weaken the relentless desert wind, is still there as a labyrinth where to get lost it is a must. Even the houses, just one floor with vaulted dome, are the same that the Venetian traveller admired. They are covered with plaster made of a thick layer of mud and straw, definitely the best natural insulator for cold winters and scorching summers. (more…)

We left Matteo Tricarico in India, during his Travel For Aid odissey across Asia into Europe… after a short stint in Dubai, Matteo is now in Iran, a fascinating country full of culture, deserts and very hospitable people… his Iranian adventures continue, and the following is the chronicle as penned down by Matteo himself…

On April 27, I continued northwards on National Highway 55 until Deh Bid, where I slept in my tent nearby one of the many roadblocks that the police set along the main roads of the country. The police officers stop almost everybody, and in that “almost” I include myself since I have never been stopped till now. The officers get mostly on  line coaches, asking for documents to those whose face looks suspicious and I saw people detained for further controls while the bus left them behind. Here the altitude is 2400 metres and that was the coldest night since I descended the Himalayan peaks last December. The next morning, I was awoken by an unbearable stench that, although I did not take a bath for three days, could not come from me! Emerging from the igloo, I found myself immersed in a lake of bleating goats, with the two shepherds who were watching closely the technical characteristics of the bicycle. (more…)

We left Matteo Tricarico in India, during his Travel For Aid odissey across Asia into Europe… after a short stint in Dubai, Matteo is now in Iran, a fascinating country full of culture, deserts and very hospitable people… his Iranian adventures continue, and the following is the chronicle as penned down by Matteo himself…

I arrived to Shiraz, also known as Dar-ol-Elm, “house of knowledge”, on April 20 in mid-morning and, without any problems, I reached the central Shohada square where  the tiny and picturesque fortress of Karim Khan is located. For wine drinkers, the city’s name is associated with the eponymous type of grape, characteristic of these arid areas that needs very little water to produce sugary black grapes. The vineyards that once covered all the neighbouring valleys no longer exist for the ban imposed by the regime that, over the past 30 years of Islamic revolution, has changed a millennial tradition. I was immediately struck by the feeling of being in a real city with its vitality and its citizens well-dressed; the girls wearing chaste clothes but tight enough to show their figure and with the “chador” barely covering dyed blonde hair; shopping malls are stuffed with Japanese and Korean electronic goods; roads are busy with traffic and some luxury cars; restaurants and hotels are glittering with foreign tourists roaming in groups in the central streets. (more…)

We left Matteo Tricarico in India, during his Travel For Aid odissey across Asia into Europe… after a short stint in Dubai, Matteo is now in Iran, a fascinating country full of culture, deserts and very hospitable people…

On April 15, I continued on the A79 until Gahkom, then I took a smaller road and continued westwards on the plateau. Eight miles after Tushkuyeh, I camped behind a hill that, for the lack of vegetation and for the stones scattered on the ground, could not be too different from the surface of Mars. I woke up in the middle of the night and went out of the tent, to be dazzled by the full moon light that shone so brightly to be able to distinguish clearly the colours, instead of the typical silvery black and white. The conditions of the roads I travelled so far are perfect, with exceptionally smooth surface that enabled me to keep a good pace, covering about 100 miles a day, despite facing strong winds in the middle of the day. (more…)

We left Matteo Tricarico in India, during his Travel For Aid odissey across Asia into Europe… after a short stint in Dubai, Matteo is now in Iran, a fascinating country full of culture, deserts and very hospitable people…

Before beginning this journey, I read on the internet diaries of other cyclists who travelled through Iran in the last ten years and their words reassured me since they all spoke highly of the kindness, hospitality and friendliness of Iranian population. So far, but I’m pretty sure that I will not change my mind; I can join in exalting these features of the Iranians. In the last eighteen months of travelling I could recall hundreds of examples people’s kindness and courtesy, regardless of the country where I was, I believe that in the case of Iran the “surprise” is due to negative image that the Western media give of this country. It does not seem possible that the citizens of an anti-western and traditionalist Islamic theocracy, where the Sharia is the law of reference, can be warm, friendly and even expansive towards Western travellers, who are supposed to be “infidels” trying to corrupt the local youth. The surprise to find so open and sympathetic people towards foreigners is the result of bias, combined with the prejudice, which comes from American propaganda, that  would like to submit to the Westerner rules this country that, among other things, is a  large producers of oil and natural gas and therefore it is to be stripped of these natural wealth … (more…)