Day 109 (Iran): Esfahan to Yazd

My bus was leaving at 2:30pm, so I had some time to kill on Friday morning. Not intent on running around like a madman in order to see the “sights”,, I headed to the other side of the river and took a look at a cemetery on which some of the soldiers who died in the Iran - Iraq war are burried. Needless to say this is propaganda galore. But I must say that I find it interesting how states and their governments deal with this issue. In this case, the pictures of the soldiers are powerful reminders yet again (at least they were to me) that wars are not fought in a vacuum and that they are not the long-away wars that we in the West seem to think at times they are. Granted, the pictures serve a completely different purpose here - the places is commonly referred to as the martyr’s graveyard (or so I hear) … and you can draw your own conclusions from that.

On the way back I cross the river via the Khaju bridge again and a good number of men sing underneath the arches …

It was time to leave eventually and Naser had booked ahead for me on the bus and so that was a no-brainer. Unfortunately the AC in the bus failed after only 10 minutes of a 4 hour bus ride. Open doors, windows and hatches did little to remedy the situation. I was glad to not have done this by bike though. The desert wasn’t very pretty and the temperatures extremely high. The bus thermometer showed 44C, the outisde being much hotter.

Upon arrival in Yazd I met Mohsen of the local tourist office (a legend according to the Lonely Planet) and he lives up to the many praises he receives in the book. He points me to the train station and indeed drives me over despite having to go to Shiraz with his parents and gives me a range of pointers. In the train terminal I am helped by a young couple who also offer to drive me into the city. All was well … found a hostel (OK) and some people to have dinner with. Am sorted until Tehran.