Tehran 23 & 24 February

Tehran - 23 and 24 February

We had a day and a half in Tehran and that was plenty. Tehran is a busy, dirty city - one of the most polluted cities in the world. The resident population of 12 million swells to a week-day population of 15 million from workers streaming in from surrounding districts. The traffic is chaotic and crossing the road here is even more perilous than in Saigon. We developed our own system of holding hands three abreast then purposefully striding across as soon as an appropriate break occurred, David in the middle chivvying us along. Each time we crossed I was afraid we were just lining up like skittles to be bowled over by a car or one of the many motorbikes, but each time the traffic parted as we had been told it would and we survived. Not quite Moses, but it was enough. Cars trucks and buses usually keep to the correct side of the road; motorcycles, which are perhaps even more numerous than the sum of the others, never do and can appear from any direction, at any time. Lane markings are purely decorative, headlights are optional and indicators are apparently forbidden. Massive loads on all vehicles are common, most entertainingly on motorcycles: white and brown goods, carpets, boxes of fruit and veg - anything that might be possible becomes matter of fact. People too, often two-up, the pillion frequently a female in full Islamic regalia, like terrestrial flying nuns. Sometimes three or, we're told, four-up. New born baby? No problem! Just cradle it in the pillion mother's arms and away!

One thing about Tehran that was good, fantastic actually, was the main bazaar.  It is pronounced "buhzar" with the accent on the first syllable. At any one time there are about two million people distributed along its 10 kilometres of alleys.  Supermarkets, and even larger general stores, are practically non-existent in Iran and almost all retail and even wholesale purchasing is conducted through a bazaar shop. Apparently two thirds of all retail spending for the entire nation happens in the Tehran Bazaar. Bazaar shops are often little more than a a hole-in-the-wall, say 4 by 3 metres, loaded to the gunnels with a particular specialty. Bazaars, and the strip shops lining the streets, are generally set in precincts- here the carpet shops, there the gold sellers, yonder the spice merchants and so on. The Tehran Bazaar, like the rest of the city, is crowded, and very hard to navigate.  Luckily for us, we met Mahmoud, a friendly carpet seller who gave us a guided tour of the bazaar.  You can probably guess how this ends, but in the meantime, he really was informative and showed us things we would never have seen otherwise, like the mosque, the gold sellers and the old caravanserais within the bazaar.  And yes, we made a carpet acquisition, but we are very happy with the outcome so all is good.