MIR Corporation's Travel Blog:
Ancient Persia, Modern Iran

Follow along with MIR Corporation Tour Specialist Meaghan Samuels as she explores beautiful and enigmatic Iran on MIR's Ancient Persia, Modern Iran small group tour.

• Day 1: Arrival in Tehran
• Day 2: Tehran
• Days 3-4: Tehran, Bandar-e Anzali, Masuleh Village
• Day 5: Tehran, Yazd
• Day 6: Yazd
• Days 7-8: Yazd, Kerman
• Days 9-10: Kerman, Shiraz, Persepolis
• Days 11-12: Shiraz, Firuzabad, Yasuj
• Day 13: Yasuj, Isfahan
• Day 14: Isfahan, Tehran

April 7, 2008

I notice during our full day touring in Tehran that many of the girls are dressed in lighter clothing than I had anticipated. Mostly these are constituents of the large youthful population, who seem to be testing the limits of clothing regulations.

Young people in Tehran are extremely modern and fashionable, wearing styles manageable under the attire laws, but derivatives of the latest European fashions. The girls wear their hair in a bouffant fashion under their scarves, which come in all variety of colors and materials. Many of the young people (including the women) wear punk hairdos, some of the boys have the sides of their hair shaved and spike the top out with a blast of hair spray, resembling a rocker mullet. The girls are of course slightly more limited in what they can show to the public in terms of hair style, but still manage to express themselves with wild bangs that shoot up and out over the forehead. Make-up is also widely used, as this is one of the ways in which variety and diversity can be further expressed. Thick dark eyelashes blink under spiked bangs, and many wear bandages signifying recent plastic surgery. All of this is still managed with style and elegance.

Today we travel to northern Tehran to visit Sa'ad Abad Museum Complex. The road north is a wide tree lined boulevard with the foothills of the Alborz Mountain range looming nearby. The north of Tehran is a wealthier region of the city, and the landscape is quite different than that of the southern portion. Everything is lush and well kept, you are much harder pressed to find any junk cars, and the houses are much larger and spread out.

At White Palace we run into school kids, who are very shy with us. They seem to want to engage, but the teachers are not permitting. We ask to take pictures, but the teachers do not agree to it. Instead our group exchanges smiles with them and reluctantly puts their cameras away.

Our group is mostly comprised of experienced travelers. Some have joined this tour simply because it is a place they have not yet ventured. Others were attracted by the ancient history, and a few simply because Iran often inspires shock and awe in other Americans.

We finish our touring today with the Central Bank. While the treasures inside were gorgeous and not to be missed, we were all ready to return to the hotel afterwards for rest before dinner.

There is Internet at Ferdowsi Hotel; for 50,000 rials you can purchase a card with an hour Internet time.

Photos from this leg of the tour (click to enlarge):