Monthly Archives: June 2018

Please release me, let me go…

You may think that Kazakhstan and Wisconsin seem to have very little in common but you would be wrong in some respects, I happened to live in Eau Claire Wisconsin for a little while and I have very happy memories of the work we did there and the friends I …

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Don’t stop me now

You are not in Iran any more my friend I had just begun to get used to the grooved roads, and the wheel eating six inch deep two feet wide random holes in the main road, described in the earlier post, when I had my first wake up call that …

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A groovy kind of road

TheA groovy kind of Road The roads in Turkmenistan are very variable, sometimes they are super smooth pristine new highway, Sometimes they have these enormous 6 inch high tarmac ridges that come out of no where and tramline the car or fling you into the air if you hit them …

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An evening with Mr Vali

Mr Vali is a 65 springy energetic Iranian man who runs a homestay in Mashhad. A homestay is pretty much as you would expect from the word you go and stay in his house, more accurately his basement, and you get to join his family for tea and chat. I …

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The Shrine of Inman Reza

The reason that 90 percent of visitors come to Mashhad is not the wild park camping scene, that is something to experience, but not a feature to draw Muslims from all around Iran and abroad to pilgrimage in Mashhad. The draw for them is the holy shrine of Inman Reza, …

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Drink till you pee – Tabas

It is academically interesting that my Iran lonely planet says the desert here is the hottest place on earth, while the same guidebook for Turkmenistan says it is their desert, and I am sure I remember the same claim being made for death Valley in Nevada when I travelled through …

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