DAY 85 - LOTS OF OLD STONE BLOCKS AND STUFF
Shared a cab out to the ancient Persian ruins surrounding Shiraz. If you love ancient ruins, and I do, then you’ll love a day exploring Naghsh-e Rostam, Pasargadae and the awe inspiring ruins of Persopolis. Well worth it for ancient history buffs or even people who just like big stones.
Jeremy is doing backpacking the old fashioned way taking his time to take in the scenery and meet the locals. He even still uses ‘buses’. Primitive. I am so glad those days are behind me.
He has had some interesting experiences with the locals and thinks that the young all want to leave the county. In one notable incident a local girl in his taxi screamed ‘I hate this country I hate this country I want to leave’. It’s a pity I don’t have more time to explore the truth of this matter myself.
A few (but not all) of the female backpackers have said that the local men here were extremely offensive with their obvious sexual advances. One woman who had a particularly rough time even said she couldn’t wait to get back to a country where it is less offensive like Egypt!
I theorised that the ultra-strict rules for how they treat their own woman meant they had no basis of an adult non-sexual relationship with a western woman. One backpacker suggested that maybe they have these strict rules because maybe they were poorly behaved to begin with.
Probably the biggest black mark on Iranian society is that they don’t have a coffee culture. Unforgivable. Subsisting on the occasional cup of instant but overall just bitterly bitterly disappointed.