Flying to Esfahan

We had breakfast with Daniel and took it easy this morning. We’re flying from Shiraz to Esfahan in the evening and are just absorbing the experience of being in Kerman, having done the must-sees of the area. About 1100 we went for a walk to find the Church of St Simon the Zealot but we couldn’t find the street.

We continued to the bazaar area and found a Madrasah-i Khan. It was another typical beautiful courtyard setting with pools and gardens. I liked the orange and fruit trees, flowers and chirping birds. It was very tranquil, hiding the fact that the busy bazaar is just outside. We continued to the upper level but found that it was dilapidated.

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Walking back to the hotel, we changed some money and then my sandal snapped. We rested and settled the hotel bill but was allowed to keep the room till a little later. We took a taxi to Aramgah Hafez, the tomb of Hafez the poet. It was just a small pavilion, possibly because he was just a poet and not some great ruler, but the tea rooms there were nice.

[Edit: I vividly remember this incident with Daniel and us in a taxi. Daniel wanted to go to the Iran Air office. The taxi driver took us away from the town centre and parked outside Hafez’s Tomb. When Daniel said again “Iran Air office”, the driver replied … “Yes, Aramgah Hafez”. However, my travel journal doesn’t capture in exact detail as to this was the same ride to the tomb or a separate occasion.]

We had lunch of dizi (abgusht) and an ice-cream each. We relaxed and read but had to shoo away lots of flies. We had a faludeh and tea before returning back to the hotel to get ready. Hoping to hear back about a job, we went to check my email again.

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Hussein offered to take us to the airport for IRR10K. We got there with plenty of time. The airport was bigger and better than at Kerman. We waited outside the terminal as the temperature was now pleasant. A Saudia 777 was parked there, as was an Iran Air A320. The latter puzzled me as I thought trade sanctions prohibited Iran Air from acquiring contemporary aircraft. I noticed that the A320 carried a flag akin to the Turkish one and had a registration prefix of “TS-“. I later learnt that it was a Tunisian plane wet-leased to Iran Air to get around the sanctions.

We chatted to a man waiting for his wife to arrive. He said the Saudia plane was bringing people to/from Saudi for the Haj. I looked at him puzzled and said “At this time of year? Wouldn’t it be Umrah”. He was surprised by my knowledge and agreed.

Inside the terminal, we shared a meal of chicken kebab and salad in the upstairs restaurant. Airside, we chatted to Hamid, an Iranian American, who lives in Los Angeles. He works with architectural 3D modelling. He had taken lots of photos of Perspolis.

Bird’s eye view of Persepolis on airport poster.

We boarded the Iran Air Fokker F100 for our 2050 departure to Esfahan. We were welcomed with their announcement “In the name of God the merciful and compassionate, welcome aboard Iran Air”. I quite like it. A snack box of with salad, filled roll sandwich and juice was provided for the 1h10 flight. We departed and landed early.

The crew were more attentive than our previous flight and the pilots made a detailed announcement with information about our flight. While fine points of detail like this don’t bother me, it is always a better feeling when people in safety-related roles show that they care about their job!

From the airport, we took a taxi to the Amir Kabir Hostel near the city centre. It was a small simple room with shared facilities through the courtyard.