Go-Show and camel slaughter

Leaving Mashhad

It was a short and interrupted night sleep.  I woke at 0515 and showered.  Prayers at the mosque were on and it was busy.  I settled my bill with the hotel and was pleasantly surprised that it was less than expected, partially because I didn’t take breakfast today.

I got to the airport just after 0600 for my 0720 flight to Tehran Mehrabad.  The ride to the airport had been very quick and I had to wait about half an hour for check-in to open.

We boarded the Airbus A300-B4 at the departure time.  Staff collected boarding pass butts and put them on a vinyl board to keep track of the passenger count and boarding progress.  Manual but it works.

On board, the aircraft was worn and dirty.  It’s very unusual from my previous experience flying Iran Air, as they do a great job maintaining old aircraft despite sanctions.  We arrived on time at 0850 despite the late departure.

Go-Show at Tehran

While I had been booked for the 1400 flight to Yazd, I wanted to try for the earlier one at 1030.  Luggage was slow but as soon as I got it, I ran from Terminal 6 (Arrivals) to Terminal 4 (Departures).

Staff at check-in allowed me to wait on a stand-by basis.  It’s also called Go-Show in the airline industry.  They were still waiting for booked passengers at 15 mins prior to departure.  I watched nervously as the seat number stickers on the seat map disappeared as they were pasted onto boarding passes.

Eventually I was given seat 1A on the Fokker 100.  The plane looked like it had just left the factory even though Fokker went bust many years ago, and these had been acquired from the used market.

Running Commentary

Seat 1B on the flight was occupied by the purser as the crew seat was taken by the Revolutionary Guard.  He was friendly and gave me a running commentary through the flight and we had lots to chat about as I had worked in the airline industry before.

• While he works as purser on narrowbodies such as this Fokker 100 or the Boeing 727, he is a flight attendant on widebodies like the Airbus A300, A310 and Boeing 747.
• When operating as a purser, he hardly does anything except for the door-arming commands.  The second-in-charge is responsible for the announcements.  Hence he was able to sit down and chat to me the whole flight!
• However, when working on a widebody as a flight attendant, he works his butt off.
• I asked if the female crew wear their hijab overseas when they go out sight-seeing or around town.  He replied, definitely, as the Revolutionary Guards do the layover with them.
• Iran Air has a staff swimming pool.  It has men-only days and women-only days; never mixed of course.

The Revolutionary Guard checked on us a couple of times during the short flight to make sure I hadn’t killed the purser, I guess.

In Yazd

We flew low over the world’s largest mudbrick old city of Yazd before landing at its airport.  It was a nice view.  I collected my bag and spoke to the Iran Air officer about whether I had to confirm my next flight.  Go-shows can sometimes register as a no-show for the original flight and result in all subsequent flights being cancelled.  He shrugged, presumably not understanding me.  I left it.

I took a coupon taxi to the Silk Road Hotel (aka Abrisham) in the old city.  I had a lunch of camel and beef meatballs in a fesenjan (walnut and pomegranate) sauce.  The camel had to be mixed with beef because camel meat by itself is too “heaty” in terms of Persian or Traditional Chinese belief (see next post). The food was bad value but the in-house cat was cute with a fat face.

It was very relaxing at the hotel courtyard.  I chatted to James, an Irish defence lawyer who was immensely knowledgeable about everything under the sun but not in a horrible know-it-all way.

And then there was this English woman and his son who had been studying in China.  They had travelled together through all the “stans” (countries ending in “stan”) before arriving in Iran.  She would like to end up in Cairo to go to a chiropractor (cairo-practor)!  Isn’t it funny that the more strange and untouristed the destination, the more I find I have in common with the other visitors.

Yazd old city

Yazd is a desert town in the middle of the country and home to the largest community of Zoroastrians. Zoroastrianism is the religion of the Persians before Arab invasion and Islamisation.

The old city of Yazd is the world’s largest mudbrick city. It is very picturesque with houses made from the local pale-yellow brick and plastered with straw and mud. Wind-towers (badgirs) poke out from these houses and serve as a convectional cooling system.

When the temperature cooled down, I took a walk around the old town of Yazd.  From the three-storey Hosseinieh, I got a good view of the surrounding area.  The Masjid Jame next to the hotel was also very impressive.

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I had dinner with a Dutch guest in-house.  The eggplant (only) stew and rice was barely OK.  I needed some more sustenance after and went out to town to buy some oranges.

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[Edit: I repeat my trip to Yazd thirteen years later. In the age of the digital camera, I capture a lot more in pictures and you can read about it here and here.]

Camel slaughter

While on my after-dinner walk, I noticed some camels on display outside near the hotel.  I learnt the next day that they had all been slaughtered for a Imam Mahdi’s birthday.  That was the butcher’s shop.

It would NOT have been something I would have enjoyed but I still wouldn’t mind seeing it as it was for food rather than for fun (eg. like bull-fighting). Women, children and tourists were herded onto rooftops to avoid the spray!

The Irish lawyer said the animal died a slow painful death with the noise being worse than the spray of blood everywhere. However, two Dutch vegetarians said the two jugular slits did the job quite quickly … the way it was meant to be with the Halal requirements. Halal slaughter also means that all blood should be drained off the meat before consumption. It’s strange how different witnesses can give different accounts of the same scene.

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Court case

I chatted to a South African woman who had her belongings stolen while in Shiraz.  The hotel tried to cover up the incident and didn’t report it to the Tourist Police immediately.  It did eventually get to court promptly after five days.  She broke down and cried in court.  The judge cleared the court to have tea and cake with her!  Then she asked to have a photo with the judge.