I accepted the offer of a 50's Australian couple Andreas and Jennifer Oesterlin to join them in their hired car tour of Mahan and other sites near Kerman. Their driver from Tehran, Mr Gamel had also brought along his wife and daughter. It was a leisurely day – in fact, it is the official rest day – and many Iranian families were out for picnic after a visit to the mosque. We visited a number of traditional Persian gardens and sufi shrines – all had many local visitors on a typical Friday outing.
We visited the beautiful multi-tiered pool gardens of Bagh e Shahzade, the magnificent and yet cosy sufi shrine of Aramgah-e Shah Ne Matollah Vali – both in Mahan - and the shrine of Emamzadeh-ye Shahzade Hossein in Joopar, which has nice mirrors on the ceiling of the shrine. I love those blue Persian domes and their geometric patterns. We also had late picnic lunch at a round-about in central Joopar.
Most Iranians were very friendly but few could speak English. Ironically, it was the older generation who had lived through the Shah's pro-American days who could speak better English than the younger ones. Inevitably conversations were short and limited to "how are you?" and "where are you from?" Some teenagers were so intrigued to see me that they took photos of me using their mobiles.
Tomorrow, I will take a bus to the city of Yazd, a popular tourist destination.
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