THOUGHTS ON IRAN

Iran a land of contradictions I am
outside of the city of yazd right now
out in the desert and I just felt like I
needed to get away from the city life
the grits of the dust and the exhaust
the loudness of the horns away from
conversations and people so today I’m
out here which is quite spectacular
great country fantastic place the base
or the foundation it has to be the
people because these people are very
open very hospitable humbling cool well
educated actually a lot of them are
pretty well educated and in tune with a
lot of the world made quite a few
friends in a short time it’s one of
those places where you just show up on a
random street or in a park and someone’s
gonna come up to you and talk to you and
want to hang out with you and when
you’re travelling alone it’s sort of the
best thing that can happen right because
you’re in a culture in getting the best
understanding through the people and
what they have to say people speak good
English here else can I say it’s a land
of contradictions right so you have
parts of Tehran where the very wealthy
or walking around with bandages on their
nose is showing that they’ve just
performed a nose job which is a bit of a
status symbol
there are huge drug issues here the
second night in Toronto the guys I was
staying with I took me down to this
volunteering event where we gave food to
heroin users
what else cool stuff like okay so
Facebook is is outlawed right and it’s
blocked on the internet a lot of stuffs
blogs YouTube Facebook some other stuff
but you can openly go to a phone store
ask for a VPN which allows you to search
whatever you want on the internet and
pay for it in the open get a receipt and
go on with your life so a lot of the
things that are illegal here are not
enforced at all and I’ve been told
numerous times it’s because if they
actually want to enforce that law at
least half the population would be in
prison which is not possible so a lot of
this stuff is on the books in theory but
not in reality so I’m constantly running
into things that are quite confusing
here like a VPN like the fact that the
wealthy here here from what I’ve been
told they’re quite promiscuous in their
sexual behavior a lot of infidelity and
one girl even told me that if you want
to get some action put a ring on your
finger and you’re way more attractive
and have more of a likelihood to meet
another person which I thought was quite
funny people are less brainwashed here
on the whole than in the States yeah
crazy dude it’s a crazy claim but it’s
true it’s like they know the [ __ ]
they’re being fed and they think the
opposite whereas at home I feel like
many people don’t know that they’re
being fed a ton of [ __ ] now the
[ __ ] comes at different levels
obviously but the very reason that or
the fact that most people I know told me
be safe in Iran you might be beheaded
it’s a dangerous place
blah blah we’re completely off this is
one of the safest countries I’ve been to
if not the safest actually virtually no
violent crime exists on the streets is
very stable we’re all targets as
Westerners walking around with a load of
cash hundreds and hundreds of dollars or
thousands in my case right now and
everyone knows that because foreigners
can’t bank here but we’re not like
immediate targets where I can think of
most parts of the world like if you got
off the plane in Argentina and you’re in
one of Saturdays and you stood out as a
foreigner and the locals knew you had
thousands of dollars on you most likely
you’d be robbed not here very
interesting also religion the country
seems really divided as far as religion
goes the middle class upper class or the
higher more highly educated people don’t
seem to be very religious at all and
seems to be quite a secular country in
many respects country sides a bit
different but I’d say at least half the
population is not following the book
that closely could go on and on I’m
gonna be writing tonight I’m working on
the blog internet connections have been
quite a bit of a drag so that’s it for
now and I’m gonna enjoy some peace and
quiet out here in this beautiful desert
all