An Iranian welcome, for us, tops the list. For 40 days and 40 nights they call us out and soak us up. It is consistent, from top to bottom and side to side. It’s hard to grasp. In fact, it intoxicates! Just as well, as a not a drop of alcohol passes our lips. For 40 days and 40 nights!
On the road, they honk and hail us. The shortest of walks marks 5 heartfelt conversations. Young girls and boys creep up, shyly, to practise their English. Parents in tow, nod their thanks! A question to a Farsi-only speaker has an English speaker at our side within minutes! A query about a restaurant has the young man coming in with us to help us order food! The camera shop owner who can’t assist accompanies us to his 3 competitors. A stranger screams off the freeway to gift a 3kg box of nougat. The tea, the extra apricots … the countless invitations to supper ….
It leaves us weak at the knees. THANK Allah for IRAN.
An endless gracious welcome!
But there is something else …. And at last we finger it. It is CuRiOsItY! Their CuRiOsItY is InSaTiAbLe!
They cram our encounters with questions! Why are we white? Are we married? Do we have children? What about a marriage contract? Do we drink beer and wine? What do our bikes cost? What do we do for a living? Do we have a house? What do we think of Israel, America, and of course Iran? Iran, Iran, Iran. They boast and apologise. They spill pride and insecurity.
Their CuRiOsItY knocks us for a six! Iran is supposed to be a Closed Society. But Iranians have wide Open Minds! Iran has this liberating national streak. And a fanciful national charm. This is an out-of-this-world attribute! Iranians are curious about the curious. They query, pry and probe about the odd, the strange and faraway. They collectively live, each day, curiously.
Salute. SaLuTe. SALUTE. Is it possible for us to greet more graciously and live more curiously? As Iranians do? We are going to give it a damn good shot!
And as our road in Iran runs out, we feel a little sad. No country will ever be the same.
Thank YOU so much, IRAN.

In Astara, we ask a cellphone question and english speaker Navid is called especially to help us. We spent a great 2 hours together.
Thank you so much and for giving such a positive, realistic and pleasing view on a great country with history going back a few thousand years. So much for fake and slanted news broadcasts.
Thanks for sharing this amazing world!
Beautiful lInDa and Harry, “merci” and “befarme”, Persia could be such a wonderful and modern country…. I hope to discuss it with you when we meet in PE. We all hope to see you soon !
Hopefully you will visit Maro first !
What a vibrant colourful journey!
And all the smiles on the faces supports what you say – real friendly people. And once again, this brings back so many good memories from the time I spent in Amman (Jordan).
What a fantastic encounter with these special people, we now view them differently ,thanks to your post.
Defintly an experience of a life time.
Wow! Linda and Harry are treated like celebrities thanks to the CuRiOsItY of the Iranian folk.. What hospitable people Another great post Keep safe. All the best Colin from Durban.
Thankyou so much for sharing you story, it is a eye opener for me.
enjoy Turkey.
What a lot of lovely people
They are curious but take time to express it in friendship
What a fine people they seem to be, lovely
you are opening our eyes Linda and Harry to all sorts of things we never knew or even guessed———thank you so much for showing us how things really are ! Love as aye Jim and Muriel xx
A very different Iran that we read about in the media.
Never judge a book by its cover!
Seems you fairly whizzed through Iran or is that just the way it looks on the photo’s.
Looks nice a green there, a welcome respite from the desert!