One of the more interesting things I did a few days ago was to visit the Azadi Tower (Freedom Tower) which is situated in the middle of a roundabout. To see a picture of the tower and to read more about it, go here: Azadi Square.

There is a museum under the tower and you could even go up one of the four pillars or legs of the building all the way to the top and see a good view of the city.  Two of the legs had stairs and the other two had elevators.  Fun fact, since the legs are at an angle you had to use two separate elevators to get to the top.

I have been eating out a little more this past week. This one place I ate recently at was called King’s Burger and had a logo that looked almost exactly like this one. It also was insanely expensive relative to other restaurants here. For example, I got a simple burger with small fries and a small drink (basically their combo deal) for 70,000 IR which is about $7.50.

I think I have over done my stay here on the island and can’t wait to leave for Tehran this Thursday afternoon. Nothing against this island but a man can only take so much humidity and an endless supply of shopping malls.

For fun, here are some other expenses converted to US Dollars:

Hair cut with beard trim: 35,000 (5000 for tip) IR= $3.75

Taxi fair (flat fee that will take you to almost anywhere on the island): 8000 IR = $0.85

Lunch at a 5 star hotel (price includes drink, appetizer, main course, desert and tip): 175,000 IR = $18.80 per person

One of the more popular attractions in Shiraz are the ruins of ancient Persia called Persepolis or as Iranians say, Takht-e Jamshid:  Persepolis Information

Other then that not much else to talk about. I have been burning through the movies and tv shows I brought with me to watch on my down time. I underestimated how much downtime I would have here and I am now left with only 4 movies to watch for the next 3.5 weeks. To think, I have 300 or so movies sitting at home and I decided to only bring 9 with me on this trip. It’s not a problem because I will just get some books to read or buy some pirated movies once my supply runs out.

Dariush Grand Hotel

I was able to take some pictures of other things:

Anyway, hopefully in the next few days they will hook up a network connection to the university at my dads house so I will be able to surf the internet more.

Other then that not much going on here except for other parts of Iran are freaking out over the cyclone that is lingering to the south of Iran. It shouldn’t come near us so we are out of harms way.

I also wanted to mention how inexpensive some things are in Iran. Right now gasoline is about $0.43 a gallon and electricity is about 1.5cents a kilowatt (ours is ~11cents in California). I have been contemplating on how I could bring some gasoline and electricity home but somehow I don’t think its possible.

These pictures aren’t really anything to cry home about but its better then nothing.

It doesn’t help that my camera is starting to act up.  Every time I try to use it I have to turn it on and off a few times for it to work.  Go figure…

I flew back from Isfahan last night and am back in Kish for the next few weeks.  I have a few things lined up for the weekend, I’ll see if I can snap some pictures then.

Last night we got some pizza from a local pizza place near my dads house.  It was good but one strange custom they have here is they always serve pizza with ketchup.  I have no idea what other country does this because someone must have came to Iran to show the people here they ways of making a pizza and happen to mention to hand out ketchup packets with pizza.  This act of pizza sabotage has to stop.  I can understand ranch packets being handed out, just not ketchup.  Anyone care to shed some light on the origins of this?  Its not really a big deal, its just a little different.

Now lets take a moment to talk about the cars here in Iran.  In Iran it is insanely expensive to import a car.  It usually comes out costing twice whatever the car costs because of taxes and import fees.  That being said most of the cars are Peugeot (French car company), Citroen and Paykan (no longer made but Iran has a lot of these cars).  You do see the occasional car that is not of of those three.  For example yesterday i saw the new BMW M5 parked outside someones home.  That car already costs about $80,000 in the states, god knows how much it costs the owner to import it, let alone the cost of the car.  That is probably the only car of that kind in all of Iran.  In Kish Islands the cars are  a little different.  You really do not see many Peugeot’s in Kish.  You mostly see Hyundai, Kia, Toyota and some Honda’s.  Most of the Taxi cabs are Toyota Camery’s with a lot of them being the new 2007 models.

Thats all for now, I will report back in 4 or 5 days.

I have pretty much visited all the shopping centers/malls around here. I think they have around 10 or so here. You see the same sort of things in the malls so its a little redundant but it helps to find good deals since one thing is usually priced cheaper at another store, ruthless competition.

One interesting thing about Kish Island is they do not have a single traffic light on the roads.  It is because they have a lot of roundabouts and merging lanes. It seems to work just fine with the amount of cars on the road now but I fear for this model when the traffic starts to pickup.

I haven’t done much here in Kish yet partially because of the heat.  But the few days I have been here I have already seen what seems like half of the whole Island.  This morning I visited four of the many shopping malls here.  The prices aren’t bad and they have all the major brands/labels found in the states.

It is a little hot here but it’s only going to get hotter.  Luckily, all the homes, places of business and cars have AC.  I am currently in my dad’s office at Kish University savoring the time I have left to spend with my good buddy, the internet.  So without further ado I am going to get back to it since it is desperately calling for me.