Mr. Ali’s Place

It’s about time right?

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.

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I have never done so much flying in such a short amount of time in my life.  The past 2 weeks I flew 4 times and the next few weeks I will be flying in an airplane about 7 more times.  I am currently in Iran’s capital city Tehran for a few days.  The weather is great here because of what seems like a constant light breeze that is keeping the city cool.  Yesterday around noon I went to a family gathering that had about 80-90 or so people from my dads side.  It was a lot of fun and I got a chance to meet and hang out with cousins and other family.

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.

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This morning I went kayaking in the Persian gulf with my dad at 5am. Its the best time to do this since it is right before the sun comes up here. I haven’t been in an ocean in a while and forgot how salty it can be, its a little annoying to say the least. Fortunately, the water was as clear as day and had a mild temperature, not too cool and not too warm.

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.

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Oh man it sure has been a while since I have used the internet.  Sorry to disappoint but I haven’t really taken many pictures yet.  On the up side, I have plenty of time left here to do a better job of taking pictures.  Yeah, I know that’s a lame excuse.

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.

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I have always been stopped for extra security checks at the airport, this time it was a bit much. Leaving SFO Airport I was told to go to “Line 2″ which consisted of only me and about a couple hundred other passengers in “Line 1.” Line 2 involved a lot of strange stuff. For one I had to step into this box about 1/4 the size of a normal elevator that blew air at me really fast to check for what I assumed was concealed weapons of mass destruction. The next step was to take everything that I had in my carry on luggage and have it brush against a piece of paper and then scanned by a computer. I later found out this was to test for any explosive residue I might have on me (or maybe anthrax?). Yes, America is now safe.

Besides that the 10hr or so flight was not bad. I finished a whole book cover to cover so time flew by really fast. If anyone wants to read a good book, read Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.

Wikipedia Article on the book

I have also managed to spend about $30 so far at SFO and the Amsterdam airport on food, internet and storage lockers.  Being the idiot that I am, I opened the storage locker after 30mins of use not realizing that to use it again it would be another $5.  Uh, no thanks, I’ll carry around my stuff for the 7hours thats left.

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Just wanted to update everyone on where I am going to spend most of my time in Iran. If you look below a few posts, you can see where I traveled last time I went to Iran. This time, after I land in Tehran, that same night I will get on a plane AGAIN for a 1.5hour flight to Kish Island, Iran. What is Kish Island you say? Well, basically it is an island (ha! bet you couldn’t figure that out) that is situated in the Persian Gulf and about 11miles from Iran’s coast. The Island is actually quite small, just look at how big the airport is in comparison to the size of the land:

Google Maps Link

More information on Kish Island from Wikipedia

Other then spending some time on that Island, I am not sure where else I will be. I guess you will just have to come back to this site to find out.

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