a few years ago while living in san francisco, i watched an iranian movie with some great shots of a village called masouleh, in a mountainous area of the northern part of iran. today i visited this village for the first time. pictures are not great but hopefully give you a glimpse of the beauty and simplicity of this village.
almost 10 days in tehran now. nami and sora flew back to chicago last night. i am so happy they had a chance to visit tehran, and the family. they were stars here.
i have taken over a thousand pictures and will post a few here as soon as i return. the trip so far has been very good. a few highlights:
music lives high in iran where you can find a tight knit group of audiophiles. my friend sirous omidvar of avin ava is contributing well to that. nami, sora and i had a great meal at sirous, shadi and avin’s home talking about cultures, life, and music. we adjourned to sirous’s meticulous showroom while nami, sora, and avin played with their four new kittys.
i am now in tehran, visiting my home country after about 32 years. there are many cousins i am now meeting for the first time. my aunts and uncles look much older now. everyone is so kind and i am so proud of the good people they are.
the trip through customs was uneventful and easy. the immigration officers were very professional to everyone. i was wearing conservative clothing (versus my usual music type of a guy dude stuff) but i soon realized my concern was a bit unfounded. you see all kinds of people, albeit it still makes sense to be on the conservative side to avoid the fashion police.
i have only had a two hour walk outside home. i passed by many men who appear to be gay. so yes, forget what you heard at columbia university! women cover their head with a scarf but it is often pretty fashionable and does not cover the head fully. in fact, some of their fashion and scarves draw attention to them more. e.g. a young woman covering half of her head with a scarf and her hair closer to the front was blue.
access to facebook and twitter is very difficult. i am taking a lot of pictures that i will be posting here. so far there have been two trips in my life i have been most excited about. this trip to visit iran, and my 1977 trip out of iran when i moved to switzerland.
Tags: travels
excited to be in vienna, the city of gorgeous architecture, beautiful music, and of course klimt. pictures to be posted soon. great lunch at plachutta. great coffee and some kinda viennese cake at the quaint leopold hawelka. open sandwiches at a nice shop in front of it. met a lady who happens to be from the same city as the character of bruno, played by sacha cohen.
