Are Iran’s stocks rising?
Did anyone else notice that Iran got some welcome good press in the New York Times (which offers too few reasons to read it regularly other than good columnists like Dowd). It was in the travel section: Iran made it into the Top 20 of their 53 Places To Go In 2008, with this citation:
18. IRAN
What Axis of Evil? Upscale tour operators are tiptoeing into Iran next year, offering trips that explore the ancient country’s Persian treasures and olive-green desert plains. Next spring, the luxury cruise liner Silversea will make stops in the Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas on its Dubai to Dubai cruise. And California-based Distant Horizons (www.distant-horizons.com) is organizing two 18-day trips that start in Tehran and then weave through the once-forbidden countryside, including stops in Shiraz and Isfahan. Prices start at $5,390 per person.
Wonderful. Now what about the backpack-and-hostel set?
I want to live in that little cabin on the right. Somebody fly me to New York for the Persian poetry and then drop me off at that cabin.
I really NEED to be an expatriot, but don’t have the dough. :-(
Agreed, these people seem intent on focusing only on the luxury market. I’m sure Homey will have a good idea of budget but comfy accommodation.
Great, I am expecting you anytime soon!
There is hotel Homey, with almost decent accommodation for all of you :)
Thanks Homey! I definitely expect to be seeing you one day soon, my friend. If you and others ever want to come to Australia too btw, my home is open.
The great folks at Global Exchange do an excellent Iran program for anyone able and interested, and I think they offer some travel scholarships/subsidies on application for those of us on less than astronomical incomes. I’ve travelled with them once before and can definitely recommend them.
Check it out:
Citizen Diplomacy
* April 19, 2008 – May 02, 2008
* June 09, 2008 – June 22, 2008
* October 11, 2008 – October 24, 2008
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Well, I don’t want to just visit! I want to live out my life in that cabin! […with broadband…] [and a very serious bathtub…] [the ayatollahs are NOT going to be happy with me, but I’m sure they’ll get over it…] It’s URGENT! Everyone has gone just too crazy on me here.
Thoreau in Iran meets a Room of One’s Own …
It sounds like we should all meet at Homey’s place and fan out from there! I got dibs on the magic carpet!
Homey, I hope you can show me where I can get one of those cool Darius-style weaves for my beard!
Heh, Ann. I might actually be becoming notorious, if not quite famous, for my Thoreauvian sensibilities… on top of being an incarnation of Virginia Woolf. I had a cow on a bunch of guys griping about credit card company perfidy the other day, and, wonder of wonders, they did not dismiss it as weirdness, but as sensible! Imagine that! Maybe the fuckers have gotten so transcendentally abusive that even your basic hypnotized shlub is ready to take a look at reality…. Well… maybe that’s taking it too far…. But, well, there’s definitely the urge to stop being abjectified by all the consumerism it takes to look and act like a regular person.
A ray of hope…. :-P
Happy New Year Ann, you are quiet.
Speaking of Iran, actually I was there when you wrote this post, on some academic mission with my British boss, who loved Iran and who pledged to come back and write a raving review of his encounter with science, technology, urbanism, country-beauty, ancient state, Isfahan, Tochal and ski slopes, hospitality, generosity, women in veils (and how came to terms to understand and respect the fact that many in Iran DO wear a veil by choice) … and what not!
I may come to Australia this summer, sometime in June. If I do, I will contact you :)
Or you can come to Iran in July and we’ll have a blogger’s party :)
Great stuff and kosh amadid if you are coming, Naj. Feel free to contact me, I’d love to meet with you. Equally, I would dearly love to visit Iran one day soon. I plan to make it in the next couple of years all things going well.