Mr. Bean goes to Kish and the Last of the Pearls

Bandar Assouleh & Kish (Qais), Iran

There was no hotel in Siraf so we had to go to Bandar Assouleh to spend the night. This is one of Iran’s new industrial areas and is a center of oil and natural gas refining. We first of all could not find the exit off the highway and in fact we never did – we had to cut across a dirt track to enter the town which was utterly nondescript with the exception of the esplanade.

The esplanade of Bandar Assouleh - the flares behind the streetlamps are oil (and/or gas) refinery flares.
We could not find our hotel and hard as this may be to believe, the guide did not have the phone number. He only had the name. The hotel had changed its name. We drove around for two hours, nobody knew where the hotel was – everyone here comes from somewhere else as they come for work – and eventually the driver, by now furious with the guide for being so incompetent, said he would drop us off at a restaurant and he would try to find it. Because it was Friday the office was closed and the guide did not want to call anyone at home..........

The driver came back and took us to the Persian Gulf hotel – nothing to do with the name we had which was the Bandar Assouleh Inn. The guide had been telling me it was a government-run tourist inn such as we had stayed in the night before. It was not. It was filthy. It was apparently the best hotel in town and you would not have put a rabid dog in it. Nobody could use the loo, the cockroaches were the size of small birds and they were legion. I tried to pee down a drain and one leapt up, followed in rapid succession by me, so that was the end of that. I closed the door and slept with all my clothes on, on top of my silk liner. The next morning I peered cautiously into the bathroom, the repulsive creatures were still there. I went to a gas station to use the loo. I did however have one of the best meals for breakfast I had yet had in the entire country – a plate of beans from a tiny hole-in-the-wall that had workers lined up down the street. That and a cup of strong tea did the trick. And thus fortified we set off from the unforgettable Bandar Assouleh……..

Earthquakes and a Sufi's worth

Lar, Khonj, Siraf, Iran

“…From there we continued our march for three days through another desert like the former, and came to the city of Lar, a large city with many springs and perennial streams and gardens, and with fine bazaars.”

More of the astonishing desert vista; an extraordinary but forbidding landscape with massive chunks of the earth’s crust uplifted into rippling folds and craggy peaks.

By the time we reached Lar, and took time finding the hotel where we were the only guests, I could barely wait to close the room door firmly shut. Had there been anything to watch on TV other than a religious program in Farsi, I would have been content. There was not. I went out in the evening and bought some walnuts, salty cheese, yogurt, olives, fresh bread and chocolate for dinner. I wandered round New Lar but there was little of interest. Old Lar was destroyed by an earthquake in 1960 and a whole new town was built a few miles away. Old Lar, still inhabited, is the only part of interest.

Although the current bazaar dates primarily from the 16th century, there was a bazaar here when Ibn B passed through in 1347. Perhaps because it was located in an area prone to earthquakes, (better structural support?) or perhaps due to the very hot climate, the bazaar is built below ground level. It is built in a cruciform or ‘chahar-su’ plan, with a pierced central octagonal dome, which admitted both light and cooling breezes. Originally there was an octagonal pool under the dome which further cooled the inside temperature, but it is no longer there. The ashlar stonework is masterfully executed while the remains of painted stucco moldings are still visible.