Post #169 12 May 2018

Gentlefolk,

We did a 'study tour' of the Islamic Republic of Iran from 4 - 22 April 2018.

This post describes our visit to Tehran, 4 - 7 April and then 22 April at the end of the tour.

The tour was organised by the Victorian Branch of the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA).

Vera and my motivation in going to Iran was to see what all the fuss was about.  Iran has been demonised by the Western media (particularly USA and Israel) and we wanted to make up our own minds.  We were concerned about the security situation and decided that an organised tour would be the best option.

The tour leader was Patrick Moore who is the current President of the AIIA in Victoria; ably assisted by Amelia Ekkel, who is doing her Masters in International Relations and is an intern with the AIIA. Patrick was an excellent leader, with a firm but light touch and impressive cultural sensitivity (we took to calling him "Beloved Supreme Leader").

Other members of the group were (in alphabetical order):

Richard Broinowski (ex Australian Ambassador, author, lives Sydney)
Kristine Cant & Ross Stewart (Kris has an education background, Ross was a water specialist)
Rungrawee Chalermsripinyorat (PhD student at ANU)
Bethany Evans (Recent graduate, solicitor in legal firm)
Ruth & Hartmut Hofmann (Germans who lived in Australia since 1979; retired engineer & businessman)
Phillip Huntley & Jenny Osborne (Phil retired from Defence, Jenny teaching background)
David Lamb (retired manager Ford Motor Co)
Eve & Frank Mahlab (Eve and Frank both have extensive business backgrounds)
Vera & Alex Olah (retired public servant; taught English in China)
Jim Short (retired public servant and Federal politician)
Amelia (Millie) Young (Masters student in Sydney; widely travelled)

Our tour was arranged by Arista Seir Travel Co and a guide, Zahra Jafari, accompanied us throughout.  She was a lovely young woman, very knowledgeable and friendly (inevitably, many of our impressions were formed through her eyes).

We had a big bus (owner/driver Hamid and his trusty assistant Wahid) which took us from Tehran to Shiraz; then we flew back to Tehran for one more night, before flying out to Dubai.

Itinerary: 4 April  Tehran; 8/4 Kashan; 9/4 Isfahan; 12/4 Yazd; 14/4 Zeinodin; 15/4 Kerman; 17/4 Shiraz; 20/4 Tehran; 21/4 to Dubai.  I will do a post on each location we visited.

A number of the group had some prior experience of Iran: Patrick led an AIIA tour in April 2017; Richard served in the Australian Embassy 1973-4; Kris had visited twice before; Jenny spent a year teaching English in Isfahan in 1975; Frank & Eve visited 40 years ago.

First some background on Iran itself.

Statistics on Iran (from CIA World Factbook, accessed March 2018)

Area	1.65 million square kilometres (19th largest country by area) Land 1.53; water 0.12 msk. (Iran is a bit smaller than the Australian State of Queensland).
Land use	Agricultural land 30%; forest 7%; other 63% Agric land: arable 11%; permanent pastures 18%; permanent crops 1% Irrigated land: 96,000 sq km
Environmental	Air & water pollution; desertification; deforestation; overgrazing.
Population	82 million (July 2017 estimate) (17th largest population) Persian 61%; Azeris 16%; Kurds 10%; Lurs 6%; etc Population growth rate 1.24% pa Adult obesity 26% Urban population75% (27% in 1950); urbanisation rate 1.8% pa Tehran: 8.5 million (Greater Tehran is 16m); Mashhad 3 million; Isfahan 2 million.
Life expectancy	74 years at birth (males 73, females 75)
Literacy	Adult literacy 87% (35% in 1975)
Religion	Muslim 99.4% (of which Shia 90%, Sunni 10%)
Political system	Theocratic (Islamic) republic
Unemployment	Overall 12.4%; Young (15-24) 26% (males 22%, female 43%
National Budget	Health 6.9%; Education 2.9%; Military 2.7%
GDP	PPP $1.6 trillion; Official Exchange rate $427m GDP growth rate 2016 -1.6%; 2016 +12.5%; 2017 (est) +3.5% GDP composition: Agric 10%; industry 36%; services 54%
Labour	Agriculture 16%; Industry 35%; Services 48%
Inflation rate	2016  9%; 2017 10.5%
Exchange rate	March 2018 US$1 = 32,700 rials (When we changed US$ on 5 April we got US$1 = Rial 47,800)

Three figures caught my eye: the big population (82 million); the diversity with 61% Persian and many minorities; and that 11% of the land is arable (suitable for growing crops).  Actually, I'm surprised even 11% is categorised as "arable" - we saw very little intensive farming during our trip; the whole of Central Iran seems to be a high, semi arid plateau with huge deserts to the East. For most of our two weeks we saw a few bushes or trees and the occasional herd of goats or sheep, some orchards and nuts, little else.

A potted history

Iranian/Persian history sure goes back a long, long way. Lots of different empires/dynasties (read 'wars'?).

We were only there 2.5 weeks, not enough time to get a handle on what makes the country tick. A book I read made the point that Iran’s long history & culture, not Islam, identifies Iranians and is the basis for a strong sense of Iranian identity.

In 1934 the Shah changed the country's official name from Persia to Iran - Zahra explained that "Iran" is more inclusive of the many minorities.

In January 1979, amidst increasing resentment and opposition, the Shah fled (to the USA); the following month Ayatollah Khomeini was welcomed back as a hero.  His plans for an Islamic State had popular support - few realised that they were exchanging one form of dictatorship for another. In September 1980 Iraq invaded and the country unified behind the Mullahs to confront the external enemy.  The long and bitter war finally ended in August 1988, now 30 years ago, but the scars are still visible.

Zahra explained that most people are hoping for gradual change - evolution - there is little appetite for revolution after all they had gone through in the last half-century.

559 BC 334 BC 200BC – 224AD 633 – 651AD 1219 – 1221 1501 1750 1794-1925 1804-13, 1826-28 1870-71 & 1920-1 1906 1925-6 1941 1951 1953 1979 1980 1989 2005 2013

Cyrus the Great ruled the Achaemenid Empire (extended from modern Bulgaria to Pakistan, centered at Shiraz). Estimated to contain 50m people (40% of the then-world’s population) Alexander the Great defeated the last Achaemenid ruler, Darius 3rd. Parthian Empire replaced the Sasanian Empire with capital at Ctesiphon (near Baghdad). Many fights with Roman Empire. Arab conquest of Iran; introduction of Islam. Invasion by Mongols (Genghis Khan) Safavid Empire (capital Tabriz), Ismail Shah changed from Sunni to Shia Karin Shah started the Zand Dynasty Qajar Dynasty (capital Tehran) Iran – Russian wars (Iran lost Dagestan, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan) Great famines, up to 25% died First constitution and Parliament (constitutional monarchy) Reza Shah established the Pahlavi Dynasty Forced to abdicate by Britain, replaced by son Mohamad Reza Shah PM Mohamad Mosaddegh nationalised oil industry Anglo American coup backed by Mohamad Reza Shah January Shah fled; February Khomenei returned; new constitution; November students seized 52 American Embassy hostages, held for 444 days until Jan 1981; December referendum approved Theocratic State “Cultural revolution” closed the universities 22 Sept Iraq invaded Iran, start of 8 year war (ended August 1988). PM Rafsanjani; then Mousavi PM Ahmadinejad elected, conservative PM Hasan Rouhani elected, reformist?

Notes: 

Iran was never colonised by Western countries; but they did influence events.

The main cities are located inland, not on the coast – difficult to access.

Persians are Indo-European, not Semitic like Arabs and Jews.

Farsi language is unifying (although about 40% speak other languages at home)

The official language of the Moghul Empire in India was Farsi, until English introduced in 1832.

Iran is six times the size of Great Britain, and a bit smaller than Queensland.

Poetry is very important in Iranian culture (Omar Khayyam; Saadi; Hafiz; etc)

Here are some maps of Iran.

Iran is a relatively large country; it follows Shia Islam in a sea of Sunni. 

This map shows the cities we visited in Central Iran: Tehran - Kashan (half-way between Tehran and Isfahan) - Isfahan - Yazd - Kerman - and Shiraz.

The country has mountains and deserts.  Our itinerary was through Central Iran (Tehran - Kashan - Isfahan - Yazd - Kerman - Shiraz) which are all on a high plateau, about 1,500 meters above sea level. It is semi-arid country, with little water. We didn't see much agriculture.

This map shows the rough topography: mainly mountains and deserts. A difficult environment which bred tough people.

This map from the US Department of Agriculture shows the distribution of agricultural land - mainly in the North-West and along the Caspian Sea - not much at all in Central or East Iran.

This map shows the distribution of language groups / minorities in Iran.

The capital, Tehran, is situated in the foothills of the Alborz Mountains - quite spectacular - you almost feel as if you can touch the mountains.  There is good skiing only an hour's drive from Tehran. From our observation Tehran seemed to have 3 fairly distinct parts: northern Tehran elegant and desirable; central/traditional Tehran marking time; and southern Tehran 'struggle town'.

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As this was promoted as a "Study Tour" we started with a series of meetings/briefings in Tehran. We met with the following organisations:

Australian Embassy
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
Operation Mercy and Australian aid
Sharif University re Lake Urmia
Institute of Political and International Studies (IPIS) who sponsored our visit.
Faculty of Law & Political Science of the University of Tehran
Ravand Institute

I won't go into details of the meetings - the AIIA will publish a full report on the visit which will be available on their website - suffice to say that these meetings gave us a reasonable introduction to some of the contemporary issues facing Iran.

The longer we spent in Iran the more we realised that we were only scratching the surface - it is a complex country and society.

Here are some photos of our stay in Tehran.

A banner in the foyer of the Australian Embassy commemorated 50 years of diplomatic relations (1968 - 2018).

Briefing by four Embassy staff. From left: HE Ambassador Ian Biggs (an impressive Middle East specialist), Tim Paterson, Hamish Leslie, Lou (Consul). The Embassy has 10 A-based and 40 Locally-engaged staff.  Quite a large Embassy given the limited scope of bilateral relations. The Ambassador mentioned that about 30,000 Aussies visit Iran a year.  We met some other tour groups as we traveled around, mainly from France and Germany.  I read in the local English language newspaper that just over 5 million foreigners visited Iran in 2017, slightly down on the previous year.

The meeting with the Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS) culminated in the signing of an MOU by Dr Sajjad Pour and Patrick Moore to foster closer relations between AIIA and IPIS. The IPIS is an agency under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and were the official sponsors of out visit to Iran.

Briefing at Sharif University by Prof Hossein Shabaz on the project to save Lake Urmia.

The Ambassador and his wife invited the group for dinner at their residence, together with a number of local guests. A very pleasant evening in lovely surroundings.

We visited Golestan Palace built by the early Qajar Dynasty (1789 - 1925). From left: Kris, Ross, Phil, Jenny, Vera, Ruth, Hartmut, Zahra (guide), Jim Short, Bethany, Amelia, Millie, Rawee, David, and Eve (not shown Frank and Alex).

The amazing Hall of Mirrors, the centerpiece of the Golestan Palace (shades of Versailles?).

One of the grand rooms leading up to the Hall of Mirrors. Seemed to reflect a strong European influence in design.

A series of 'placards' featuring passages from the Koran, the Holy Book of Islam.

This public toilet had an unusually attractive mosaic facade. Large images of the first and current Supreme Leaders were everywhere.

Another poster on the street in praise of the current Supreme Leader, Imam Ali Khamenei.

There were many photos, in all the cities we visited, commemorating men and women who died during the 8 year war against Iraq (1980 - 88).  They are revered as Martyrs.

Other monuments commemorating young men who paid the ultimate sacrifice in the war against Iraq (1980 - 88). It is estimated that more than a million Iranian men & women were killed or wounded in this terrible war. Sadam Hussein attacked Iran in September 1980 to acquire oil and gas fields. Iran was vulnerable: the Islamic Revolution had severely purged the military and the West was unified in opposing the regime which had acquiesced in students invading the American Embassy and taking 52 diplomats hostage.  Iranians rallied to oppose this external threat, but poorly trained and equipped there were many many casualties.  Zahra told us that virtually every family in Iran was affected; one of her uncles suffered from gassing (yes, Sadam used chemical weapons and the West kept backing him).

We visited the impressive National Museum of Iran.  Here Zahra is describing the geography of Iran.  The Museum was well-designed, minimalist, and contained some very fine pieces.

This map shows the extent of the Achaemenid Empire under Cyrus the Great 2,500 years ago.  It extended from modern-day Bulgaria and Egypt to Pakistan.  Impressive history.

We visited the Sa'd Abad Museum Complex in Northern Tehran where the Pahlavi Dynasty spent their summers in a 100 hectare wonderland.  There are 19 museums in total but we only had time to inspect the White and Green Palaces. 

One ff the interesting modern sculptures in the grounds of the Green Palace.

Typical Iranian food : lamb chops, chicken and beef kebabs, tomatoes onions and cucumbers, potatoes and rice, always accompanied by yogurt.  We normally ate dinner around 7pm and were surprised that we were usually the only people around - Zahra said that Iranians normally eat late at home or in restaurants - certainly not before 9pm.  Better/bigger restaurants often feature live Iranian folk music.  Most of the waiters (and there always seemed to be many) were men - not many women in service jobs.

Vera and Rawee. In public women have to wear modest, loose-fitting garments and a hijab (head-covering). The hijab is supposed to cover all the hair, but in fact most women (at least in the cities) wore the hijab well back - they push the boundaries - and often wear designer clothes in private homes.

We wondered why so many young women had white plasters around their noses?  Zahra explained that cosmetic surgery was common, especially "nose jobs", it's seen as kind of a badge of honour these days.  Iranian women can only show their faces in public, so they make the most of that feature: lots of make-up, eyebrows, false eye-lashes, lipstick, etc. Persians have attractive features.

Traffic jams were frequent in Tehran, lots of cars on the roads, mostly French marques (Peugeot & Renault) , all manual transmission, mainly sedans, and mainly white.

There seemed to be relatively few restaurants and cafes at least in the area around our hotel.  But we came across this pastry shop which was well patronised.

Some of the pastries on offer in the Danish Pastry shop near our hotel.

There must be large supermarkets but we mainly saw smaller convenience stores such as this one near our hotel in Tehran. Shops stay open late, until 9 or 10pm.

A fruit and vegetable shop near our hotel in Tehran.  There seemed to be plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables available in such neighborhood shops and in the markets we visited.  Prices seemed much less than in Australia.

A shop selling Iranian handicrafts.

We noticed many half-built, abandoned buildings in Tehran, and in other cities.  We were told that some of these date back to the 1970s, while others reflect more recent periods of  economic distress. When the Shah fled in 1979 and the Mullahs took over, businessmen / capitalists were targeted and investment virtually stopped.  Many projects have been abandoned, like the one in the photo (which was a block from our hotel); puzzling why a company or its lender would walk away from a half-finished building?  Of course we saw some new buildings, and some under construction, but not nearly as many as one would expect in a big city - there seemed to be more going on in relatively-small Dubai than in much-bigger Tehran. In fact, none of the cities we visited in Iran had a buzz or energy about them - you got the impression that they were marking time rather than forging ahead.  

This building was around the corner from our hotel in Central Tehran, obviously abandoned - most of the windows broken.  It is in the Central Business District of a major city, so why hasn't someone bought and renovated it?  We were told that the Mullah Regime is not business-friendly and that people have become risk-averse.  The quality of construction / finish of the hotels we stayed in was generally poor.

We visited the former USA Embassy, which is now a Museum (teh entry ticket proclaims it as the "Museum / Garden of Anti-Arrogance!).  A small group of radical students invaded the Embassy in November 1979 and took 52 diplomats hostage for 444 days.  Very bad form - the Regime should have just expelled the Embassy - taking hostages was a treacherous act, not in keeping with a civilised country.  Americans have never forgotten or forgiven that act of treachery.  The Mullahs didn't interfere - perhaps they liked having an external enemy? - but ordinary Iranians are still paying the price (viz Trump's withdrawal from the Nuclear Agreement 3 days ago).

Richard and Millie in front of the main door of the Embassy/Museum.  Richard used to visit here quite often when he was at the Australian Embassy in 1972-3.  The rooms have been left in their original state. 

Some of the anti-American (and anti-Israel) posters in the grounds of the Museum.

We visited the huge and impressive Museum commemorating the Iran - Iraq War (1980-88). 

Richard and Millie sitting on a bench in the grounds of the War Museum (the seats were shaped like tanks).

A display of tanks used in the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88).

Faces of Iranians who fought in the Iran-Iraq War.  Some look like boys, others were old. Under the Shah Iran purchased billions of dollars worth of armaments from the USA, but the Mullahs purged the Military to the extent that few of the remaining knew how to utilise this sophisticated equipment.  In the end Iran resorted to "human wave" tactics which resulted in huge casualties. 

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We were struck by the number of banks in Tehran.  One day it took us about 45 minutes to drive from one appointment to the next, and I counted signs for 14 banks just in that time: Bank Melli; Tejarat; Mellat; En; Sarmaye; Sepak; Parsian; Ayandeh; Saman; Pasargard; Sina; Karafina; Sadarat; Masakan.

We heard that the financial sector is in a precarious state (ie several banks are insolvent or close to insolvency), but didn't have time to get more details.

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Our time in Tehran was a good introduction to this fascinating, intriguing, country.

Lovely people, pity about the government....

My next post will be about our next stop, Kashan.  This post is long - I promise that the others will be shorter!

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Best wishes, stay healthy and keep smiling.

Alex Olah & Vera Olah
Canberra, Australia
Saturday 12 May 2018.

Post #168 10 May 2018

Gentlefolk,

We were overseas from 1 - 30 April 2018, in the following places:

1 April    Dubai
4 April    Iran (Tehran, Kashan, Isfahan, Yazd, Kerman, and Shiraz)
22 April  Malaysia (Penang)
26 April  Singapore

We've visited many countries, but this was our first time in the Middle East so everything was new and interesting. All our flights were with Emirates Air; good service.

This post describes our visit to Dubai, 1 - 4 April 2018.

I will do posts on each of the cities we visited in Iran 4 - 22 April, followed by a post on our 4 days in  Penang, and finally a post on our 3 days in Singapore. Lots to do!

Dubai

Dubai is one of seven Emirates which, in December 1971, joined together to create the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with its capital at Abu Dhabi.  The population of the UAE is just over 6 million, with the main centers Dubai 2.5m, Sharjah 1.3m, and Abu Dhabi 1.2m.

The UAE is unusual because only about 15% of the population is local Arabs (called Emiratis) - the other 85% are 'guest workers' mainly from India, Pakistan, Egypt and The Philippines. The Emiratis have it good: free housing, health care, education, government jobs and no tax. I want to be an Emerati in my next life!

Another unusual aspect is that everything is relatively new, built on oil & gas discovered in the 1960s.  It's hard to believe that in 1960 Dubai was a small town of just 40,000 inhabitants; by 1995 the population had increased to about 700,000; and now it is about 2.5 million. Maybe only Shenzhen in China can match that phenomenal rate of growth.

Dubai's limited oil & gas resources didn't last long (Abu Dhabi has much larger reserves and is the rich cousin) and forced the Government to focus on developing Dubai as a regional center of finance and industry and tourism, which it has done with impressive success.

We had three days in Dubai and did three tours: a half-day Traditional City tour, and full day tour to Abu Dhabi, and an evening Desert safari tour.  We also had a look at a beach and drove around The Palms, a huge development on reclaimed land in the sea.

We were lucky with the weather. It was Spring so the maximums were around 30C, quite comfortable.  But we were told that between May and October the temperatures are 45+C and it is too hot to be outside during the day.

We stayed in the Rove Downtown Hotel, a comfortable 4 star hotel. It was a 10 minute walk to Dubai Mall, the biggest shopping mall in Dubai (maybe in the world?). The malls in Dubai are amazing - this one had a skating rink and an aquarium, another Mall features a real ski slope - crazy - they are like airconditioned oases in a very hot climate, and attract crowds of locals and tourists.

It's a pretty weird place, everything is artificial / new, where life centers around shopping malls.

Here are some photos of our time in Dubai.

Dubai skyline. And remember there was literally nothing here 40 years ago. Wide avenues cris-crossing the city. Lots of traffic, even traffic jams at rush hour.  What was particularly striking was the modern and unique-design architecture.  They seek the unusual - Aussie design seems tame in comparison. Lots of construction going on.  Who buys all these apartments and occupies the offices and shops????

View of the Rove Hotel swimming pool, with the Burj Khalifa in the background.

The Traditional City tour stopped at the attractive Jumeirah Mosque.

Then the tour took us past Zabeel Palace, the residence of Sheikh Maktoum (the Maktoum family have ruled Dubai since it was first settled in 1833).

We visited the Dubai Museum which is housed in the old Al Fahidi Fort.

A view of the inside of Al Fahidi Fort. God to see that they are utilising and maintaining some of the old buildings.

The tour arranged a crossing of Dubai Creek in a local water-taxi (abras)

We visited the old Spice Market, and the nearby Gold Market. Amazing to see shop after shop of solid-gold ornaments; one can only imagine the wealth.  50 years ago this area near the water-front would have been the commercial center of the city - now the malls have taken over - but it was good to see that these markets were still well patronised.

We did a one-day tour of Abu Dhabi, about 2 hours drive south of Dubai. There is a Formula 1 race track on Yaz Island, and that was the first stop on our tour. The large building on the right is the Victory Hotel. 

We visited the old Date Market - did you know that there are literally dozens of types of dates?  If you want to now about dates, come to the Middle East, dates are part of their DNA.  A local lady advised me "That variety is best now, next week the other one will be better."

We had lunch in the food-hall of a local Mall and I saw this advertisement featuring Liu Yi Fei a famous actress in China.  But there are very few Chinese here???

Some of the interesting architecture in Abu Dhabi - a big new hotel.

The tour took in the famous Sheikh Zeyad Mosque, built for US$1 billion by the first leader of the UAE.

The beautiful courtyard in the Zeyad Mosque.

This magnificent mosque attracts lots of visitors from surrounding countries and tourists,.

Women have to be fully covered to visit the Mosque.

We were surprised to find a popular Coffee Club (headquartered in Brisbane, Australia) near the exit of the Zeyad Mosque. 

One night we went to the Dubai Mall for dinner - it is always busy.

There is a lake between the Dubai Mall and the Burj Khalifa Tower which features fountain/music shows at night - big crowd, very popular. The Burj Khalifa Tower is 828 meters high, very impressive. The Tower was a magical back-drop to the water fountain displays. 

One of the nice beaches in Dubai, best months are December to April. Dubai is attracting increasing numbers of tourists, especially Europeans, who come here during their winter.  It is safe, always sunny, with good food, great shopping and lots of hotels.  

Some of the interesting little food & drink kiosks which line Jumeirah Beach.

The famous Burj Al Arab Jumeirah Hotel with its distinctive sail-like shape.  220 suites, starting at US$1,400 per night.

We drove around the Palm Jumeirah development.  Land reclamation started in 2001 and the first residents moved in 5 years later.  It is in the shape of the trunk of a palm tree, with 16 fronds (branches) and surrounded by a crescent; a huge project: 6 million cubic meters of rock from local quarries and 100 million cubic meters of sand dredged up from the sea floor about 10 kms offshore; 20,000 workers worked around the clock for 5 years; the development totals 78 kilometers of water-front.  There are similar new developments called "The World" and "Deira Palm" being built further up the coast. Amazing.

The fronds of the Palm are private houses all with direct water access. The fronds are private roads and we couldn't drive there - had to stay on the main arteries and the Crescent. 

The Crescent which protects The Palm was built with large rocks.  There is a wide promenade as shown in this photo.  Several big hotels and resorts dot the Crescent.

There are many fancy/expensive cars in Dubai (but Hong Kong has many more!).

A highway overpass with attractive Arabic theme.

Our hotel was on Happiness Street, near the Dubai Mall - don't you love the name?

We did a Desert Safari tour. We drove an hour outside Dubai City, to a nature reserve.  There were about 100 cars, all 4 wheel drive Toyota Land Cruisers, all full of tourists.  We met an African-American lady from Atlanta, Georgia who was celebrating her 60th birthday in Dubai with her four adult children.  They flew Atlanta - Paris - Dubai and were staying at the Grand Hyatt for a week.  Why Dubai? Safe, clean, people speak English, and not expensive, was the answer.

Our driver deflating the tires of our car before we started "dune bashing"; we went up hill and down dale for about 45 minutes. Very exciting for those of us who had little experience of off-road driving. Fortunately the drivers were all very experienced and knew the terrain well.

We stopped for "sunset photos" on the desert dunes.

The tour came with a camel ride - lasted for about 10 minutes - good fun.

After dinner we were entertained by a belly dancer.  She performed for about 20 minutes We assumed she was from Turkey or somewhere in the Middle East, but our driver told us that she was from Brazil!  Anyway, she was an accomplished dancer and put on a very good show.

So ended our three days in Dubai.  The take-away?  Dubai is an interesting mix of Muslim/Arab and Western, old & new. Interesting modern architecture, many fancy hotels and shopping malls, all run by foreign workers. Where does the water come from, and the power for all the airconditioning?

The next morning we caught a flight to Tehran (1.5 hours) for the start of our Iranian adventure.  That will be the subject of my next post.

It has taken me two weeks to do this first post - I'd better get a move-on with the rest of the trip.

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Two momentous developments this week. 

On Wednesday President Trump announced America's withdrawal from the Iran Nuclear Agreement which was signed by the UK, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the USA with Iran in 2015.

Against all advice, and ignoring that Iran had met all the conditions of the Agreement, Trump withdrew.  The other signatories have pledged to continue the Agreement but that will probably not mean much in the face of threatened sanctions by America on companies which trade with Iran. 

The Iranians are in for an undeserved rough time. Pity, because they are nice people, and things were just starting to look up. 

On Thursday (today) the results of the General Election in Malaysia were announced.  Contrary to predictions, the opposition won a majority of seats. The new Prime Minister will be Mahatir Mohamad. Yes, the same man who was PM from 1981 to 2003.  He came out of retirement to contest the election and beat Najib and his Party which had governed Malaysia for 61 years. A remarkable feat at the age of 92!!!!

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Best wishes, stay healthy and keep smiling.

Alex Olah & Vera Olah
Canberra, Australia
Thursday 10 May 2018