Kerman to Yazd

Kerman
Gombad-e Jamaliya Mosque.
* The peacock = happiness
* Thumbs up = the finger
We wandered through the bazaar.

While we bought a brass “Fatima”, we had a crowd of 30 people helping us with the negotiations.

We wandered into the Afghani refugee section of town and did some serious people watching.

We shopped for an Afghani outfit. When we told them we were American, their face dropped (John s said, “It’s like I farted”). We finally bought an outfit and started telling people that we’re Canadian.
A local guy invited us into his teashop, a true local Afghani dive.

Then it was time for group lunch at the Tea Room, the former public baths (Chaykhune-ye Bakil).

A group of students surrounded us with questions.

Back on the bus to Yazd…driving through Rafsanjani, home of the current President of Iran and we had another tea stop at a caravanserai en route.
Hotel “Safaiyah”.
We dumped our bags and found the English speaking restaurant owner in the hotel. He told us that the food isn’t that good in the hotel…. but could get us a taxi to a good local place. He sent us to “Hamid Shadmanfar Restaurant”, a traditional Iranian restaurant. Taxi costs us 3000 rials, one way ( $ .75).
We were saved by a lovely Iranian couple who helped us with ordering and invited us to join them for dinner. He learned English 15 years ago in high school and still did pretty well. He has 2 jobs (a TV/radio repair job from 7:00-1:00, then works from 2:00-8:00 as an accountant. Then, he goes home to do house chores while his wife watches TV. She’s a student studying water purification and is “very clever”. We bought them dinner—4 huge dinners for $25.00.
Back to the hotel…yet another state run facility…boy scout beds again.