Hotel Amir Kabir 22 Oct
On the way back in we have a kebab and "chamois leather" (flat bread), aided, not too helpfully, by a character who spoke a little English. Then, in the rush hour, we fought our way back into Tehran, and eventually I found myself on the map, but, owing to an idiosyncrasy of the map, and the fact that a local put me at the wrong end of the street, I was confused. A policeman was no use at all - they look like something out of Gilbert and Sullivan. So once again I asked, and once again was put at the wrong end of the right street, but it didn't matter too much this time and we found the Hotel Amir Kabir.
I drew the map of Tehran to send home. As you go further north (and up the hill) you get into the wealthier part of the town. Down here we're pretty much slumming it, the alleys are all muddy but as you can see by the position of the British Embassy we don't have to go very far up to get into the acceptable area of town.
But the Hotel Amir Kabir, that was another thing altogether. The tariff was 60 Rials(7/6)/person/night, and the police apparently keep an eye on the foreign cars parked outside. In the '60s and '70s it was a well known watering hole for travellers on the 'Hippie Trail'. We moved in, then talked to some Canadians, Neal and Shirley and went out to eat with them. Two kebabs, chamois leather and onions cost 18R each - after more argument over 2R each! But it's the principle. So back to coffee and bed. It was late but I couldn't sleep.
At about one o'clock the DJ who lives next door came home, noisily, and, so he says, did some recording. It was noisy anyway! At last I slept about 2:30 and was woken at 4:30 by 'Aquarius', then the cocks started to crow, and the geese did whatever geese do. I slept again from about 5:30 to 8am then possibly dozed till 10:30. Read till 12:30 or so then made a cup of tea, boiled eggs, went and got bread, and went back to bed to read till we had a phone call to announce Kaye and Fran. They stayed and chatted for half an hour in the atmosphere of absolute squalor that prevailed.
"Laziness travels so slowly that poverty soon overtakes it." Finally, a big effort and we got up about 6pm and washed in hot water provided by our Rolls Royce stove and went downstairs for omelette and chips and chamois, supplemented with tomatoes, onions and peppers. We elected to walk to university for draught beer. A route march but saw quite a lot of interest. Back here repaired (unblocked) basin and repaired door lock and inside bolt. This place is a shambles and the bogs - oh dear, don't ask. All in all, a pretty energetic day!
It seems the old Hotel Amir Kabir where we stayed is no longer. The map I drew allowed me to locate it pretty accurately on the south side of Amir Kabir Street, east of S Saadi Street, between Behnaz Alley and Mellat Street, and about 200m from what is now called Imam Khomeini Square, which used to be Tūpkhāneh, meaning army barracks. In fact the present day Samen Hotel must be very close to the location of the old Hotel Amir Kabir, so I have used it on maps. As the photos show, by 1983, during the Iran/Iraq war, the old hotel had seen better days. There is now a new Hotel Amirkabir about 300m south of Imam Khomeini Square on a dead-end extension of Naser Khosrow Street.
Iran is quite a difficult place, even the numbers are different:١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩٠ and the alphabet is impossible. Tehran is at about 4,000ft and the October weather is similar to UK. The bread here is interesting. It is baked continuously throughout the day and comes in two basic forms. Either very thin, like a huge and slightly crisp chapati (chamois) or thicker (about to inch) and again in "longs" of about 3ft and about 9 inches wide. It's always hot when you buy it and is delicious! The larger loaves cost about 9d - but there are some enormous ones - discs about 3ft in diameter and thicker which are more.
It really is most confusing here with Friday being Sunday, and Saturday being the day on which the locals get the Monday morning blues. I think it would take a long time to get fully adjusted to this new way of life. Also, their office hours are 8 - 1 and 4 - 7. That would be a disaster. By the time you've forced your way home through the ghastly Tehran traffic the evening's gone. Their driving is so unspeakably stupid and inconsiderate that I can't speak.
