Day 80 Transit to Yazd

SYNOPSIS: How I reached Yazd and how it feels to be connected with civilization again in an amazing historic hotel in Yazd:  www.silkroadhotel.ir There is a live video.  Check it out!  Slowly but surely, I made it to Yazd.On my way around the village yesterday I learned that Fatima is known the village over as the bad cook if not worse.  I could only confirm:  Dinner last night was a disaster.  I am glad I did not get sick.  I could tell by the reaction of the people that all is not right.  Some people did not even return her greetings when passing her.  She seems to be quite the wheeler and dealer.  She has all kinds of awful things out for sale all day starting from pink yard dwarfs to ugly plastic toys.  She also sells a few badly sewn bags.  Her house is a mess.  Nothing changes by the end of the day even though her husband and son were gone and she was sitting around all day.  She “fixed” the two worst things:  Her window and her door had a small broken pane – she stuffed that with plastic.  This prevented the last bit of air from entering.  In these temperatures with no rain, she could and should, for all purposes, remove the window and the door completely!  Instead, she was very proud of her job.I realized that she has asthma or some sort of a breathing problem.  After walking just a few feet, she sounded almost like a donkey hawing.  How can she not realize that her existence in a gas-filled, air-tight environment cannot possibly be conducive for a condition like this?!  During breakfast she tried to double up her lodging price on me.  I am glad, I had asked around yesterday what an overnight in anyone else’s cave would have cost.  Yasser, a very nice local guide who is involved with the local heritage foundation runs a small “hotel”.  He showed me a spare cave which he has outfitted with five beds.   I could have slept there, probably a lot smoother avoiding all the aches, but I would have missed out on the authentic on the floor experience.  He charged considerably less.  I am glad, I did not meet him first, but there was no way, I would cave in to Fatima’s little game.As retaliation, she refused to understand my request to phone a taxi even though telephone and taxi are words used equally in Farsi.  I headed down to some of my other village friends and soon a taxi was on its way to remote Meymand.  I arrived in Shar-e-Babak to a completely abandoned bus terminal.  One bus was going to Yazd, three hours later.  It wasn’t one of the good overland companies, but one of the old run-down local buses from the 50’s.  The driver ran a little “black market” business on the side picking up people way beyond capacity and stuffing them into the bus for a small fee.  At every police check point he had to wave people to duck down, not to be caught…  He was an awful driver on top of it and I was glad, to be out of his bus 3.5 hours later.In Yazd I checked into the Silk Road Hotel.  I was transported into a world completely different from any place I had been to in Iran or anywhere on my trip.  The SRH is a restored historic court yard villa.  Two court yards with water, trees, a roof top with views, and guests from all over the world makes this a spot in which people have been “lost” for weeks on end.  Within minutes I found myself talking to a group of people sitting at one of the long tables in the cool, sun-sheltered Iwan (arch).In all of my five weeks of travel in Iran, I have met a total of 5 foreigners.  And here, in one hotel, there are 25 and they keep coming.  This is a welcome change from being “the only one”.  It will be good to take in this exchange with lots of people who are here despite the image the media is spreading about Iran.  They are almost all in their 20’s – on a quest trying to understand the meaning of life.  Almost all of them are on the road for 3 months or more making it work on a very limited budget.  They travel by bus, or bicycle through many countries.   I wish that more young Americans would do this.  Iran is off limits for Americans, but there is Syria, and the rest of the world.  What could be a better “school” than living life very different from our life at home?  Life without the things we take for granted, without any of our common expectations, and with an opportunity to reevaluate what Sean called our western hard-wiring.By the way, if you want to look in, the hotel has a live camera that is supposed to be accessible on line:  www.silkroadhotel.ir If all goes well, and if you check in towards what is our morning or evening, you should be able to look into this amazing courtyard and see some of us hanging out, typing away at our laptops, having discussions about burkas or exchanging travel stories.  I think I will stay here for a while.Good night.