Isfahan and the Shy and Pretty Iranian Babe

the girl whom Pooya asked to help me in the bus from shiraz to isfahan is sooo shy n very traditional. but quite pretty . she didnt even dare to shake my hand( later i get to know that girls cant shake hands with guys EVER)

Reached Isfahan at 4am... super tired!! took a cab who keep insisting that i go embassy!! i dunno wtf is that... end up it is a 6 star hotel in Isfahan ... he doesnt know english so i presumed it was really a embassy for china or sth like dat... it is a failure to convince him that i want to just go to a decent hotel, so i just shoot out a hostel name called Naghe-Jahan (means half the world in Farsi). the hotel name is also the nickname of isfahan as isfahan is supposingly so awesome that it is half the world.

the hotel was shit n i was charged 1.5 nights for arriving so early!.... NOt happy with the squat toilet and also the free breakfast which turns out to be coffee and the iranian nan(a kind of iranian bread)!

Shiraz and the fallen Persepolis

finally went to Persepolis shiraz, the area where the fallen Persian empire kings n nobles attend meetings n meet the king sessions i think. the view was breathtaking to say the least....

Shiraz and the Pistachio Farm

Went to Ahmils farm for a BBQ . i cooked some omelette and a failed attempt at making pasta soup. they keep offering me whiskey and volka but honestly i sick of it. the whole session is spoken in Farsi n i dont know a single workd.

Finally Yosra , ahmils, his cousin and Haida went out for kebab. fucking cold though and the kebabs are burnt so much taht i dont want to eat it. Ahmil almost went into a berserk after i nearly pluck out his Pistachio plant to use as firewood!... the reaction on his face is priceless!!

Shiraz and the Hafez Tomb

Eram Garden


Hafez Tomb--- the tomb of the greatest poet of Iran

After a huge night of drinking Persian Vodka and non-alchol beer , i woke up at abt 11am. Pooya keeps coughing at night, i m having trouble to sleep with those loud coughings sounds... in the morning, YOsra brought me around the city , visiting all the Hafez tomb and Eram Garden... but seriously its not that great at all!

Shiraz and the illegal 2000USD

received fucking a lot of shit from the Sharjah ariport . the person in charge seemed to have no experience in handling a Singaporean flying from sharjah to Shiraz. i have to wait abt 45 mins for them to ensure i could go to iran without a visa! the iran embassy called them to tell them to ask some werid shit abt me!!... WTF

they asked how much USD do i have? do i have more than 2000 USD... like WTF R THEY DOING...?!! how much money do i have concern them for what?!!... n 2000 USD ONLY to be deemed illegal?? 2000 usd only leh!!!. WTF?? lucky i only brought 400 usd and at 500 euros so i pretty legal in that sense!....they also say if i have no hotel i might have dee trouble with the authorities at the iranian end... OK shit looms

finally i got to Shiraz after the shit plane delayed for 3hrs!!! the guy i suppose to stay with , Pooya have really crap reception( its iran , what do i expect right?) and i got ripped off for buying a SIM card... NOT HAPPY

UAE and the Burj dubai

Dubai City in the morning
burj dubai at night at the first day !!! i m sooo lucky!
burj dubai in the morning

i can only meet my Dubai Couchsurfing host, Ahmed at night but i arrive in Abu Dhabi really early in the morning!.... so i have about 12 hrs to kill off ... cant venture out of the airport as there is no buggage lockers anywhere!! the fucking BIG GREEN bag is killing me again!!

Eithad had this free shuttle bus to dubai and the service is first class! they gave me a box of apples n oranges for the bus ride and a free blanket from the plane! the main office refuse to allow me to put my luggage there, so i stay at the office for a abt five hrs to kill off... read some middle east newspaper... it really gives u a really different view of the world of arab n middle east from our narrow-minded strait times

Met Ahmed at the dubai mall... which is flooded with ppl despite being one of the biggest mall in the world. cant imagine dubai was a desert just abt 15 yrs ago!... now it s more advanced than Singapore... we went to this awesome bar at the beach to meet some fellow Couchsurfers from Poland...

Brussels and the beautiful Linkebeek

Poster of the Brussels Airline which is everywhere

'' People clearing out snow sign''

Linkebeek train station

Manneken Pis--- the legend as the boy who saved Brussels from fire by extinguishing it with his urine

This lame old woman statue stood out of nowhere... with fake birds all around her

FUcK this huge green backpack of mine!!! it has became the bane of this whole trip!! Not only it has cost me almost 600 SGD to move it around the world , it hinders my movements and seriously fucking irritates me to the core.

Brussels signs are written in Flemish or French, sometimes english. and my Couchsurfing host, Alain lives in Linkebeek which is damn fucking far from the city. Even some of the locals dont know where it is.. after a series of asking , fumbling and the torture of dragging this fucking green bag around, i finally reached Alain's palce,...

he is such an awesome n interesting host!! A PHD in biomolecular cancer research but look like some gangster.... a ponytail, huge bike, go to bars, divorced and having a married wife as his gf! u simply cant guess that he is a 60- yr old man!

chatting with him gives me such a huge insight in life! Rory gallager, george best, 9/11 theories, are some of the things i would neva forget...

Brussels is the smallest n by far the most uninteresting city !!... but Linkebeek n Alain makes it sooo unforgettable ... n this once again, is what makes a place awesome