I work in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and when I heard that I was to go to the Persian Gulf island resort of Kish for a week, truth be told, I was none too excited. I had heard a lot about the Ayatollahs and the strict laws and Salman Rushdie’’s fatwa and I wasn’’t exactly gung-ho about this trip.
It didn’’t help when the plane that I got into (Kish Airlines) turned out to be a rickety old-timer that had obviously been roused out of retirement for one last sortie.
Once at the airport I breezed past the formalities (Its a free-trade zone so you don’’t need a visa if you intend to stay less than 2 weeks) and found myself a nice hotel to stay in.
The first thing that hits you is that people are extremely friendly. My cabbie told me all that I needed to know as a tourist by the time I got to the Shayan Hotel (Near the Kish Trade Center). Everywhere you go you are treated to wonderfully gracious people.
Here’’s an incident that illustrates this -
My friends and I were sitting in the open cafe of the New Pardis shopping mall, its called the Aquarium and is owned by a charming man called Kamiyar (’’’’My friends call me Kami’’’’) who had a thing for the buddha bar collections and instantly made us copies of his CD the moment we showed the slightest interest in them.
but I digress. While we were sitting in that cafe two young students from Tehran, walked up to us and introduced themselves and we started talking. I was mildly suspicious to begin with - ’’’’What’’s their game?’’’’. We spoke of this and that and they seemed very interested in our experience of Iran and of our opinions about their country. And as the conversation veered towards, movies and then, as is bound to happen among a group of exclusively 20s something males, alcohol and then women and the merits of Iranian women vis-a-vis other women I kinda felt I knew where this was heading. ’’’’hmmm...’’’’
But then after some more boisterous ’’’’nudge-nudge-wink-wink’’’’ guy-talk they got up, wished us luck, bade their farewells and disappeared just as abruptly as they had surfaced.
Now what would you make of this? You will have many such experiences where total strangers will come up to you and do you good turns or just talk civilly to you. What better ambassadors of a country’’s culture?
Another thing that will make itself very obvious is that you are among a people with a strong sense of culture and tradition. The Iranians are passionate about their art especially their poets. Take a walk down the memorial paths and you will see busts of poets, writers, painters and movie directors outnumbering political leaders. In fact, I don’’t recall seeing even one bust of a political personality.
While it was a sort of culture shock to see women dressed in the chador you sort of get used to it. Its not as bad as one would imagine. In any case its much better than what is practiced in Saudi Arabia. At least you can see their faces (more about that later :) )
You will find the young women wearing the headscarf and a thin shoulder to ankle smock known as a manto (I presume its from the french for overcoat; manteau). Underneath these clothes they normally wear jeans and other western attire.
And after a few hours of watching nubile girls in form-hugging mantos I tumbled upon a profound realization; No matter what you force a woman to wear, she will always find a way to look good in it and, I daresay, sexy.
Ladies please note - While it is mandatory to keep your head covered with a scarf/hat you do not need to wear the chador/manto. Normal conservative wear will suffice, as long as there are no slits, plunges or cuts.
For the ladies!!
Now I noticed a curious thing. Since the regulations don’’t allow the women to ’’’’dress up’’’’ they have found alternative ways of pampering themselves. The only part of their body that they can really dress up are their feet and therefore predictably enough you find excellent footwear for ladies in the malls here. There is a big market for quality women’’s footwear and you will find a mind-boggling choice, exquisite styles, cuts and designs. Get ready to make space in your baggage!
Iranian women are some of the most beautiful in the world. Combining the best of the east and the west. A week among them and you will realize why Iran boasts of so many suffering poets.
Head’’s up for the men!!
Do not attempt to photograph women without their consent.
Do not attempt to chat up a lone beautiful girl in a mall. Especially if the guy window shopping 4 feet away is her brother.
You will not find liquor in Kish but if you really want to get sozzled you could make a few discreet enquiries with the hotel staff and cabbies and get yourself some vodka; of the paint-remover variety.
What to see and what to do?
Admittedly there’’s not much you can see or do once in Kish. If you are the sights-seeing and guided-tour kinds this is the wrong place. But if you are among those who don’’t need a lot to satisfy here’’s the low down -
Kishti Yunani - literally translated it means ’’’’Greek Ship’’’’. This is an old Greek ship that ran aground on the beach and is something to look at, if only for the sake of breaking the monotony of looking at the horizon.
Pardis shopping mall - or Paradise shopping mall, is a cute little mall, with shops selling local crafts and wares alongside Levi’’s stores and Braun outlets. You can pick up some really good electronic goods here at terrific prices (though to be safe you better check with the customs before you buy anything substantial)
Beaches - For a change try the beach in the night which is when the locals all come out. From around 7pm till 2-3am you will find couples, knots of young boys and girls, families with kids happily strolling along the beaches.
Cycling is big here. You will find teenagers extracting great pleasure from taking hired cycles for a spin. And more often than not you will see a lone girl on a cycle being quietly followed around by a lone boy on his cycle. No words are exchanged, nary a glance is thrown between the principals. You smile knowingly and your faith in human nature is restored.
Iranian cuisine is a meat-eaters delight. Vegetarians will find little to cheer about unless they don’’t mind sticking to a strict diet of green salad and bread.
My Pick! : Chelow-kabab with pulow - its kababs flavoured with mild herbs with faintly aromatic saffron flavoured rice. lip-smacking!!
The food is mildly flavoured and subtle on your palate. And quite a treat for the tastebuds. Though there is a smattering of restaurants on the island, the best as always, is good old home cooking. So use all your charm and get yourself invited to an Iranian household for dinner.
Life on Kish is very laid-back and the people are more forthcoming and ’’’’freer’’’’ than their brothers on the mainland. If your wanderlust involves meeting people from around the world and not ’’’’seeing the sights’’’’ and ’’’’visiting the ruins’’’’, Kish is the best place in Iran for you to get to know the Iranians. It is sufficiently far from the capitol for the people to exercise and practice a modicum of rebelliousness (did I get that right?).
Understandably most locals ache to leave their small island and look at you uncomprehendingly when you vouchsafe that you would prefer to stay in Kish for the rest of your life.
By the time it was time for me to leave I felt that I had not had enough of this island (mind you, I had overstayed by a few days) and strangely enough on my flight back (surprise surprise the same old-timer!) along with a slight bout of airsickness I began to feel pangs of homesickness.
Indeed the only bad part of the whole trip to Kish was the flight.