Not what you expect...North Iran

[Indus Pakistan]

I notice Pakistanis who are a bit older have positive views on Iran

Until about 1971 I would say Persian influence was dominant in Pakistan. You can see how the national poet of Pakistan Allama Iqbal wrote lot of his works in Persian. High end Urdu is defined by being laced with huge doses of Persian. The Pakistan national anthem is in 'Urdu' but doped in so much Persian that you might well call it Farsi.

From 1971 onwards with rise of Saudi oil wealth, millions of workers went to Gulf and that brought Saudi influence which became dominant right up till now. As of now though there is graudual decline in Saudi influence with Turkish influence making a sudden ascendancy. I suspect Turks are going to ge riding the wave over the next decade .....

And thanks for sharing those videos. Iran is a lovely country with fabulous history.

 

[FuturePAF]

That is good to hear. I notice Pakistanis who are a bit older have positive views on Iran. The younger generation are somewhat more pro Saudi or are neutral.

With all that’s happened over the past few years, I think us younger people are becoming more neutral to both countries. At this point, we are focus on our economic development because, after a long time, we have a decent leader. We don’t see any benefit getting involved in the Mideast Cold War.

The turning point was refusing to join the Saudi war in Yemen, for which we are thankful to the government at the time and the member of parliament, who stood up for the democratic wishes of the Pakistani people.

We had in effect declared our military neutrality and shifted to economic relations with any of the region’s nations (except Israel) for the betterment of our people. We hope both the Arabs and the Persians would reciprocate and not involve our nationals in their proxy wars or fund instability in our country; refraining from fighting their sectarian war on our soil.

 

[aryobarzan]

Until about 1971 I would say Persian influence was dominant in Pakistan. You can see how the national poet of Pakistan Allama Iqbal wrote lot of his works in Persian. High end Urdu is defined by being laced with huge doses of Persian. The Pakistan national anthem is in 'Urdu' but doped in so much Persian that you might well call it Farsi.

From 1971 onwards with rise of Saudi oil wealth, millions of workers went to Gulf and that brought Saudi influence which became dominant right up till now. As of now though there is graudual decline in Saudi influence with Turkish influence making a sudden ascendancy. I suspect Turks are going to ge riding the wave over the next decade .....

And thanks for sharing those videos. Iran is a lovely country with fabulous history.

Thanks and I actually did listen to Pakistan national Anthem and you are right I could pretty much understand all of it...I also few days ago saw the Persian Gulf remittance to Pakistan is now close to $28 billion dollar and that explains the influence of Saudi and other southern Persian gulf countries in Pakistan.....

 

[Indus Pakistan]

Persian Gulf remittance to Pakistan is now close to $28 billion dollar and that explains the influence of Saudi and other southern Persian gulf countries in Pakistan.....

Bingo. Also 1980s Afghan war and the anti-Soviet Jihad brought in lot of Saudi religious influence via madaris and much of the clergy being financed by Gulf sponsors. That effectively consolidated Saudi influence in combination with vast amount of money in what was a poor country.

Off topic but I spent fantastic 3 university years between 1979-1982 in Birmingham with whole bunch of Iranian students. Great times we had. I lost contact with all of them. Most were from Tehran and they returned back to their country with few moving to USA to avoid conscription in the then war against Iraq. One friend - Morteza Kashani I still think if he is still alive. He actually wanted and did go back to fight in the war as a volunteer despite having done a electronic degree. I dearly hope he survived.

 

[Dariush the Great]

Thanks and I actually did listen to Pakistan national Anthem and you are right I could pretty much understand all of it...I also few days ago saw the Persian Gulf remittance to Pakistan is now close to $28 billion dollar and that explains the influence of Saudi and other southern Persian gulf countries in Pakistan.....

I just listened to Pakistan national anthem and it was beautiful. With proper planning Pakistan could have been a very close brother country.

 

[Aramagedon]

Salmanshahr, Namakabroud & Lahijan are my favorite cities in North of Iran. Enjoy gorgeous Lahijan:

 

[Aramagedon]

Now let's visit Ramsar

 

[Aramagedon]

 

[Aramagedon]

 

[aryobarzan]

Kish Island
​

Lets take a trip from the north to the south and away from mainland Iran and into the Persian Gulf island of Kish.

Kish island is the winter destination for many Iranians. It saw its development in the early 1970's as an exclusive resort for the rich and famous in Iran but now it is mainly open to everyone. It is a Free Trade Zone (FTZ) so you do not need a visa to go there..just your passport. If you are not into tall fancy buildings then this place is for you.
Here are some snapshots.

you can also buy Condo Apartments in there

 

[aryobarzan]

There is an ancient underground city in this island that is now renovated and people can use to escape from heat...there is also the ruins of an ancient town in there that i will try to get some photos.

some more Island photos.

 

[mike2000 is back]

Kish Island
​

Lets take a trip from the north to the south and away from mainland Iran and into the Persian Gulf island of Kish.
View attachment 721551

Kish island is the winter destination for many Iranians. It saw its development in the early 1970's as an exclusive resort for the rich and famous in Iran but now it is mainly open to everyone. It is a Free Trade Zone (FTZ) so you do not need a visa to go there..just your passport. If you are not into tall fancy buildings then this place is for you.
Here are some snapshots.
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View attachment 721574View attachment 721578

you can also buy Condo Apartments in there
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Very sad that due to geo politics and foreign relations Iran barely gets tourists. If the country had not being under sanctions then tourism alone should have been enough to contribute a significant portion of the country's revenue. Small gulf countries are attracting millions of tourists from around the world and earning billions from this industry alone. Will be good to get to visit Iran one day and see how the country looks like. One of the few Countries in the region I haven't visited before.

 

[aryobarzan]

Very sad that due to geo politics and foreign relations Iran barely gets tourists. If the country had not being under sanctions then tourism alone should have been enough to contribute a significant portion of the country's revenue. Small gulf countries are attracting millions of tourists from around the world and earning billions from this industry alone. Will be good to get to visit Iran one day and see how the country looks like. One of the few Countries in the region I haven't visited before.

Most tourism in iran today is religious tourism for shia sect.but for western tourist you are right..need a better atmosphere.
Kish Island is an FTZ so you do not need a visa.just a plane ticket .I am myself thinking of making a trip there...prices are fantastic and there are 4 star hotels ..hope you make it there and to the mainland also.

 

[aryobarzan]

I had some free time so here are some more photos . renovated historical Underground city and the sunken (more than 50 years old) greek ship. Many 4 star and one 5 star hotels ...

sunken Greek ship

 

[aryobarzan]

Now I take you back to the mountains..Iran is a 4 season country which means you can be swimming in the warm waters of Persian Gulf (Kish island) and then take a flight north and Ski up there.
Snow is very common up north ...I am not skier myself but my Canadian friends tell me Iran has one of the best ski slops in the world (no trees smooth runs and high..high ..high elevation). So there are ski resorts ..They even have a women hockey team in Iran and that was new to me and anybody here (Hockey is religion in Canada..). But I guess any winter sport in Iran is still for more wealthy crowd and will not replace soccer any time soon!!..

Here are some photos.

and that women hockey team!!!

and some shots of the ski resorts and people using them. too high an elevation for the conservative crowd!.