A week ago, I just came back from an Iran tour leading trip. It was my first time to do both tour leading and going to Iran. And although, there was a lot of work needed to be done, I still managed to listen to stories about the palaces, mosques, its culture, history and their daily lives from our very knowledgeable tour guide. I must admit, that after 10 days in Iran, I learned to love it.

Taken in the village of Abyaneh

We landed in Shiraz and from there, our route went to Yazd, drove all the way to Esfahan and ending our trip in Tehran.  From Hong Kong I took Qatar Airways via Doha, and from Tehran back to Hong Kong, I took Emirates via Dubai. It was a great experience and maybe I can share with you "some" of the highlights of the trip - apparently, I will need more time to give a full detailed report.

Welcome to Persepolis - the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire, where the earliest remains date back 515 BC.

The ruins were fascinating and it must be in everyone's list when traveling to Iran. There's so much history in here, and whenever I touch the stones, I felt like I was being brought back to the past. It reminded me of our Mythology lesson back in high school, every time I see the big horse, I remember the Trojan Horse which the Greeks used to enter the city of Troy. I was in absolute awe. I was tempted to put my forefinger in my mouth (expression of awe in Iran), if only my finger was not dirty that time, haha!

Another highlight was seeing the Carpet Museum in Tehran and shopping for carpet in Esfahan. I didn't brought anything of course, they are very expensive - and the sad truth was those carpets have the right to be expensive. There are two kinds of carpets, the Nomads Carpet and the City Carpet. Nomads made carpets based on their daily experiences and feelings at that time, they don't have a ready-made design drawn in the paper. City carpets are otherwise - one design could be reproduced many times. I like nomad carpets more, they are unique. :)

Imam Square is a fascinating sight! It isa UNESCO site in Esfahan where you can find the Ali Qapu Palace, Shah Mosque and Sheikh Lotf Allah Mosque, also surrounding the said area you can also find endless bazaars where you can buy all Iranian stuff from sweets, housewares, spices, miniatures and many more! Unfortunately, I do not have any good photos of the square.

Okay, I'll stop here for now. Spending 10 days in Iran can't be summarized in 1 blog post, that will be unfair and very much of an understatement. By the way, I must highlight as well that Iranians were very friendly and nice too! They love taking photos with us, and of course we love having them in our cameras - they have such beautiful faces!

The world has a wrong perception about Iran, it is very safe to travel here. Although, yes the Iranians may not be ready for tourism yet, for example most of the hotels are not in par with the international standard yet, and most of the roads can only be traveled by a private car - public transportation is only available in the cities, I still do hope that one day they will be able to cope up and be more open to the world. My dear friends, Iran has so much to offer! :)

I always loved visiting museums, especially something that has to do with the Arts, I just feel more alive when I do, thus somehow I felt sad when I learned that the Museum of Arts will be closed for renovation. Okay, I visited the museum probably once every two years, but I'm just not used to the idea. The last day it operated, I made it a point to visit it and explore it one last time. The museum is located in front of the harbor where you can see Hong Kong's famous skyline from the opposite island. It was a nice sunny day and so my husband, my brother and I went. 

They are featuring this - All Are Guests collaboration featuring the artists: Leung Mee Ping; Chow Chun Fai; CoLAB x SLOW. The same exhibition appeared in Liverpool Biennial 2012 in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong week 2013 in Taipei. 

 So long MA, see you in 3 years!

This is not a sponsored post. BUT I will however point out why we should lessen downloading stuff (music, videos, etc.) from the internet and instead visit your nearest entertainment store: can be a music shop/ book shop or both. Growing up, I am used to going to movie rental shops to watch movies shown months ago as I found it cheaper (costs PHP 50 per CD) compared to watching in the cinema (costs PHP 100 per person). The shops then will give you around five days to return it. I love renting movie CDs because I can watch it over and over again if I happen to love the movie, I can watch it with friends and family just by paying the rental cost. 

I do love music and I used to collect CDs of my favorite artists. Don't forget the posters which I used to admire from the walls of my room. It is a common knowledge that whatever they earn from the purchases will support and will help the artists to do more art. A lot of people rely on piracy nowadays and what do we get from it? Artists making shitty (sorry for the word) stuff which affects the culture of this world we're living in. 

The music industry has been thriving to improve and compete to those that are downloadable online. One example is HMV that went to bankruptcy, yet they did not gave up (I admire them for that). Instead they innovated. I visited a HMV shop in Hong Kong and discovered new things.

I think HMV promotes "being or having the real thing".  I ended up spending some time chilling here for an hour with my husband, while browsing the beautiful books in their shelves. They got a DJ too so it feels like a modern library, the library of the future. These books, music and movies help shapes our culture and being cultured as a person. They can help you to be creative, to be in touch of your artistic self. 

As for me, I brought this wonderful set of postcards of Impressionism.