I arrived in Tehran this week on the 21st Dec... Officially the first day of Winter (the winter Solstice). I was told that the night before, Iranians celebrated the coming of Winter with a feast of water melons, oranges and other fruits. For Iranians, celebrating the Winter will be meaningless without the water melons. In Malaysia, we don’t usually eat water melons at night... especially during the cold and rainy seasons. Well, different people, different cultures.....
That’s what great about being an international traveller like me..... You get to experience other people’s culture.
I have been travelling a lot now.....especially to Tehran, Iran. I guess my face is one of the most familiar ones with the Hotel (hehehe). Every time when I arrive at the Hotel to check in... the reception clerks will just greet me, take my passport and give me the check-in form to fill in. No questions asked. I guess they were expecting me to check in every week.
And due to my extensive travelling with the Emirates Airlines, I have been up-graded to a Gold member by Skywards, the Emirates Airlines frequent flyer program. Now I will have the luxury of having to wait for my flights at the Business Lounge. Lucky me......and I can take a guest with me too.
I was thinking that snow would welcome me to Tehran this week. But it didn’t snow at all.... it rains almost every day with occasional sunshine. And the temperature was not that cold....maybe about 5 to 8 degree Celsius... (but sometimes it would suddenly plunge to about 0 degree).
These flowers are still braving the Tehran winter
The sun is shining but it's still cold in Tehran
Taken from onboard the Mahan Air flight....somewhere between Bandarabbas & Esfahan, I guess
This is considered as a mild weather for Tehran....considering that it’s already Winter. Perhaps it will snow in one or two weeks. So, for now....there are no photos of snow except from last week. But there’s snow in the mountain though....it’s time to go skiing, ski fans!!!.....
There were about 15 to 20 Malaysians at the Hotel.....all government servants, I guess. They were part of the PM’s entourage to Tehran for a working visit (?)..... One of them said that the PM is staying at the Estaghlal Hotel and so are some of the VIPs. Non-VIPs are staying at Homa. The PM is in Tehran? I hope they’ll be no shoe-throwing sessions this time in Iran during the press conference....just like what happened to Mr Bush last week in Iraq. Well, as I have written earlier in my previous posts, Iranians respect us (Malaysians)... most of them, I think. They said that Malaysians are very good people... and the most important thing is that most Malaysians are Muslims....it doesn’t matter if we are Sunni Muslims....as long as we are Muslims, then they’ll be no problems. So, Pak Lah doesn’t have to dodge any shoes here....
Tomorrow, I’ll be back in Dubai.... can’t hardly wait to be with my family back. Next week, I’ll come back for a meeting....hope to see some snow....
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