Why Iran?

Sixty-six days from now my partner Aisling and I head off to Iran for three weeks to escape Christmas. Why Iran?

Well, why not? It's perfectly safe for travellers. It's the birthplace of agriculture and sophisticated civilisation. It's also a regional power and the only country in the world with a majority Shia population. It's part of the medieval overland trade route between Europe and China.

Apart from those anodyne reasons, we're mainly going there to challenge our own assumptions about the country. Like you, we've been bombarded with media telling us that Iran is part of an axis of evil and is a belligerent power holding Israel to ransom with the threat of nuclear annihilation.

Iran is a schizophrenic country; think of the different feelings and impressions triggered by the two names for the country: Persia and Iran. One speaks of opulent riches, magnificent architecture, high culture; the other of a reactionary theocracy, grimy cities, fist-shaking bearded men and chador-wearing women.

Three weeks isn't much time to really get a feel for a place; ostensibly we'll be tourists, but I'm learning a bit of Persian and hope to get to understand the Iranian psyche a little. Aisling's interested in the challenge posed to her Western sensibilities of subsuming her personality under a veil.

This blog is as much about the preparation as it is about the trip and our reactions to it; over the next few weeks we'll be getting jabs, filling out our visas and firming up our itinerary. Of course, where possible, we'll blog from Iran.

Aisling and I have spent six months in India and a couple of months in Nepal, over various trips; we've been to Vietnam and Turkey and now we're open to a new challenge. We hope you'll enjoy coming with us on our journey to a country that all of us know about but very few of us actually know first-hand.