During our ride to Rahst we've began to notice the insecurity in the country. You can feel the people's worries. A month ago there was an explosion in a gas pipe that leads to a secret nucleair power-station, there was an nucleair problem in another uranium enrichment plant and so on...

The nuclear programma in Iran started in the '50 with the help of the United States. In 1978 the revolution began with the sjah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi who was forced to step down as president of Iran. After the made of a constitution the Islamic Republic was formed in 1979. But during the unstable times of the country Iraq's leader Saddam Hoessein decided to invade the oil-rich country of Iran on the 22 of September 1980. Of course as his motive he didn't said that he wanted the countries oil but he said that the oil-rich area used to be part of the old Iraq. During this war chemical weapons were used by Iraq. 100 000 inhabitants died due to these weapons such as Sarin, Sulfur Mustard and Tabun. On 20 June 1988 the war ended by an agreement between Iran and Iraq by the United Nations Security Council.

Today there is still political insecurity in Iran since the elections in 2009. The currency has broken down, there's a lot of unemployement, there’s a high inflation and there are strikes all over the country.

Tourists are advised not to enter the country, but we did so… We were suggested not to go into the desert or into the area of the Semnam. Also the border next to Iraq is a dangerous area. Another area that has to be avoided is the area Sistan-Baluchistan where a drug cartel rules the streets. They kidnap tourists for money. We also have to pay attention to what we wear. We were advised not to wear juwelery or striking clothes. We keep ourselves out of the attention and we try to wear clothes like the locals.

We're enjoying this isolated country and hoping to return safe,

Amina

Amina had already told us that the desert in Iran is not really safe, but yesterday night we've met some local guides and they asked us if we wanted to ride on camels. They told us the area we would visit was safe and there was no army is this area and no violation of the law. 

A frenchman in the hotel's bar named Jérome has many connections over here and he told he would come with us. So we didn’t hesitate and we told the local guides that we liked to do the camel ride. On top of it all Jérome told that at our current location there only has been one abduction and this one was maybe 7 months earlier.

Amina has written that tourists get abducted because of the economy in Iran. The economy is now on a low flame. The abductors want to earn money by asking a ransom to the tourists their family. Iran's economy is divided in two, first of all you have 50 % of the public sector and the other 50 % is dominated by the oil and gas production in Iran.

The thing where I was surprised about is that Iran is the 17^th largest in purchasing power parity. Also this country is a member of the Next Eleven. The Next Eleven are eleven countries (Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Turkey, South Korea and Vietnam) that are marked by the BRIC’s, and they actually have the chance to become one of the world’s largest economies in the 21^st century. 

So wednesday we woke up early and took the bus to Yazd. Whilst driving there we were longing to see the beautiful camels that were waiting on us. Words cannot describe how beautiful they were. They were so gentle with us! It was almost cute. Of course, before we mounted,  I took some pictures of these creatures.

We had booked an “Iran Desert Tour”. This tour was to take about two days. There are not many touristic tours near the place were staying. First we did not know that Iran has a diverse landscape. You have the ability to hike and ski in the Alborz mountains and you also have the possibility to go for a beach holiday at the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea.

According to one of my information sources I have read that Iran is a safe country to visit, people are prepared to help you in any difficulty and this is a matter of national pride.

Robbery in Iran is rare and the secret police leaves the tourists alone. The only advice this website has given is not to talk to women on the street. This probably due to political and religious reasons.

In the southeastern area of Iran there’s a lot of drug traffic and smuggling from Afghanistan. There are also some other crimes like robbery, killing and kidnapping. The 3 most dangerous cities in this area are Zahedan, Zabol and Mirjaveh. That’s why we won’t go there during our visit in Iran. 

So the first day of our tour we started in Yazd and went to Mehdeyahbad. First we walked with the camels (we actually sat on them, of course) to Mehdeyahbad. After the Camel Ride we went back to Mehriz where we had lunch and after lunch we visited Yazd castle Caravanserai. After visiting this castle we moved on from Yazd to Garmeh, here we visited Kharanakh which is an old village and Caravanserai which is a place where people could rest with their caravans. After visiting these places we moved on to Bayazah, which is a small city and from there on we passed through Aroosan village and Garmeh.

At night we ate together with some other tourist and slept in tents (which was awesome by the way). It was like an old girls night.

The next morning we visited Salt Lake and from there on we moved on to Sahara-e-Mesr, here we had a little rest an moved on to Jandakh.

One of the tourists we met earlier at the hotel was Jérome de Fouillard, Jérome is from France and he already had visited Belgium in the past. We talked about Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent, etc. And he told us, (he’s a world traveler) that Belgium is in his top 10. Jérome had had some problems with the army of Iran but luckily he could solve this with his connections that he has with the French Embassy.

At night we all were very tired and went to a hotel in Yazd called “Fahadan Great Hotel”. This hotel has a high ranking and there was no way we could afford this, especially at the end of our trip, but again, Jérome spoke to his connections and we could stay here one night for free. We were so thankful. That’s why we had dinner with him tonight and of course we paid his bill. It was an instructive night, especially because we had the chance to exchange our experiences about travelling. According to our experiences Jérome is now moving on to Thailand.

I’m very tired now, these two days where truly amazing and I won’t forget about the camel ride.

Sweet dreams and see you soon.

Julie

Sources:

https://www.irpedia.com/iran-tours/1/3/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Iran

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Eleven

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Iran

https://www.letsgoiran.com/iran-safety-for-tourists

Photos:

The history of Iran.

A thing i've always found fascinating is the history of things, people and places. Since i was young, i've always loved watching movies where they had horses, swords and knights. The world as we know it came a long, long way and i think that, to understand certain things, it's important to understand the past. In my opinion there are a lot of things that can be learned from the past in order to understand the future. 

Having this said, i would like to write something more about the history of Iran. Iran is used to be called Persia. Starting in 559 BC, Cyrus II The Great united the separated kingdoms who where controlled by the Meden with their king Astyages. Persia conquerred the rest of Media in 550 BC and moved on to conquer Mydia and Babylon. After he conquerred the last well - known city, Cyrus II The Great was known to be a very famous and talented conquerrer. During his time of leadership, he made a famous charter: The Cilinder of Cyrus, in which he promised to to terrorise the city of Babylon or destroy its institutions or culture. In the end, Cyrus II The Great was killed in a battle against the Massagetae (or Saka's). It was Cyrus II The Great's son, Cambyses II, that addes Egypt to its list of conquerred cities. After him, Darius I and his son Xerxes tried to enlarge Persia some more but the last one got defeated in 480 in the Battle of Salamis.

(It's important to know that the persian empire was the biggest one mankind had ever known. Even more, this area was well ruled and efficiently controlled. The ancient empire knew things such as provinces (or satrapes), governors, a pay system with taxes, an advanced postal system and even secret agents called "The Eyes and Ears of the King", who informed him about the state of affairs in his empire.)

So far the Classical Era of Persia. During the Middle Ages, Persia or Iran knew the Islamic Golden Ages, after which the dynasties followed in 1500. Iran's history ended with the beginning of the Islamic Republic in 1979. 

I could actually start telling so much and so many things about the history of Iran. The things this country has been through are notically in so many things, the economics, the way their politic system is organised, the mentally of its inhabitants.. I had a lot of negative feelings about this country, but once you've visited it, you really learn to appreciate its way of doing things. 

Charlotte.

SOURCES:

• https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geschiedenis_van_Iran
• https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perzische_Rijk
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persia#History

Iran was beautiful, and now I’m writing while I’m on the bus that we’re on from 6 am this morning. We had to enter the bus at 5 am but there was someone missing so we waited for about one hour. At 6 am the bus driver, and we (tourists) had no patience left and we took off.

The bus was filled with a mixture of tourists and locals, but also a lot of young people. As we are very social we talked a lot with new people. We also slept because we were tired. It seems like this trip’s intensity and the exhaustion are starting to take their toll. I have to say, I will be happy in a few days to be home.  

Entering Saudi Arabia we went straight to Medina. Medina has many narrow streets which makes the city very scenic. The Medina quarters often contain fountains, palaces and mosques and the city streets are often less than a metre wide. In 2006 this city almost contained 1.300.000 inhabitants. The mayor of Medina is Khalid Taher.

First we went to Masjid an-Nabi, this building has a 1,000,000-person capacity and it was established in 622. The mosque was built by the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. Nowadays it is one of the most largest mosques in the world.

After visiting this HUGE mosque we went to the Madain Saleh Tombs by helicopter. These tombs became Saudi Arabia’s first World Heritage Site in 2008.

At the end of our day we went to Hardees. This fast food restaurant is similar to KFC. We ate a lot, so our tummies were full. I think today is the only day on this trip that we ate this fat.

At night we slept in Sofaraa Al Huda Hotel****. A four star hotel, we had won this sleeping accommodation during the bus trip. As we signed up to take the bus with this company we could win a place to stay for the night. The rooms had Wi-Fi, a minibar, a shower, a hairdryer and a bathrobe. What a luxury!

I think this is the last time I will be writing on this blog. But one thing is sure, this trip has been amazing, I loved every second of it. We’ve met new people and laughed a lot. I’ve also learned a lot about different cultures.

This will be the last blog article of this blog, but it won’t be my last trip. Maybe someday you’ll read about me travelling AROUND THE WORLD.

Goodbye, sweet dreams and hope to see you soon.

Sources: 

https://www.tripadvisor.in/Attractions-g298551-Activities-Medina_Al_Madinah_Province.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medina_quarter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Masjid_an-Nabawi

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medina_(Arabi%C3%AB)

https://www.booking.com/hotel/sa/sofaraa-al-huda.en-gb.html?aid=356988;label=gog235jc-city-en-sa-medina-unspec-be-com;sid=5bbc16f853d1ca8a58de2d1a4bb6c50a;dcid=1

Photos: 

Charlotte, Kimberly and Amina in front of the Madain Saleh Tombs 

Eline, Julie and Jihane in front of Al-Masjid an-Nabawi

After our days in Medina we continued our trip towards Jeddah. This city next to the red sea used to be a little fishing village in 500 BC. Around 600 AD Jeddah was turned into a port town for the Islamic pilgrims who made the Hajj towards Mecca. These days Jeddah has become one of the largest industrial cities in Saudi Arabia.

Once arrived in Jeddah we visited the floating Mosque, the white Mosque of Jeddah. This white mosque is built on the water. Afterwards we went to the beach. We swum into the sea and rented a jet ski! At night we walked to the King's fountain, one of the largest fountains in the world and beautiful to see at night.

Since were girls we went shopping yesterday! We went to the red sea mal, a very large shopping mall in Jeddah. In the afternoon we continued our trip through Saudi Arabia with a bus ride towards Mecca.

Every year pilgrims who make the Hajj travel through Jeddah towards Mecca. It's one of the 5 pillars of the Islam. They are considered as obligatory for the believers of the Islam. The 5 pillars are: belief, worship, charitable giving, fasting during the month of Ramadan and the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in a lifetime. The Hajj is an annually pilgrimage that Muslims with enough money and in good health have at least need to do once in their life. 10 km before reaching Mecca the pilgrims need to dress themselves into Ihram clothing. These are two white sheets. Every year in the last month of the Islamic calendar 2 million pilgrims go to Mecca.

Arrived in Mecca they have to walk 7 times around the Kaäba. It's a black cubic-shaped building inside the Big Mosque in Mecca. The Kaäba is also called 'The house of God'. Muslims have to pray in the direction of the Kaäba and when they aren't in Mecca they have to pray in the direction of Mecca.

We really wanted to visit Mecca since it's one of the most important places in the Islam. Nevertheless everybody knows that it's impossible to enter Mecca as a non-Muslim. But of course, we tried! When we came to the 'border' of Mecca we were asked to recite a verse of the Koran. Of course we weren't capable to do this and our access to Mecca was denied...

Disappointed we took off. Afterwards I read that only one known person has ever visited Mecca as a non-muslim. The English explorer Richard Francis Burton was able to Mecca long before the time of passports and visas.

It won't be possible for us so we're moving on to visit more of the beautiful Saudi Arabia!

Amina

A sign when riding towards Mecca that non-muslims have to leave the highway to Jeddah.

Saudi Arabia
 

What was on our schedule: The National Museum of Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom Centre.

The National Museum of Saudi Arabia is the major museum of the country. It is established in 1999 in the historical centre of the city Riyadh. The museum is organized into 8 galleries. They all show a part of the history of Saudi Arabia, for example: We saw the story of the stone age men, the life and mission of the Prophet Mohammed, the culture of the previous kingdoms, etc. In one of the galleries they showed us the folkloric costumes of the past and now, we even fit some of the costumes.

We stayed half a day in the museum and when we left the building a woman offered us a henna-tattoo for a little price. We all wanted a traditional one on the hand. It took 3 hours before it was finished, but it was worth.

We had planned to visit the Kingdom Centre, one of the highest building in Saudi Arabia. Although I have a bit vertigo, I wanted to see the country from a high of 302 meters. Unfortunately we had to wait for more than an hour. When we were on the highest level, we didn’t mind that we had to wait so long, the view was incredible. There were almost no clouds so we could see many things. We took a few pictures and decided to go downstairs.

Our Olaya House Hotel, where I’m know, is situated on the edge of the city, an hour from the city. The city members recommended this hotel because there is always a possibility to stay. we slept like a rose so we are really fulfilled! The hotel will definitely receive a tip of us!

Eline

It is incredibly how quick time goes when you’re having fun and discovering new things. Charlotte will write the last blog to end our story but I wanted to share my experiences one last time with you! 

I can’t really choose one moment that I loved the most because everything was so special and it was certainly a once upon a lifetime experience   event though I hope we can overdo this again!

Maybe when we’re old and we’ll remember this as the greatest travel ever.
The only difference will be that we’ll need a lot more sleep than we did now!

I’m not looking forward to leave because we had such great times here but I will be very happy when I see my family again and when I’ll eat some good food from Belgium like fries! (Already looking forward to it)

I am a little scared about my luggage, not that I have anything illegal but I’ve got so many souvenirs. Almost every place we’ve been to had something special that I needed to buy! Not only to support the people but also to keep all the good memories right by my side.
But I’ve made a bit of a compensation for my weight problem  (not my weight but the weight of the luggage of course!) By donating all the things I don’t need in Belgium.
People here were very happy with some flip-flops, while I have 10 pair of flip-flops in my closet.

I’m also going to miss all my girlfriends! I was getting used that I had my girls every day around me and that I could talk about whatever I wanted without they laughing at me!
There isn’t a minute that I regretted that this trip was with Julie, Amina, Eline, Charlotte and Jihane. It even made us all a lot closer!

And last but not least I’m also going to miss to write the blog to update you guys! But who knows, we might come back in a couple of years and you will be the first to know it!

Lots of love

Kimberly

So we've almost come to the end of our journey. We've seen a lot of beautiful and fascinating places, we've met some very friendly and interesting people, we've seen nature like no one else has seen before. I think we're all convinced and sure to say that the journey we've made is something we'll never ever forget. Directly or indirectly, we all so much about this journey. It was very liberating to experience something like this. It opened our minds in so many ways and it helped us develop ourselves into better people who live their lives with an open heart. We've become more tolerant and respectful towards other people with another religion, color of skin, and so on. I'm sure it will give us all a strange feeling to pick up our normal, ordinary lives again, but we'll move on and tell the people our story, the story of our fantastic journey from East Timor to Saoudi - Arabia.

The things i'll remember the most is probably the feeling of being present on the Full Moon Parties in Thailand. We're used to going out in Belgium and Europe, and we've heard so many things about those legendary parties in the east that we were really excited to visit that place. We did, an even though we saw some things that really openend our eyes and were maybe a bit shocking, we also met so many friendly, kind and natural people who were partying to show the people around their love for nature and the world. That's something i really would like to go back to.

Maybe in a couple of years...

Hello fellow readers

I am sad to announce you that our fantastic journey has come to an end. I am so glad that I was fortunate enough to go on this adventure that has really change my perspective on the world.

All the things that I have seen this past month have opend my eyes and make me realise and see things that I never thought I would.

Both happy and sad moments passed by. Realisations, constatations, astonishment, anger, love,... all those feelings came together on this journey.

I am thankful to have shared this experience with my friends and this trip has made our friendship even stronger.

I am now wandering through life giving a whole other meaning to the things/moments I pass by. Whereas, before this journey, I'ld be mad or concerned over some unimportant thing, I now remain calm and thankful for what I've got.

Seeing the conditions in which people live in East Timor, Iran, Afghanistan,.. have brought up an endless sense of compassion and empathy in me.
Eventhough I spent all my spare money on this trip I feel like, in a sense, I've come back richer.

Greets
Jihane

Unfortunately the final day of our journey has come, I am not grieved because it was a fantastic experience. It is always hard to say goodbye to a wonderful trip but now it’s the time to go home and take up our daily routines.  Maybe this is the end of a lovely trip but it is the beginning of a more stronger relation between my travel mates.  Kimberly, Jihane, Charlotte and Amina, thank you for the times full of amusement and the long lasting friendship.

I also want to thank you for following our stories on the blog.  I hope you enjoyed it and that our experiences gave you the inspiration to go to the same places we visited on our trip. We also made a lot of pictures and when I have the time I will post them on the blog. So don’t go away already because over a few days the photos will be here.

Kisses Eline