Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Tehran Shopping Spree

You might think that there is nothing to shop in Tehran but I can tell you that you are wrong! There are still stuff to shop in Tehran just that they are a bit expensive so I didn't buy anything in the end. The things sold there can be found in SG, no point spending the money there.

However, there are lots of goodies to buy. I bought candy floss and they were snapped up in a jiffy when I brought them to the office. Lock loved it. They all said it was yummy. I liked it too and regretted that I only bought 3 boxes. These candy flosses were cheap.

Then there are lots of other goodies like various nuts and dried fruits which we cannot get in SG. Weird fruits but nice. Then came the mega product that we all love. HONEY. We bought tons of honey and even took honey from the hotel buffet. Oops. Paiseh. Not me, some other people took the honey but I did not take a single bottle. I bought one instead.

Our favorite nuts and fruits shop. It has a wide variety of different kinds of candies, chocolates, nuts, dried fruits etc. We went there 3 time throughout the whole trip. The dried fruits are really nice but they are not very cheap. The mixed nuts I bought was about $7 per kg I think. Forgot le.
Inside the nuts shop. All the goodies! Awww.. this photo made me feel like going back to Iran to buy all the nice foodstuff.

All of us squeezed into the shop. I can't decide what to buy. In the end, I bought a big bottle of honey, 3 boxes of candy floss, a packet of mixed nuts and a packet of wu hua guo. There are people who bought much more than me if you think that I am buying alot.

Another roadside stall selling nuts and fruits. The lady on the right is our Miss Translator. We got 2 translators, Mr and Miss. They took turns to bring us around Tehran. I think that Miss Translator is pretty. Fair skinned, big eyes.. She is charming.

This is the shopping street in Iran. There were lots of clothes selling here and some of them are quite pretty. Especially those dresses. Unfortunately, I think they are quite expensive so I didn't buy any. I mean, I can get those designs in SG with a similiar price. Moreover, my luggages were full.

Nonetheless, it was still a fun experience shopping here.

Another view of the shopping street.

We spotted a shop selling pretty hair pieces. Nai ba was stuck there for a VERY and I mean VERY long time looking at the hair pieces. I think he bought at least 100 pieces from this shop. I must admit though that the prices here are cheaper than in SG. Naiba took such a long time browsing that eventually he went behind the counter himself! He is acting like the store owner here.
Naiba posing as the store owner.
Nai ba and the REAL store owner.

Look at the photo above, the ladies are all wearing black. Nothing but black. That's because colours are arousing and females in Iran are not allowed to wear coloured clothing. However, we are not Iranians so we can wear colours but we still got to wrap our heads. Even though the Iranian ladies were wearing black, we can still see that they like to doll up. They put on make up on their already beautiful eyes. I really envy the girls in Iran lor. I can say that ALL the ladies there got big beautiful eyes.

We also went to this shopping center selling nothing else but shoes. Don't think the shoes are cheap here. The Adidas and Nike are selling at the normal prices around $100+ here.

Tadah... the streets of Tehran. I can't say Tehran is a clean country but at least it's cleaner than China and at least i still think that some parts of the streets are in fact quite pretty. Surprised that Tehran is not as run-down and war-torn as you imagine it to be right? I thought that this place will be very dirty and run-down before I see it for myself.

An example is the view outside my hotel room. I took this at my hotel window. I think this part of the street is quite nice. Looks like some European country.

Another view from my hotel window. Nice right.

Somewhere not very far from our hotel is this Iran Bank. It is a big European style building and very grand looking. I liked it. It looks like a castle. hahaha~

Chickens! What are the chickens doing on the streets of Tehran? Running around like nobody's business.

Aiyoh.. why everybody give a sad face in the photo? Tsk tsk.. so sad meh? And that Bala was not being very co-operative. Everybody give sad face, he still can smile...

Everyone give sad face I also want to give sad face... :(

Kebab and BBQ chicken! The smell of these meats was so nice that we cannot control ourselves and bought 1 whole chicken. It was quite cheap I remember and the chicken comes with a box of salad. The food in Iran was actually not as bad as Bala said it to be. He was telling everyone that the food sucks but I actually found them quite nice. They got some unique flavours. For example, the chicken in the above picture tasted superb. The restaurant in our hotel also serve some unique dishes like chicken wrapped in egg, kebab in their own style etc. Yummy! And also, their rice was super duper nice! I dunno how they cook their rice but it was not too soft, not too hard and has a slight buttery flavour. It was not sticky, every grain was by itself. Unlike the rice we eat in SG, they always come in lumps. My mouth starts to water already.. thinking of the rice and the BBQ chicken.

Oh, I forgot to mention that there isn't any Mcdonald's, KFC, Mos Burger or Burger King in Iran. No international fast food restaurants there at all but it's ok. They got their own fast food! On the last day in Iran, we decided not to eat in the hotel (all meals were provided in hotel). We decided to eat outside at this Top Burger. Hmmm... Looks good.

Look at the menu. We were having a hard time choosing what to eat. Finally, we ordered some burgers, fries and garlic bread.

Fries. I don't know why, the fries over there seems to taste much better. They are something like the fat fries of Mos Burger but they are less oily and crispier. Very nice. The potato in it smelt very nice...

The burger and the garlic bread. Though the burger wasn't exactly pretty, it tasted pretty good.

QY simply love the naan served in the hotel during breakfast. Every morning, she will order the freshly made naan...
There was once we ordered ice-cream in the hotel cafeteria. Winter + ice cream = cool!

We charged the ice-cream to our hotel room and in the end the organizer paid for it.. woot~

Nai ba~ What are you doing with those umbrellas on ur head! Aiyoh... think it will rain in the cafe meh?
Iranian money. Unless you want to go Iran, I don't think you got many chances to see these Iranian notes ba... They are called Iran Rials.

Guns! They are selling guns openly in Iran and I heard that the bullets are real too. My god.. Dangerous lor. Beside guns, they also sell bows and arrows. These arms comes with a pricey tag though.

Lastly, I would like to show you guys this sign. Anyone can tell me what this sign means? Kanglong and me were saw it and we stood there for some time thinking what it means. I guessed it means 'no moving of boxes' or 'no briefcase allowed'. Hahaha, sound kinda lame. What do you think?

17 comments:

Kongming said...

no entry?

Miko said...

might be... but the man looks like he is carrying something leh..

Anonymous said...

no entry while carrying bag lor. hahaa md

amai said...

R the ladies in Iran need to wear a scarf? Was that y, the rest of the gals in your class wore scarves too?

Anonymous said...

i guess it says u r not allowed to shift your furniture at that place.

此处不准移动家具。

Anonymous said...

it says u cannot put one hand in your pocket.

could be a anti terrorist measure lah, just in case terrorist hide gun in pocket, or hide grenade, or remote control for bomb, then activate secretly in pocket.

Miko said...

amai: yup.. all the ladies there need to cover their hair and neck. but they can reveal abit of hair at the forehead area.

Miko said...

2 anonymous, you are??

hmm, both of your explanations made sense.. but can anyone read arabic?

Anonymous said...

i am 路人甲。

btw, u guys got translater there right? why never ask?

Anonymous said...

it say if u one hand kena chopped off u cannot go in.

for example ppl like 杨过 n 无名 is not allowed there.

SmartChic said...

if look at the picture from side view, it says...

“不准翘屁股”

Miko said...

smartchic: hahaha.. that was funny

anonymous: think our translator was not around at that time because we were going to see a poland troupe performance.

Anonymous said...

ok, u ppl all guess wrong, it says No stick figure allowed here

so if u wear t-shirt with stick figure design one, sorry lor, they must catch u.

Miko said...

heng sia! That day no one wear t-shirt with stick figure lor.. but we got very skinny troupe members who look like stick figures.. lucky they never kana caught!

Unknown said...

HI,My name's MEHRDAD and I'm from IRAN-TEHRAN. I just Visited your Blog Accidentally. And your Trip Explanation was very Interesting for me. and I just wanted to answer your Question about That Sign.

It tells: Miscellaneoos People not Allowed to get in. it usually used when there is restrictions to normal people to go inside that place. (just allowed for Personneles and Staff )

Miko said...

Hi there~ Thanks for the explaination! I think it makes sense to mean that! LOL, but the sign is kind of cute I think.

Parna said...

And by the way, Iranians do not speak Arabic!! They speak Farsi(Persian)!