May 4th: After the very long trip of yesterday we started today only at around 8am with our trip through Shiraz. We started with the botanical garden of Enram. Before we had to resolve an other challenge with our local SIM card again. We called a taxi and explained the driver that we wanted to go first to the central office of the service provider before we go to the garden. We looked up the address of the Head Office showed it to the driver … he knotted his head and we started😂😂. After long 20min and even driving backwards in a one way street we reached the office….. to our disappointment no office there.
To our positive surprise the driver to initiative and called his office to find out where the real office would be. Guess what after two minutes he did know where to go. Honestly that behavior is benchmark and is a highlight so far. We managed everything at the office with nice people speaking decent English 😃.
We reached eventually the botanical garden in the middle of the city. Lots of tourists, school classes and families are walking around there. A real nice spot, very silent and peaceful in opposite to the very loud and hectic city. We took the time to have a tea in a very nice cafe. We can only advise take the time to do that. After that we took a taxi to Qur‘am Gate. We negotiated the price with the driver and started. Reaching the destination he said an other price that was higher…. we did not like that behavior too much and it balanced the good experience in the morning. Watch out with whom you drive!!
The gate is more in the upper class area of Shiraz. You find there 5 Star hotels, high end shops and nice restaurants…. compared to the area in which we stay day and night. After a walk around and some nice photos we decided to spoil ourselves with a coffee in the Shiraz Hotel. The hotel is build into a mountainside and you have a real great view over Shiraz. We had an Americano and a Cappuccino 😂. Very nice.
The afternoon we wanted to spend in the Vakil Basar. It is a huge Basar build into an old karavanserie . It is for sure worth to go there. A very vibrant place with 100s of shops, nice Cafés and all sorts of restaurants. We really enjoyed the place. We walked around there for an hour before having a light lunch and watching the place. Do not miss out on that. We went back late afternoon to the hotel and get now ready for dinner. Tomorrow we go via Persepolis to Yazd … an other exciting trip😄
