I Want One More Spring in Iran

I was born, raised and living in Malaysia. One season country, hot and wet throughout year. Thank God for that. I don't need 4 types of clothing wardrobe for extra $$ which means I can save (really?) my money to travel to countries with different seasons (hope so). Among the 4 seasons, Spring has always in my heart. The beautiful scenery in spring time is world heaven for me. And spring also very special for Persian (pointing to bff, hi! miss you) because they start their new year on the first day of spring.

I've mentioned, I went to Iran once on 2008 during spring time and i fall in love on first sight with Mr. Spring. First thing impressed me was roses on the roadside. Here, in Malaysia it is really a challenging task to take care roses. So, never dream to smell roses while you are driving. 

Apart from that, the most happiness spring-roses moment was when bff bought some roses from a man selling in the traffic crowd. It was very cheap indeed!

Then, the next morning I heard birds chirping singing spring songs while eating white mulberry from trees near roads. One time I passed a street near Ministry of Education Iran and I saw these trees. My bff shake the trunk and the mulberries fall, I was wow! collect! eat! free!!

Parks..Tehran is full of parks. Parents with children having good times together, eating sandwiches, nuts and drink mineral water from taps provided by the legal authorities. Yes, here in Iran you can drink water directly from tap. I hope one day Malaysia will improve its water quality.  

While couples holding hands together even it is prohibited, walking passing the beautiful blossoms of flowers talking and planning their future together maybe..

It was a pretty sight for me while drinking pomegranate juice.

Riding on donkey and horse passing a historical sign  to a place where you can find a refrigerator made from hole and flowing icy water full of carbonated drinks to wet your dry throats after half an hour journey up the hill.

My first time donkey ride. Pity to that baba bozorg..But what can I say, I've been forced to ride it!

Thank you to Khanoom Tannaz and Aghaye Ebi to take me here. We had a great time together!!

This is the historical sign (i have no idea what was that, can anyone tell me??)

This is the "refrigerator"

What else more exciting rather than touching the coldness of melted snow water running through the stream from top of mountain. 

Oh..I really want One More Spring in Iran. To Iranian Immigration Head Officer or maybe President Ahmadinejad, please give us Malaysians more days to stay in your lovely country. 14 days is not enough!!!!!!!!!!!!

By the way, yesterday one of my friend which is bff's best friend just came back from Iran and he tagged me with this photo taken at Mellat Park. Owh!! Hurting!!

Malay Tradition - Engagement Ceremony

I will share here my brother's engagement ceremony held last year.

Malay engagement is different. Not like knee on knee proposal. When the couple are ready for commitment which is marry, they will tie the knot through engagement. It is not a simple process. First, the boy's family have to ask the girl's family whether the girl is available or no and whether she is agree to accept the boy proposal or no which we called "merisik" process. At this point, when the girl is confirm available both family will set up a date for engagement. But, for my brother's, we combined the "merisik" process and engagement to cut cost and time. Furthermore, they already been together and both families know each other.

On the chosen day, my families around 30 people came to the girl's house. We did not come with empty hands, we brought along 11 "hantaran" (gifts). Normally, the amount of gifts from boy's side must be odd while from girl must be even and more than the boy's.

From my brother's

My first brother became the representative to talk to the girl's father. The talk involves how much the mahar should be given during akad, how long the engagement period and other things that involving the gifts, future planning etc.

 During the discussion, the girl with beautiful dress and make up sit inside her room which was beautifully decorated.

After the dicussion finished, my mum and my aunt went inside the room to put on rings for the girl. 2 rings which represent 1 for "merisik" and another 1 for "engaged". 

After that photo session took place and the end of ceremony was eat!!!!!!!!!!

The sisters + mum

The ceremony took about 3 hours. After that, the couple will go through the engagement period while preparing themselves for marry. 

1390 Nowruz Mobarak

Dear all my Persian friends and especially my dear bff,

Wishing all of you a Happy New Year, Nowruz Shoma Mobarak.
May your days on this new year full of happiness, prosperity, joyful and blessing from God.

This is the best Nowruz song for me, so enjoy! Lets dance and be happy always :o)

Nowruz time in Malaysia is 7.21 AM Monday, 21 March. I hope i will wake up early as bff told me if i sleep during Nowruz, i will sleep the whole year. No kidding huh? :op!

Till then, have a nice day!

Chahar Shanbeh Soori Celebration

Tonight is chahar shanbeh soori celebration. It is the last wednesday eve before Nowruz (Persian New year).
Bff is away at his hometown, so i do not celebrate it this year.


The celebration will start after sunset. Normally they will sing, dance, eat and the climax of this eve is jumping over bonfire. I am not sure what is the meaning behind that. Maybe it is related to Zoroastrianism.

This photo was taken on chaharshanbeh soori eve 2008

I bet Persians now has started to feel the happiness of Nowruz. Bff must be happy there after 4 years celebrated it abroad :o) Be careful and do not burn your leg!

Holiday in Iran, You won't Regret

When you heard IRAN, what comes to your mind at first? War, Islamic country, straight rules and maybe Israel..woohoo..For me,before i knew bff, i heard "IRAN" word always when a couple especially married couple fight, they will call "IRAN-IRAQ WAR". But since last 3 years, my view of Iran has changed.

Having the opportunity to visit Iran, I will show you some reasons you need to include Iran as your travel destination:

1. Iran is a 4 seasons country. Visiting different seasons will give you different experience. I visited Iran during Spring and Winter. I saw beautiful spring scenery with flowers blossoms everywhere while white land during winter.

2. No war. No nuclear bombing. No terrorists. What you've been heard all this while in news is just a world's propaganda. You are free to walk on street without having fear of anything. They are not Arabs nor radical Muslims.

Borj-e-Milad (90% like KL Tower)

From top of Borj-e-Milad

Caspian Sea (North Iran)

3. Foods. Yummylicious! If you are a big fan of kabab, Iran is the place for your saliva. Chicken, lamb & beef kababs are their specialty. While seafood lovers can enjoy it most at north Iran. Iranian also like to eat fast food. So, for those who prefer fast food, there would be no problem. I can say in the city, after 100m, there is fast food restaurants.

4. History. We learned that Persian is one of the earliest civilization. There are lots of historical places to be visited especially in Isfahan and Shiraz. I have not go there, so there's no photo. Maybe next season i will visit these 2 cities.

5. Lastly, because there are not many tourists in Iran, you will become center of attention. People will look at you and ask you many questions. For me, its fun! :D

Home Remedy for Fever & Flu - Persian Chicken Soup

I have been drafting a post related to places i visited in Iran since last 2 weeks. Waiting bff to pass me some photos but you know..man..always like that..tomorrow..tonight..another 1 hour..but no-thing! Until i got fever + flu (is it really because of waiting o-O).

So, i treat myself with chicken soup persian-way. I fall in love with this soup when bff's friend Rezai (hi, i heard you become lecturer now) cooked this for iftar and it was so appetizing. Sour-hot-spicy, best combination for blocked-nose.

Here is the easy-peasy recipe (for 1@2 person):

Ingredients:
2 chicken wings @ whole chicken breast
1 medium onion**
1 medium potato*
1 ripe tomato**
1 small carrot*
1 cup of coriander leafs
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup of rice noodles - cut 1/2 inch length
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
1/2 teaspoon of blackpepper
salt to taste
juice of 2 limes
(*roughly grate)
(**diced)
4 cups of water

Methods:
1. Put all of the ingredients except lime juice in a pot, boil for 10 minutes.
2. Simmer for about 15 minutes or until the water reduced 1/3.
3. Add lime juice before serving.
4. Serve hot.

Talking about home remedies, i believe every culture has its own recipes, for example:

Fever:
Persian: chicken soup
Malay: chicken soup with lots of ginger & white peppers

Menstrual aching:
Persian: tea + nabat (rock sugar with saffron)
Malay:  tea + grind young guava leaf

Cough:
Persian: warm milk + honey
Malay: tamarind drink without sugar
Chinese: sugar cane drink + lots of lime juice

That's all i can think right now about home remedies. If you guys have others, please share ok. Sometimes we cannot rely only to doc's, following mum's secrets also helps! Till then, keep healthy always. :)

Breakfast & Bread Pudding

Breakfast is the last thing i think in a day. Not the first. I rarely eat breakfast back to JB. Always before sleep i will tell to myself, tomorrow i want to eat breakfast, but the next day i just skip it. Not like when i am at my mum's, i will not skip breakfast even i wake up at 11 because my mum must serve yummylicious breakfast (nasi lemak, pratha, nasi goreng kampung, beehoon goreng...nom!calories!nom!calories!). And, when i was in Tehran, breakfast is a must. Everyday, they served me with freshly baked bread (noon barbari), jams, cheese, cream cheese, roasted walnuts, butter and tea. They also told me that Persians eat breakfast like that particular day they will go to war. Yes, the benefits of breakfast not to be argued anymore. Therefore, I bought 1 pack of Gardenia and cream cheese from Cold Storage with hope that i will eat breakfast every morning to have healthier life. But..yaah, I didnt do that. Only 2 days. So, before the bread expired, i decided to bake bread pudding tonight. I follow recipe from here http://www.myresipi.com/top/detail/140. TQSM. It is yummy!

Persian breakfast Table (Google image)

Cold Weather in Hectic City, Warm Persians in Wonderful House

My experience during winter in Tehran is unforgettable. It is not a bad winter like what is happening in European countries right now. Since i arrived, there isnt  any new snow rain. The snow is melting. Even it is cold, Tehran city never sleep. There are lots of vehicles on the streets, traffic jams, pedestrians, businesses, offices all are operating adding the air pollutions which has been Tehran's most problem in the century. At some places especially in the city near the square they put a scaling machine to measure the pollution indexes. It is better for travelers to have mouth mask. Pity me that my nose got a little bleeding caused by the unhealthy air.

By the way, back to my acquaintance's home, it is full of warmth. Well it is not only because of the heater, but they warmly entertained me in every aspects. What I want to eat, where i want to go, they  try to comfort me. Their house is 3 rooms 3rd floor apartment. The floor is fully equipped by Persians carpets that are well known with its quality. What we must know about Persian is that cleanliness is their priority. So, make sure you are always clean near Persians! All in all i am so grateful to them (mother, father, son, daughter and lil granddaughter). Without them, my trip to Iran will be dull. Kheili mamnun..motchakeram..dastshomadardnakone..dooset daram..omidvaram dobare mibinametun.

Persian Carpet (google image)

The Journey: KL - Tehran

It has been a week I am here in Tehran, Iran. Today (27th January) is the last day of my second trip to Iran. I did not have much time here to update this blog as my schedule is full everyday. Anyway i still want to share my unforgettable journey in the land less traveled by travelers - IRAN.

THE INTRODUCTION
I took AirAsia flight from KL to Tehran. AirAsia has just started its KL-Tehran-KL flight early of 2010, 2 flights per week on Monday and Wednesday.With its promo price, it is affordable if compared to Emirates or Gulf Air. But, the in-flight service is not very good. No appetizing foods (normally i will wait the FA to serve foods in other flights), no blanket (they just have 15 blankets in an Airbus flight, priority given to child and oldies, so i did not get), extra money to choose seat (RM100 for hot seat, with more open space for legs, RM25 to choose normal seat), extra money for baggage (RM50 for 20kg checked in baggage), no screen tv compared to IranAir (so bored since i couldnt sleep, headache after reading 100 pages of novel), no free gift (refer to IranAir that gave a Mashad leather pouch with socks and toiletry inside), the FA are all men (which means the service are not soft as woman FA, and for guys..sorry no free show =)) So please..Dato'Sri Tony Fernandez..could u please upgrade the services.

Help!! I am bored

So after 8 and half hours of flight, the plane landed at Imam Khomeini Airport. It was cold winter night around 9 p.m. I was the first foreigner to pass the immigration (there are about 5 foreigner passengers in the flight including me). The officer was a woman without smile =(. She asked my name and my boarding pass without looking at it. Until now i am still wondering why she asked me to show my boarding pass. Heading into baggage trail but as usual my baggage only will show up after long waiting. Only 1 arrived international flight at that time. The airport was not crowd like KLIA or Changi Airport. Therefore, I easily found my acquaintance. I've been warmly greeted. Stepping my foot in Iran soil has really make me happy because this is the origins of my everyday life back to Malaysia (I mean my BFF). For the first time i sensed the cold of winter, i touched the icy of snow. Thank you Allah for your grace.

After about half an hour ride to Tehran from Qom (airport), we arrived at their house. They served me dinner Khoreshte Bademjun (Stew Beef with Eggplant) which was so delicious. Tqvm..Then..sleep..will be continue..

Holiday Mood

How I wana be a good blogger when very rarely update my blog? huh so lazy. i dont know why. there are lots of recipes i want to share but so lazy to write.i will try after this to update at least once a week. i hope so. anybody please remind me plss..

btw, i am going for holiday in three days time. yahoo!!so cant wait for it. where? ooh i cant tell here right now for security reasons..anyone can guess? its 8 hours flight. thats all!!

will be my 1st experience to touch snow!

sure i will show u my journey later..ok take care guys!!