Hash Assassins in Alamut, Iran

The Crusaders might have had a more difficult time getting here and the bus is surely faster than Freya Starke‘s donkey, but the windy trip into the ancient realm of the mythical Hashshashin is still a modern day adventure. Deep in the Alborz mountains an 11th-century sect hounded the invading Crusaders with fierce warriors stoned out of…

A Different Iran

One of the strongest memories I have of Iran is standing outside a regular neighourhood mosque covered in the black mourning flags that are so typical there. Decades of negative imagery on T.V made my wife and I unsure about entering the courtyard. Finally we ventured in and ended up parting ways. Suddenly I heard…

Brave New Travel World

I usually get various reactions from editors when I send them submissions about traveling in Iran. They usually range from complete silence to cheeky replies regarding the sanity of those who travel in such places. So it was with great surprise that I got an email the other day from Trazzler asking me to write…

I ran to Iran

It seems like it is everywhere. Twitter feeds every minute and retweets every 2. This ‘revolution’ will be twitterized. The enormous country that links the Middle East with South Asia but is neither, is on everyone’s lips and in every flickr. The world has briefly stopped worrying about Nukes and is suddenly worried about its…