Day 84 – 29th June 2014 Esfahan

It’s the first day of Ramadan today so no eating or drinking in daylight hours.

I’m finding it difficult with the guide, he’s a good man but I don’t always travel well with other people. I like travelling on my own doing what I choose when I want and the guide doesn’t understand travellers, he understands the needs of tourists who fly in, have limited time and fly out again, they probably want to pack as much into their time as possible. I need to travel my way not someone else’s.

Compromise isn’t one of my best traits, I’ve known this about myself for many years and it’s one of the reasons I travel alone. I love engaging with people at my pace, ‘it’s all about the people’.

So I left the guide and Garth and went on my own. I loved it. After 20 minutes of slowly looking around the bazar I stopped and sat on the steps of a mosque and relaxed, within in a minute Ali came over and we talked for 10 minutes or so before Maryam came over, we all went to Ali’s photography shop for a while before Maryam and I went for a walk around the bazar and a mosque. I had a nice time with Maryam and it was good to talk to an Iranian women at length for a change.

As we’re heading further south east tomorrow and the temperature will rise again I checked the bike over and other than some air in the tyres everything was ok.

I saw a KTM pull up at the hotel over the road yesterday and went over to say hello, it was a German couple and we arranged to meet this morning and then to have dinner this evening. It was a really nice meal and as they are ‘seasoned overlanders’ the conversation was very interesting, they head north and then east in a couple of days to the Stans before the Pamir Highway.