Took an overnight bus up to Edinburgh, Scotland on Monday evening. Got here while it was still dark. Walked around and found a hostile that had good reviews. Booked a room, but I couldnt situate until Noon, and it was probably only 7 or 8am by then.

The last few days has been a lot of walking around, enduring the cold. But this morning, when I was out of cash to pay for my last night of the room, I hiked a few blocks up the hill to the nearest cash point, in jeans, flip flops and a tshirt.

This was my first real traveling on my own. And while I probably didn’t see half the things that I wanted to see, I did get some insights into my preferences for traveling and just ‘doing things’ in general.

1) To much historical stuff all at once, is kinda boring.

2) It’s nice just finding places that you like and sticking with them, at least as a safety option

3) Traveling alone is kinda boring.

4) It’s not so hard to be cost conscious, but its also very easy to spend.

5) It’s good to have a basis for information, ie. guide book, but don’t stick to it. In fact it’s first better to just try some things, and if that doesnt seem to be working, then you got something to fall back on.

6) English speaking countries, and the people from them, are kinda boring.

7) Europe is kinda cliche.

I think aimless traveling would get boring. In fact, I don’t actually think I enjoy traveling as much as I would immersing in a location, with a sense of purpose and belonging. If it must be traveling, I think more “exotic” allows for a better experience, if it has to be relatively short term.

9) I don’t like cold. I can tolerate it. I can enjoy myself. But when it comes to it, I think I want to be in warm humid weather. Over 20C/70F with some humidity is best

10) There’s probably more stuff, thats just off the top

Ya, but in all, Edinburgh has been great. I liked it more than London, but very different experiences. But at the moment, if I had to choose between the two, I wouldnt even have to give it a moments thought, Edinburgh. Even their money — yes the Scotish have their own money — is prettier, and I like the accent more.

Last Monday I got up my earliest for this entire stay in London, and took the tube with my Aunts. They were heading to work at the BBC, but I was going to Iranian Consulate to submit my passport for the visa to Iran. I got there at 9:30a, but they told me I needed to come back at 12:30, when they started handling visas. I took this opportunity to get some extra passport photos takes (£7), get a hot chocolate and fill out the form.

A few minutes before 12:30 I returned, and the entrance room, where you get a number to be served, was now packed with over a dozen people and steadily increasing. My plan was simply to be patient, and assume I would get served in due time. Once the man came to the window, ready to hand out numbers, there was a bit of a crush towards the window. Some of the Westerners maintained their positions, rather than pushing forward. Not wanting to get cut, I had no option but to push forward. So while I was maybe the 13th in line, I was able to slide forward and secure ticket 9.

Even with this number, I wound up having to wait over an hour and a half to be served. During the wait a young Tehrani spoke with me, telling me how much he hates the government, and that he will never go back until the regime is overthrown. All fine and dandy, but got me a little nervous talking such things while sitting in the Iranian Embassy. Let me at least get my visa, THEN we can criticize.

I also saw Majid there, who was the agent that I initially worked with in London to secure my visa. I was happy to see a familiar face in this. Even tho I only knew him from one meeting and a couple phone calls, and it was strictly a business relationship, I had felt he was nice and honest to me. He hadn’t charged me at opportunities where he could have, and he gave me truthful information, even tho it didn’t generate business for him. Besides updating him, I was able to ask a few questions about how the process works in the consulate, which helped me know what to do.

My number was never actually called (I don’t think anyone’s was). The key was to be vigilant, and know when a couple numbers before yours was called, so you could make yourself and your number known, and then be ready to spring as soon as the number before you was done. In fact, number 10 was up at the counter asking questions and passing paperwork before I was even finished.

In all, it only took 10 minutes at the window. I gave them my reference number, passport, a photo (only needed 1 even tho they initially said 2), and the application form. They charged me £55, and you have to pay by credit, no cash accepted. They had a bit of issue inputing my American credit card, because of the date, MM/DD/YYYY, when they expect DD/MM/YYYY, even tho 31 was the day, I guess they didnt realize theres no month 31.

Once that was cleared up, they gave me a confirmation receipt, and said come back Thursday afternoon — 3 days time — to pick up the visa.

I went back Thursday, around 1pm, picked it up at the main window, didnt have to wait more than a couple minutes. Visa was in the passport. Good for 30 days stay in Iran.

The following day, I bought my ticket. So I’m traveling to Iran on the 8th of December, get there on the 9th, and then return early on the 8th of Jan. I have yet to buy my ticket back to the States, but my plan is to come back on the 13th to SF.

That also means I will be in Iran for Christmas, New Year, and my birthday. The first two aren’t celebrated there, and technically in Iran, the way they count age, I will be turning 27, even tho I’m 25 now (you’re born as a “1st year”).

In addition to all this, my Mom should have her passport in another week or so, and is planning on joining me in Iran for some of my stay! So finally after months of waiting, things are finally working out rather nicely.

Since I still have a couple weeks till departure, I’ve come up to Nottingham to stay with my cousin for the weekend. Then I want to head up to Edinburgh for a few days.

My uncle called today, not long after I woke up. He was calling to let me know he had been able to get a reference number so I can get a visa to Iran! He gave me the visa number, and tomorrow I will be heading to the consulate to submit my passport for the actual visa.

I’ve been in London for over two months now. Supposedly this weekend my Uncle in Tehran will be able to return to the foreign ministry office and get word about the application that was submitted for me to visit Iran.

These day’s I don’t have much going on. In fact I have an abundance of time. Said another way, I’m not making very good use of my time. Not making very good use in the sense that I’m not doing much. I usually sleep until Noon or so, which means if I go to bed around 2a, thats early.

I’d be lying if I said this didnt bother me a bit. For one thing I feel like I’m just being lazy and wasteful. For another, I feel like life kinda has a balance about these things. And honestly, I feel like I’ve been under working for a while. Which means, soon enough, I’m probably gonna be completely overbooked. The problem with that, is for one that I’m not very good at it, things start falling apart. Plus I don’t usually really enjoy what I’m doing. I think I’m someone that needs 1 primary thing to be really into and focus my attention on. Then, if i can, it’s nice to have a couple other hobby type things to fill the void, and just provide a little balance.

But I think if I had some structure, I would do more out here. So I guess I just have to admit, I’m not good without structure; I’m like jello. I keep on telling myself I should switch things up. But switch to what? I don’t have much money, I havent taken any initiative on generating revenue. And I haven’t put any effort into socializing, or even bike riding. Which is kinda sad. I could just always blame it on London. That would be convenient. And then it would be yet another place which I don’t gel with.

So it’s becoming a long and drawn out process to get a Visa for entry to Iran. First some background on my situation.

American born, Iranian Mother, American Father. Iranian law says nationality is passed through fathers. So if you’re father’s not Iranian, you’re not Iranian. That makes getting a passport out of the question for me. As for being American, Iran and America don’t have formal diplomatic relations. Basically this means it’s not easy for people from either country to visit the other.

In my particular situation for visiting Iran I have only one real option:
Visit Iran on a tour package. What this would involve is at the very least having a tour guide, which will be responsible for me 24/7. This option is quite expensive. While I haven’t shopped around much, I’ve been quoted to expect paying at LEAST 30 pounds (roughly $60) a day! In addition I would need to plan on waiting at least four weeks from time of application to receive the visa. Unlike other nationalities, the visa would only be good for the duration of my requested stay in Iran; 1-2 weeks i the norm. While I currently have no option but to consider this as a last ditch effort, it will be very expensive, restrictive, and shorter than I was hoping.

Right now, I’m taking the route of making a bit of an informal appeal. My Grandparents health isn’t too well. I’m writing a letter, which will be provided in English, along with a Farsi translation on the part of my Aunt, in which I explain my situation, and why I desire to visit Iran. This letter will be accompanied by a second letter, from a Doctor, providing medical corroboration of my grandfathers mental state.

Doing this requires me writing the letter, my aunt translating. We will then fax to Iran. My aunt in Iran will receive the letters and collect the letter from the doctor (who happens to be her father-in-law). She will then refax my letter and the doctor’s letter to Tehran. Receiving the fax in Tehran, will be my (first)cousin(once-removed), who will receive the call that the fax is coming, and be on standby at the fax machine in her office. She will then deliver the faxed letters to her father (my great uncle) who will have the pleasure of going to the Foreign Ministry in Tehran and submitting the letters and my application.

This will just be to see if they will even consider considering my case.

I arrived in London. It was a US$280 one-way ticket from JFK to Heathrow on Air India. The flight was quite smooth on a very modern and very empty plane. However, upon arriving to London, it took 3 hours to make it thru immigration. One hour just waiting in line, and then the next two hours being questioned, searched, and checked up on regarding my intent for staying in England. Add to this that my bicycle was somehow left in New York, and I think its fair to say that things were off to a lovely start.

Over the last few days I’ve been reacquainting with family. I’ve been in a bit more touch with this family, than my family in the East Coast, but then there’s also a larger cultural gap. Peyman, (pronounced PAY-mon not PEE-man) has been living with his girlfriend and working for a software company outside of London for the last couple years. His girlfriend just recently became his fiancée while they were on holiday coming back from turkey overland.

His younger brother, Pedram, is finishing up his summer job and heading back to Uni in a few days. A strict vegetarian he’s loves cracking jokes, especially if they involve using an indian accent. I’ve actually seen him the most as he’s visited a couple times in California.

Borna, technically a cousin-once-removed, is actually closest in age to me, and has a pretty wicked English streets accent (I wanna call it cockney, but I don’t know if thats accurate). He’s currently working at a clothing store, but he probably would much rather be doing something different.

As an American, being in England creates some interesting perspectives. Of course theres the common issue of speaking variations of the same language (lingustically they should probably be classified as different dialects of English), but there are still frequent “What does that mean” type of moments, more often due to my lack of comprehension. I’ve also come to realize that England, with its general similarities to the US, has the effect of making the differences most prominent. In Hong Kong I never felt particularily strongly for or again my Americanism. But something about the similarity between England and the States makes my Americanism really become self evident, and an occasional topic of conversation for others as well.

Since my family is Iranian, and they are much more attached to their Iranianism than I was raised with, there is also a fair bit of exposure to that as well. Since I don’t speak Farsi, and am essentially the only one that doesn’t it makes for some personally awkward moments. When I was younger I didn’t think much of it. After all, I never needed it in my day to day life, and someone was always there to translate for me. I also didn’t really see it as my fault that I didn’t speak farsi. Whatever powers that be resulted in my upbringing without farsi. But as you get older you see these things differently. Your heritage starts becoming more important to you. You cling on to it as a form of identity, as a way to relate yourself to the world.

So when I am around a group of Iranians, all being much more Iranian that I know how to be, and being at a loss to speak or even understand the sounds around me, it’s hard not to feel a bit out of the loop. But I feel I have a mission while I am in London, and that is to return to Iran. I was there when I was a mere baby, learning to utter my first words of Farsi. Now, many years later, I hope to return and finish the job

Earlier this week my pops and I hopped in the rental car and drove from Connecticut to Boston. A little under 3 hours driving time. It was raining like crazy, but amazingly once we got there, it cleared up and became a beautiful day. We took the subway (known as the “T”) into the city, and then walked around the central area.

The architecture is older than most of what you see in the states, and quite beautiful. There isn’t the variety of colors, they way you find in SF. Lots of dark reds and brown from brick, blacks and greys from rooftops, and lush greens from the summer foliage.

The next day we drove about an hour northwest, into New Hampshire, to spend the day with my Dad’s cousin. There setting is quite opposite from the urban setting of Boston. There house is on 5 acres of land, and they live in a house which they built from the ground up. They’re very into positive healthy living. They are part of a community-supported-farm, and eat all local, organic, seasonal foods. They don’t have a TV. As my cousin said, they’re a bitch crunchy granola, which I thought was a very accurate and non-offensive (at least to me) way of putting it.

We stayed the night in NH, they made us a delicious pancake and bacon breakfast and then we said our goodbyes and began the drive back. Since there was no rush, we decided to head back to the Boston area, and visit the small fishing town of Gloucester (locally known as Glosta ).

So it was a nice break from the CT vibe. I got to sample a bit of Boston, which I thought was a really nice city, at least on a beautiful summer day. And the time spent with family in NH was really great too!

Got into Middlebury, Connecticut yesturday. It was a red eye from San Diego, but it wasn’t the 3 hour time change as much as the 2 hours of sleep that kept me feeling tired thru the day. When we got to my uncles house, only my cousin Megan was home, perhaps suffering from her own jetlag, she was still asleep. We woke her up, chatted a little, and then my Dad went to sleep. While getting some rest sounded nice, Megan asked if I wanted to tag along while she went into town to drop off some bread at a shelter I cruised with, figuring it was some good catching up time, and that I’d rest later.

When we got back, I was really ready for some rest But earlier we had made plans to visit my Grandma at her convalescent home. So again, I figured I’d get some rest later. As we were getting readying, my oldest cousin Michael stopped by on his lunch break, so again there was some chatting. Then it was off to the exciting world of the half-way home for dieing people. But more on that later…

As we sat around chatting with my G-ma, I continuously slipped down my chair, and eventually I stopped being able to hold back the yawns. Add to that I was now getting hungry. So we said our goodbyes, and made our way back to the house. As we pull in the driveway, we see my Uncle Mike just getting out of his new Mercedes convertible. Obviously I was not going to be getting any rest any time soon. So we sat back, cracked open some beers, and began shooting the ish.

As I finish off the first beer, I figure I can make my segway. But before I realize he’s gone, my uncle returns with 3 more beers, and so the chatting continues. Getting close to the end of my 2nd beer, I again think I’ll be able to slip off for some rest. And then my Aunt Joanne gets home, and starts talking about dinner. Now I just kick back, easily accepting a 3rd beer, and start focusing on eating instead of being tired.

As dinner’s is being prepared, my cousin Michael’s wife Krista comes over along with their 3 daughters, none of whom I’ve met before.

Finally, dinner was served, I ate, then shortly after excused myself, saying I needed to sleep. I came downstairs, turned on the TV for the olympics, grabbed the phone to call my girl, and laid on the couch. After a few minutes on the phone, I faded, and barely remember putting the phone down.

I proceeded to sleep for the next 14 hours, waking up 4 times to pee. The first time, I was so out of it, I mistaked my grandma’s old person toilet for the actual toilet, and since it’s just an open hole, proceeded to peed on the floor…

Today I bought my ticket to London from New York. It’s a one way ticket, and I’ve been reading that people have a hard time getting into London on a one way. So a little worried about that, but pretty stoked about everything else.

Hong Kong is coming to a end, all too quickly, I might add, but trying to postpone my return to the US, Christy and I are hoping for one last round of travel. Today she got word that her pops is going to hook her up with some cash so she can visit the Philippines. Our housing is done on the 26th of May, so hopefully shortly there after we can be heading to the Philippines. Tourist visas for Americans are issues free for a 21 day stay, longer requires paying. Our budget is about $800 each.

The hope was with about $1000 each we could do 3 weeks in the Philippines, followed up with two weeks in Japan. But costs already are looking higher than what was hoped for with ticket prices and estimates on accomodations.

Another uncertainty is the bicycles. It’s fair to say that when I came to Hong Kong, a big part of the reason I brought my bicycle was hoping to do some bike touring. I think it’s fair to say the last trip we took, having our bicycles didn’t work out so great. In hindsight I’m not sure how I could have hoped to accomplish what we did. Some of the circumstances are different, but we also would have to make the kind of trip in which bike touring would make sense. In other words, you can’t hope to cover an entire country in 3 weeks. But biking can also work really well with a trip, but it can also work really well without one…

I hate to say it, but Japan is looking less likely by the moment. Mainly it just seems way too expensive. Just to get there will be US$500. Also there is the issue of how to get there. In an ideal world, we would just go from the Philippines to Japan. But since one way tickets aren’t always so cheap, It’s looking like it might be easier to return to HK first. The one benefit of this will be that perhaps we will leave the bikes home for Philippines, but take them with us for Japan.

Even if we are able to make the money stretch this long, it seems we’ll have to be returning to the US after traveling. I think Christy will be pretty happy to be heading back, and she needs to anyway for school. But for now I’m not thinking so much about that, I just want to make the most of my time in Asia.

Part of that is finally doing some filming. I’d really like to do my best to document the trip. I have quite figured out what that will mean. But more of a problem at this point is actually having a camera. There are a few options in front of me. Unfortunately, none of them look very ideal. What it does seem is that if I am able to acquire a camera, it will be rushed, and perhaps even not what I really want/need for video editing.