Only the lonely

Sometimes you get the feeling that in the recent past Iran was preparing for a boom, with lavish spending on infrastructure, but sadly it just never showed up, and already things have begun to run down and fade at the edges There is no better example than bus terminals and Kerman in southern Iran was a great example. As I approached it in a taxi, its silver domed roof shone brightly in the distance looking like a football stadium. Inside though the story was a little sadder, there were a number of empty bus company offices in the circular ground floor, the two elevators to the second floor were non functional and covered in a thick layer of dust and rubbish. Upstairs other than the (empty) Internet cafe and (empty) restaurant the other (empty) spaces had windows covered in black plastic and rubbish was strewn all about. One could imagine the grand dreams of the designers and architects, realised by hard working Iranian builders, but the people just never came.

An empty restaurant provides quite a dilemma, no more so than in a terminal. Usually the presence of locals is a good sign that the food is if not digestible then at least affordable, but in a country where meat is the mainstay, vegetarian options are few and far between, and there was no other option, I decided to take my chances.

I had to wake the old man sitting at the desk in front of the door to the kitchen. Using my best international sign language he understood that I didn't speak Persian so turned to the kitchen and called out. A minute or so later a waitress appeared, took one look at me and headed back in to the kitchen. Another minute later a middle aged Iranian, who looked like he had just woken up appeared, and in broken English asked what I wanted to eat. Thanks to Google Translate I could show him in Persian "I do not eat meat", which always provokes looks of disbelief. However in this case he proposed rice and vegetables, which I accepted. In a few minutes, despite my scepticism a dish of rice, vegetables and bread - without meat - appeared, and was quite delicious.

I thanked everybody profusely when I paid, and watched the old man put his head back on the desk as I walked out the door.