I'm having a good time so far in Iran, still having to deal with some family drama since my father passed, but gotta take the bad with good. Bit annoying at the moment though as they tightened up their restriction on the internet and applied a lot of filters. Luckily though truestreets.com is not blocked by any filters =P But I have to use an alternative site to get to gmail. I'll post up pictures later when I have some good ones to post.

wow. i didn't know you were going to Iran. sorry about the family stuff. it must be absolutely fascinating to see such an entirely different culture up close. take it all in, who knows what is going to happen in the next 2-3-5-10 years. can't wait to see some pics. be safe!

Yea, gmail is back thankfully, lol. Yea I love coming to Iran, I'm a little bias being half Iranian, but I love so many aspects about this country and since I've been coming to iran like every 5 years it's always easy to spot the differences. Things just keep changing more and more. One thing that is kinda funny is that the Korean cars have kind of taken over a lot of all new car sales. I mean it's just very very apparent. Within the short time I've been here I've seen TWO Genesis Sedans. I didn't see that many back in California until like 3 months had passed, lol. There are new Toyotas here but oddly there aren't any Hondas, toyotas are pretty popular here as well as some Mazdas and of course for the people who can afford the extreme prices of BMWs and MB since the sanctions make them EXTREMELY expensive. I got some good pics, but atm I'm on one of my cousin's computers and it only has dial up speeds so I rather put a fork in my eye than wait for photos to upload, lol. So hopefully soon I can upload them on a better connection.

at my advanced age, i've learned patience, lol. i can wait until you get back to highspeed connections at home for the pics! just enjoy your family and your surroundings. i walked into town today-it snowed so i couldn't ride my bike. that's the extent of MY holiday traveling! : )

I remember the pictures you sent me from Iran a few years ago... You even sent me tractor pictures! LOL There's a lot going on in Iran right now, I always think of you when I hear about Iran on the news. Take care...

Merry holidays guys....

Thanks guys.

Art, yea it may turn out tat way, lol.

Beav, I haven't seen any tractors lately, but there is still lots of contruction for new places and if you want I can take some picts of the construction vehicles. I really hope I get to go into the Milad tower, it's the new tower Iran built that is the largest tower in the area, which isn't saying much since most the countries near by look like they've been nuked three times over, lol. But it's still a really really big tower.

I'm learning more about Iran's past while talking to people. I knew Iran had more trees and gardens, but I didn't know to what extent and I guess it's just like Los Angeles when LA used to have lots of nice rivers and now there's nothing but buildings, it's the same for the capital and other cities like Karage (the city I'm currently in at the moment). In this city they have much bigger natural parks with lots of trees and to hear that it used to be A LOT more makes me kind of sad how it seems like any city that developes in the begining don't think about how it affects nature and it's surroundings. Hopefull since Iran has a very large youth group it will have more pasion for things like this. In this city they have tons of trees that look a lot like London Plane trees, it's nice to be here in the winter since I've only been here durring the summer. I was hoping for snow but for some reason it's warmer than usual and the weather is just like southern california right now. I'm hoping before I leave I will be able to see snow in the city.

I'll post more, but since i'm in the states, here are some photos of some nicely fixed up/restored old school cars at this local race track. They kind of just meet up here I guess and watch. The track has kart/moto/car racing. Just depends on what's the schedule I guess.



http://www.truestreets.com/gallery/album/Cars-In-Iran/u86027



I really like the BMW 2002 fixed up. I used to think they were kind of ugly till I saw this one. My cousin started getting annoyed that I don't take pics of cars like the IS convertible or new BMWs, I mean guys like us don't really care about stock cars like those, unless they're like 30+ year old stock cars

Got a few more on my photobuckets. s7.photobucket.com/albums/y265/SigmaProjects/Iran%202009/

I didn't find a tractor beav, but I did find a backhoe.

Just did some quick research on the Milad tower, turns out it's the 5th largest in the world, better than I thought, lol.

i love the older large BMW coupe, probably a 2800CS or a 3.0CSi or some derivation. the pillarless bodystyle was classy beyond belief!

also liked the first gen Celica-again, a beautifully resolved, clean and elegant design. who would EVER have guessed at the way their designs have gone down hill?

and those old Pontiacs! the large one is a '72 Catalina i think, and of course the Firebird. i wonder if they've been there since before the fall of the Shah?

Thanks =) THe BMW I believe was labled something like 310 CSi, but I'm pretty sure I saw a 3 and CSi. The Large Pontiac is a Parisienne, I did some research it wasn't a model available in the US, it was a B-body of course and had some kind of similar model, but in Canada it was the top model pontiac. Not sure what other countries got it, but it wasn't a USDM model. Yea, a lot of new cars don't have as much character.

Darn photobucket, they're doing maintenance.

edit: finally fixed the private/public thing on my photobucket albums.

oh yeah, the Parisienne. Canadian Pontiacs varied in the way they were built over the years, but basically they were Pontiac bodies with Chevrolet drivetrains. occasionally they actuallly used a majority of a Chevy body but with Pontiac front clips. Eventually, there was a USDM Parisienne, but it was a replacement for the 'upperclass' pontiac Gand Ville, which had replaced the Bonneville once the Bonne switched to the smaller A body. the late 70s was a a very confusing time for Pontiac nomenclature as they reeled from needing to downsize.

i just realized a couple of days ago i'm missing the October 2008 issue of Collectible Automobiles so i'm sending for it. one of the features is Canadian Pontiacs through the years. i'll be all caught up on the particulars in a few weeks....

if you saw a 3 and a CSi on the Bimmer, it was the 3.0CSi model, an updated 3 liter version of the 2800CS, which was itself an updated version of the original 2000CS. google 2000CS and see the original version with it's glass covered headlights. i'm still in love with the pillarless bodystyle. the 6 series coupe that followed it is a classic too, also gorgeous, but didn't quite have a same panache as the earlier pillarless version. i still wouldn't kick one out of my garage, lol. i knew a woman in Beverly Hills in the early 80s with a bright red 6 coupe, and it was an amazing car to drive in brand new.

Oh we got the Parisienne? That's coo, I wonder how much a mint condition would fetch... I'm really interested in trying to ship classic cars back to the US from Iran since there are quite a few nice old cars there, and not just cars like old school land rovers and toyota FJs. Yea I like the pillarless look too and I think your right about the 3.0CSi name now that I think about it. Did you get to check out my non car pics? I haven't posted up all of them, but I got some up there.

i just looked through your photobucket. i think if more americans could see the inside of your relatives home, they would see that Iranians are really JUST like the average American. The exterior architecture is very cool too. i would love that black and white soccer ball beanbag chair! and apparently kitsch isn't a uniquely american trait either-the Santa is hysterical. it looks like it revolves on it's base too. Sax blowin' Santa!


here's the Wiki on the Parisienne. i have to find my brochures from that period. i think some of the details in Wiki are wrong, but it's basically correct:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac_Parisienne

Thanks XD I have many many more pics to upload, as well as videos. Just haven't had the time to upload it all. If the wiki page is wrong you should update it, it's very easy, just hit the edit button and make a change, especially if you have the brochures. It's like a civic duty to correct Wikipedia. Oh yea if you haven't seen my 2005 trip that folder should be open. It has other pics of random stuff, but in my 2005 trip to Iran I went to the sub tropics in the north, so it's usually a super surprise to anyone who see the pics and find out it's part of Iran.

I'll only point out this pic because there is a person in the picture that hard to see and without seeing the person it's very hard to get a sense of scale since those trees are HUGE.

that's a great shot of the forest/trees! you're right, i don't associate Iran with green landscapes like that!