Book "Unforgettable Iran". Chapter 10. Bender Charak
Fishing in Bender Charak
From Qeshm, I returned to Bandar Abbas and began to explore the possibilities of getting to the island of Kish. The LP guide offered two options. It was possible to get to Bandar r Lenge (Bandar e Lenge), 250 km from Bandar Abbas, ferries to Kish Island regularly leave from there for $14 one way. Another possibility was to drive another 90 km from Bender Lenge to get to Bender r Chara k (Bandar e Chara k), and from there sail away on a simple boat for $4.
Since I was hitchhiking, I didn’t pay for the road, and I didn’t care much that Bender Chara was 90 km further, the main thing was that I could save money on the ferry by using the boat. Before leaving Bandar Abbas, Daniel gave me a lift, and after half a minute I was driving in a passing car to Bandar Lenghe.
I got off at the crossroads and didn't know which way to go.
Since there were no people on the street, I went to a car service nearby and asked the worker how to get to Bender Charak. He asked me to wait and returned with the car keys, saying that he would take me to the terminal. I was very surprised and delighted by his care for me.
From the terminal, I walked through the Savari parking lot, and very soon found myself at the exit from the city. With an open hand, I stopped the car, the drivers of which were going to Bushehr (Persian Bushehr) to work. They had a long road ahead of 900 km, they were very glad to have a companion and offered to go to their home, where date palms grow in each garden. In general, Bushir is well known for its dates and ratta b (unripe dates that are eaten as an independent dish, see the article about Bam for more details). I often think about how my journey would have turned out if I went to Bushehr.
Perhaps, no less exciting adventures would have awaited me there, but then I would not have met a hospitable family from Bender Charak, would not have fished with them, would not have eaten crabs, and would not have gone by hydrostop to Kish Island.
I did not change my plans and got off at the turn to Bender Charak. To get to the village itself, it was necessary to overcome another 10 km. I had already prepared for the fact that I would have to stand at this place for a long time, as a minute later a car stopped next to me. The young guys who agreed to give me a ride were returning home to Bender Charak. From the very first minute of the conversation, we began to joke and laugh, which is why I immediately identified them as “my own”. Remembering our dialogues, it seems to me that they spoke my native language - it was so easy to communicate with them. However, in fact, we only spoke Farsi. I explained to them that I was going to the pier to take a boat and go to about. Kish.
- But we don't have boats, you can sail to the island only from Bandar e Lange! You need to go back, - answered the guy, whose name was Yaghu b.
- How so? - I answered, - in my book it says that you can sail away from here on a cheap boat for only $ 4!
- Gha yegh nist! Khatarna k e (there is no boat, it is dangerous), - the older one answered and explained, - Boats were banned long ago when your book was published?
- Se sal gozashte (three years ago), - I answered, now clearly understanding that they know what they are talking about, and it will not be possible to sail away on a boat.
“Let’s go to our house, have a meal, and then decide what to do, ” suggested Yaghu b.
Communicating with the local population, I noticed a strange feature.
If I had compatibility with a person, so to speak, contact was established, and I liked the person, then very soon he began to say that I speak Farsi well, tell me jokes and stories, supplementing conversations with gestures, because in fact I am almost nothing did not understand. Usually such a person would ask simple things: “What is your name, how old are you, who is by profession, single or married, do you believe in God, do I like Iran. ” I was asked these questions so often that out of laziness I memorized all the answers in Farsi so as not to be explained by gestures.
But when contact was not established, the driver almost immediately told me that I did not understand anything in Farsi, and therefore became sullen and silent throughout the entire journey.
There was also a third, advanced psychotype. This driver began to ask me such questions that it was not only difficult to answer in Farsi (I did not know half of the words): “How many people live in Belarus?
Who is the president of your country? What is your capital? What are the prices? What are your salaries? ”, but also to formulate the answer itself, for example: “How does Orthodoxy differ from Catholicism? ". To answer such questions, I had to show a lot of gestures, draw pictures and scroll through the phrasebook for a long time, looking for translations of the necessary words.
We drove into the village and stopped at the house, which was surrounded by a high clay wall. I stayed outside to wait, and soon my father came out and invited me home. As a guest, they gave me a room with a bed and furniture, there was no table. Father left for dinner, and I went out into the yard to wash my hands. A door opened in the other half of the house, and a woman in a scarf and a raincoat came out, probably the hostess, she was going to hang out the laundry to dry, but when she saw me, she hid her face and quickly ran away without even having time to say hello. I never saw the owner of the house again.
From the room where, in my opinion, the kitchen was, Yaghu b returned with his brother Javad with a tablecloth and plates of food.
- Maahi (“a” - long, fish), - Javad explained, offering me fish in sauce.
Another traditional dish was "ratta b va dugh" (ratta b or dates with yogurt) - before eating a date, it is dipped in yogurt. I improved this dish and came up with the idea of putting dates and yogurt on thin pita bread and twisting it like our pancakes, which greatly surprised the Iranians. I was told that their father Alipur is a fisherman, and once every four to six months he goes sailing on a merchant ship to the UAE, where they bring dates, vegetable oil and fish.
Reference. Rattab - unripe dates (the penultimate stage of ripening), firm and slightly astringent in taste, yellow to bright red in color. In Islamic countries, traditionally after sunset in Ramadan, dates are served with yogurt or milk as the first course.
“Three times a week I swim in my boat in the sea, where I catch fish, ” Alipur added, “I row on oars not far from the shore, then I throw a net into the water and after a few hours I return home. Before I go to the market, I take the fish out of the net and sort them, and I also put randomly caught crabs in the refrigerator. I sell fish for $4-6/kg, and we hardly eat crabs.
I had to learn a few words from Farsi related to fishing: ghaye gh (boat), tur (net), kharchan ng (crab).
- Emsha b mahi gereftim m, mikha i? (Tonight we are going to fish, do you want to join us? ), - asked Alipur.
- Mikha m (I want), - I answered.
Javad brought a large bowl of fruit and placed it near me:
- Hendune, kharboze, backkhor! (watermelon, melon, eat)
After we had eaten, the dirty dishes were taken to another part of the house.
Then they began to gather for fishing, the father took out several small fish from the refrigerator for catching live bait, and also went to the store to buy hooks that were no smaller than the size of a thumb. We rode motorcycles for about twenty minutes to the sea.
The technology of catching fish was very simple. The bait must be cut in half, take the part that is with the head, thread it through the gills with a hook, then unwind it with a “helicopter” and throw it as far as possible. The fishing line here simultaneously acts as a fishing rod and a float, so it must be held in the air with the index and thumb with one hand. By its tension, you can understand when the fish will start to drive the bait, and when you need to hook.
Alipur gave a short briefing, and after a few minutes he caught a fish the size of one and a half palms, and continued to pull the catch at intervals of 8-10 minutes for an hour, until the sun went down, Javad was also not inferior to his father in the number of fish caught. I was lucky only once, in most cases it was difficult for me to know when to hook, and my bait was either simply eaten or the fish was off the hook.
I liked fishing, but most of all I liked people with whom I didn’t know in the morning, and in the evening, thanks to hitchhiking, I was next to them and felt how close they became to me. It seems to me that on that day, sitting on a stone with a fishing line in my hands, waiting for the fish, I was really happy.
After fishing we decided to swim. It was dark, and Javad walked ahead, illuminating the bottom with a flashlight. The water was hot and there was fine sand underfoot.
At the bottom, not far from me, I saw a flat fish resembling a stingray, and drew the attention of my friends to it, which greatly disturbed them. “Kheili khatarnak e (very dangerous), ” Alipur said, and we slowly got out of the water, and then we got on motorcycles and went home.
The next day, we saw how fish were being caught not far from us with a similar bait, but when three people began to pull the catch, I could not stand it and ran to the scene with a camera. Two held something floundering in the water by its front gills, and the third pulled a line with a hook. A huge stingray, the fish we saw at night, was dragged onto the beach. Whether the fishermen hunted him on purpose or it happened by chance that he grabbed the bait, and what they were going to do with him now, I could not find out.
Reference. Such stingrays are called stingrays because of their poisonous spines on their tails.
Although these marine creatures do not attack first, it is easy to become a victim simply by stepping on a stingray that has dipped into the sand. Stingray skin is durable and has an unusual texture, it is used in the leather industry, and wings are considered a delicacy in many cuisines.
We gave part of our catch to the owner, and put the rest of the fish in the refrigerator, where I accidentally noticed crabs. And although they were no longer alive, and the claws were torn off, for some reason I was afraid to pick them up. Noticing my interest, Alipur offered to cook them while dinner was being prepared. We transferred them to a huge saucepan, having previously added salt and bunches of greens unknown to me to the water. To eat a boiled crab, you need to firmly take it in one hand and unscrew the upper shell like a cork from a bottle with the other, then clean the insides, after which you can get the most fleshy and delicious part of the crab at the base of the legs.
For some reason, my Iranian friends ate only this part, sending the rest of the crab to the trash can. In my opinion, it was simply unforgivable to do this with a delicacy, so I showed that there is also meat in the legs of the crab, and it is very tasty. Alipur laughed and waved his hand, saying that there is so little meat there that you don’t even want to bother.
English with an Iranian accent
That same evening Javad took me to a private English language school at the invitation of teacher Isaak. When he learned that a foreigner had come to Bandar Charak, he begged me to attend his lesson. I have repeatedly observed that in Iran, most foreign language teachers have never been to the countries whose language they taught.
Just as the French teacher from Qeshm Town with six years of teaching experience had never been to France, and the English teacher at the University of Kerman had never visited England, so Isaac from Bandar Abbas never even spoke to a foreigner in his life. Apparently, due to political sanctions, there were no exchange and advanced training programs for Iran in foreign countries. In turn, the students of the school, although they regularly paid money for teaching a foreign language, always sadly admitted that they were unlikely to ever be able to go abroad to use their knowledge, and therefore many studied without due diligence.
My appearance at the lesson caused a noticeable excitement among the students. They vied with each other to ask me, feverishly remembering the words of a previously unnecessary foreign language.
The first question sounded traditional: “Why did I choose Iran for my travels? “A little tired of answering this question, which literally everyone I met asked me, I decided to joke and said: “I wanted to go to a really dangerous country, and therefore I chose Iran. And now I’m upset because it’s very safe here, there are no terrorists, there is no war, people are very kind and hospitable, and I really like it here. ” At first they listened to me with caution, but at the words “I really like it here, ” they began to nod and smile, and so we became friends.
"Science will win" or why I refused $50
From school we arrived home, where dinner was already waiting for us.
I talked about my adventures and that I travel for free on passing cars, and also clearly demonstrated my journey on the map, drawing a route from Bender Chara to Belarus through Russia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and all of Iran, while I proudly noted that he spent only $60 on regular transport (of which $50 for the Moscow-Volgograd train and $10 for the Astara-Tehran bus).
By describing such a strange way of traveling - after all, according to the Iranians, only poor people travel for free - I, unwittingly, convinced my friends that they were, to put it mildly, a poor traveler, who also really needed money. In the evening, when I had already gone to bed, Alipur came into the room, sat down on the bed next to me and said: “Kish, khe ili gerun ne. Ghaza, hotel, taxi - ziya d pul (Kish, very expensive, food, hotels, taxis – a lot of money)”, and then put a 50.000 rials ($50) bill on the pillow.
I was very confused, because I didn’t ask for money, besides, I suddenly remembered that his offer could be “taarof”, then, according to the rules of decency, it is necessary to refuse several times, so that the one who offers the service himself has the opportunity to take back his offer . Therefore, I replied that I did not need money, because instead of a hotel I would live at a friend's house and I was not going to take a taxi and go to restaurants. Alipur took the money, wished me good night and left, but it seemed to me that he was upset by my answer.
Mentally scrolling through the dialogue again, I realized that my refusal could well hurt his feelings - after all, the offer of money on his part was a gesture of goodwill, when he, as the owner, simply needed to help me.
Then I decided that tomorrow, before leaving, I would ask Alipur to give me the money that he had offered the night before, but upon my return from the island I would return it to him, arguing that I did not need it. Thus, when I turn to him for money, I acknowledge that I need his help, and he, as a host, will render me a service that will be an opportunity for him to express his respect for me as a guest. I wonder how surprised he will be when I return the money back to him after a trip to the island, specially stopping by on the way back to his house.
Early in the morning I approached Alipur and said that he was right about the high prices for food and taxis, so I decided to ask him for money. As I expected, he was very happy about my request and immediately took out from under the carpet the very 50.000 rials that I had refused yesterday. Looking ahead, I want to mention that four days later I returned from the island of Kish to their home in Bandar Chara k.
My wife and eldest son left for a few weeks in Bandar Abbas, so Alipur said something like: “My wife left, the house is empty, live as long as you want, I will be very pleased. ” I thanked him for his hospitality, told him about the trip to the island...and returned the money. Alipur was very surprised and at first did not want to take the money, but I insisted, arguing that I lived with a friend, and not in a hotel, instead of a taxi I went by bus, and besides, my friend and I cooked food in the kitchen and did not go to expensive restaurants. For some time he still continued to stand, clutching the money in his hand, but then he smiled and patted his shoulder.
The next day, when I was leaving, I witnessed another Iranian tradition - to give each other gifts as parting. Javad presented me a beautiful set of pens, and I signed and gave them a postcard with the symbols of Belarus. Alipur hugged me tightly and, patting me on the shoulder, handed me 30.
000 rials ($30), but now I had no way to refuse, he forced the money into my pocket.
- Khe ili, khe ili motshakeram (thank you very much), - I answered, accepting the gifts and blushing a little from such care.
I know that if the money runs out during the trip, as it happened to me in Iran, then other people will gladly give you everything you need for free. This for me is the essence of the slogan of the Free Travel Academy “Science Will Win” - “to know that the world around us is abundant and kind, to know that in any city you can find food and lodging for the night, that in any city and in any country in the world you will be welcomed well ". And when hospitable hosts provide their house for living, cook and serve delicious food, carry around the city, then taking money from them in this case will obviously be superfluous, even when it is desirable to have more in your pocket.
Hydrostop to Kish Island.
The day before leaving for the island for dinner, I told my Iranian friends that I had come to Bandar Charak to save on the ferry by using a private cheap $4 boat. However, the new law prohibited the transport of people in open boats, and now only $12 ferries went from the port in Bandar Chara to the island, which was only $2 less than from Bandar Lenge. The father of the Alipur family, after listening carefully to me, said that he himself often sails on a ship to the United Arab Emirates, and, for sure, knows the captain of the ferry, which will go to the island of Kish the next morning. He promised to call the captain and ask him to give me a ride for free.
I was awakened early in the morning to be taken to the port. Alipur, as promised, phoned the captain, who turned out to be his friend, and he agreed to provide me with a free place. There was a small ferry at the pier, the captain checked my visa on my passport and told me to pass without taking money.
Gradually, the ferry was completely filled with passengers, so that there was no free space before sailing, the air conditioners could not cope, and it quickly became hot and humid in the closed cabin. An hour later we sailed to the island of Kish, where Hadi Lari met me.
Author: Kozlovsky Alexander.
Book: "Unforgettable Iran". 159 days hitchhiking.
Source: http://sanyok-belarus. people. en/
