Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
In a bookstore, a clerk patiently showed me fine poetry topics. As we left, she gave me a
book for free.
While English is the second language on many signs, and young, well-educated
people routinely speak English, communication was often challenging. The majority of
Iranians are ethnically Persian. Persians are not Arabs, and they don't speak Arabic—they
speak Persian (also called Farsi). This Persian/Arab difference is a very important distinc-
tion to the people of Iran. I heard over and over again, “We are not Arabs!”
The squiggly local script looked like Arabic to me, but I learned that, like the lan-
guage, it's Farsi. The numbers, however, are the same as those used in the Arab world.
Thankfully, when I needed it, I found that they also use the same numbers we do.
Iran is a cash society. Because of the three-decade-old American embargo here,
Western credit cards didn't work. No ATMs for foreigners meant that I had to bring in big
wads of cash…and learn to count carefully. The money came with lots of zeros. One dol-
lar was equal to 10,000
rial
. A
toman
is ten
rial,
and some prices are listed in
rial,
others
in
toman
…a tourist rip-off just waiting to happen. I had a shirt laundered at the hotel for
“20,000.” Was that in
rial
($2)—or in
toman
($20)?
