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Iran Daily August 11, 2004 5

Meymoon Qaleh

There is a two-story castle with verticalvestibules and lateral rooms namedMeymoon Qaleh in the south of Qazvin. The

middle dome is ruined, but the remains of eighttowers are still in existence.

Some have called the place Mehman Qaleh butothers attribute the castle to Meymoon bin OunKatib--the commander of Mousal Hadi Abbasi'sarmy--in the 8th century AD. The castle is one ofthe monuments erected at the early Islamic era oreven before.

It is said that the castle is the remains of theancient city of Madineh Moosa.

The castle is a square construction with dimen-sions of 70m70m that is made up of 30cm30cmsun dried bricks along with lime mortar. Thedownstairs of the castle from east of the hill andthrough three tunnels culminates in the south ofthe hill. A north-south tunnel connects these tun-nels to each other as well. The earthenware foundin the castle approve that they have been in useup to Ale Booyeh times.

S i g h t s e e i n g

T o u r i s mT o u r i s m

Jan Myrdal (Swedish poet, 1910-83):

Traveling is not just seeing the new; it is also leaving behind. Not just open-ing doors; also closing them behind you, never to return. But the place you

have left forever is always there for you to see whenever you shut your eyes.

An aerial view of Zayandeh River, Isfahan province

Visa regulationswill be facilitatedfor foreign

nationals eager to visit

Iran in an attempt to pro-mote the domestictourism industry, head ofIran Cultural Heritageand TourismOrganization, HosseinMarashi, said.

Marashi told Fars NewsAgency that obtainingvisa has always been a

barrie r for foreig ntourists. "For that reason,ICHTO plans to recon-sider visa regulations incoordination with theMinistry of ForeignAffairs," he noted.

Marashi pointed toappropriate publicity asanother factor that canhelp draw more sight-

seers. "The enemies ofthe Islamic Republichave tried to portray adistorted image of Iran

through their biased pro-pagan da. We need toneutralize such efforts byestablishing travel agen-cies in the target coun-tries and engage in anactive marketing," he

proposed.The official asserted

that improving the stan-dards of hotels is also aneffective step in attract-ing foreign tourists."Private entrepreneurscan play a significantrole in upgrading accom-modation facilities," headded.

Commenting on incor-rect information provid-ed on the number of

incoming tourists,Marashi said, "Some ofthese figures are mislead-ing, because they even

include the number oftransit drivers arriving inthe country. ICHTO is

preparing a comprehen-sive plan so as to presentaccurate informationabout incoming touristsin annual reports."

In related news, the freetrade zones of Kish andQeshm will be consid-ered as ports of exit andforeign nationals wishingto extend their stay can

plan a trip to t hese south-ern islands.

According to an ISNAreport, based on a

scheme that has not beenenforced yet, foreignnationals whose legalvisa for staying in the

mainland has beenexpired can travel to Kishand Qeshm as exit portsand receive visas again.The decision has beenmade due to easy regula-tions in place in freezones concerning theentry of foreign visitors.

The Foreign Ministryand the Islamic Republicof Iran Police have decid-ed to offer more facilitiesso that foreigners wouldnot need to travel abroadfor visa extension. Thiswill be a step toward pro-moting tourism and pre-venting the outflow ofeconomic resources evenfor a short time.

Visa Regulations to Be EasedKish, Qeshm Will Become Exit Ports

Efficient marketing andimproved facilities are neededto draw more visitors.

Construction operations of Ramsar cable carproje ct star ted in the Il Mili Sefid Tames hkregion of the Caspian city in a ceremony attended

by a numbe r of Maza dara n off icia ls, IRNA wrote .Speaking at the event, governor of Ramsar said

that about 200 billion rials worth of private invest-ment will be made in the project.

Seyyed Ahmad Miri referred to construction of ahotel, restaurant and water sports facilities as other

parts of t he p roje ct.He noted that 50 billion rials has been expended

on preliminary works, expressing hope that itwould be completed by next year.

According to him, the cable car facility is aimedto promote local tourism industry and developRamsar.

The green Caspian city hosts over one milliondomestic and foreign travelers annually, thanks toits splendid natural beauties and clean fresh air.

Ramsar Cable Car

Project Switched On Iranian Embassy in Saudi

Arabia has issued touristvisas for over 22,000 Saudicitizens during the firstfour months of the currentyear (started March 20).

Charge d'affair of theembassy, Ali-RezaEnayati, told IRNA thattaking into account non-tourist visas as well, theembassy has issued visasfor 25,000 Saudis duringthe same period, doublethe corresponding figure oflast year.

Enayati added that Saudicitizens have greatly wel-comed Iran's tourism fasci-nations and are interestedin spending their summerholidays here.

"In a bid to meet the

demand surge, theembassy has increased thenumber of its consulatestaff and extended theworking time to 10 hours aday," he explained.

He said the embassytakes one day or even lessto issue visas for Saudiapplicants.

"A large number of appli-

cants have received Iran's

visas in previous years aswell, which is a sign oftheir clear perception ofthe conditions in Iran," hestated.

The official cited thecountry's religious atmos-

phere, climatic diversity aswell as natural draws as themain features appealing toSaudis.

He noted that books,

brochures and CDs areprovided to Saudi visitorsto introduce Iran's tourismfascinations and sightsee-ing places to them.

Also, the national carrier,Iran Air, has providedextra summer flights for

passengers travelingbetween the two countries.

More Saudis Visit Iran

Air flights to Kish have registered an18-percent growth during the firstmonth of the island's seventh summerfestival compared to the same period oflast year.

As reported by ILNA, more than68,000 tourists arrived in the southernresort island during July 5-August 5,10,000 more than the corresponding fig-ure of last year. Also, more than 14,300

passengers set foot on the island by sea

during the same one-month period.In a bid to satisfy the summer holiday-

makers, the Kish Free ZoneOrganization, as in previous years, hasestablished a special festival headquar-ters which in cooperation with otherguilds, offers a variety of cultural, artis-tic and entertaining programs.

Valuable prizes including a Peugeot206 every night, a kilogram of goldevery week, and millions of rials worthof prizes in cash and kind are presented

to passengers in lucky draws.The Seventh Kish Summer Festival

will last through September 5.

Kish Experiences Summer Boom

Medical Registration Organization will signa contract with Iran Cultural Heritage andTourism Organization to provide physicianswith travel coupons, deputy head of the MROin charge of welfare and social affairs said.

Mohsen Khalili Meybodi told ISNA that thecoupons will be repaid in six months, addingusing the vouchers, the physicians will be pro-vided with discounts of between 10 and 50 per-cent at 70 guesthouses affiliated to ICHTO.

He continued, "Also a contract has been con-cluded with Pars chain hotels owned by theSocial Security Investment Company in thecities of Tabriz, Mashhad, Ahvaz and Kermanso that physicians can use their services at dis-count rates of 20-40 percent."

Khalili Meybodi also added one or two climb-ing programs have been scheduled for physi-cians in Tehran's surrounding mountains eachmonth with the help of physicians who aremembers of the Mountaineering Federation.

Travel VouchersFor Physicians

Fifteen years ago, on the nightof November 9, 1989, EastGermans were given access through the BerlinWall. While the infamous Wall was subse-quently dismantled, and political unificationremains solid, the social and cultural unificationof people from two different states has beenmuch more complex, and some say incomplete.Berlin, former capital of East Germany andnow capital of the unified German state offers

unexpected opportunities to explore a nationand society still in transition.

Somewhat lost and disoriented, I was unwit-tingly approaching the city's eastern districtssometime after midnight when I met Karin, ayoung Berliner, who kindly became my host inBerlin. This after another German, kind butmisguided, asked if I needed any help after hesaw the Canadian flag on my bag. He washappy to offer any assistance. He likedCanadians, he told me. After all, he'd been toOhio. I chuckled at his friendly mistake andcontinued across the city.

We began our explorations in the relative dis-comfort of the Communist-era Trabant Karinhad recently purchased. Once everywhere,these comic looking little cars are now scarce inBerlin, even drawing waves and honks as we

passed through the city. Taking twists and turnspast neglected squares I would never remem-ber, we finally found ourselves before an unas-suming pre-war tenement block. Hidden in the

basement was a darkened caf playing nostalgicgames with the past. Inside, a monolithic gran-ite bust of Kurt Tucholsky, communist poet and

journalist, acted as a seat for those indulgingtheir sense of irony.

Sitting atop Kurt's head, Karin's eyes browsedthe collected paraphernalia hearkening back tothe days of communism. Though raised in We stGermany, she had moved to within blocks ofBerlin's East-West border. In those days, only

pensioners were permitted to cross into theWest at the nearby Oberbaum bridge in order to

visit family separated by the Wall.Local canals also separated the

Soviet district of Treptow in the East fromKreuzberg in the West. From her West Berlinapartment, some nights Karin would hear dogsand East German gunfire from the borderregion just a few blocks away as defectors triedto overcome these water borders.

The eastern caf in which she related thesestories, appropriately painted a deep shade of

red, was littered with reminders of the past.Ironically, many of these reminders have beenexorcised of their political undertones throughnot only the capitalist and democratic transfor-mations since 1989 but also the purifying bap-tism of "kitschification."

The GDR, or German Democratic Republic,has become not just capitalist, but also collec-table, and even kitsch. It is amazing what relicsone can unearth from amid the bric-a-brac ofdiscarded uniform buttons, youth participationmedals, and old driver's licenses. Outdatedtourist glasses advertising "Berlin, capital of theGDR", in which grandmothers probably storedtheir teeth at night, now sell for 8-10 euros inthe flea markets around Ostbahnhof Station.Even a toaster made by LAVA, a GDR eramanufacturer, which may not even work, sellsfor an astonishing 25 euros at another Berlinflea market at Boxhagener Platz. All this priceinflation for collectibles from East Germanyhas been fuelled not only by tourists, but also adomestic phenomenon known as Ostalgie, ornostalgia for the East and its past. At these mar-kets, however, as soon as you hear, "Yes, butthat is from GDR times," you know that the

price is about to treble--at least.So, as the fifteenth anniversary of the fall of

the Berlin Wall approaches this November 9,we see that the images and icons of this nearestof "Evil Empire" republics has been declawed

by the superpowers of kitsch. So, as Karin andI drove away in her Trabi (that no longer uni-versal symbol of East German kitsch), she

smoking an unfiltered Karo (an equally rareartefact of the former regime), how could wenot consider the radical transformationsthroughout East Germany and Eastern Europewhich have destabilized and recreated all thesesymbols of the past? Tucholsky's view has def-initely changed.

If you go:-An excellent place to rummage for commu-

nist-era memorabilia is at the flea marketbehind the Ostbahnhof train station. Also checkout the Friedrichshain market at BoxhagenerPlatz.

-Perhaps most famous of East Berlin's monu-mental constructions are Alexanderplatz withits centrepiece TV tower, and Karl-Marx-Allee,a monumental boulevard of socialist architec-ture which leads away from Alexanderplatz.

-And the caf with Tucholsky's head? It's oneof many eclectic neighbourhood stops in theeastern districts of Berlin filled with charm,nostalgia, and irony. Another great one to checkout is Freischwimmer, a linked collection of old

boathouses and docks on the canals in Treptowthat once separated East and West Berlin.

On either side of East Berlin's central boulevard sit theBerlin Cathedral and the former parliament of EastGermany, the Palace of the Republic, a constantreminder of the city's communist past.

Kitsch and Communism in Berlin

By Justin Bengry

Uttar Pradesh is framing a newtourism policy that will focus ondeveloping world-class infrastructure tolink places of historical and religiousinterest as part of efforts to generateemployment, 123bharath.com reported.

"We will soon frame a new tourism pol-icy that will focus on developing touristcircuits of interest to various groups, be itBuddhists, Hindus or Sufism," UttarPradesh Chief Minister Mulayam SinghYadav said, opening the annual conven-tion of the Indian Association of TourOperators (IATO).

"Uttar Pradesh will support efforts tomake tourism a tool for employment gen-eration and poverty eradication," he said.

Marking the 350th anniversary of themonument of love Taj Mahal, the con-vention brings together tourism and tradedelegates from India and neighboringcountries to explore how the boom gen-erated by the "Incredible India" cam-

paign can be sustained.Enumerating plans to put Uttar Pradesh

on the global tourism map, Yadav said,

"Within one year we hope to have four-lane world-class roads from the capitalLucknow to Fatehpur Sikri and Agra andalso develop facilities like night bazaarsto make Agra a model tourist city to pro-long tourist stay."

He criticized propaganda by some polit-ical forces that had described Taj Mahalas a symbol of foreign dominance. "Wedo not subscribe to this thinking as theTaj Mahal is a symbol of love and com-munal harmony," said Yadav.

Yadav said his state would strive towork with neighboring states to developa special tourism zone in central India.

The attempt would be to connect placeslike Mathura, Vrindavan, Fatehpur Sikri,Agra and Gwalior to ancient and cultur-ally rich cities like Benaras andAllahbad.

Detailing some plans in the offing,Uttar Pradesh Tourism Minister KokabHameed said it was proposed to link

places that figured in India's first war ofindependence in 1857, including Meerutand Lucknow, formerly known as Oudh.

Uttar Pradesh Making New Policy