Do you know how to seduce a woman? If not the book “The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists” seems to be a must read among guys and you should get a copy of it. One of my fellow male travelers seems to be in the desperate need to find a woman. He lives in a very remote area with not too many women around which makes him a bit clumsy when it comes to picking up a woman. Our leader Jason has declared it his mission to help him finding a woman until the end of his trip. As a first step to complete his mission Jason has given him The Game book which is a self-help book for guys wanting to pick up women. Since then the book is kept safe and far away from all woman in the truck to not unveil the secrets of manhood.

Due to modern technology it’s easy for us women to get an executive summary of the book over the internet. Guys basically believe they need to demonstrate extreme confidence, be fun, hard to get and respond to every sign she’s not interested as it’s no big deal. Probably these simple advises are already a treasure for my fellow traveler searching for a woman since he looks very much desperate and need to learn how to relax and take hunting easy.

Today we drove from the caravanserai, where we have spent the last night in, to the city of Yazd. On the way either today or yesterday we passed the Sarv-e-Abarkuh, a 4,000 year old cypress which is one of the oldest trees on this planet. We first thought we have missed this sight until our local guide Mehdi clarified we actually had a pee stop next to it. However, neither I nor anybody else I have talked to has actually seen it. Well, we will survive without it.

We arrived in Yazd shortly before lunch time and visited the major sights even before checking-in to our hotel. Yazd is the center of Zoroastrianism, Iran’s oldest religion. Nowadays, there are only a few people left who are still practicing this religion while most others converted to Islam.

The first sight we visited were the two Towers of Silence situated in the outskirts of Yazd. These towers used to be a place for the dead. Zoroastrians created them as a storage place for dead bodies. They believed dead bodies are unclean and potential pollutants of everything they come in contact with. Therefore, dead bodies needed to be disposed as good as possible and the common procedure was to put them in a tower where they were very much exposed to the sun and birds. We also took some time to climb the small hills with the towers on top from where we had a wonderful view over the city.

The second sight we visited was the Zoroastrian Fire Temple in the center of Yazd which holds a fire continuously burning since 470 AD. Zoroastrian revere fire why they even built temples for it. The fire in this temple has been kept burning from past until today by a person who is among the Zoroastrian priests by adding a piece of dry wood and more durable wood such as almond or apricot several times a day.

After checking-in to our hotel we had some time off to relax and to get lunch. In the late afternoon we went to the Saheb a Zaman Club recommended by the Lonely Planet as a must-do activity while being in Yazd. It’s basically an Iranian type of gym for guys and if you like you can watch them exercising. When entering the club a sign reminded us ladies of wearing our Muslim coverage to not seduce the guys in the gym. The guys were all a level deeper in a kind of small arena. At the side of it was a guy playing a drum and singing to it. Underneath him was a big clock showing the exercise time elapsed. All exercises the guys were performing seemed to strengthen their body. While some of them were really into it and gave their best others were just standing in the position of the exercise performed but hardly moved their body.

After watching the exercises for an hour or so we continued to a restaurant recommended by our guide. We left Chris and Alistair behind at the gym where they have met some local Iranian girls which seemed to be better entertainment than dinner with us. The food at the restaurant was really nice, especially because they had a broad selection of different dishes. I really much enjoyed my chicken curry while my fellow travelers Andrew and Jason were playing chess. Jason seems to be a hopeless case in this game since he barely managed to beat Andrew who easily collected all of Jason’s chess pieces in the game.