The Persian Carpet

Making carpet is one of the occupation of this village people. This is how carpet is made

Me, in front of hand woven carpet and given permission to take a picture

The Persian carpet ( Cannot Fly!!!) and the Iraq and Iran War

Hasankif town is very small and is a tourist town for during Iran New Year which falls on April 21 of each year, most of the Iranian from Teheran will make a trip here to enjoy the break of Spring. Other than working, I also visited one most common carpet maker in this town. See above picture.

I can till recall how I managed to take a carpet back to Penang. During war outbreak between Iraq and Iran( Iraq attacked Iran) our company ,JEL and MELCO have agreed to suspend the job and and hence all of us have to retreat from Iran. Malaysia Embassy started to evacuate all Malaysian and Singaporean batch by batch for it was not as dangerous as during the Iran revolution. During that time one of the staff informed me that they have to line up at the airport and waited to be airlift to the nearest countries. According to them, Pan Am Airline took them to out Rome and from there return to Singapore by other available airline.

Well, our is not as Chao as before and hence as decided the safest journey,we took the Trans-Europe bus to Istanbul in Turkey for 2 days and 1 night ( if I am right). During this trip I decided to take a carpet back and hoping that I could get through the immigration at the border. From Teheran to the Turkish border, our bus driver has to report to a lot of Police stations on the way to get the clearance to proceed to the next town. Why? It was because there were still many Iraq planes in the air and the situation was very dangerous. Anyway we managed to reach the border immigration checkpoint safely. As usual we have to show them the amount of US dollar as we have earlier declared on arrival. In this case, mine is only US 200. when the immigration was checking me, there was a commotion beside me for the revolutionary army personnell was asking an Iranian to take of his belt. Upon examining the belt they found a lot of German Mark stitched inside the belt. All concentration were then focused onto that event and the officer let me passed without further checking of my luggage. Well , I was very happy after passing the Turkey checkpoint. Took 1 carpet back to Penang. The rest of journey to Istanbul was very smooth. Upon reaching Istanbul, my Project manager checked us into a hotel and at that hotel we contacted Singapore and was directed to a bank to get our money so as to rebook our flight back to Singapore. We took a short tour of Istanbul visiting the renowned Blue Mosque and the famous Bazaar. and 2 days later we flew back to Singapore via Pakistan.

Back to Singapore , we immediately went to the office to report to our Personal manager.When

he saw my Project Manager, he asked him where I was. I went over to him and he picked his phone and ask me to dial my Eldest Brother. I was wondering why the rush but I told him that I will call from his secretary place. I went over to his secretary and ask her what happened. Why is our Personal manager getting very excited over my call to my brother. She told me that a few days ago, he received a call from my brother and my brother asked about your my evacuation from Iran and left a contact no of Citibank. In case my brother was not around, please leave a message with his secretary. Immediately after that call, he,the Personal manager, called our company accountant and ask whether he knew of a person by the name of Kang working inside Citibank. The accountant said that he did not know and will check for him if he wanted it. A few minute later, the accountant called and tell him that Mr Kang was a Vice President in Citibank.

Oh,Oh was that the reason I became famous inside JEL? Hope not lah. Anyway, I called my brother and told him that I was back and will see him that night.. That night, I dropped by my brother place and told him about the story and my brother just Smile!

The next day,while I was walking down the staircase of my JEL's office, I met and wished my Personal manager good morning and followed with a smile. Well, that smile really helps a lot in my future work.There are many things that I have learned from my Eldest brother and one of them is always to be HUMBLE and SMILE always. O- Bei -Liao lah.