Castles of the Assassins

Let s go and see a bit of countryside...
Bus to Qazvin, dropped at 3h45 in the morning in the middle of nowhere and wait for the sun to rise and people to wake up to plan the next steps of the trip.

Taxi to the "taxi gather" place, then shared taxi for a 80km ride in the hills to reach the city of Alamut, where I jump on an old truck for the last 20km that links Alamut to Gazor Khan....my final destination. pffff

Here we are, the place is great...haven t seem much of the road as I ve slept almost all the way long (except in the truck).
Put my bag in the guesthouse I found there, watch the guestbook for good hiking tips...and lets go for the visit of the the old castle (what rest of it I would say), the castle was part of a 50 castles owned by a group called the Assassins that were living in the area during the 11th and 12th centuries. The members of the Assassins were dispatched to murder leading politicals and religious. They believed that their action would lead them to paradise.
Great story no ?

What s left of the castle stands on a huge rock, which from the top gives a great view on the valley. After a walk in the ruins I follow a small pass that goes beyond the castle and lead to the bottom of the hill.

picture above: On the top right big rock stands the castle ruins....

pic above: Other side of the big rock where the castle stands

I follow the river, crossing cherry trees areas, reaching a first canyonm then a second one....I give up on the escond one a go back to the main road to go back to the guesthouse, as the sun is setting and I don t want to spend the night in the canyon.

On the second day, I take my bag and go for a longer trip, buy enough food for about two days...and lets go through the mountains, following a track explained by two guys on the guestbook at the guesthouse....
The road is very nice, crossing some stunning scenearies, the weather is quite hard and noway to walk between 1 and 3...find a rock and its shade to sleep a bit....then keep going through the mountains

Reach the first village just before dawn...walk a bit through it to find a place to sleep a bit uot of the village.
After asking the local owner, I put my tent under a nut tree for the night...fall asleep at 9pm...the day was hard ;-)

Second day, I follow the little road that goes through the hills and a few canyons to reach the big road.
Little hitch and I m back to Alamut to take a shared taxi that brings me back to Quazvin.
Having a rest there and take a train tomorrow to Tabriz, getting closer to the Turkish border, last country of my silk road trip....

Cheeers

Isfahan

Next destination...and last city on my to-do list: Isfahan...consaidered as THE city to be seen in the country. I m a bit bored of the cities right now, but let s have a look...still. You wont be surprised if I tell you the highlights are mosques and bazaars....yes they are.

Let s stop beeing mean for a while and let s look around the city.
The Imam square is the most fanous place of the city, made by the Shah in the 17th century, huge square, surrounded by the bazaar, two big mosques, and the big and beautiful Ali Qapu Palace.

The place is quite impressive, and I keep enjoying walking around the bazaar and get lost in it.

After my visit inside the main mosque, I got stopped by two students girls who are walking around and looking for foreigners to practice their english. Their english is quite OK, and they seem quite open minded...we all walk around the big bazaar, and stop in a square for a bit. Good for me too, I can ask a lot of questions about their culture, their local life, and their point of view (politics, religion and stuff).

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In the afternoon, I wander around in parks (too hot for busy city center sightseeing), read my book in the shade of a tree, have a sleep on the grasss....raaaaaa...hard life.

Quite surprise to see that few tourists in the area (THE place of THE city in Iran...might have some tourists no?) and the locals are quite sad about it, saying that all the lies about their country beeing full of terrorist, all of that sh..t broadcasted by the US and most of modern countries doesn t help tourism here.

The post elections problems wasn t really a big advertising for the country neither (I was also questioning myself a few weeks ago about going or not in Iran)... but the country IS safe, and people ARE NOT terrorist, and YES they are nice, the nicest people I have seen among all the countries I ve crossed during this trip. They are nice, (mostly) honest, friendly....

They have beautifull places, history all around, cities, countryside (haven t experienced yet...but soon).

Anyway...I highly recommend the country.

The people is not really happy there, and not quite satisfied about its oppresive government, but that doesn t mean the country is dangerous.

Of course, don t cross Teheran with a "I love Moussavi" tee shirt or you might get some serious problems .... but if you re not that stupid, then the country is mainly safe.

At night, I m moving to the south of the city to the ancient bridges area where locals use to sing and dance below thoses 13th century structures...

Anyway, another beautifull town, but I m a bit tired of cities and noise....so, thanks to the advices of a french I met in Shiraz, I ll head up north, to the city of Qazvin, then a few more transports might bring me to the remote area of the Alamut valleys...famous for the the Castles of the Assassins area.....

Shiraz / Persepolis

Second town of my Journey is Shiraz, the city itself is not that famous or beautifull, but it the closest town to the worldwide famous Persepolis.
I try to enjoy Shiraz and its big bazaar, very big yeup, funny to get lost in the small alleys and passes. It is also quite enjoyable not to see that much tourist (they are quite rare) and not beeing dragged into every shop you re looking at. The sellers are just sitting here and there, sipping tea and waiting for customer to come into their shop..... bazaar are all covered which makes it a good place to visit and hang artound during the day as the big walls protect the place from the day heat.



























On the second day, I go with two other guys I met in Persepolis, a palace complex that was built by the Achaemenid Empire (one of the greatest of its time) in around 500 years BC but mainly destroyed by Alexander the Great ... makes the site about 2500 years old now......
Very impressive place....tombs, palaces, huge carves on the buildings or on the mountains


















































































By midday we re back in ShirazNothing much to see except from Persepolis in the town, I m walking around and got stopped by people who just want to talk to me (and ask nothing in return of course....). Quick dinner, and I m taking a nigh bus to Isfahan, next destination : Isfahan





ON
THE
ROAD
AGAIN

Yazd

Straight after my border crossing, I took a bus to the holy city of Mashhad, but didnt stay that long as I had to make choices for my trip and didn t have enough time to visit this city. Anyway, I just caught a but to the famous old city of Yazd, famous to be one of the most important Zoroastian place, the pre Islamic religion. Yazd is, according to Unesco, one of the oldest city of the world.
Of course, most of the city is now made with new buildings but the old part of the city is very impressiv, narrow alleys with mud walls and houses....quite a nice feeling to hang around in there.












































Islamic religion is really part of the people life here and all the women have to wear their veil and the hejab (black) to cover their body. I have really that feeling to be in an Islamic country, and not in those Islamic-pretending-to-be-countries the 'stans' are.

The guesthouse I m staying at is quite nice, hippie styled traditional house with quite an atmosphere. The weather there is just crazy... I though I reached the hottest in the Aral dead sea but I was far from what Yazd weather is... no way to do anything between 12 and 3pm....all the shops are closed and open again around 4 or 5. Locals start going out and shop at night when the weather is much more better(I didn t say it was fresh...just better).






























The second day, a french guy I met at the guesthouse, his couchsurfer friend and I webt for a visit of the town and its close countryside. It s actually very interesting to hang around with some locals not only to get to know the city a little bit better but also to discuss with them about their customs, their country and mainly about their ppoint of view on different topics. No need to say that the main topic was the presidential elections and the locals are really happy and open to talk about it and to give their point of view.

Architecture there is beautifull and the place is full of history as I said earlier it was a famous place for Zoroastrian religion (some of the Iranian still are Zoroastrian), but the Islamic religion brough by the arabics is now the most represented one.






























Hereabove, a Zoroastrian religious place where dead people bodies were put (not buried) to be eaten by crows so their soul can go up to the sky, and heaven.
On the middle left, you can see the famous windcatcher that were catching the wind from outside to bring it inside houses to cool the place by bringing fresh air and at the same time extracting hot air.