Day 158 Kashan - Natanz

What a strange day! What a fascinating day! What a hard day! What a wonderful day! Full of friendly & inviting people (not that this is surprising in Iran).
When we got started I noticed that it is not going well today - don't know why, I just felt a bit tired which made cycling harder than usual. At the first 20 km not much happened. Then we were stopped by the police. There is some kind of nuclear facility close to the road, therefore the police is very careful here. The 2 guys were doing their job (checking passport, checking camera and GPS, asking questions, then checking all [ALL!] our luggage) - but they were incredibly friendly allthrough this process. After about an hour everything was packed again and they told us the rules for the road to come: cycling ok, but no pictures, no stopping. Off we went and soon noticed that we had an escort - they drove behind us for several hours. The landscape was very scenic, but: no pictures. When we had just passed by the nuclear facility (not much to see there, just a heavily guarded factory area beside the road) we were happy to be stopped by another police car - finally a chance to eat, drink (for me) and smoke (for Yannik). The guys of the second car had just begun to ask questions (also very friendly) when our escort came and told them that we are ok. Soon later we were alone again and could stop wherever we wanted. Shortly before arriving in Natanz the hardest part of the day came: 400m steep uphill. I noticed that I am a bit out of steep-uphill-training. Since entering Iran the landscape has been very smooth - no steep hills anywhere until now. It was really hard for me - it is incredible that I did more than double than that in Armenia without problems. Maybe it was also just due to todays tiredness. When we finally arrived it was very cold and we just wanted a warm place and nothing more. I had thought of Natanz as just a normal small town which would make a good stop as it had some hotels. But what started as just a short walk to the main mosque showed that it is a very beautiful place. The town is surrounded by mountains with the nearly 4000m high, very rugged Karkas-mountains (mountains of vultures) to the west. One smaller hill near the city is topped by what looks to me like an old zoroastrian fire temple. The main mosque and the nearby imamzhade (tomb of a Sufi mystic) are marvellous - the light shortly after sunset added to the atmosphere. Near the mosque many people were entering a circus-tent-like structure. We decided to first walk some more through town before checking that out. Soon we came along another circus-tent. Beside the entrance a long pavillon gave shelter to many puppets depicting some of the events of Ashurah. Obviously we could not understand everything - I noticed the Ka'aba in Mekka and the depiction of the battle during which Imam Hussein and his people were killed. It reminded me a lot of similar sceneries at German christmas market. While we were trying to figure out more an older man approached us and despite no english explained us some more: there was a castle and an orthodox church, but I cannot tell which part they play in the story. He immediately took care of us and led us into the tent, arranged seating, served us tea, made sure we could see well - incredible! This is really really great about Iran - you just have to stand around somewhere for a minute and you can be sure that someone will appear and help you. The circus tent is a special place only used during Ashurah to stage ta'ziyeh - a passion play of the assassination of Imam Hussein. We did not know anything about that before, so it came as a very pleasant surprise. It was played pretty professionally, complete with special effects like fake blood, flying pigeons, horses and camels and music played on drums, trumpet and flute. Though with a different topic it reminded me of the plays at christmas in German churches - a very interesting connection if you add the fact that ta'ziyeh predates the introduction of Islam to Iran! I believe that there is a far bigger connection between Persian and German culture than meets the eye.
We had just entered at the right time - some minutes after we had sat down the play started. It was very very interesting - we did not understand everything but we could distinguish Hussein and a member of his family (dressed in white and green) and the bad guys: Yezid, the boss of the bad guys and Shemr, the bad guy who actually did the killing (mainly dressed in black and red). Shemrs face was hidden - after some additional reading I believe this could have been a safety measure because it is quite the opposite of a popular role: it has happened before that the crowd beat up or even killed the poor guy playing Shemr! Nevertheless to us everything seemed very peaceful and everyone was very inviting. After the play we were approached by Mohammed, who had been living in Germany for 38 years and spoke nearly native German. He explained us a bit more about the play and translated our thanks to our host (who turned out to be a retired history teacher). They invited us to come back later for food, but we excused ourself because we felt in urgent need of a shower - after all we had just planned to walk around town for some minutes - but in Iran you never know which nice surprise is waiting at the next corner!

--
Marek Mahn

marekmahn@gmail.com

Day 157 Kashan

Because of the holiday all the sights are closed, but: because of the holiday the day was very interesting. To mourn the assassination of the 3rd Shiite imam Hussein the streets are decorated with mostly black flags, the fountains are filled with blood, most cars sport some calligraphy and fake blood, everyone is on the streets, the town is full of music, there is free tea and food everywhere for everyone (including infidels) and many men in mourning groups parade through the streets singing and beating their chests with their hands. Everything is very peaceful - one advantage of the prohibition of alcohol - and many people are very very inviting: every once in a while I had to retreat to our wonderful hotel as constantly being the center of attention can become quite stressful.

Day 156 Qom - Kashan

Some relaxing days, a big and good breakfast and bright sunshine gave us an easy start. We went on the road very early because our destination was more than 100km away. The first two thirds were going very well. There even were some splendid to our right - finally some landscape ! Only during the end we felt that the distance was quite long. We arrived in Kashan at sunset and found a room at a wonderful hotel in one of the huge traditional houses - in fact several houses arranged around a courtyard with pool, pomegranate trees and many different birds. We went out shortly to arrange some food: the next 2 days will be holidays with most shops and restaurants closed. At the basar we could already witness a small procession: there I saw that what I described yesterday as the stroke of many drums is not correct. This beat in the music played all around is produced by many men beating their chests with their hands.

Day 154 - 155 Qom

Life is full of surprises: There are many things I had thought I would do in Iran - having fun playing Jenga with 3 fully veiled iranian-kurdish-german-kosovan girls and a french-swiss cyclist in a tv production company office in the holy city of Qom was definitely not among them.
After a delicious breakfast prepared by her mother our wonderful host Fatima took us to her work. She is a tv host and currently shoots an english languages documentary about foreigners coming to Qom who have converted to Shi'a Islam. Qom is the second holiest city in Iran (after Mashhad) and the largest center of Shi'a scholarship in the world. We got to know to a South-African man and a girl from Kosovo who came to Qom to study. Most of the time we did not know what was going on - we just followed our host - after so many days of having to find our way by ourselves this was just perfect. We visited the South-African, spent some waiting time playing jenga, had lunch with the production company and went to the white hill near to Qom. While an interview was shot there we walked up to the mosque on the hilltop and enjoyed wonderful views over the holy city.
After getting back home we had tea and chat with other couchsurfers and friends until Fatimas mum again called us up for a delicious meal. We heard that other travellers had a hard time leaving this wonderful place - we completely understood why and decided to stay one more day, too. In the evening we went to the Holy Shrine in the city center. Since several days we had seen that a religious festival is going on: many cities are decorated with black flags and street stalls are playing very specific music (slow, sad, a capella with a monotonous stroke of many a drum at the 1 of each bar). Ali in Sadeh explained to us that it is Muharram, the first month of the islamic lunar calendar. The first ten days are a period of mourning, especially among Shi'a muslims. The tenth day is called Ashurah, a day of grief for Shi'a muslims, commemorating the killing of Hussain ibn Ali, grandson of Mohammed and a Shi'a Imam. At the shrine we witnessed the processions - recitations, drum & trumpet-based music, waving of huge flags, swinging of wooden swords and carrying of huge illuminated 'ships'. Once again we did not understand much of it, but it was a fascinating experience. We were not sure if we were disturbing at the processions - after all we are infidels - but eventually we were told 'Welcome to Iran' by a complete stranger just as so many times before. The shrine itself is a huge compound of immense beauty - we were stunned even though we were only allowed into the outer areas. At this time if mourning even Irans supreme leader Ali Khamenei is depicted at the shrine in a weeping pose.
Besides the spiritual experience this evening also made us gain the very worldly skill of organizing a shared taxi to the correct destination in Iran.
The next day we were just very very lazy: we felt like children - being called up for food by Fatimas mum and going to play to our room inbetween. We just ventured out one time to organize some food and chocolate milk (mmmmmh) for tomorrows long ride and to do some more planning at an internet place - after Iran I will take the ferry to the Emirates, from there I will definitely pay a visit to Oman  before flying (unfortunately there is no other way) to the Indian subcontinent, most probably to Sri Lanka.

Day 153 Saveh - Qom

Ali invited us again for a wonderful breakfast. Before sending us on the road he even presented us with gifts before sending us on our way: a book of poems of Omar Khayyam for both of us (in Farsi, Arabic, English, French and German) - very very beautiful!
Once we got out of Saveh we were once again on a huge plain.
The first 20km of the ride were awful: small road, many trucks and no chance to ride on the shoulders
When we had nearly finished this hard ride a police car stopped us and 4 policemen staged a pretty surreal play: One guy says hello, asks questions and controls our passport. Another guy hands us a bag of pomegranates. Another big guy just stands around and looks dangerous. Another very young guy wants to take pictures. So we are making pictures with all possible cyclist-policemen-combinations. The young guy then tries to talk to us and just walks away with Yanniks tissues and my chocolate, hä? Finally everyone gets ready to leave and the big one kisses us goodbye on the cheeks. So, we were standing there confused having lost tissues and chocolate but having gained many pomegranates.
The rest of the ride was unspectacular - very very unspectacular. We are clearly coming closer to the desert now. Most of the time there was a big nothingness beside the road. This combined with cloudy sky was not very moodlifting - but at least there was not such bad headwind as yesterday. Once we got into Qom we stopped for a chai and were immediately approached by an english teacher who gave us excellent directions to our couchsurfing hosts address. His directions led us very close to our destination - but we still had some problems finding the address. So only several inquiries and about an hour later we arrived at a true travellers heaven. Our host Fatima and her German mother live in a big house with a spacious cellar reserved for travellers - we met Mark from the Netherlands and fellow cyclists Kimmi and Brett ( http://www.thekindnessofstrangers.net ) there. After two days of hard rides we were very happy to be welcomed at such a nice, warm, cosy place and soon went to sleep.

Day 152 Buin-Zahra - Saveh

That was a pretty cold night - the lowest in-tent temperature I checked was -1°C, probably it got colder. I found some sleep by covering my sleeping bag with clothes. When I got out of the tent it was frozen from outside. We took a long time to get up, have breakfast and pack our stuff - we finally got on the road around 11.
At first the landscape was not as boring as yesterday: we even had to climb a small mountain. Somewhere during the climb we met a retired french hippie-couple in a camper van on their way to India. They are living their life the right way - they had an impressive travel history and now got the camper van to keep on travelling with a bit of comfort.
We kept on cycling up to the top and thought the hardest part would be over. We were wrong: 50km of busy highway, no landscape, strong headwind. Ugh! Not nice! After a long hard ride we finally saw some street lights anouncing the descend to Saveh. We got to Saveh very exhausted long after sunset. That was when the nice part of the day started: we were invited to a huge tasty dinner by couchsurfer Ali and his extended family. Ali was a very nice host: We chatted, ate, met several family members and learned some more Farsi.