352 km
11-22. October 2016
11-22. October 2016
From
Rudbar we had an easy way to Louleman. On the way we visited a holy shrine, we
got applause from passengers in cars (like Tour de France!) and everything
become greener and alive, we left the desert behind us. Mohsen, our second host
in Qazvin arranged a place for us to stay overnight: a relative’s house in a
village, which was only ours! This is a new level of trust!
 |
| Selfie with a policeman. It was his wish. |
Next
morning, we went to Lahijan city where by chance we could watch people marching
on the street, hurting themselves with weapons: it was the day of Ashura, when
people remember Imam Hossein, who was killed about 1500 years ago by evil Sunni
soldiers. Besides hurting themselves, people cry in Mosques and serve free food
and free drinks on the streets as well. At one place hot chocolate was served
with extreme amount of sugar… that made me dizzy, almost passing out, meanwhile,
Arshineh, the dentist adopted us.
The
days were wonderful with her family: we got the tastiest food, the best tea and
sweets, sightseeing at the tea museum and tea plantations, free dentistry check-up,
and friendly, family-like atmosphere! Arshineh’s mom treated us like her
daughter and son and didn’t want us to leave. It was hard, indeed. (I forgot to
mention, our new step-brother, Arash, sometimes made some funny complaints:
“Normally I drink milk for breakfast, but now everything is for Peter!”, “The
meal was delicious, thanks to your mom!”, “I will kill you tonight!” Then he
gave a friendly back-slap, and added, that he’s just kidding.)
Lahijan
was the first tea-destination, where the best Iranian tea originates. The air
was humid and fresh, the mountains were covered by jungles and tea plantations,
and we liked there so much more than in the desert!
After
some days, the next destination along the beach of the Caspian Sea was Ramsar,
where locals helped us, and we could stay in a room of a brick factory. Then in
Chalus we stayed with Mahsa and her family (Couchsurfing), who are kiwi
farmers. It was very interesting to learn about this fruit, and about the
complicated society of bees and Iranian people. Iranian tend to destroy the
jungle in the north and they are likely to get throat cancer, from drinking the
tea too hot!
In
the north, the weather was colder, windy, rainy, and we couldn’t cycle every
day. After two nights we started on the feared Chalus road up to the plateau,
and it wasn’t as pleasant as the way down from Qazvin to Lahijan. The road was
narrow, very steep and the traffic was too big, and we felt very cold. On the
first day, after 40 km we stopped, and the poor restaurant owners, a married
couple provided us heated room and dinner. Next day we tried for another 10 km
and we gave up. Maybe 70-100 km uphill was still ahead of us, so we just took a
bus and we travelled to Karaj.
 |
| The shopkeeper gave us free cookies |
 |
| 7 year old garlic |
Where
we got off the bus, soon someone approached us and invited us to his home,
where we could rest one night. He was Hamed, a bicycle enthusiast, who wants to
own the biggest bicycle model collection in the world! We liked Ehsan, our
first host in Karaj too, so we stayed at his home for the next night. Linh had
stomach problems again, so we went to a clinic with Ehsan’s help. It wasn’t
something serious, but she needed some rest, so we stayed one more night in
Karaj.
 |
| We got free cake from a bakery! |
 |
| We got free rice poridge from a restaurant! |
Péter
No comments:
Post a Comment