1st-9th November 2016: Esfahan – Ezhyeh
- Varzaneh – Naein – Aqda – Meybod – Yazd (511 km)
We had great days in Esfahan with the
two new buddies, Daniel and Daniela. We really enjoyed their companies that we
had a nice cycling week with great performance. During this 500 km, we were
invited to stay in free hotel/guesthouse rooms in total 3 times. Oh, and the
breakfast buffet was included. Yay!
On the first cycling day after Esfahan,
we chose a smaller road with less traffic to get to Ezhyeh town and camped in a
nice green park. That evening, Ahmad, a friendly local man (that we met when
entering the town) came to our tents to talk. We shared nice stories about our
trip to him and also our wish to eat „Dizi” – a special dish from Esfahan that
we couldn’t try. Guess what, the next morning, we got up and saw a huge
delicious portion of „Dizi” waiting for us next to our tents with a kind and
humble note from Ahmad. The Iranian hospitality could always suprises us!
The next day, the
four of us arrived in Varzaneh town and got offered a free room at Chapaker
traditional guesthouse. Nice! There was a small dessert only 8 km from the
guesthouse and we decided to cycle there just for fun. Well, we didn’t know how
windy it was that day and so we bumped into a fierce sand-storm the first time
in our lives. Sandy wind came from all directions and you felt like it’s the
End of the World. We couldn’t see anything farther than 20 meters as sand went
to our eyes, ears, nose and mouth through the masks. I couldn’t breath
normally. And there was no signs that all these thing would ever end. We
struggled to find the way back and somehow we got back safe and sound to the
guesthouse. We made it!
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| Sand-storm |
There was a quite interesting thing
about the warning signs along our journey from Europe to Asia. From “Deer!” in
Europe, it became “Cow/sheep/pig!” in the Balkans. And the most exciting one
that we’ve waited for months finally appeared. “Camel!”. We did see camels not
long after the sign!
The next two days,
four of us had a nice time being adopted by a kind and hospitable family of a
photographer in Naein. The story was, we arrived at a supermaket in Naein when
it was quite dark and very cold without having any booked accomodations. By
chance, we saw a Alireza, a young boy with a motorbike so we came to ask him
for some helps. With no doubts, he led us to the photographic studio of his
family nearby. We rested there meanwhile Alireza went home to arrange a room for
us for that night. Morteza, the daddy, was such a kind and warm-hearted person.
He even invited a well-known English teacher in town, Moji, to the studio to
talk to us. Moji had done an excellent job to entertain us and we ended up
having a delicious dinner at Morteza’s house.
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| With Morteza's nice family |
We loved them too much and seemed like
they couldn’t get enough of us. The result was that we spent another day with
this lovely family. The next day, they brought us to all the most famous
attractions in town as well as their nice pistachio garden. We had best quality
roasted and fresh pistachio, great tea with fresh saffron just picked from the
garden by ourselves. One funny story came from a women in the family when she
was arrested by the police. Well, she didn’t do anything besides riding a
bicycle but that’s enough for a crime in this country. You can guess how
jealous she was of me!
Leaving Naein behind, we headed to Aqda
where a stranger invited us to the only done room at his under construction
hotel. Yes, for free. And we were rejected at payment from the owner of a local
restaurant in the evening. He convinced us that it was his normal act as
Germany, Hungary and Vietnam are three good friends of Iran. Well, we own you
too much, Iran!
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| We spent a night in two of these room for Muslim pilgrims |
The next destination of our journey was
Meybod where we were accepted to stay for free at two of the pilgrim rooms in a
shrine. None of us was pilgrim, by the way! The Iranian hospitality is beyond
any distances between religions and races. The next day, we finally made it to
Yazd and can you believe this: we got free lodging at a nice hotel right at the
heart of the city. Every morning we got up with a wonderful breakfast buffet
waited. We truly had a nice relaxing time in this city. Those days in Yazd, we
visited ancient villages with the towers of silence and climbed up to the sky-burial
(by vultures) platform which was used until the 70s.
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| The shrine in Yazd |
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| Sky-burial platform |
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| Towers of silence |
Time flied and it was time to say
goodbye to the nice German couple. We continued to cycle two again...
Linh
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