Qazvin

The bus journey fromTabriz to Qazvin was quite entertaining. The team comprised two drivers and a guy whose job it was to usher new passengers on board, stow their luggage etc. He was a young guy with a big greasy hairdo which he regularly brushed back carefully into a DA style. The image was completed by a black T-shirt and jeans together with a studded belt. Steve and I dubbed him the Fonz.
The other passengers were a mixed bag of all ages - a few young women travelling alone.
The bus was going to Teheran, so at a rest stop about a couple of hours before Qazvin we reminded the Fonz of our destination so that he could tell us when we needed to get off.
Two hours later I see us sailing past the Qazvin exit on the motorway - the Fonz was at the back of the bus getting his head down for a while..................
We told the driver who claimed ignorance but pulled up on the hard shoulder at the next exit so we could get off. By a happy chance there were some taxis there so we made it back OK - I have no idea what we would have done otherwise.
Nobody seemed particularly bothered.............

After we checked into the hotel we wandered around for a while - the city was very quiet with little traffic and few people about - this was around 4pm.
We made a start in a communications office on sorting out my phone problems - I won't bore you with them anymore - and when we re-emerged about 90 minutes later the place was transformed. Enormous numbers of people out shopping and just promenading and traffic at a standstill - a real buzz about the place. This went on until about 10 pm.

We organised a car and driver today to take us to the Alamut valley - about 50 miles away.
I had never heard of it until a few weeks ago but it was extraordinary. It reminded me of the Grand Canyon in some ways. Totally different geology but the sheer scale and grandeur of the place is comparable.

There is a long and interesting history to the area. There are many ruined castles scattered through the main and side valleys. These were built as fortesses by the Assassins in the 12th/13th centuries. I won't go into much detail on them but here's a link if you're interested.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamut

We climbed up to two of the castles - the driver dropping us off on each occasion at the start of paths leading up. They were both long hot climbs but the views from the top were worth it. There was little left of the first but it was clear that it had covered an extensive area with watchtowers at various strategic points.

The second was much more substantial with renovation work going on to preserve what is left. Three elderly guys from the nearest village were there working - we later saw them again in the village so presumably they climb up and down each day.

Before the second climb we had a drink at a house near the start of the path and were asked what we wanted to eat when we got back. So we had lunch in their dining room - empty apart from persian rugs and cushions, a TV and a stereo system - both about 20 years old.

Our days of eating comfortably cross-legged are well behind us but it was an enjoyable experience.
There were no other people at the first castle and it was great to have it to ourselves. There we a few at the second and once again just about everyone we passed wanted to say hello to the foreigners.
When we got back to the bottom one young guy was waiting to have his photo taken with us.

Back in Qazvin we went to a local highpoint - a shrine to Imam Hossein. A truly remarkable place which is difficult to describe - the inside is pretty much entirely covered in small mirror tiles in various patterns - many 3D. Imagine this accompanied by coloured lighting and you might start to get the idea - garish doesn't come close.

It is surrounded by a large courtyard with beautifully tiled and half-domed alcoves where people were sitting - talking, drinking tea etc. We were wandering about looking at it all when I turned and tripped over a little boy of about two - knocking him flat. I set him on his feet quickly and thankfully he didn't cry. His mum - full black monty - came over quickly and I don't know whether she saw what had actually happened. I was afraid of causing an "incident" in the shrine. You can see the headlines - "Infidel attacks child in holy place".
In the event she was OK about it - so I made a fulsome apology and we left sharpish.

We have booked tickets to leave tomorrow on a bus to Esfahan - which I think may be the highlight of the trip.

Some observations about the money here.
The currency is the Iranian Rial of which there are about 15,000 to the pound and about 10,000 to the US dollar. Straightforward ?  You'd think so. But because a rial is worth so little the Iranians express amounts in Toman. A toman is 10 rials. But they don't do this consistently. It seems to me that you are expected to know if the amount mentioned is Rial or toman from the context. We are very slowly getting the hang of this.
I tried to buy a cheap phone and was asked for 105,000 which is about $10 which was fine - turned out the guy meant 105,000 toman which is over $100 which was most definitely not fine. By the time the misunderstanding was discovered my new Iranian simcard was already in the phone and I was trying to send a test text.
A taxi driver will say 4 - or hold up four fingers - by which he means 40,000 rials.

The other thing is that the largest banknote is 50,000 rials - about $5. So when we changed $1,000 we got a very large pile of notes. We split them between us and put them in bodybelts etc but they create a bit of a bulge. We imagined one of the chador-clad ladies approaching us to say "Hello big boy . Have you changed a lot of money or are you just pleased to see me ?" As I said before - schoolboys on a jolly.

More from Esfahan.