15 and 16 May – Bush camp to and at Tabriz and to Babak Castle (Iran)

At 1030 hours we arrived at the Morvario Hotel in Tabriz where no rooms had been pre-booked. We were given four and five bedded rooms which were quite sufficient having bedclothes, soap and towel with a sit on toilet and shower in a wet room. Not having had a shower for five days I was first in  the shower! The ladies who cleaned the rooms were reluctant to look me in the face (quite normal here) and were surprised to be spoken to. The younger women staying in the hotel were the same but did reply to a greeting then giggled when they were out of sight. I did see women drivers, only a few, and one couple holding hands walking down the street. On the local buses the women had to sit at the back of the bus.

Derek, Jay and I walked to a chemist so that I could buy some cold medicine finding out that the chemist spoke English and had been to England a number of times. We walked to the main bazaar where just about anything could be bought. There was no shortage of clothes, shoes (shoes are hand made here) and white goods (Bosch and Kenwood) being in evidence. We did not go into the carpet section having had enough of carpets in Turkey. The local women were not dressed as I expected as a lot of them wore a headscarf and modest top then jeans and smart shoes. Our ladies did buy different coloured scarves here to wear just to brighten up things.

Tabriz bazaar

Old Castle

A mosque in Tabriz

  The front of an old house

We kept on asking for a place to eat at as there were not that many places to be found. We ended up in a restaurant which we were told was the best in Tabriz. As soon as we sat down a large bowl of soup was put in-front of us without being asked. We looked at each other, laughed, then ate the soup, no-matter what it was made of. A man who was sitting there came over and asked, in English, if he could help. He explained that everything in the restaurant was home grown, that the soup was organic, the rice grown in Iran and not imported, the butter homemade (which it was as I remember my grandmother making butter and this looked and tasted the same) with the chicken having been killed three days before and marinated for three days. It was cooked without any spices and in all it was a lovely meal. The bill ended up at £9 each, expensive for Iran apparently but well worth it for the taste.

Wandering back to the hotel I bought some apricots in a shop and said that I had been given too little change. Of course no-one understood until a man standing behind me asked to help and I showed him that the change was wrong. He agreed and I was given that correct money with the man at the till expressing that he had not been wearing his glasses. I said that now I had the correct change they should give me the fruit for free for making the mistake. Suddenly they understood English and shook their heads not wanting to give something for free. As far as I was concerned it was deliberate but I do check my change even with this weird currency where £1 is worth 20,000 rials but they cut off the last two zeros and call it 200 something else which makes it more confusing. Even the local people get confused at times with the way their money works.

In the evening we went out as a group to the ‘best pizza place in the world’ according to the last trip group to go through here. We all agreed that the food was rubbish!

On the morning of May 16 we had breakfast provided by the hotel consisting of two pieces of a local bread, butter, carrot jam and black tea. Leaving after breakfast we travelled towards Ahar and we could have been anywhere judging by the types of housing and business except for the local type architecture and finish. Street names were in Farsi and English, the English part surprising me. As far as I could figure out there were no road numbers though I did see a sign which may have been Route 21. The road went through narrow valleys with high snow capped mountains then wide open plains. There was plenty of water in evidence and farming was extensive.

A mosque being built

Street signs in English

Views as we travelled along

A view from the road

Boys round the truck

Jay had left his wallet under the pillow in the hotel and which was found by the cleaning ladies. The hotel staff called our guide (Jay had not realised that he had left the wallet behind) and it was arranged that the wallet would be sent by taxi to the town where we stopped at lunchtime. The local boys were intrigued by the truck and stayed around all the time we were stopped.

Arriving at the base of the mountain on which Babak Castle stands we made camp. Bed early tonight as I have said that I will walk up to the Castle in the morning starting at 0600 hours.

The lower tent was mine