XixiMundis: Masuleh - Qa'l eh Rudkhan Traveling with Students

Qa'l eh Rudkhan

Traveling with the students

These entries are not in chronological order.

After two days in Tehran I decided it was time to get out of the bussy city, and I was assuming I would go back there at the end of the trip. So I decided to go to Masuleh. I had heard it was one of the most beautiful cities of Iran. I took a bus to Rash and there I had a cab waiting to take me to Masuleh 1 hour ride, 15 dollars. Id definatively be saving money would I be traveling with someone else, but hey who cares! its now or never! So Masuleh is a small village in the middle of the mountains. We left Tehran and it was all very dry with some mountains with no trees, suddenly we started to go through greener areas which were more hilly and suddenly I look and its full of rice pads. Who would have said there would be rice around that area! I thought Iran was all dessert and dry! It was great! We also crossed a huge lake and a city which sold olives, olives and more olives. With the cab we started going up the mountain through a road, he started changing gears and suddenly he stoped in a placed where you saw nothing. I walked a bit and I saw the town. Masuleh was beautiful, the roof of one house was the street of the next. Its in the steep mountains and it has everything a town needs, the bazaar, supermarket, tourist shops, people rent out rooms. So I rented one out for one evening. I also took tons of pictures and found a small waterfall near the town. Afterwards I just sat, had a tea and started writting. . .

As I was writting a bunch of people sat by me and I saw that the girls were looking at me. It was late, and yeah I just focused on my writting. I wanted to go the next day to Qa'l eh Rudkhan a castle in the middle of the mountains near Masuleh. Suddenly I realized I couldnt go there as at night I wanted to go to Esfahan and I couldnt hike the 1 hour hike to the castle with my 12 kilos backpack :( damn it... oh well I realized id spend the entire day bored in Masuleh. And as I was thinking and writing one person from the group approached me "sorry can i ask u a question?"
We started talking and it turned out they were students of soil science in the university in Tehran who were on a 1 week trip. They told me the next day they were going to Qa'l eh Rudkhan and I could join them. I thought it was a great idea. They were waiting for the woman to open the door of the place they had rented...but the woman was taking for ages. One of the girls in the trip, there were 3 guys 6 girls and the professor (who spoke perfect english) was from a village nearby and her family had cooked dinner for them so they invited me to join them. The dinner was AMAZING!!!! I wasnt even that hungry, but I ate so much.... We all sat in the floor - as is the style im following since I arrived and we ate, next day woke up at 7.30 met at 7,45 and at 8 we were on the road to the castle to see the castle. Singing and dancing in the car, it was great!!! We hiked and hiked and I was sweating, I was the last one up there!heheheh but you know with a headscarf and a long sleeves hiking is just not the same haha. We saw the castle which was amazing. In the entire day I saw 0 tourists. Lets say I have only seen 10 since the beginning of my trip!! And on the way down we finished up the dinner form the previous night. I had so much fun, it felt like I had known them for ages. They were going to leave me in a near by village and I was going to take a taxi to another village and then the 1 bus that leaves to Esfahan. However the professor proposed I go with them to Tehran and I take the bus from there since there are many more. I did so.... he called his secretary to reserve me a ticket!!! As we arrived in Tehran he invited me to his house and I had dinner with his wife and two sons and later he took me to the bus stop and made sure the driver would let me know 20 min before arrival to Esfahan that we were there. The trip was simply amazing, the people so much fun and the views magnificent. Im running out of adjectives, but it was a great day . At 11pm I got on the bus and at 4am I arrived in Esfahan!!

Here are a couple pictures that Mostafa, one of the guys took of us.
Please dont mind my dressing style I bought this in the bazaar in Tehran as I realized something that I had bought in Spain didnt cover my ass and thus wasnt too appropriate!