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By
Syma Sayyah, Tehran
Kandovan
click on images to see high resolution
I have been doing Yoga for nearly 12 years and during that time
have fortunately stayed with the same teacher who has become a friend too. When
I first started doing yoga, I met several people in the first couple of years
such that we formed a group and met socially with our families and shared our
happy and sad times as good friends do. Some came and went from our circle but
there remained a core group who are still there.
El Goli park, Tabriz
Last February, we were at Felor and Anoosh's house along with
some other friends who have become part of our group when we decided to accept
Buick and Mercedeh's invitation to go to their hometown Tabriz once the weather
was warmer and visit the famous Kandovan Rocky Hotel. I had been to Tabriz only
on business years ago, and Paul had never been, so we jumped at the opportunity.
It took some time to make sure everybody's time was free but we eventually made
the trip last week.
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Tabriz, the capital city of Iran's
East Azerbaijan province, sits at altitude of 1,350 meters above sea level
at the junction of the Ghuri Chay and Aji Chay rivers. It has been the second
largest city in Iran until the late 1960s and one of its former capitals and
residence of the crown prince under the Qajar dynasty. The city has proven
extremely influential in the country's recent history. With a population of
about 1,600,000 [2007 census], Tabriz is Iran's Fourth largest city. |
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Amir Nezam House
We flew from Tehran very early on Thursday morning with Iran
Air, and after a one hour flight were met at the airport by Anoosh. As there
were twelve of our group on the plane, we traveled by minibus to Buick and
Mercedeh's apartment for a most enjoyable, huge and fun breakfast. After a short
rest to recuperate we headed towards the city, on the way visiting the factory
of our hosts, which makes parts for machinery. We saw many places of interest
including the Maqbarat al-Shu'ara' - where we visited the grave of the famous
Tabriz poet Shahriyar, and the nearby Amir Nezam House which is now a museum
where we saw the beautiful glass work and an interesting exhibition about life
in Qajar times. We visited the Constitutional Revolution (Mashrouteh) House
where we saw many wonderful statues including one of Zeynab Pasha, the pioneer
of Iranian women libertarians, as well as many old photographs related to the
era of the Russian occupation of Azerbaijan.
Maqbarat al-Shu'ara'
Constitutional Revolution (Mashrouteh) House
After a good mornings sight-seeing and shopping, we came back to
the apartment for a rest and to everybody's amazement (everybody had thought
they could not eat anything more until dinner time) we had a superb lunch with
lots of goodies including the local specialty kofeth tabrizi. Tabriz is a city
that prides itself on having no beggars and we certainly did not see any. On the
day that we were there, it was the holiday to mark Fatima's passing, and groups
of black shirted men were handing out fruit juice on many streets we passed.
Zeynab Pasha, the pioneer of Iranian women libertarians
After some tea we headed to our hotel about 5 in the afternoon.
Our hotel was the excellent five star Tabriz El Goli Pars Hotel, a modern ten
storey building overlooking the famous El Goli park. We showered and rested and
then went for a long walk around the lake in the park, which made me feel like I
was walking around a smaller version of Champs d'Elysee with a huge pool in the
center. Many families were there and the park was quite crowded, but it was a
very pleasant place for walking. Then we went back to Buick and Mercedeh's
apartment for dinner and had an easy, happy, enjoyable and relaxing time with
friends, with a lot of jokes and memories (real or made up) from all corners. A
great deal of laughter and fun with good friends was at large, along with first
class hospitality and the care and kindness of our hosts.
El Goli Park
Next day, after a leisurely breakfast at the hotel we headed
towards Kandovan village. We passed through Oskou which has many internationally
well known sons and according to the road signs, 100% of the people there are
literate. Kandovan is 60km south of Tabriz and is famous throughout Iran for the
houses that have been carved into the rocks. Some of these houses are over 700
years old. The village is interesting, but is crowded with traffic which lessens
one's pleasure and of course there were many tourists (like us). We dropped off
our bags at the hotel reception and went to the village market which was most
intriguing. We all bought lots of things we did not need but like all tourists
felt we could not help ourselves. Our shopping included things like lavashak,
freshly dried herbs and old spices, shawls and silk scarves. The five star Laleh
Rocky Hotel is on the edge of the village and all of the rooms are individually
carved into the rocks. Like other visitors, we were impressed how well they had
done this hotel as the rooms were large and cool with a huge jacuzzi in the
bathroom! Can you believe that!? It was really comfortable but the only
disadvantage was the steps, the hotel was built into the hillside and my knees
were dead by the time we had climbed up the many steps to the restaurant at the
top and come down again.
Kandovan village
After a long rest we met up in one of the larger suites and had
another great night. We headed back to Tabriz next morning and went to the
famous bazaar, where we took many photographs and did even more shopping, ever
mindful of how much we could cram into our suitcases for the flight home. For
lunch we once again enjoyed our host's hospitality and the wonderful and
delicious chelo-kebab of the famous Bakharaan in Tabriz.
After tea and shirini
we left for the airport and our flight back to reality of life in Tehran. It was
nice relaxing and fun to be with good friends who bring out your good vibes and
make you spiritually enlightened and help you forget the things you want to and
you should forget, at least temporarily to get your energy, strength and
fortitude back.
We missed you (Jaye shoma khali)!!
... Payvand News - 08/01/09 ... --
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