Mashhad and Trip to Toos (Tous or Tus) 14 Nov
Got up about 10:30 and went downstairs for cup of tea while reading the Observer (newspaper). I got chatting to two people, Bill (reporter) and Jenny. They are travelling in a blue rag top Army lorry with an organisation called "Encounter Overland" consisting of five ex-Army 1½ ton lorries and a Land Rover in the "convoy". They invited me to come and look at it, then they invited me for lunch. Spam, fantastic, and Russian salad, sardines etc. Then they suggested we go to Tous, about 35km north. Always game for free ride, off I go with Mike (driver), Doreen (ugh!), Reg, Jack (elder statesmen from Blackburn) Bill (also older and fairly silent), Jenny, John and Tony (Aussie). As we left Mashhad the salad cream came tumbling down. What a mess!
At Tous there was the shrine/tomb of Ferdowsi (poet) and ruined mud city, said to date from Alexander the Great - quite interesting and what a fabulous sunset. There was a small lining of cloud on the top of the snow-covered mountains to the west which gave them an orange halo. The atmosphere was wonderful standing on the ruins and watching the sun go down. The drive in the lorry was fairly bumpy, one tended to leap in the air and be thrown about, though it was reasonably comfortable on the bus seats.
The Bus Arrives with Brian (the people on the bus)
When I got back there was a note from Brian saying they were staying at the Iran Peyma Hotel at 4/6 a night. I checked out for 250R (about £1 10s) and got my French going to talk to three Swiss from Lausanne (two hitch hikers and lorry driver) who were staying in this expensive hotel while waiting for the relevant papers for their "camion" (lorry). They were playing French rules draughts.
Soon Brian arrived as promised. We went and ate at the same restaurant as last night, then along to a chai shop. Two large chais each and a hubble bubble (if Mum could see me now) - and had a good thing going with the locals - all for 15R. The shop was missing a window! Then along to the hotel where I met a few more of the bus passengers in one of the rooms before going to sleep in the bus.
Woken at ridiculous hour so that the others could go to the Afgan Consulate. Staggered off bus into bitter cold, not even any sun today, no chai - Ramadan - so we walked to Darbandi for a cuppa. On our travels we saw three Aussies on 75cc Lambrettas. Seemed like quite a good way to travel. At the PO there were a huge number of new, if slightly battered, Russian motorbikes. They were of two types - including the ones we were considering buying. They looked eminently suitable.
The Imam Reza Mosque complex and shrine is absolutely vast. At 600m by 450m it is the largest such complex in the world by area. Here we were heaved out of an outer courtyard, so we photographed the arch. We did a complete circuit of the mosque and found one of the chai shop guys of the previous night. He took us round the museum and pointed us in the right direction to find a carpet shop, where we happened across Mahmet outside. Went down to his shop where several of the others off the bus were regretting buying carpets in Tehran. There was an absolutely beautiful Angora carpet. No one bought, but we photographed a carpet with flash. Mahmet's English was excellent.
He then took us to a turquoise shop, where, after seeing some polishing in progress, we eventually bought a large, imperfect, locally mined rock (me) 300R and a beautiful ring stone (Brian) 400R. He gave us a piece of unpolished rock and a card each. Will have to get the rock set as a pendant. By now it was very much lunch time so (no restaurants open) we bought bread and went and ate what we could on the bus.
