Salt Lake in Kashan

Sometimes it can be tricky to tell if a car stopping to pick you up is a taxi or a private vehicle. This time, it was a private car that took us to the bus station in Esfahan. The driver didn’t speak much English, but we quickly understood that he had voted for Moussavi in the elections when he spat out the window at the mention of Ahmadinejad. Out of nowhere, he pulled a collection of poems by Hafez from the glove compartment. It’s said that every Iranian owns two books – the Quran and a poetry collection by either Hafez or Saadi. This particular collection was signed by Moussavi himself, who had visited Imam Square. The driver insisted we take it! :) There’s a huge salt lake near Kashan that we wanted to see. We thought about renting a car and combining the trip to the salt lake with a visit to the small, old, and charming town of Abyaneh, finishing up in Kashan. It quickly became clear that this would be quite expensive. The drivers in Esfahan wanted 1700 rials per kilometer. So, we ended up taking the bus to Kashan instead. It takes three hours but only costs 27,000 rials per ticket. Our hotel quickly arranged for a contact so we could visit the salt lake the same day. The driver-guide, someone who could both drive and speak English, had a tour planned that included sand dunes in the desert, the salt lake, and a caravanserai. It was $30 per person. Newlyweds often head up to these sand dunes to have their wedding photos taken. It’s also customary to take a nude photo of the bride standing in the sand dunes. The highlight for us was definitely the salt lake, as we had already seen the other sights. The salt lake is 200 by 200 kilometers and can even be seen from the bus window when driving towards Tehran, but you can’t stop there. The first part of the lake is reserved for tourists. It’s forbidden to collect salt for purification and resale here. Trucks have to drive several kilometers into the dried-up lake. As far as the eye can see, it’s white. Walking on the salt crunches like frozen puddles and frosty grass. Sometimes there’s water. Other times it’s so dry that the salt cracks and sticks up like large ice flakes. Our guide is named Mahdi Galekhah, and he comes highly recommended in Lonely Planet. He didn’t vote for the current government but is still very religious, so we could tell it was best not to ask him too many deep questions. He also works for the government department in Kashan, earning about $400 a month after taxes. Additionally, Mahdi sometimes guides Iranian groups who want to travel to Thailand. However, he didn’t mind talking about sex, sharing that the trips to Thailand often end up in Pattaya. That says a lot, doesn’t it? A little feminist can quickly emerge in a Danish girl when she hears that Iranian men think it’s okay to go to other countries to do things they can’t do at home – like sex and drinking. Mahdi has been to Thailand about 15 times but has never tasted Thai food. He always finds restaurants that serve Iranian cuisine. I just can’t quite wrap my head around that… :) It’s tough for Iranians to get visas for many countries – especially Europe, the USA, and Canada – so their vacation options are often limited. But Thailand doesn’t have strict requirements for Iranians, which is why they often end up going there.