Pioneer Mind

Wikipedia: Rud-khan castle (also Rood-khan castle), is a brick and stone medieval castle in Iran.

Located 25 km southwest of Fooman city north of Iran in Gilan province, it is a military complex which had been constructed during the Seljuk Dynasty by the followers of Ismā’īlī sect. The Castle is built on two tips of a mount, with an area of 50,000 square meters. Its architects have benefited from natural mountainous features in the construction of the fort.

Rudkhan Castle sits at the two peaks of a mountain at elevations of 715 and 670 meters and contains strong fortifications and battlements at a length of 1,550 meters. The castle’s 42 towers still stand intact.

Well, well, well. After this short introduction to Rudkhan Castle, I’m going to write about our trip :D. I have to say, north of Iran (actually better to say Gilan) is something very usuall for me, because my parents are both from Gilan and I can say, I had more than a thousand trips to there. The nature of Gilan is extremely beautiful specialy at the end of the spring. But this time, was somehow different. Because I met new people and my companions where some of the best people I’ve ever seen.

It was a tour scheduled by a travel agency. As always it was Soofieh who found it for us. The program was to visit Masuleh, stay a night at a hotel in Fooman and leave for Rudkhan Castle next day. This time our group was a bigger one, consisting of my colleagues and their friends. We - Armen, Emil, Jila, Soofieh, Vahid, Nooshin and me - registered for the tour almost a week before it starts. We were supposed to go by bus. Our bus left Tehran, at about 6 am, on Thursday, from Vanak square. Soofieh joint us, in Karadj. Because we were seven, one of us had to seat alone. And that hero wasn’t any one other than Emil (Don’t be happy Emil, cause I’m going to say we changed a lot during the trip :D).

During the early hours of the trip almost every one was sleeping because we all woke up early in the morning. Until the stop for the breakfast. It was a road restaurant, which served egg plus butter, honey and tea. It was not the best but it was delicious. After breakfast, our next stop was in Manjil, by Sefid Rood river, near dam. As you know Manjil is famous for the strong winds that blows over there. They even use the power of winds to produce electrical power.

We continued our trip to Fooman, traffic was almost low and we arrived at Fooman after approximately 5 hours of journey without any special trouble. We ate lunch at a local restaurant. It was a very normal and almost bad meal. After lunch the bus took us to the hotel located at Fooman (Ofcorse if we could call it a hotel). But you know these things happen in trips like this ;). The team was going to have a rest during after noon and at leave Fooman for Masuleh at 6 pm.

They gave our team two rooms. One for boys and one for girls. Armen, Emil, Vahid and me were in a room with four beds and Soofieh, Jila and Nooshin in a three beds one. Girls came to our room and we spoke and laugh a lot. Drank tea, ate ice cream and snacks and have a little rest.

At six o’clock we were ready by the bus. Actually every one in the tour, except two girls. Two special ones (Just people in the tour know what I’m saying :D). We waited a lot for them but after about half an hour we left Fooman. It took about 45 minutes to reach Masuleh. Masuleh?!! Lets do some wikipedia :

Wikipedia: Māsūlé is a village in the Gilan Province of Iran. Historical names for the village include Māsalar and Khortāb. It was founded in the 10th century AD, and its current population is estimated to be around 800 persons.

Masuleh architecture is unique. The buildings have been built into the mountain and are interconnected.

Courtyards and roofs both serve as pedestrian areas similar to streets. Masouleh does not allow any motor vehicles to enter, due to its unique layout. It is the only village in Iran with such a prohibition. However, the small streets and many stairs simply also wouldn’t make it possible for vehicles to enter.

The spectacular architecture of Masouleh is well-known as “The yard of the above building is the roof of the below building”.

Okay. So you can imagine how beautiful this city is. Every team in the tour had to give a visit to the city during two hours and return to the bus. We went to bazaar of Masuleh, ate some traditional cookies, bought some stuffs, took many pictures and returned :D.

Masuleh also has a famous waterfall which is almost at the end of the city (Ofcourse it depends on where and in which directions you started visiting city. So if you are planning to go there, don’t look for what I said, the end of city. :D).

After returning to the hotel, we had to prepare dinner. So Vahid, Armen and Emil went for shopping and I took the stuffs with the girls to the rooms. There were a wedding ceremony at hotel that night. A bunch hip hop and rap musics (specially Sasy Mankan who I felt a close connection with :D) and a lot of power disconnections. I forgot to say that we bought a Dart game in Masuleh to make ourselves some entertainment at hotel.

Our neighbors at hotel were three Kurdish girls. They were all good girls and the closest team to us in that trip. We made a lot of jokes together that night ;). I have to speak more about them later, specially one of them. May be even a post in my blog. They were good girls, but for me it was not a very good experience getting close to them. It happens during the next two weeks after the trip. It seems it always happen after my trips. God helps me for my next trip (Who?!!! :D). But to be honest, despite all the bad things happened, I’m happy getting familiar with them :). That night after eating dinner with the girls of our team, playing some dart and destroying the wall of our room, we went to bed :D.

Friday, in the morning, we all (I mean boys) woke up about 8 in the morning. We ate a good breakfast at the hotel and then we left for Rudkhan Castle. Again it didn’t took more than 45 minutes to arrive there but it took more than 3 hours to go there and return. More than a thousand steps. But it was all full of fun, the jungle and nature was extremply beautiful. We all wish that we had more time and we could spent a night over there.

Almost all the way Armen, Emil and me were together, Soofieh and Vahid together, and our atheletes - Jila and Nooshin - individually. And about other teams in the tour, only our Kurdish friends and some other reached to the Castle. Armen, Emil and me were the first people arriving at the castle. Castle was really gloriuos. It was impossible to imagine how they built such a castle over there in that elevation. And impossible to imagine how enemy armies could find it and reach there. After almost seeing all the parts of the castle we returned. Armen, Emil and me almost ran all the way down the mountain. Except some stops which in one of them I gave some first aids to a man :D.

Unfortunately our arriving to the bus was with a lot of argue with tour leaders and other passengers. Because they all stayed in the bus, in a hot weather, waiting for the teams who went up there. Almost all passengers agreed that it was tour leaders’ fault. After that we all safely get in the bus, we returned to Fooman for eating lunch. Second day’s lunch was a lot better than the first day’s meal.

Next plan was going to seaside. We went to Bandar Anzali, to see Caspian Sea. We had almost one hours there. We walked by the sea, rode boat and played with rocks throwing them to the see. I remember that I spent a night by the sea in Bandar Anzali, with my family. It was a very nice night. But to be honest I prefer Persian Gulf. Our Kurdish friends built a sand man (Actually a sand face) in the beach. A nice one. But it was such a pity that it didn’t last so long ;).

It was returning time. After Bandar Anzali, our bus left there for Tehran. On our way we had a stop in Rudbar. Rudabr is famos for it’s olives and olive oil. Almost every one bought some olives. I didn’t cause my dad goes to Gilan almost every month and he knows when is the best time to buy olive. Instead of that I had a conversation with my Kurdish friends. I have to say I’m interested in Kurdish Culture. They told me alot about their culture, language and the place where they came from. They spoke about a city similar to Masuleh in Kurdistan (Even one of them emailed me it’s pictures later).

During the way to Tehran we had a lot of fun. We danced, sang, told jokes, solved riddles and had conversations with our new friends. We even drank fruit juice together.

Tehran highway had too much traffic. We almost arrived Tehran very left. After two days of fun, we were all, almost tired. I left the team near Azadi square with vahid and our Kurdish friends. We took taxis to our home and the trip finished.

And some more pictures…