Kashan and Matinabad

**The end of this trip and the first day in Isfahan are only sent by email on request. Not everything has to be constantly online and publicly accessible**

The first adventure outside the city was waiting for us. After reading the travel guide for a long time, we decided that we would like to go to the desert. Since the bus to Kashan, which is two hours away, runs every half an hour, we headed to the bus station. A boy was already running towards us calling "Kashaaaaan" and he put us in a bus.

When we arrived in Kashan, the bus driver drove us 500 meters further than the rest of the group. After an inconspicuous but noticed by me money transfer with a taxi driver, we quickly found ourselves in a car to the hostel. After a few meters, a young guy jumped into the car and sat quietly next to the driver for the first 5 minutes. Our tourist faces gave the driver hope of selling a desert tour. Since we didn't really respond to his offers, the young passenger now intervened. In excellent English, he started a conversation with us. Nice small talk, which ended with him introducing himself as a tour guide for city tours in Kashan. He was more likable than his desert tour uncle, so we let him give us his number. Somehow, the uncle also managed to get my number, on which he called regularly in the following two days to ask if we wanted to book a tour or needed a driver.

In the hostel, a young man named Hussein was waiting for us, who runs the hostel. The lovingly decorated hostel was his baby and we talked to each other for the first and not the last time. As young people do, we asked each other about our ages. Hussein was only 20 years old and already the tenant of a hostel where everything was just right.

In the evening, we went to eat vegetarian food with Hussein's friends and got to know Iranian food. Yummi!

The next morning, we met the guide who had snuck into our taxi the day before. Muhammed led us through the small Kashan for three hours. We visited the mosque, an old bathhouse, and a palace before going to a friend's hotel for tea. He did a good job. I didn't find it particularly informative, but it was nice to learn a little background about some places. Even nicer were the more personal conversations about life in Kashan and his plans for the future, which he sees in Germany and Belgium. We sat together and played cards for an hour after the hike. My highlight of the tour, which only happened because we were on the road on Fridays and all the other places were closed.

In the afternoon, we returned to the hostel, where we found out that we had to share our dorm from now on. Damn.

For the next morning, Hussein organized a driver who should take us to the desert for sunrise. After a big fat burger in the restaurant and a mango smoothie, we wanted to go to bed relatively early. That didn't quite work out. We got caught up in conversation with Hussein and it was too interesting to go to bed right away. We were completely impressed by how smart and friendly someone can be at just 20 years old, and we immediately asked him if he wanted to travel with us a bit. I think he would really like to, but as the sole operator of a hostel, it's probably not possible. Too bad! We would have loved to adopt him.

The alarm clock rang at 5 o'clock, we grabbed the survival kit consisting of water and sunscreen and met our taxi driver and guide Abbas. The energetic grandpa, who, unlike his toothless mouth, looked like he was only 50 years old, greeted us with cookies and tea. After about 80 minutes, we arrived at the large dried-up salt lake in the desert, where the sun rose shortly after. It was so quiet and incredibly beautiful. Of course, we tried the white surface of the lake first. It was really salt. Abbas said that it would rain relatively often, so the lake is not always dry. Rain in the desert?

We walked a bit further from the salt lake to the large sand dunes, where we realized that only three meters below the surface was groundwater that could be pumped up for the camels' drinking supply. Rain and so much groundwater in a desert? Amazing place. Abbas even said that there would be snow here in winter.

Panting, we hiked up a dune and enjoyed the silent and deserted morning. Abbas found the perfect balance between sitting with us and leaving us alone from time to time. It was really nice and interesting to hear someone who rejected the idea that children can choose their own spouses. In his time, marriages were arranged much more stable. Nowadays, marriages fail too quickly. A strange opinion, but somehow in the context of this man...okay? Funny? Nice?

On the way back from the desert, we had a flat tire. We joked that we would probably have to stay in the desert. But thanks to the help of a salt truck and the son who came on a motorcycle, the problem was quickly solved.

Gratefully, when we arrived back at the hotel owner Hussein's home, he prepared a fantastic breakfast for us and joined us. We tried to convince him again to travel with us, but it was unsuccessful. On the same day, we continued our journey. After some discussions and pros and cons conversations with Hussein, we decided to go to the eco-farm Matinabad and spend a night there. The farm was supposed to be located in the desert and produce all its fruits and vegetables.

With not very far farewell tears, we said goodbye to our new friend Hussein, who seemed a bit overwhelmed by our hugs, and got back into Abbas' car, who was supposed to take us to Matinabad.

Matinabad

The atmosphere between Abbas and us was a bit tense. He originally wanted to take us to the resort for 1 million Rials, but the hotel informed us by email that it should not cost more than 500,000 Rials, so we offered him this price. In Matinabad's residence (you can hardly call it a "bio farm"), he complained directly to the hotel managers that they were telling tourists the price for locals. With that, he lost some sympathy points with me, and I did my best to look as pissed off as possible so that he would leave quickly.

In Matinabad, we had a nice double room with a private bathroom, which we used extensively. Afterwards, we went on an exploration tour...and found very little besides a few dry fields. There was a camel enclosure and an ostrich farm. Overall, everything was pretty deserted. Occasionally, there was a person here and there, but we felt a bit lonely.

The day went by. After having dinner in the cafeteria-like restaurant with a Chinese tour group, we lay down in the sand and enjoyed the starry sky. The mood was only clouded by a few aggressive sand fleas that bit my feet despite insect spray.

We were not completely satisfied with our farm experience. Therefore, the next morning, we made a new attempt and planned to talk to the farm workers about what they grow, how things grow, etc. We got up extra early for our tourist standards and were on our way at 10 o'clock. But at this time, all the work was already done (or hadn't started yet), and we didn't meet anyone except the relaxed camels and the aggressive ostrich.

Matinabad was nice. But nothing more. And not very eco-friendly. At least we couldn't find out anything about it.

So we packed our bags and asked the bartender how we could get from Matinabad to Isfahan using public transportation. With the help of Google Translate, the helpful Iranian explained to us that we should take a taxi to Natanz and there is a bus to Isfahan. Sounded good. We ordered a taxi and went to the small town of Natanz. And here began a long and unpleasant day...

**In the next 24 hours, we got to know that not everything is a piece of cake in Iran. We were harassed and were told things that showed us the vulnerable position of traveling women and the power of men in Iran. I'm happy to share these stories, but not in this blog. Write to me if you want me to send you the continuation**