Kerman and Shahdad Kalut

As we were two, we decided to take taxi instead of the bus. Only reason was to get a dinner in Kerman before going to sleep. It took around 7 hours and 70 eur. On our way we did not see too much, as the nature in most parts of Iran we were in, is nothing special, mostly desert looking with tufts of grass/bushes then and there. We passed our first total police check. Iran is trying to minimize drugs trafficking. Apparently it is pretty easy to buy them and it is becoming big issue for Iran. Usually police checks are friendly with tourists. We were really questioned only once during our 2 weeks trip.


If you plan to buy wool carpet, it is the place. For silk carpets (but in reality also for woollen) the best is Isfahan. As we were basically out of the high season, we got the best price there.

City itself is not so interesting (it is more interesting outside of it). You need less than one day to see what is worth to see. Masjed-e Jameh mosque and bazaar are the highlights. We spent quite a time walking on bazaar. When you are there, look also into Imam Mosque. There are not so many places to eat. We had a dinner in Akhavan hotel traditional restaurant. It had a fixed local menu but it was good. It might be also one of the best options for sleep. Hotel owner could make you several good deal going around. It is worth to ask him.

Finding good places to eat in Iran is a challenge, but in Kerman we found it most difficult. In our experience the Akhavan hotel restaurant turned out to be the easiest and probably the best option. We spent couple of hours trying to find restaurants from TripAdvisor, walking around the city, but with no luck. Then we were asking from people on the streets and in the end one local family drove us to a restaurant bit out of the centre which was quite new. It was an adventure, but in the end we managed to get our bellies filled, enjoyed live music and shishka. This is something you need to take into consideration when trying to find restaurants in some cities.

The highlight of the visit to Kerman was Kalut (Kaloot) desert (Shahdad). We took a guide with the car to visit Rayen, Mashan and the desert (1 day). Rayen is a one of the best so called mud castles. It was really interesting to see it. On our way back we looked into Bagh-e Shahzde. In fact it was the best Persian garden we saw. It is about 1,5 hours nice walk. We had nice lunch in Mashan, food was good and interestingly they were using some kind of sprinkler system in the restaurant. At first it was strange but in the end we realised it made the climate in the restaurant much cooler.

We decided not to sleep in Shahdad. It is always possible to stay there till sunset and shoot your pictures, but we did not have luck. Previous day there was a sandstorm - heavy clouds above us. The good side was it was not so hot, but the heat was still insane. Phones and cameras started lagging already a minute or two after taking them out. But the desert itself was one of out highlights of our trip. You can see nepka park (sand hills around local trees). Very strange symbiosis of trees and the desert. We looked on (that time) tiny very salty river. It was really salty. You can see further down the spring salt lakes. We shot many pictures from the top of sand towers (mountains). Very different and interesting view. The guide showed us also underground water channels (qanat) from mountains (around 17 km long) (old traditional way of irrigation and getting drinking water). Amazing. Some of  the shafts could be 400 m deep. Complex system with lot of handwork. There are many of such systems in Iran. You should pay a visit to one of them, if possible. On our way we had a look on 900 years old cyprus tree. And it was not the oldest one. In May we could still see some snow on top of their 4000 and plus mountains.


We were quite lucky with our guide as well, he spoke really good English and was able to explain some things about Iranian culture and give insight to way of life of the youth of Iran. He explained how lots of young people are struggling to find their purpose. Which makes them turn more to drugs and alcohol or the opposite, they shut themselves off the world, by getting stuck in digital world. There aren´t so many things kids can do on their free time and if there are, those things are way too expensive for most. Also he explained the universities are overproducing students in many areas, so the ones who have their degrees have no chance of finding jobs on their field of study and end up with empty pockets, living off their parents. But then again you can see similar problems in some western countries as well.

It takes time to get to Kerman but it was worth to go there to see Kalut and a way to there.