Preparing trip to Iran

Helen, one of our newest members last week gave us thi tip:

OK Reuben. I thank you, very much. - Here are the contacts that I made in Iran: Our homestay was with Mehdi's Mother K and Sister Elham at a village called Kahkran, about two and a half hour drive from Shiraz, north I think, on the N88, BUT our driver had to keep asking about where to go to find the place. We did not meet his father. The population is abut 1000 in summer, 500 - 600 in winter. As senior women we paid $30 each just for the one night. After dinner some thin soft mattresses were rolled out for us on the living room floor, us four females that is, and the men slept in another room - Mehdi and our driver. The traditional toilet is outside (this helped to train me not to get up in the night !), and there is a tap on a tank for washing hands. We were not shown anywhere else to wash body (!) These people are nomads -GHASHQAIE - who have decided to stay in their house now during winter. They have a way of dealing with 1 - 2 metres of snow off the roof: there is a ramp to walk up onto the roof and they shovel off the snow and then they drag a huge round piece of timber across it, fixed to their shoulders by thick rope. Apparently this is to make sure the roof will be water-tight. Sorry if I have mentioned this to you before. Mehdi's contact number is------67 and email is m----at yahoo.com He is a tour guide in Shiraz. His parents place is 'very much already on the map' so to speak, with 13 visitors due the next night to when we were there, and sometimes there are 100 day visitors!!! This was hard to believe, and we were very glad to be the only two visitors when we were there. If you do make contact, do mention our names - Helen and Mairie - I think they would remember us. I will send some photos when I am able. They have an apple orchard, and were picking the golden delicious type ones when we were there on 28 October. We were told that the red ones stay on the tree longer, but the golden ones would drop with the wind. Apricots and walnuts were finished already. Khadija makes the most lovely very very thin bread which suited my system better than the thicker doughy breads that we had in other places. She was up very early, collecting walnuts off the ground, and kneading the dough, ready for us to have a try at rolling it - not much success there, but it was still edible. The other farm was a pomegranate one, and I was invited there just for the day by Ali at the Niayesh Hotel in Shiraz. He has excellent English, but earns more money on reception at the hotel than he did as a translator. He seemed quite serious at the hotel, but is very funny when with his family out in the village of Garkoshak, especially with his sisters. We did meet his father and mother too (but not the father of Mehdi who is building another house nearer to Shiraz - perhaps he would need help with that, if you do get there?) It was the pomegranate harvest time, and relatives and friends had all arrived to help for about 10 days. I went there with a 19 year old Norwegian boy. We were shown how to pick and did only some of one tree - not much! The fruits are then kept in huge stone pits, covered with leaves and can be left there for months, even until Nowruz (their New Year), when they might get a better price after the glut of fruits is over. Ali's contact is -------at gmail.com and phone -----2 and he is an excellent calligrapher too. I could give you the contact phone number for the Niayesh Boutique Hotel another time. Best wishes and of course will meet you when you are in Brisbane. . . when? H It is a beautiful drive out to Garkoshak which is about two and half hours from Shiraz again, but south. The mountains are lovely, amazing colours. >> >> > >