Ghahan and Nevis: A Story of Superwater

Ghahan is a rather big village located in the western part of Qom province, bordering with Markazi Province. Central parts of Iran are desert-y and this area is no exception. Ghahan and the villages next to it are vibrant with life, holding on to the traditional rural form of life. Abundance of water in this area makes it a touristic attraction for those who'd like to spend a weekend near clear, not to mention of the best quality, water. 

I went to Ghahan a couple of weeks back and I had my own reasons of going. Firstly, as it is mostly with my travels, I was tired of the mundane and everyday life. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining about my daily life, I am merely expressing the fact that sometimes I need air. Fresh, maybe even a little cold, lonely air.
I had come across Ghahan through a professor of Ecotourism in Iran. He had provided a list of villages with great potential of tourist attraction, and the closest one to me was Ghahan. You see, right now I am living in my parental house in Kashan and Ghahan is in Qom, which is less 100km away from Kashan. I used Google Map and I saw that the villages is only 140km away from here. That would mean an hour bus ride and maybe another hour to hitchhike to the village since, I guess there are not buses or taxis going there, and hey, I hadn't hitchhiked for a while now, it seemed like a great idea. And it wasn't only hitchhiking, I also hadn't traveled solo since my last years three day trip to Anzali and Caspian Sea. It sounded like a good idea to pack my backpack and be on the road all by myself again. That was my second motivation.
But thirdly, and most importantly, I had met the CEO of a big and awesome company, back in Tehran when I was interpreting for a French businesswoman. This CEO was a truly great person. His company, which was a holding, had many interests, the most important one of which was Ecotourism and Villages around Iran. Not to bore you with the details, I am writing this piece to present to the company in autumn when I go back to Tehran. I had more than enough reasons to go to Ghahan, a selected village, which apparently had a lot of potential for tourism. I was ready to go.

Here I am, on the road again! :D

The Kashan-Qom highway is one that I pass a lot, since it's been four years (going on the fifth) that I'm studying in Tehran. But this highway never stops to amaze me with its beautiful scenery and stunning colorful hills...

Taken on the way to Qom.

From Qom I had to take a bus to Arak and I had to get off that bus on a junction. And from there on, it was hitchhiking only. I was on the old Tehran-Saveh highway. And in Iran, old highway means trucks, mugs, and lots and lots of heavy big cars, which again means easy hitchhiking.

An awesome driver of an American Mug

After another ride at the back of a blue Nissan pickup truck, I was there, in Ghahan, the village I was heading for. Ghahan is your typical ordinary but beautiful Iranian village, with old men sitting under the sun, fiddling about with a tasbih (i.e. beads; Islamic equivalent of fidget spinners) looking at passersby. It's a green village located in a not-so-green surrounding. 

Ghahan From Afar

As a solo traveler with a huge backpack on my back I got a lot of stares, which is alright. If you, too, travel to this part of country (in face this statement can be said about a lot of places in Iran, since most places are not used to tourists and traveler, especially foreign ones!) don't take the stares as the wrong way. It's not hatred or irritation or any sentiment of that kind; it's only innocence combined with a tinge of curiosity! So most of the time, you'll get a nod and a hello right after the really long stare.

I found a traditional food place (the only one in the whole area, actually) and ordered a kebab and rice and a non-alcoholic beer, which is the only kind you can find in public places. I was starving from a rather long and difficult journey, but I was content, because I was finally there: I was in a strange land, energetic and self-motivated, and ready to explore the area! "Let's go!" I told myself after I had finished my meal and talked to a few natives about which places to go and where to camp for the night. I was, now, heading for a place called Sarney which was about 5kms away and was told has some trees which is nice for camping and most importantly is the mother qanat of the small river that is going through Ghahan. I was hyped.

As my last stop in Ghahan I visited a local supermarket to get food for the night and tomorrow's breakfast and maybe even lunch. The supermarket was nice. I got some bananas (too many, I realized later :D), some apples (which were super delicious and super cheap, too! A kilo only half a euro! Amazing!) pineapple and orange juice, tuna fish, and some badass local doogh. I put all the food, except for the doogh, in my backpack and continued on the road again. My backpack was heavy from all the food but it was alright, I was hyped up and looking forward to exploring the area. After only a few minutes of walking and taking a sip once in a while I was at the other side of the village. Ghahan had ended and I was looking for another blue Nissan to pick my up and take me to Sarney. And blue Nissan there was. The roads between these villages are perfect for hitchhiking since a lot of pickup trucks travel between them and people are always kind enough to pick you up, especially if you have a huge backpack, as I did.

On my way to Sarney. Holding on to my hat since the driver was,
 apparently, thinking he is in Formula 1!

When I arrived to Sarney I was a bit shocked, and honestly disappointed. I was hoping for (and secretly imagining) a beautiful remote and untouched green place, but alas, that was not how Sarney was. Sarney, to summarize, is the mother qanat of the area, which thanks to modern water systems, has been pumped to the surface. The water is super great, for sure, but that wouldn't be the place for me to camp. It was "campable" of course, but not as green as I hoped for, since I was running away from the heat of Kashan. I sat next to the qanat and drank the superwater and rinsed my head. (I'm gonna call the water of the area superwater, because, well, it was superwater!) I was, then, thinking of taking my clothes off and go into the water (there weren't any pools, but there was enough flow of the water to lie down naked and enjoy the cold superwater!) when suddenly, Majid, appeared.

Majid was born in Ghahan and had married with a girl from Nevis, the next village. (Sarney is located between these two!) Majid, who knew the area pretty well was showing this mother qanat to his Tehrani business partner. Majid said "how you doing?" when he saw me and I said "Great, enjoying the incredible water." He agreed that the water is incredible. He was a local, he told me, and that he was heading for Nevis to go to his father-in-law's garden, but decided to make a short stop here to drink the water. And I told him my story. I asked him about a better camping site than here and he told me to get into my car and follow him, his father-in-law's garden is in Nevis, next to a qanat. The surroundings are greener than here, he reassured me, and what's more, the water is even better. I couldn't believe it! Can it get better than this, I thought. I said I don't have a car, and he was surprised that I had come all the way here only with my backpack. He admired this and told me he had always wanted to backpack, but never got around to do it. Business, he said, was the main reason. People from villages also get tangled up in business' tangles, I thought to myself. It's only natural, I told myself again.

Anyway, I put my backpack in the trunk of his car, and hoped on. It was a short trip and we talked about backpacking and I gave him some advice on how to start it. He even offered to backpack together in future, and I said sure. Maybe we will. Who knows.

We arrived to the qanat next to his father-in-law's garden which was, again, pumped up to the surface. It looked great. There even was an artificial pool built by wiser people than us just in front of the waterline. The superwater was so clean and and so very cold. So cold that I couldn't bring myself to take my clothes off to jump in. But all in all, it was super nice to be in such a nice, green and beautiful area, next to superwater. I was going to camp here tonight.

After a few minutes, I got the fire going and I had my coffee in my hands.
I was reminded again, of why I travel.

It was nice finally to be there. After finishing my coffee and drinking the superwater (fun fact, this line of water is called Kahrood, which literally means the river of the mountain, and since Nevis is closer to the mountians than Ghahan, this is understandable.) I heard someone's voice from above my head. It was Majid's father-in-law, who was calling out for me. He told me to camp inside his garden, rather than outside, since it might not be safe out there. Majid had told me that his father-in-law likes to have guests over, so when he told me to come in I wasn't surprised, but really grateful. His name was Asghar. He was a great man, short in height with a line of mustache typical to the older Iranian generation. I gladly moved everything inside. which was 20 meters away. It was nice to still be in "nature" but also be protected by walls.

First "touch" of Kahrood's superwater. Asghar said it has way more water in other seasons.
Summer is the one with the least amount, but even on its worst days, it doesn't stop.

Second "touch of Kahrood's superwater. Too cold to go, but
peaceful to look at and be around. 

Once I was in, I knew I was going to enjoy my stay here. Their hospitality was amazing and I really loved how trustful they were. Beautiful and amazing people.

The two proud owners of the Garden. Asghar and his, well, isn't it
obvious that they are brothers? :D

The rest of my time there was relaxing and super nice. I ate a good amount of fruits (man, I ate a lot of bananas that night, and I mean A LOT) munched on some nuts and read A Farewell to Arms next to Kahrood over the last remaining sunlight for that day. It has been a successful day, I would say, but fatiguing too. I ate a bit more of my food, read a bit more with my headlamp's light, said goodnight to my temporary landlords and went inside the tent and then inside my sleeping bag. Soon enough, I slept like a dead log. 

It's sleepy time!

The next day, I woke up, not at 6 o'clock, but no sooner than 10. It was a beautiful day, and a lazy morning, noon, afternoon I told myself. I got the fire going and made breakfast: Oatmeal with sliced bananas and peaches, with tea.

Who ready for doing nothing today? Me! Me!

I was idling about, reading, drinking tea, coffee and superwater, then reading again for a long time when I thought I'd like to talk to Asghar a little bit, since, well, he has been super hospitable to me. I made some fresh coffee and brought it to him. He was glad and kind, and told me to go on and swim in the swimming pool. I said that it's too cold for me to go in, and he said not that one. He showed his pool inside his garden under an apple tree. It's from the same water, he said. I was quick to take my clothes off and ready to dive in. It was extremely nice and crazy to swim there. There were some apples on the water, too. 

Underwear hung on a tree only means one thing: somebody's been swimming

The swimming pool and the apple tree from the balcony
where I enjoyed a melon with Asghar.

I will never forget Asghar and everyone else's hospitality. My experience in Ghahan and Nevis was extremely positive. I'm sure I'll go back again, some time in the future, and probably will spend more than just a weekend, since I've heard of other beautiful villages around the area such as Kohandan and Sarabadan. A bit after I ate lunch, I said goodbye and was on my way to home again. Tomorrow would be a working day and my life waited for me in Kashan. But I would remember the kindness of the people, the beautiful nature and of course, the superwater!

On a truck to Qom.

Facts:

• The line of water going through this area is 30kms long, which is long to explore in two days. The places I could explore was only a tiny percentage of the whole area.
• Best season to go is in spring, local people said. My experience, which I went in the middle of summer, was that during the day it got hot, but not super hot and during the night it was comfortably cool. But I could imagine how nicer it would be to visit in spring.
• There is a supposedly interesting firetemple in Nevis, which I was too lazy to go. I would check it out next time I go. 
• I did visit a local mosque/shrine on my way back in Ghahan. It was packed with people mourning a deceased. Picture below: 
  
• Unfortunately, there isn't a hotel available in the area. But, I did get a chance to talk to the mayor (?) of Ghahan, Mr. Bagheri, who said he can provide accomodation for those who want to visit. He was a good man who well understood how tourism can help his village and the villages around it. Here's his number, used with consent: +989122520493. But I doubt if he could talk English.
• There are some incredibly beautiful and stunning pictures of the nature in Ghahan available on the internet (use Google and you'll see what I mean) but unfortunately I couldn't find them since, as I mentioned, it's a rather large area to explore. 
• The closest hospitals, supermarkets and food places are in Ghahan. Consider Ghahan as the "city" of all these small villages. Fill your stomach and backpack here before you leave.
• DO NOT FORGET to bring a water bottle with you to get yourself some of that superwater for the road. 
• Don't forget to get some apples, peaches, grapes, walnuts, and probably the best dried berries of the country. I tasted a few berries, they were heavonly. Oh, and the local doogh and yogurt are also nice. 
• And last the last thing, which is less of a fact and more a fun story: the local people said that if you eat two bowls of stew with meat and then drink two glasses of the superwater afterwards, be assured that you will be hungry again in less than an hour :D well, in my own experience, I am NOT gonna disagree with that... :D