Iran - Andrew Burke [152]
Getting There & Away
Travel agency Kia Parvaz ( 222 7770; alley off Imam St) sells tickets for Iran Aseman’s daily Sanandaj–Tehran flight on a Fokker 100.
Savaris to Kamyaran (IR16,000, one hour), Kermanshah (IR35,000, two hours), Qorveh (IR20,000) and Hamadan (IR35,000) wait in neat, well-organised queues in the main terminal area, 4km east of centre. Minibuses leave from behind and long-distance buses from a half-hidden section to the left. Several bus companies have handy central ticket offices around Enqelab Sq.
To Bijar, Saqqez and Marivan, savaris and rare minibuses leave from the far northern edge of town, but inbound often drop passengers 1km further south at Taleqani (Sohrevardi) Sq at the northern end of Taleqani St.
Getting Around
Fast-filling shuttle taxis (IR1000 per standard hop) from Enqelab Sq run east to the main terminal and north along Taleqani Sq to the Marivan terminal. From Azadi Sq they run down Pasdaran St to the Shadi Hotel and up Abidar St. For Abidar mountain park things are complicated by the one-way system: some cars up Keshavarz St divert and continue up Abidar St past JimJim leaving you to walk the last 15 minutes or so. A taxi dar baste to the upper hairpin sections of Abidar Park costs around IR10,000.
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AROUND SANANDAJ
Palangan
pop 850
Brilliant Palangan is one of Iran’s most picturesque villages. Its earth-coloured stone houses climb steeply up both sides of a rocky chasm while traditionally dressed villagers shoe horses in the narrow pathways or simply stand gazing from their flat rooftops. Wobbly old bridges cross the gushing river at either end of town. Unlike Howraman this is not an ‘undiscovered’ gem. Local tourists come in considerable numbers at weekends to picnic in the local orchards. However, as many come dressed up in Kurdish Friday-best costumes this adds further photogenic colour to the scene. Access is relatively easy. Start in dreary Kamyaran, halfway between Hamadan and Sanandaj. Savaris for Palangan start from Salahaddin St (2km southeast of Kamyaran’s main terminal), but you’ll probably need to pay dar baste (IR60,000 return plus waiting time). The asphalted road (45km) passes some other interesting mud-and-stone Kurdish villages en route. Vehicles arrive at a car park outside Palangan’s big, rather ugly fish farm. Don’t be dismayed. The old village is hidden around the corner, a 15-minute stroll along a covered watercourse.
Marivan
0875 / pop 123,000
The main tourist draw of this bustling Kurdish market town is Zarivar Lake, 3km to the west. Backed by low, rolling mountains and fronted by marshlands the lake is invaded by pleasure boats during summer weekends, but is idyllically peaceful at other times. Marivan has several very decent hotels of which the finest is the new six-storey Hotel Zarivar ( 34 0777; s/d/ste IR230,000/350,000/600,000). Fully equipped international-style rooms with fresh pine décor overlook the lake’s marshy eastern end (albeit from the wrong side of the road), and there’s an excellent top-floor- view restaurant. The ITTIC Tourist Inn (Mehmansara Jahangardi; 322 1626; tr IR315,000) has 10 contrastingly dowdy old bungalows but all have bathrooms and the location is an ideal perch overlooking the lake, high above the boating jetty.
The Marivan–Sanandaj road has some very attractive stretches and passes through the mid-sized stepped village of Negel. This is incongruously dominated by a modernist mosque that houses the priceless Negel Quran. It’s reputedly one of only four Qurans to survive from the time of the third caliph, Osman (ie barely a generation after Mohammad PBUH). Although it’s been stolen three times, each time it has been recovered and has only a single page missing.
Sanandaj-bound transport uses Marivan’s terminal, 2km east of the centre with occasional minibuses (IR8000, 2¼ hours) and regular savaris (IR30,000, 1¾ hours). Shared 4WDs into Howraman are sometimes available from Jomhuri St, but there