Winter in Iran

Alborz Mountains, Iran – near the village of Gajereh, Dec 2016

SNOW!!! Finally. And of all places, in Iran!

Decided to write something on snow. Last weekend (Feb 3 & 4), people in the UAE went bonkers over some snow falling in the mountains in the northern part of the country. I can understand them. Just imagine, snow falling in a dry desert country where it can shoot up to 50 friggin degrees Celsius in summer, and where it rains like once in an entire friggin year! Unfortunately, we didn’t know about it until after it happened. Mind you, we were very close to where it happened, maybe about 30 minutes’ drive away. If it hadn’t been for a humongous jam on the mountain road leading to the place, that is. We were actually looking for a wadi (a dry river bed) to picnic in as it had rained on the Thursday night just before the weekend. So off we went on Saturday afternoon towards the wadi we found on Google, and lo and behold, we were caught up in this almighty jam in the mountains! (The road to the wadi and that particular mountain, Jebel Jais, are the same). It got so bad that we ended up just pitching our tent by the road side, and were wondering where the hell the road leads to that created such a massive jam… As far as I know, it doesn’t really go anywhere except up Jebel Jais, which is the highest peak in the UAE! We left at sunset and there were still cars coming in! (And the next day, was a working day in the UAE!) We only found out the next day that that jam was caused by people driving up the mountain to experience that little bit of snow that fell the day before! I’ll post pictures of our roadside camp in another post (after I download all the pictures, as usual, heheh).

For the time being, here’s some snow from our trip to Iran in December!




Scenes from the countryside, near the village of Gajereh, Alborz Mountains, Iran


Anu and a ha-phoo (kid’s word for dog in Persian), near Gajereh – Jayden now calls dogs babu (his version of ha-phoo)


Head scarves are compulsory for ladies in Iran – “You go out, you tie up your hair,” not that it’s much of a problem in winter. It’s friggin minus 12 degrees when we were there. Brrrrr…


Amir Kabir Dam, Chalus Road, Alborz, Iran – this was the road we used to go up the mountains from Tehran. It took 2.5 to 3 hours. The Chalus Road which connects Tehran to Chalus city on the coast of the Caspian Sea, is the ‘romantic road’ of Iran according to our driver. Iranians love to holiday or picnic on this road! The shorter route up the mountains would be through Shemshak which will get you there in about 1.5 hours, but the road was closed off due to snowfall. Well, there goes an extra 30 USD for the longer journey! (Two-ways of course. It was USD 60 return via Shemshak, or USD 90 return via Karaj / Chalus Road)

We’ve been looking for snow for years. Not that it is my first time. No, but it is Anu’s and the kids’ first time at playing with real snow. I had my first experience of snow in Scotland way back in the winter of 1993. Driven in snow, played in snow, slept in a car to wake up finding everything covered in snow, heck, even peed on snow (while drunk), and more! The second country I encountered snow was in India, in the state of Uttarakhand in 2005.

Technically, this was also not Anu and Justin’s first time. Their first time was that little bit of snow in Grimselpass, Switzerland during our Europe Trip in the summer of 2015. But that was in August, the peak of summer! Whatever snow we found, was a few little patches of white, trapped in the mountains, which was no bigger than the size of a friggin room! So, …not counted (according to me)!

The first time I tried to show Anu snow was in Kashmir, in our kid-free days of 2007. That didn’t work. We went in November, before any snow fell. Two weeks after we left, snow started falling! Shit!

In 2010, we visited Nepal. In December. Went to Pokhara and could see the snow covered peaks in all its majestic glory! Except from tens of kilometres away. Justin was a year old then. Tried climbing some hills, but the snow was still too far away.

So here we are, in the Alborz Mountains of Iran…


A view of the Dizin Ski Resort, from the entrance of Dizin Hotel 1 – We decided against staying in the resort, since it’d be costlier (324,000 tomans, or about 324 dirhams per night, double room with an extra bed, with balcony overlooking the ski slopes), and we’d be confined to hotel food, since there’s nothing around. Besides, we hadn't plan on skiing. (What? With the kids?!?) We chose to stay at a nearby village instead.


The fully equipped apartment we finally rented at 150,000 tomans (AED 150) per night! We took the ground floor unit. Here we are with our driver, Saeed (middle) and the owner of the apartment, Mr Mousavi (left).


Inside our rented apartment. There’s nothing to do except play with snow, drink tea (Iranians are crazy about tea, not much coffee here, unlike Arabia), play with your phone or your tab, like what Anu and Justin is doing (expect that the internet in the mountains are extremely slow or non-existent), watch Iranian TV, and cook (yeah, here in the village, we can buy our own food and cook! You’ll know how nice that is after days of burgers, fries and kebabs!)


A view of the apartment driveway from our window


The village we stayed in, Velayat Rud, Alborz, Iran


And the winner of the Best Snowman Award is …Anu! She’s the only one who succeeded in building a snowman! I’ve made a snowman before in Scotland, but the snow here’s difficult. Too powdery and can’t be compacted. …I found out on the day we left, that it is easier to make snowballs and make snowmen using older snow. The day we reached the mountains, the snow was fresh. It snowed the day before!


Going gaga over snow – Justin’s snow angel!


Yours truly and some icicles


Wefie! Alborz Mountains, Iran

Actually picked these photos for an article I recently wrote for the Company magazine. Yeah, our Company has its own magazine! And it’s not only one. I think there’re about 3 magazines, one for the Company, one for our Civil and Infrastructure Division, and one for the Engineering Department! And this is only the Middle East Branch of our humongous Company I’m talking about! Know why I bother writing an article? …Because they’ll friggin pay me if it’s published!! Haha! Hard times call for drastic measures…