Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Getting Around
Many shuttle-taxi routes run the length of Imam Khomeini Blvd from Shohada Sq, or
along Shohada St to the Lahijan terminal. Northbound, many shuttle taxis go up Sa'di St
via Shahid Ansari Sq, where some swing left up to Golsar, others continuing to Valiasr Sq
(Istgah Anzali). These return southbound down Takhti St.
Around Rasht
FUMANنموف
0132 / POP 36,000 / ELEV 34M
Gilan's main attractions are wooded hinterland villages accessed via Fuman. Once the
capital of Gilan, Fuman is a leafy junction town, its boulevards lined with date palms,
plane trees and numerous tacky plaster- cast statues. The mountains on its southwest hori-
zon stay snow-topped well into April, though it's often too hazy to see them.
Fuman is the most famous place to buy
klucheh fuman,
typical Gilan cookies filled with
walnut paste, available hot from the oven at several bakeries around town. Savaris to
Rasht leave from a bizarrely hidden yard at the northeastern edge of town. West of the
bazaar at Velayet Faghi Sq, the roads to Masuleh (Blvd Imamzadeh Mirza) and to Qal'eh
Rudkhan divide; savaris to either leave from 400m up each respective road.
QAL'EH RUDKHANناخدور هعلق
ELEV 593M
This very impressive Seljuk-era
mountain fortress
(admission US$1; 8am-5pm)
cov-
ers the top of an idyllic wooded butte ringed by a curl of forested mountain. The ruins of
the brick ramparts are relatively complete, with many photogenic towers, arches and wall
sections calcified white with age or tufted with wild flowers. Access requires a steep,
sweaty but gorgeous 50-minute walk starting out along a streamside full of mossy rocks
then climbing pebble-studded concrete steps to the chorus of birdsong and tapping wood-
peckers. The trailhead is beyond a pair of teahouses at
Qal'eh Daneh
hamlet. That's 7km
(US$1 by motorbike taxi) from Qal'eh Rudkhan village to which five-in-a-Paykan savaris
from Fuman cost US$1 per person.
Even if you don't make the climb, the 25-minute drive from Fuman to Qal'eh Daneh is
delightful, crossing rice paddies and skirting hills with neat green-tea haircuts. If cloud
