Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
full midrange facilities. It's beside Park-e Shahrdari, five minutes' walk north from
Chaharshir Sq.
HOTEL
Amir Hotel$
( 523 1776; Varzesh Sq; tw/tr US$13/15; )
Above a popular restaurant, the good-
value Amir has small, comfortable rooms with bathrooms and a friendly reception in the
cosy lobby. Varzesh Sq is identifiable by its 'sport monument' displaying huge footballs
in a giant cup. It's 1.5km from Chaharshir Sq, one large block north, then three east.
Caffe Sun City$
(Beheshti St; coffee US$0.50-1.50; 9am-midnight; )
Thirty metres northeast of
Imam Khomeini Sq, this is an appealing spot for a decent Turkish coffee.
TEAHOUSE
Getting There & Away
Damghan's quiet bus terminal looks more like a covered bazaar. It's 1km west on 17
Shahrivar St, a US$0.50 shuttle-taxi hop from outside Imamzadeh Jafar. Buses/savaris run
to Semnan (US$1/2, three hours), Shahrud (US$0.50/1, 75 minutes) and Mashhad (US$6/
13, 11½ hours). Arriving in Damghan, incoming transport often leaves passengers obli-
gingly at central Chaharshir or Imam Khomeini Sqs.
Trains on the Tehran-Mashhad line run through Damghan. They are clean and frequent;
book tickets (US$12 to US$25) with tour operators.
Around Damghan
Local picnickers love
Cheshmeh Ali
where the skeleton of a lonely Qajar-era pavilion
sits amid willow trees in a spring-fed reflecting pool. It's almost worth the taxi fare
(US$3.50 each way from Damghan, 30km) for the scenic contrasts en route: high snow-
topped ridges, dry rocky outcrops and mud-walled plum orchards.
Along the slowly degenerating ex-asphalt north of here there are some fabulous
360-degree views of a wide mountain-ringed bowl-valley just beyond lonely
Dibaj
.
