Day 12 - Kashan to Abyaneh

Spent most of today exploring the sights that Kashan has to offer with a pre-arranged local guide before driving some 70 odd kms to Abyaneh where we spent the night. We started in Kashan by visiting the Fin Gardens which we enjoyed despite having seen more beautiful gardens elsewhere. From there we proceeded to visit four historical houses in Kashan which again were worth seeing but perhaps a little overrated - either that or I am beginning to suffer from ancient monument fatigue. Also, our guide's somewhat disinterested attitude made itself felt and perhaps this added to my jaded feeling. We definitely got the feeling that this was just a job for him and what was disappointing and frustrating was his insistence on paying for everything with us then to reimburse him at the end of the day - a recipe for conning us and disagreement if ever there was one. Rather than visit the ruins at Sialk Hill which was on our itinerary we got talked into abandoning this ("just some old mud wall ruins apparently") and instead going to Qamsar, the town that predominantly produces rosewater in Iran I believe. With the benefit of hindsight this appears to have been a means of getting us to buy products that we had no real use for - a typical con not unlike the touts in Asia who direct you to jewelry and suit stores. Anyway, as expected we ended up buying a case of various rosewaters and some perfumes. Then off to Abyaneh where we first checked into our hotel and then had lunch, again with the guide. A wander through the village with the guide, some photographs with local women in traditional dress and then back to the hotel where we finally parted company after some annoying and embarrassing negotiations over how much to pay him. The hotel itself is a quaint family run establishment (the only hotel in Abyaneh) and beautifully decorated. A quiet dinner at the hotel and then bed. I forgot to mention but when driving to Abyaneh from Kashan we passed within a few hundred  meters of perhaps Iran's most secretive underground nuclear site near Natanz. Some little way past this we drove past a couple of anti-aircraft batteries guarding the site - perhaps against a potential Israeli strike - quite sobering really.