Southern Armenia is full of tall mountain ranges, valleys, gorges and forests. One main highway takes from top to bottom, with dramatic changes in elevation and scenery. The many types of attractions include hot springs and spas, dramatic cliffs and scenery, monasteries, caravansarys and fortresses, petroglyphs and Armenia's "Stonehenge", natural caves and cave cities, wine region, and more.
I skipped Goris on the way which is famous for the medieval cave-dwellings carved out of the soft rock in the southern part of town. It is a popular place for tourists to see the Tatev Monastery as well as other sites. I did not stop at Goris and Tatev because the weather turned cold and snowy, and i did not want to use local buses to cross the border to Iran. The big crossing border bus was much comfortable and has the biggest seats ever I saw.
Me and three other pack backers were dropped (more like abandoned) on the side of highway near Tabriz, while the bus continued to Tehran. The bus staff only left us to the road side taxi dispatcher. We were ripped off once to ride 25 km into Tabriz bus terminal, and another time from the bus terminal to the hotel. When we got there at 3 am, we were forced into a 4-bed room, but we were too tired to negotiate to two double room.
The Russian couple were nice and well travelled. They planned to fly to Shiraz directly, since they only had three days to tour Iran. Me and my friend Ana were too tired to explore Tabriz much, so we just walked around the city for one day, and then took an over night bus to Tehran.
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