Tak Taku

Toudeshk-cho is a small village one and a half hours south from picturesque Esfahan and three hours north of the desert city oasis, Yazd. The town is 500 years old and was known for camel trading along the Silk Road centuries ago. The village has a population of around 500 people who live in traditional Iranian mud brick houses. From the outside, these houses appear to be desert igloos but when you enter the gate, the space opens up to a breezy courtyard that is the main sitting area for the family and their guests. Their foundations start below ground level and the roofs are shaped in the old style dome. They are built with mud brick and rendered with mud, which requires annual maintenance after the rainy season. The derivative –cho simply means that it is the ‘old town’ of the attached newer village Toudeshk. 

You won't find Toudeshk let alone, Toudeshk-cho on most maps of Iran. The village is small, and everyday as predictable as the last. People here live with the pattern of the seasons. Nevertheless, this small place has a big thoroughfare of cargo and people moving between the neighbouring cities of Esfahan, Yazd and the larger town of Na’in. It’s relatively unknown to most Iranians, however, its popularity continues to grow among travellers who visit this region thanks to one man, Mohammed Jalili.

The story begins with Mohammed’s curiosity about foreign visitors and the world outside Toudeshk and Iran. When he was thirteen, he took action upon his curiosity…

Mohammed began to sit on the side of the road waiting for foreign cyclists or motorbike riders. He carried a piece of paper with which he could note the few words in English he started to pick up from these people passing through. He would wave down whoever passed. Some stopped, and some didn’t. But most did, even if it was just for a chat before continuing their journey. He would wait days or ever weeks before a new person would pass by. His dedication was undeterred through 45 degree summer days and minus 5 degree winter ones, patiently waiting to meet someone by chance. His desire to learn more about where they came from and where they were going, why they were doing what they were doing and what they found interesting about his country continued to burn bright.

One winter, when Mohammed was sixteen, a German cyclist stopped at the side of the road next to his village. When the two met, he asked Mohammed if there was a hotel or a guesthouse is the village. “No” was the reply. An entrepreneur in the making, Mohammed knew of an abandoned house in the village and offered its shelter to the man for the night. The house had several empty rooms, and was home to a family chickens and the odd stray cat that would come and go – most likely to try their luck for food or to catch a baby chick or mouse.

To Mohammad’s delight, the stranger agreed and they walked together into the village and towards the abandoned house. The German cyclist became the first foreigner to set foot into Toudesk-cho in 300 years. And Mohammed was the one to lead him.

After clearing out the chickens and setting up a place to sleep, his guest asked if there was anything to eat. Mohammed thought quickly and said he would soon return. He went to his family’s home and made his plate of food for dinner but he didn’t eat. He hid it from his mother and then returned to his guest with the food he had saved and offered it to the cyclist. Worried about what his family might think about bringing a stranger into the house, he decided it would be best to keep him a secret for the time being. Mohammed went hungry for the night, telling the traveller that he had already eaten with his family. That night he didn’t sleep. It wasn’t the hunger that was keeping him awake, but the excitement having a foreigner in his village after so many years of sitting on the highway.

Once the traveller left, Mohammed reflected on what a wonderful idea he had had to bring the cyclist to the abandoned house. His dream began to form. From then, he started to invite any traveller passing by to this house for a night, or two. He would stop, not only cyclists and bikers, but buses and lories too. Asking them if they had seen any travellers headed in the direction of the village so that he could be ready to wave them down. He began referring to his place as his Home Stay.

Inviting foreign travellers to stay the night in the village did not go unnoticed. Soon enough, the locals voiced their concern to Mr. Jalili about his son’s ritual at the roadside and the activities inside the abandoned house. Mr. Jalili reprimanded his son, telling him that it may not be safe to bring these travellers into the house. They were strangers after all.

It was only when one traveller on a BSA motorbike pulled up and asked about accommodation for the night that his father became intrigued. His father happened to be an avid enthusiast for British built bikes and he was attracted to Mohammed’s guest like a magnet. His father came to inspect the bike and traveller who came with it. The biker explained all the features of the bike to Mr. Jalili and spoke about his travels thus far. Mohammed watched as his father’s acceptance of the stranger grew. Mr. Jalili invited him to dine with their family that night. And from that point, the Jalili family became invested in Mohammed’s hobby of housing and feeding weary travellers in their village.

It has now been 13 years since Mohammed has been waving down travellers from the side of the road. He now receives calls and messages from hotel managers, bus and truck drivers and even other travellers who have been to his home stay telling him that there may be people coming his way. The home stay has developed into a family business in a non-conventional sense, and has even been reviewed by Lonely Planet, Trip Advisor, WikiTravel and a popular Japanese guidebook. People who have had the chance to stop and meet him and his family tell others of their experience. At its heart, the home stay is determined to remain a place apart from any dime-a-dozen hotel or guesthouse. Mohammed has modeled the experience he wishes to give his guests as one where they feel as they would at their own home, only in the middle of the desert in Central Iran. He offers what no Persepolis can. Not a sight to be visited, but an experience to be had. Where the value comes from the exchange of cultures. 

Mohammed speaks near perfect English and expresses himself fluently on any topic of conversation. The beginnings of his vocabulary all from the small piece of paper he used to carry in his pocket. When asked about his home stay, he proudly explains that he had a dream that continues to be realised. He dreams to build a place for all travellers to stop, rest, talk and share their time, experiences and knowledge with each other and with the tiny village that cannot be seen on most maps. He stresses that everyone is welcome and eloquently adds, “ If you are human, you are welcome. No matter what gender, nationality, religion, sexual preference you have, the only border that exists here is between the land and the sky”. After speaking to him, you quickly understand that his mind is wide open and hungry to learn. He freely expresses his views on life with intelligence, conviction and sincerity. 

Mohammed completed studies in Persian Literature at university, but he vouches that his real education came from building and growing ‘Tak-Taku’ Toudeshk-cho Home Stay. “The world is my university, the people I meet are my teachers. I cannot leave my country yet, but I’m lucky that the world comes to me.”