Travel note in Persia 22 Hot spring

Travel note in Persia 22, Hot spring

After we spent in a silent village for a while, we wanted to go back to see our family in noisy Sarein. We all went to an amusement park in the town of Ardebil at night.

It was August 16, the War Memorial day of Japan and one of the hottest day in Japan. But here in Ardebil it was a very cold day. It was 8℃. We were going to be frozen because we wore only summer clothes.

One of us guessed it would become cold so he brought a leather coat. We put it on by turn to surpass the cold.

The nieces were looking forward to playing in the amusement park very much. They did not care the cold. They got on the play equipments.

The cousin's wife talked to me. She spoke a few English words and Farsi that I could understand.

I could get the words "Swimming pool" and "Let's go." And she tried to say "the next day", but I understood "the next time".

So I thought she wanted to say "Let's go to swimming pool together after returning to Tehran next time".

"OK, OK."

I answered with pleasure. Then my husband approached and he interpreted the whole story.

"Swimming pool" was "Hot spring". The true story was that Let's go to hot spring tomorrow. We could not stop laughing.

Hot spring of Sarein

We heard the hot spring was very crowded so we all the female members went out early morning. There were Man's day and Women's day of this hot spring by turns.

My husband and sons and other men would go to the next day. There was a stonework entrance. We paid the admission and entered the inside.

It was similar style to the public bath in Japan. There was a big bathtub in the center. The atmosphere was like the old public bath where I traveled in the country side of Japan.

The hot water was impure and brown. There were wooden lockers in the wall. We changed the clothes there.

I saw people were washing the body and the hair in a hollow place beside the bathtub. We Japanese should be naked in the public baths but here in Iran anyone should not be naked.

My husband had told me that I should wear the underwear even in the bathtub. Most people wore a shirt and an underwear or swimming suits.

I entered the bathtub where the stones were rugged. We Japanese have deep bathtubs in any house but Iranian ordinal houses have only shower or shallow bathtubs of the European and American style. I enjoyed a big bathtub after a long time.

When I stayed in the hot water, I saw small bubbles beside me. The hot water sprang up from the bottom. However, there was no lid. I tried to find a lid or the bottom by my foot, but I could not touch anything. The hole was deep. I worried whether any accident would happen.

The wash place was jammed. Strangers, middle-aged women were very kind to me, a foreigner.

My husband told me no one become naked in the Iranian public baths. But those women washed themselves in naked. They looked very powerful.

Then lent a soap to me, and passed me a washbowl.

One of them poured the shampoo in my hand seeming to overflow from my hand. She poured the shampoo too much as me, and her hair foamed very much. When she realized I watch her, she smiled to me.