Travel note in Persia 23 Some scenes on the trip

Travel note in Persia 23, Some scenes on the trip

We returned to the motel. I dried my hair by the drier and washing my clothes.

By the way a young woman and her family had been staying at the same hotel since yesterday. Iranian men should not talk to women outside. So no one could not talk to her.

However, boys are intersted in her with lovely face. They took her by the video secretly.

The brother seemed to be intersted in her, too. My husband told me,

"I wonder whether she wants to marry or not. Talk to her once."

I thought they were not serious.

After a while, when I was alone, she talk to me in English. We intruduced ourselves each other.

"We came from Isfahan. I am 22 years old, a university student now."

After that, accidentally she started to talk about the topic of the marriage.

"I want to go to study to the United States or Europe. My mother and family tell me to marry soon. But I do not want. There are a lot of girls who marry very early in Iran. However, I think that it is a mistake. I think that we should not be bound by the marriage so much young."

"I have never seen an Iranian woman who have a steady opinion like you. I hope good luck for your future."

I said.

My husband and the brother came like having waited for me to have separated from her.

"Do you ask about the marriage?"

"No I did not. But she told me by herself."

"How is it?"

"She wants to go to the United States but she does not want to marry."

"Ah! No way!"

They said and gone. They seriously had thought to meet her with a view to marriage.

Persian carpet I fell in love

In the afternoon we went out to buy a Persian carpet to take back to Japan. Our far relative has a gold accessory shop in Ardebil bazaar. He would introduce a good carpet shop. The uncle guided us to Bazaar.

As soon as we arrive at his shop, he told us "Welcome." He gave me a small gold ring.

We walked the small alley of the bazaar toward the carpet street. We entered a carpet shop. We greeted the storekeeper and he showed us Persian carpets by turns.

The carpets were decorated on the walls. Tens of carpets were piled up on the stand of the floor. Designs of the most carpets were the name of "Mahi (fish)" which is peculiar design of Ardebil.

Two staffs opened and showed us the carpets piled up on the floor one by one. When we found the favorite ones, they removed those ones to the side.

They showed us all of their stocks of the size we want. Then we started the final selection.

I had fallen in love with the carpet seen in the beginning. It was a twin carpet, purple color and fine stitch.

However, it looked to be more expensive than other carpets. We worried we could not buy it by our budget. My husband also liked it. So he started to bargain over the price.

Price war

The price that the storekeeper said was only a little higher than our budget. My husband and the uncle tried to bargain the price.

However, the storekeeper never change the price. In Iran people bargain a price of anything everywhere. We could not believe he did not bargain the price.

"You should bargain!"

"You live in Japan. You should be rich. You can pay for any price!"

There were many people came from other carpet shops. Some people were our side and some people were the storekeeper's side.

"Hey why don't you bargain a little?"

"No, No. This carpet is more expensive than his price."

The staff served me Chai. I can not speak Farsi so I was looking at the surroundings. The carpets on the wall were decorated very beautifully.

Many carpets had the design of Mahi. There were various colors like ivory, pink and etc. Each one was different and beautiful.

There was a big excellent carpet woven 16 different pictures which had a story. The small picture carpets were drawn a flower basket and the lovers who were in the legend of ancient Iran.

The people in the store had increased and looked actively. The storekeeper hardly cut the price for about one hour.

My husband gave up to bargain the price. We decided to buy the first price that the storekeeper told us. I did not think the price was not higher than the one we heard in Tehran. But Iranian people believe they should negotiate on the price when they buy anything expensive.

We could not bargain the price this time because I Japanese was there.