Day 47. Masouleh  -  Chalus. 


We woke up to clear and beautiful day with crisp mountain air. This village is built into a steep sided valley and reminds us very much of the Khumbu villages of Nepal.




We lined up with locals for bread, which is a flat bread straight from the oven. The oven is like a commercial gas fired pizza oven except instead if a conveyor it has a rotating table. Simple and clever.



Breakfast consisted of this bread and lentil soup in a tiny family run cafe. As per usual we made friends with an extended family and took lots of family photos. They are genuinely friendly and interested in us. Some of them love the opportunity to practice their English.





Shortly after we hit the road and stopped to take photos of a tea plantation all beautifully ordered rows and perfectly clipped. I wasn’t expecting to encounter this until India.


We then stopped in Fuman and bought SIM cards. We had to present our passports, sign the document in two places and then we were presented with an ink pad so we could add our fingerprints!

We then sampled the world famous in Fuman biscuits which I have to say are rather nice.


A wander around the local market was a treat especially watching the man on the street burning the wool off the sheep's heads.



Back in the van we headed for the Shah’s palace. Beautifully manicured grounds and a well presented and informative display of the palace and its art and furnishings.

We are now on the coast of the Caspian sea, a favourite holiday area especially for people from Tehran and also a few international tourists mostly Arabs.

We drove to a family holiday retreat park full of picnicking families and entertainments like dodgems and fun rides. Robyn had to physically restrain me from going on the dodgems and pointed out we had been riding dodgems for three days now!

We settled for a gondola ride up this really really big hill to take in the view. On the way up we shared our car with two girls from Tehran, maybe they were 18-20. As soon as the doors closed the scarfs came off and Pink Floyd came on.



We met a nice family from Shiraz and they offered us tea and cake. The usual photos took place. Robyn is in danger of becoming an Instagram influencer.

We are in the seaside town of Chalus in an apartment about 200 metres from the sea.







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