We arrived back home at Ebi's house after spending the night at the hotel. Ebi's mum comes from Lordghan, an area in the province called Chahar Mahal ve Bakhtiari in South Western Iran. The people in this area have traditionally lived a simple tribal existance for about seven thousand years. They are considered to be the "original Iranians". In order to keep the bloodlines strong, Bakhtiaris tend to marry within their own tribe. Ebi's mum has many many relatives as a result! They arrived yesterday to come to the wedding party and stayed over at Ebi's house, while we were at the hotel. They are all lovely people and were very interested in knowing all about me and the UK. Some of the women had worn traditional Bakhtiari dress to the wedding party and they were very keen for me to try on the outfit that one of the women had. It was very beautiful, all hand-made in heavy purple velvet with embroidery. Not very suitable for the hot Abadani climate but ideal for the colder mountainous areas that they live in. They also performed a tradional Bakhtiari dance at the wedding party, which Ebi and I tried to join in with, but not very successfully ;-).

After visiting Esfahan, they have invited us to visit them in their village, so I'm very much looking forward to that :-)