We were woken up by the heat, mercifully there was only one fly and he wasn't too persistent, we shrunk into the shade of the wall we were sleeping next to trying to delay getting up. Feeling refreshed from a good nights sleep I got up to go and have a shower, while Djalma battled on against the sun and getting up. We moved our things downstairs to the dorm room and the owner of the hotel set up a bed for Djalma to catch some more zzzz in the shade while I went to cash out some money and buy breakfast.
I came back with some delicious Arabic pizzas with cheese and the same crushed time and sesame seed mix that we had with William in Irbid, it was hot and delicious and set us up for the morning. We eventually headed out after Djalma decided that he'd had enough sleep and went to meet MJ at their hotel. After killing some time in the lobby reading magazines we decided to share a four bed room in a different hotel that we had asked directions at the previous day, Djalma went to book the room and we took our bags over and settled into our new room complete with a balcony. I was feeling even worse than the previous night so I stayed in the room while Derek (who came over later) MJ and big D went out to look round the town. I gave him strict instructions to for him to come back for me when they had finished their walk and were heading out to Pigeon Rocks, some natural offshore arches.
An hour and a half and they were back, I had started watching 'The 40 year old virgin' and was only halfway through when Djalma knocked on the door. Feeling only marginally better I went with them and started walking in the general direction of the coast but via a section of the very recently rebuilt down town area. We stopped in a beautiful church which was decked in beautiful, scented white flowers for a wedding that evening and then carried along a street which was doted with gun carrying police ensuring a very strict no photo policy which we were told about by a really friendly military policeman at the beginning of the street.
 |
| From Beirut, Lebanon |
Dutch Derek, the same age as me, is a still life photographer and got snap happy before we were safely out of the no photo zone. As we were walking past the check point, which he thought was the end of the photography free zone, we took a picture of a concrete block with some Arabic writing, nothing special at all but we were stopped going up the steps and a guard asked to look at his camera. He deleted the offending photo – which in no way could have been described as offensive or intrusive – and we all thought that that was it. He was then questioned by some more policemen, with machine guns naturally, who took his camera away and then asked him to go with him for questioning. Cripes, we thought it was overkill but fair enough taking pictures inside a protected area was a wee bit silly but it was only one and it didn't show anything that could be remotely useful, he reappeared after several minutes and motioned for us to go with him, joy, we left the watchful eye of the guard who refused to speak to us while he made sure that we didn't try to escape, and followed him and several other guards into a small but air-conditioned room where we all got out our cameras and showed our pictures. They guys were perfectly polite and not at all threatening, that said I did notice a handgun casually tucked into the back of the jeans the camera inspector was wearing, yikes. After several documents were signed by varying people in the room documenting the incident no doubt, we were allowed on our way and back into the heat.
We were all laughing and joking as we walked away but it was a while before anyone took any pictures and we made damn sure there weren't any policemen sights before we took hurriedly took our shots and moved on. My head was pounding with a headache and I really wasn't feeling all that well so we made a beeline for some food and ended in a noisy, busy fast food joint. We decided to eat there instead of hurrying onward to the beach and we all tucked into late lunch. Derek and I tucked into cheeseburgers, chips and coleslaw while D and Joel shared lots of different Arabic/Lebanese appetisers. Feeling ten times better we continued onto the local beach by taxi where the others splashed in the sea while I stayed on dry land looking after the bags.
 |
| From Beirut, Lebanon |
We sat and watched the sun set while all the beach-goers were turfed out of the sea by the persistent, loud and annoying whistle of the life guard. We caught a taxi back to our hotels where we rested for a bit before Derek came round to get the party started before heading out with MJ to properly party. Djalma and I sat and talked, making a pact to make sure we got our own room twice a week, it's difficult finding a balance between travelling cheaply and having enough privacy as a couple - enough said. We started watching Watchmen but I started falling asleep after ten minutes so went to brush my teeth and get ready for bed. It took me ages to get to sleep and I had to put in ear plugs before I dropped off.
No comments:
Post a Comment