Libya - 2 October 2010 (3)

Tripoli

We continued into Tripoli and found our hotel, the Zahrat Al Khaleej Hotel.  It had a gloomy atmosphere and was not up to the standards we had grown used to since leaving Tunis.  Reception was on the first floor, but it could only be reached by a staircase, so we had to carry our bags up.  At least there was a lift after that to take us to our room on the 6^th floor.  The room was dark, with no outside windows, but we did have a huge bathroom.  There was a large sign on the bathroom door saying that all paper had to be thrown in the basket, but there was no basket.  I ended up stealing one from reception when we assembled for our daily briefing that evening.  At first we were puzzled by some material lying in the room – until Caroline realised that it was a prayer mat.  At least they had not forgotten one of the essentials for most guests, although that was the only hotel room which had one.

Before I went away, I had heard an item on the news about people who had come home with bed bugs.  Libya was cited as one of the most likely places where this might happen.  By coincidence, my hairdresser, Nick, has been to Libya too.  I asked him whether he had encountered bed bugs on his travels there and he said that he had.  So, before I left, I scoured Tonbridge for a spray to eliminate any bed bugs.  Despite its faults, this hotel did not seem to have any, but I used the spray, just to be sure.  Although I did come back with some nasty bugs, the good news was that none were bed bugs, especially as I had borrowed my mum’s suitcase.  The news article said that they would sneak into your suitcase and then create havoc when you got it home. I don’t think my mum would have been very happy if that had happened.

In the evening, most of us set off to a “nearby” restaurant.  Hussain, who worked in the hotel, showed us the way.  It turned out to be quite a long walk.  At one corner, a manhole cover was out of place, leaving a large hole in the road where it was supposed to be.  There was no way we could put it back and we just had to hope that none of the cars ended up in the hole.  We passed a skyscraper which was lit up in lime green and mauve zigzags.  There seemed to be a bit of a funfair nearby.

The restaurant looked uninspiring.  As was the case with most restaurants in the region, the outside resembled a fast food outlet, with large windows and red paint around the top.  The food was quite different though – not a burger or piece of fried chicken in sight.  Instead, we were offered and declined the usual three course set meal and ordered from the menu.  With meat being the predominant item, Caroline and I were forced to go for starter items, especially salad and hummus. The hummus was very nice, but the salad was a bit dodgy.

After we had eaten, Ruth got the bill and tried to work out how much each of us owed.  She went round each of us, ticking off the items we said we had eaten.  That left two main courses on the bill which none of us had eaten.  When she went to complain, she discovered that Hussain had not left us as we had thought, but had stayed behind, ordered the two main courses and told the staff to put them on our bill.  Something to watch out for as it happened on at least one other occasion when I was not there.

Once the bill had been amended and settled, we set off back to the hotel.  Again, Hussain led the way, carrying his food with him.  Hussain looked very young and was really quite sweet.  He did not seem upset that we had rumbled him and, during the walk back, chatted to us as much as his limited English allowed.  We gave him a D3 tip at the end.