Our half day tour took us to 'The square of Mosque's' which is a square with a number of mosques. Whilst Nancy were doing her thing and ignoring the less well turned out guy beckoning us into the mosque for a quick fleecing of all my coins and low denomination notes a very well turned out guy approach us and introduced us.
He had a gift of a book for which he wanted no money. With the other guy beckoning us over and my new found porter friend from the day before I must say I was busy trying to figure out what angle this guy was working.
It turned his agenda was not financial. He explained that he wanted to explain Islam was not a violent religion and the extremists were not people of true faith and did not represent the vast majority of people. The book he gave me would explain the key elements of the Islam faith. He would also go away and come back for a book for my, he paused whilst I filled in the blank 'daughter' I added which he duly did so. Checking that I still had my wallet and watch I wished well and walked over to the other guy coins and five pound notes to hand.
The trouble with the seaside is that there are lots of fish restaurants, great if you like fish, Laura - not that keen. Time for a trip to the front desk.
A grill restaurant a 20/25 minute walk down the long and winding road, just past the bridge, maybe on the landside - could have been on the beach. Close enough to avoid a mad taxi ride in either direction. The precise location was however in some doubt so the hotel guy agreed a twenty dollar town car ride there and a walk back along the promenade was probably a good solution.
Laura loved the black Audi A6 with blacked out windows and uniformed driver.
The restaurant on the first floor almost overlooking the sea certainly met our needs serving lumps of various meets fresh off the grill.
Behind Laura was a table of 8-9 young women, all in headgear, arms and legs covered enjoying a girls night out. They were having great fun, giggling, laughing and taking lots and lots of pictures. It was nice to see.
After the meal we started our walk back along the prom. The street, the prom and the beach was busy - lots of families enjoying themselves , street vendors waving pieces of cardboard to keep charcoals burning for the corn on the cob they were selling. The road of course was still full of tooting traffic. The place felt wonderfully vibrant. We caught sight of one bride in full white wedding dress walking with her family along the prom heading for a venue and a little further along a limo disgorge another wedding party, this time the bride (we think) all in black and carrying flowers - well we assumed it was a wedding as the awaiting crowd beneath us at a restaurant appeared to be in party mood.
After a chat about differences in the world, personal security when walking out at night and the dangers of various cities around the world I have visited we reached our hotel. It was only when walking through the hotel's private tunnel from one side of the road to the other did we realise that the 20/25 minute journey had actually taken 40.
And so to bed.....well actually a quick drink at the bar. It will be a quick drink as the only other people in the bar are 3 vocal Brit couples......ah well.
Peter Jackson
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