Swimming and Shopping

The only plans we had for the day was shopping and lounging by the pool afterwards. Thanks to a timely message from our hosts of yesterday we realised that shops are closed today. It's Friday. Day of rest in the Muslim world so we reversed the order. Straight after breakfast in the incredibly busy hotel restaurant we headed up to the roof - expecting a full environment and finding it wonderfully unattended.

So we spent the 3 hours lounging around in and out of the water, sun and shade. Reading and relaxing. The weather today was forecast exactly as all others for this time of year. Today though the sky was blue and it did not seem so oppressive. Therefore the explanation for the brown mist on previous day's is smog. When they aren't all running around creating pollution you can see for miles. The view from the top of the spire today would've been worth the mullah. We didn't care that we missed it on a clear day as our hours poolside were priceless. Even the crane overlooking us was silent and devoid of peering workers who would probably be religiously appalled by the swimsuits the women were wearing and yet insanely jealous their culture doesn't allow that sort of thing. After lazing around for few hours slowly acclimatising to the heat in this seriously perfect day to be doing exactly this we headed back to the room to shower and get ready to assault the shops as soon as they opened. Catching a taxi right out the front was easy. Getting him to understand where we wanted to go a little bit harder. Later on we figured out he couldn't read english or even interpret maps. So he went the long way to get where we wanted to be, refused to pull over when we asked and eventually had to be forceful in order to exit the car. We then walked to our destination using an app with can tell us where we are even when off net. Dunno how it does it but it sure would have been useful 6 weeks ago. After buying half of one stores goods we went in search of some specific items we'd seen on yesterday's safari. A few loops of one area was interesting to note the non-blogger actually getting heated by the continuous pressure to buy stuff by men in the street. Harking back to the days in Phuket when people still wanted to sell you a suit even though you're carrying one - we had one dude wanting to look into our shopping bags to see what we'd already purchased.

Being thankful that the place was relatively quiet with more than half the shops closed and not too many people about, eventually realising we were in the wrong demographic for the items we wanted we wandered over to the canal to see if we could catch a water taxi across to an area where a like minded tourist had suggested we go. Never got across the river as nearby were all the bric-a-brac stalls we needed. Non-blogger was in her element as the negotiations flew fast and furious as prices tumbled and sellers had pretend heart attacks and threatened to close the stores and/ or sell their firstborns in order to cover the horendous losses they were incurring. In the meantime we did catch a view of the chaos of the waterways.

Boats laden with mostly men going all over the place. Possibly ready to sink from overcrowding and the wash of other vehicles. There was a toxic looking sludge floating on top although it seemed relatively clear underneath. Suspect high salt levels like the Adriatic may create this phenomenon. Fully loaded with arms of shopping bags we walked all the way back to the hotel as we were only 15 mins away. It was hot and dirty in the concrete canyons.

These locals playing volleyball were tough nuts indeed. Spent time recuperating and consuming drinks in the room before heading out again for dinner at a local Arabian fare place which was all white with a touch of blue inside. Thinking we were in Greece we soon noticed the differences. Primarily they'd run out of the rice wrapped in vine leaves and secondary in that no alcohol was being served. This is the norm here so not disapointing at all. The food was great and we rolled out looking for a taxi home in the chaos of jam packed roads. Looks like the locals were making up for earlier lost time for prayers and were now all out and about. No taxis but a non formal driver spotted us and got us home at the same cost anyway. All good. Not ripped off. So pretty happy about that. Back in the room for one last night in a different bed to that of home.