Not surprisingly, we slept late. Val struggled out of bed at around 11, but it was past midday before I managed the same. So our b’fast was our lunch – we ate once again at the small restaurant on the road to town, then promptly returned for xu-xie, or siesta, not because we are extraordinarily lazy, but because everything was shut down + the heat of the noon sun was not bearable, even by an Englishman. We borrowed some tapes from Dan + Lisa however, which made a pleasant change. (Happy to report, incidentally, that they were able to move into a cheaper room – I called them dorms, tho’ they are, in fact, 3-bed rooms.)
In the evening cool, or rather less violent heat, we went shopping at the bazaar, + retuned with mountains of stuff, mainly because they wouldn’t sell in small quantities. We provided ourselves with a feast fit for a king, with boiled eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, peanuts, a melon, some apple wine (pretty revolting, but cheap) + some bread – wonderful stuff, just like bagels – if only we had some cream cheese. We ate this feast for our dinner, after we’d earned ourselves an appetite by walking to the mosque. This walk took us down some back streets, fascinating in that they might have been lifted straight from the pages of a child’s pictorial bible, with white-bearded sages, donkeys, mud-bricks baking in the sun, naked children. Only I don’t suppose Biblical children yelled “Bye-bye” at every glimpse of a white face. Tho’ I don’t suppose they saw all that many, + may have yelled in similar manner had they done so. It made walking along the road hard work, nonetheless, – parents with young children encouraged them to wave + say the magic words, + some bright sparks had advanced to “hello”, one even to “thank you”.
The mosque came as a shock, for it was entirely unpainted, being still in its natural clay-brick state. The only direction was that the tower – I don’t know the technical term – had been faced with clay bricks to make a series of elaborate patterns. It was an impressive building, standing on its own beyond the city, its nearest neighbour 2 brick works, each with a chimney bigger than the mosque tower. Oddly, these enhanced rather than detracted from the effect. Because of its simplicity, I liked the mosque better than any of its fellows that I’ve seen. For a change, it was at one with its environment – it took little imagination to picture the gates swinging open + hundreds of Saracens streaming out, whirling scimitars about their heads. So many mosques appear as wedding-cake ornaments, dropped randomly into a city.
Finished the evening chatting again with D + L at the bar, a roofed-over with vines area with tables + chairs. Very nice, but lacking just those one or two home comforts that would make it so much better.
A pleasant day, despite (or because of) not getting up till lunchtime, but a pleasant walk, some good food, good company.
