I went on a quick Easter weekend getaway to Libya. Firstly to see beautiful Leptis Magna and secondly to miss the snow storm that you guys had.
Normally such a short trip doesn’t warrant one of my stories but I had a bit of bother on this trip.
I got into trouble even before leaving the airport. Passport officials were quite concerned about my name and asked me a lot of questions. Well not ask almost shouted. Who was I named after? Do I know Aerial Sharon? Was I named after him? Do I have any ties with anything Israeli? I had to try and convince them that I was born in Malaysia an Islamic country and I have nothing to do with anyone or anything Jewish. They were even shouting it out as I was walking away after they had let me through.
Finally got on with the trip and we visited a smaller Roman ruin first. It was quite a big site and we were given maps – I took this as a sign to do your own thing – I was wrong. They really don’t like you wandering off from the group. I knew what time we had to be at the bus so I had a wail of a time exploring these lovely ruins with a Mediterranean Sea backdrop and I had it all to myself as the group were taking ages with all those boring explanations. I had gone for about an hour when I noticed a man in dark clothes everywhere I turned. He was always on a mobile phone. Just as I was getting to the end of the site I saw the guide running towards me – he didn’t look pleased. He asked me why I left the group, why I didn’t tell anybody I was leaving etc. He said he got so worried that he sent someone from the police to come find me. Apparently we had one following the group. So the guy I kept seeing was a policeman who has been assigned to look after us and he obviously was telling the guide of my whereabouts. A bit over the top for a short weekend break. I apologized and said I didn’t realize I had to stay with the group throughout my entire trip especially as I was given a map. I wouldn’t have bothered coming if that was the case. He said there will be free time given at the end of every talk, but it was not enough for me. The rest of the group didn’t get to see the whole site or the last 2 floors of the museum which were far more interesting than any of the other stuff he told us about. I told my room mate this and she got annoyed. It came to the point where we both said we would go out and find somewhere to eat ourselves as we kept having group meals. Eventually he just gave up on me and assumed that I was a trouble maker and I got an idea some of the group did so too. I was quite friendly to my room mate and another couple and the four of us did our own thing eventually. We had two full days to explore Leptis Magna without boring guides telling us what each rock or column meant. We found local restaurants easily enough where the food was cheaper and nicer. Although I did enjoy one of our group meals at Leptis Magna where I had some camel and cous cous. It was quite delicious, tasted like beef to me. Apparently they only cook camels aged 5-9 months old or it would be too tough. So now I can add a baby camel to my list of adventurous cuisines.
