This morning, Kim realised that he had lost about EUR200 while in Shihara, made up of Japanese Yen and New Zealand dollars. He suspected that it may have been taken while we had gone for a walk after arrival in Shihara, despite having been given a padlock by our hosts. [Edit: I realised many years later that we had a kleptomaniac in our travelling party.]
Kim, Lou and I had a relaxing morning at the Officer’s Club today. While it is meant for military (or is it police?) officers, male foreigners like us can pay to use the big Olympic-sized pool. We left our passports at reception to get a locker for our stuff before heading to the poolside area.
The facilities are the nicest amongst anything we have seen in Yemen. However, the pool was freezing! The gym looked well-equipped. The steam room was good and the spa pool full of friendly locals. One of them even said “Apa Khabar?” to me in Malay!
We had lunch together at the Al Hamra. I’m usually a bit wary of the nicer places as the food isn’t fast-moving and stomach upsets are more likely. We shopped at Al Huda supermarket on the way home as Lou was going to make us dinner.
We took a walk in the souk in the afternoon before being treated by Lou to a meal of tabouleh and risotto on our balcony.