Army Generals, friends of Leader Qaddafi, are having lunch under the date palms in a garden restaurant located in the shadow of the 2nd century Marcus Aurelius Arch opposite my hotel here in Tripoli.
Their raucous, cigar-smoking bodyguards have been relegated to dine in the restaurant in the central courtyard of my converted caravanserai hotel. I’m wondering whether someone is about to shoot an episode of ‘The Sopranos’ with such Mafia look-alikes.
I’ve just flown in from Malta, and met up with Pam and Ken Turner who arrived here yesterday. Time for lunch!
This is an excerpt from my 2007 Story, ‘A Libyan Affair’. Click here to read
This is the story that I wrote after my trip to Libya with Pam and Ken in 2007. I have since returned on another visit. Sadly, I now hear that Jamal, the owner of the travel agency who personally drove me to visit the Roman ruins at Leptis Magna on this second occasion, was shot dead as a passive bystander in Tripoli’s Green Square in the early days of this current uprising.
I’m so glad that I had an opportunity to visit that very special country in the north of Africa with its friendly people and wonderful Roman ruins before all the carnage we are witnessing on a daily basis. Hopefully, hostilities will soon cease and we can contemplate returning.
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