Stuck in the middle

I forgot to mention, back at the hotel that day we witnessed an interesting little drama. The Chinese couple who had their mobile phones nicked were freaking out on the owners of the hotel, yelling and screaming. As we tried to sidle past, the girl grabbed and tried to communicate something with her 3 words of English. I got the hint that they wanted us to yell and scream at the hotel owners too because having a couple of whiteys on their side was sure to make the hotel people cough up some cash. I felt bad for the people with the missing phones, but it wasn't the hotel owners' fault and I certainly wouldn't have felt comfortable demanding cash from them. It was a family-run business just trying to make a go of it and they were so sweet and concerned. We thought originally they theft was an inside job, but pretty quickly it became apparent that it wasn't - it would have been the stupidest business move they ever made.

So I'm standing there in the reception room with half a dozen people glaring at me from all sides. The mobile-girl pleading with me in Chinese and the owner's daugher - the only other one in the room who spoke English - looking away from me. Very uncomfortable situation. Best thing to do was shrug, look like the dumb foreigner who has no clue what's going on (not too difficult) and mutter, "We're going for lunch"