The picture to the left is of the lift attendant of the coffee tree hotel. This was taken a few weeks after the incident described herein.

We took the lift up and down to the rooftop restaurant (no more shelf woman…) several times that day, under the guidance of this chap. Later in the day I had to visit a cash machine, so Sylvan and I left Yuki and Albert enjoying a cold beer in the Coffee Tree. On returning the lift attendant was nowhere to be seen, so we hopped in the lift, and took it to the top floor. Here we found Yuki. Albert had had to leave. She was eager to get the bus up the mountain so we collected our stuff and got in the lift.

I pressed the button for the ground floor, and the lift descended….. and didn’t stop until a large crash as we hit the very bottom of the hotel. All the lights in the lift went out. We managed to lever the doors open to find a two foot gap between the floor of the lift and the basement floor. We climbed out into a litter of empty beer crates, cardboard boxes and the ubiquitous dust. We located a stair well, but the top of the stairs were barred. Peering through into the reception we could see the lift attendant and the receptionist discussing something. We shouted, but they didn’t seem to hear us…

After a few minutes the lift attendant came over and looked at us like what the hell were we doing? He started shouting at Sylvan. Why had we done this. The lift didn’t work properly and only he knew how to work it. How could we be so stupid. Sylvan argued back. The whole time we were imprisoned in the basement with only the dregs of Safari lager to drink, and cardboard to eat… No one seemed to be looking for any keys to release us.

Eventually we were released from the cage, and all the Africans seemed to be very angry with each other. I worried that the lift was bust and it was the lift attendants fault and it would take him his whole life to buy a new one. Luckily when we visited again the lift was working, and he bore no ill will to us at all. That is if he recognised us…