"How considerate of him," he said over the tinkling din of a cup being stirred with a metal spoon.

He sat down at the table, cup held loosely in both hands, and barely resisted glancing around the room. He didn't want to feel as much like a tourist as he was sure he looked.

"It's quite remarkable though," he glanced out of the window as he said it. "I don't think anybody would expect to find such a vast underground garden beneath the sand."