Blogs from Tunisia, Africa - page 19

Having failed to receive our Iranian visas and recognizing that it was winter in most of the Middle East, we did some serious re-thinking of where to go from Bahrain. Originally, we had planned to travel overland from Pakistan to Iran, Turkey and from there to Syria, Lebannon, Jordan, Egypt and across North Africa to Morocco. We also confirmed that overland travel in North Africa was going to be unlikely across the Egypt/Libya and Libya/Tunisia borders and impossible across the Tunisia/Algeria and Algeria/Morocco borders. Libya and Algeria also require that we book tours in advance in order to get visas. In a nutshell: visiting all of these countries would necessitate a whole series of flights and special (read: expensive) arrangements to make it happen. So, we decided to cut our losses and head for the warmest ... read more

Driving in Tunisia is ... fun, probably similar to racing but with a lot of moving targets ! We enjoyed Tunisia, from the palmery of Tozer (date havest time) to the lost city of Tataouine where we got to live a few days with a familly who were busy picking up olives. Lessons learnt in Tunisia 1. When driving in the middle of the night, think twice before taking the dirt road, it could become a sand dune and you may spend 2 hours digging your car out of the sand. 2. When sharing a meal over a camp fire with an arabic-berber family never throw the food into the fire, allah will punish you. 3. When taking a ferry across the mediterranean, always ask if food is included in the ticket. 4. When going ... read more

I woke up early morning at 6am and went to the hill nearby to see if there would be a good sun rise but nope pretty disappointing. Got back to the hotel to have breakfast as it’s included in the price and was given bread, butter, jam and coffee. Sometime I just wished they just don’t bother but then again you got to learn to appreciate whatever that’s given to you. The couple I met yesterday also came to have breakfast just when I was going to finish. They had spoken with a taxi driver the previous day and negotiated to go and see 3 places for 20 dinars each. They asked me if I wanted to join. I said sounds like a plan. They said the taxi guy was busy in the morning and he ... read more

Life was getting too comfortable in Sousse and it was time to leave and see the rest of the country. I went to Sfax from Sousse and I got into Sfax at 11am. Found the ferry port and found out that the next ferry to Kerkennah was at 1230pm and the next at 1430pm. Decided to get a room in the Sfax medina and then walkabout the medina and take the Kerkennah ferry at 1430. I realized later that this was not such a good idea. If you ever come to Sfax take the first available ferry to Kerkennah. If you want to see Sfax (of course there is nothing much to see) leave your backpack in the ferry port and check out the medina. I got to the Hotel Medina and while filling in my ... read more

I got into the Tunis louage station at 830am and took the louage to Kairouan. The louage took 2hrs and cost 5 dinars. The first thing I noticed in Kairouan is that people are more tradionally dressed than other parts of Tunisia and there are loads of butchers. Dead animals hanging on hooks and cow heads being displayed is very common. For the first time in Tunisia I also saw rabbits, don’t think they were being sold as pets. Just passing the louage station you come across a fruits and vegetable market and yes they probably do grow their own oranges considering the amount of oranges available. After talking to a few locals I found my way to the medina. While walking to the medina, outside the medina I found a shop selling wholesale lentils, chick ... read more