Wonderful hospitality of a Tunisian family and Hitchhiking in the Ksour

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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 could only go during the afternoon around 12pm. I had planned to hitchhike to all these places today but wasn’t sure how possible the plan was. Hence I told them that I am going to Ghomrassen in the morning and if I am joining them I will meet them at the hotel at 1130am.

I had planned to leave Tatouine in the evening and this was a little inconvenient but for that price and ease of travel especially if I had not managed to hitchhike I was contemplation staying one more day.

I took the 830am bus to Ghomrassen. Got their around 9pm and I saw an independent lady traveler with this Tunisian guy. I went up to her and started talking to her asking her if she had already been to the other site in Tatouine and she said no and she said that she was planning on hitchhiking to other places. This is exactly what I wanted to do. I also told her of the plan of my friends at the hotel but we decided to play it by ear. She was French and her name was Nadine and she seemed to be in her late forties but looked very physically fit.

We took a transport from Ghomrassen to Ksar Hadada. Ksar Hadada is one of the locations Star Wars was filmed. It has little rooms called Gorfas used to store grain back in the day. Of course this one was a converted refurbished one where there are little rooms to have coffee. In Star Wars the scene where Old Ben and Luke go to this bar to meet Hans Solo for the first time would have been done here. It’s a beautiful place and shouldn’t be missed.

Afterwards we started walking back to Ghomrassen when we got a lift by another French lady and Tunisian guy.

In Ghomrassen there is a a hill/rock right in the city centre and Nadine wanted to climb it. If I was alone I would have never climbed it because there were certain parts that seemed dodgy and I am not a climber. I know my talents and rock climbing is certainly not one of them. Although with much help and encouragement by Nadine and Nasser the Tunisian guy I managed. The absolutely stunning views were well worth it.

Funnily getting back down was not all that hard. Then we took a camionnette to Guermessa and yet another place not to missed. It’s amazing how people dug these caves and even more amazing how they lived there.

By now I had decided that I was going to stay one more day because I seemed to have found a good travel companion and by seeing how beautiful the landscape I was not going to leave this place without checking out the other places.

There was one point while we were in Guermessa we entered a prohibited zone. The guardian as they call it had seen us from the foot of the mountain and he told Nasser to tell us not to go. Nadine and I didn’t listen we kept going thinking the most they can ask us is to leave. Then the guardian came and then I was joking with him asking him if I could take a picture with him. Nadine took a picture as well, I called him old Ben he is apparently 85 years old, wish I would be able to climb mountains at that age. He then invited us for lunch, he stopped by a little rock sat on it, opened a tin of tune and put it into a metallic saucepan. To that he added olive oil and we all dipped the bread into it and ate. Later on he gave us his address and wanted us to post the pictures to him.

Nadine had spent the previous night at Nasser’s parents place and today they were going to stay at his cousin’s place. Nasser invited me to stay with them. The day got even better for me, for the first time I am staying with a Tunisian family.

Nasser’s cousin’s place comprised of two sisters Amal and Noel and their two brothers and their mother who seemed quite old. In addition there was their other sisters’ husband from Djerba and their little son visiting them just for that night. Maybe the other sister was still in Djerba. They had another cousin who had come just like Nasser probably to see the little kid as I saw that cousin was playing with the kid for a long time. Then there was me and Nadine.

Mats were laid on the floor and we were all seated on the floor. They served couscous with lamb and I said that I don’t eat meat and I just ate couscous with vegetables and omlette. For desert I gave them the remainder of my Toblerone and everyone enjoyed it.
I ate with my fingers and when I had to wash my fingers they brought a bowl of water with some washing powder. I wanted to go outside and use the tap but they just didn’t allow me saying this is how they all wash their fingers. So I washed my fingers and then using the same wter Nasser washed his. I could never do this, it’s just not hygienic.

Later we were all seated with their mum sitting in a corner and serving quarter glasses of mint tea. Every time someone finishes a glass a quarter is refilled.

They couldn’t speak much English but they were asking me a few questions. The younger of the sisters was looking at me every 2 minutes; she was cute although she wore a head scarf.

They first asked me if I was Muslim and I replied saying no. Then they asked me what I thought of Islam and I said I like the whole brother / sister idea and the hospitality but I didn’t like the idea of killing animals as a sacrifice. They couldn’t comprehend the idea of Buddhists not having a god.

Then it was time to sleep and the women had to go to their quarters’ which is in another room and the men in the living / dining room which is where we were. We slept on the floor as well and I slept exactly the way they slept with all my clothes. There was no chance for a shower because they didn’t have a place to shower nor they had a place to shower. It’s amazing how some people live but in spite of being so poor the hospitality is amazing.

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