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Published: March 29th 2005
Today was day 3 of the 5 day conference, and I was sick of conference. Bored stupid. So I decided to skip today and head out to Kairoun, apparently the 4th most holy city in all of the world.
The trip to Kairoun was short and sweet - and uneventful 1.5h journey with none of the customary pleasantaries of Tunisian bus travel such as men with bad body odour or women who talk too loud. Women here (older women in particular) have no concept of volume - they just yell in their nasal annoying voices - just yell - I don't think they actually are talking to anybody - they just yell.
Now I was expecting everybody to be extra holy in this city, seeing as it is the 4th most holy city in all of the world. Thus I was expecting women in full perda (thats when they are completely covered up from head to toe except for their eyes - kind of like the snow stormtroopers in starwars). I also expected the whole population to stop and start praying everytime the mosque started blaring its call to prayer (Muslims pray 5 times a day - at these times, a dude in the mosque starts yelling into a loud speaker chanting stuff - I'm guessing prayers).
To my disappointment, Kairoun was just as non-holy as the rest of Tunisia. Young women wore jeans and little singlets, nobody stopped to pray at all (poor mosque guy just was ignored by everybody), and most of all, the shopkeepers were even more cut-throat and dishonest.
Upon getting to Kairoun, I headed to the Medina, the town centre that countains most of the important stuff. The medina was quite atmospheric - full of throngs of people (not many tourists), just wondering around aimlessly. Much of the Medina was white concrete, with most of the door and window panels painted a brilliant light blue. Rather quaint to wander through when the crowds weren't busy obstructing the views.
I did my usual thing that I do when wondering through a bazaar - that is, stopped at very few shops, took pictures of many of them, and bought a bit of food from most of the cleaner looking shops. I also decided to pick up a few souvenirs - a little hookah ornamental lamp and a bracelet for Melenie. I was pretty proud of myself - I managed to knock about 80% off the marked price - 35 dinars down to 6 dinars for the lamp.
In one case, I thought I was going to get bashed. I told a guy that I wanted a bracelet he had for 35 dinars for 4 dinars. He looked at me shocked, told me I was being ridiculous and asked me for a sensible price. Buy I stood firm - refused to move, telling him that I could get the same thing in Australia for 4 dinars (well maybe not, but he had told me that the little plastic beads on the braclet were not plastic, and that the metalwork as silver). He kept begging me for a better price, so I just said 'No thank you', and started walking off. He started yelling at me saying 'Hey, respect me - I respect you, why you not respect me, ah? We bargain, this is how we do business. Respect me, why not?'. I ignored him and kept walking on. To my shock, he started running after me, yelling 'Respect me' (I fought off the desire to start humming 'respect yourself' by Madonna from the 80s). I turned around and was confronted with and angry guy. '10 dinars' he said, and shoved it in my pocket. I kindly said now, and said 6 dinars was by best price. I raised my voice saying his stuff was not worth 10 dinars - that it was plastic and the metal was not silver. I think he started getting embarassed because I was talking badly about his stuff in front of other tourists, so he quickly agreed to 6 dinars and let me on my way.
After my successful shopping spree, I headed to the Grand Mosque - apparently the oldest mosque in North Africa (or the world, not sure which). They actually charged me to enter, which means I guess that they aren't particularly evangelical. The architecture inside was nice - very Arabian looking. Unfortunately, I was only allowed to wander in the courtyard and peek into the prayer room (only muslims are allowed in the prayer room).
After the Great Mosque, I headed back to the main street of the Medina for some lunch. On the way, I was stopped by a bunch of screaming teenage girls, begging me for my autograph. I said that I wasn't famous, but they didn't believe me. All of a sudden, a big sedan car (big tent on rods that they carry people in) came out from one of the alley streets, and I was swept up into the sedan car. I was paraded through the streets, and many of the people stopped and bowed their heads in respect. I was shocked, and a little bit confused. Then I awoke from my little daydream and realised that I had let the North African sun get the best of me - I was in desparate need for some water.
Atually, the truth is that I was stopped by a bunch of screaming arab girls. I kind of wasn't sure what to do, because the lonely planet had said that men aren't really meant to talk to women unless invited, and I didn't want some mad Arab dad coming around the corner and bashing me for dishonouring his daughters. They turned out to just be schemers - inviting me back to their place for coffee - I'm guessing so that they could poison me and steal my money - or pass me off as a Numdian slave and sell me to the Egyptians. I kindly declined, but they kept following me, asking me about where I was from and what Australia was like and stuff. Eventually though, they had worn through all the phrases I could say and understand in French, and thankfully thus departed.
After a satisfying lunch of Tunisian Briq (a kind of doughy bread stuffed with Egg and meat and sometimes Harrisa - a really nice chilly paste), I headed to some famous prophets tomb. Once again, the main attraction was the architecture - Arabic as one would expect. Picturesque, but a bit boring after the first 5 minutes.
By now, I was kind of bored of Kairoun, so I hopped back in the bus and headed back to Sousse where my hotel was. I stuffed myself silly at the desert bar at dinner time and then retired to the lounge area with some French guys from the conference to sit around and listen to them talk french all night - well they talked English about 50% of the time, but I guess they accidently slipped back into french and forgot that I couldn't quite follow them.
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anonymous
non-member comment
I FOUND YOUR DESCRIPTION TO BE VERY OFFENSIVE. AT THE VERY LEAST YOU COULD SHOW RESPECT FOR SOMEONE ELSES CULTURE. YOU SHOULD PROBABLY STAY HOME AND NOT VISIT ANYWHERE AS YOU CANNOT APPRECIATE ANYTHING.YOU FOOL.