Tunisia

Trip Report - Sailor

Ok, for those of you who want to skip all the gory details….

http://y42.photos.yahoo.com/bc/mkgraf/lst?.dir=/Tunisia&.view=t 

Looking for an interesting, inexpensive place to go? Brush up on your French and consider Tunisia. I spent two weeks in Tunisia in the second half of March and absolutely loved it! For the uninitiated, Tunisia is a Muslim country in North Africa situated between Algeria and Libya…yeah, I know it seems like a bad neighborhood…There are good flight connections available from many European cities. I flew from Paris-CDG, which has four flights a day to Tunis. You can also go by boat from Marseille, France or from any of these cities in Italy: Trapani, Naples, Genoa, or La Spezia. Since I arrived by plane, I can’t really answer any boat questions other than I did meet travelers who arrived by boat from Italy, and it only operates once a week at this time of year. There is info in the guide books, and LP has recently published an updated version.

The opening sentence of LP’s Tunisia guidebook sums it up best:

“Tunisia has a list of attractions that would do justice to a country many times its size—superb beaches, spectacular desert scenery and a wealth of historical sights dating back 2500 years to the days when the ancient city of Carthage dominated the entire western Mediterranean.”

A few details about my trip:

Due to unfortunate circumstances and late flights, I arrived in Tunis at about 1 o’clock in the morning. The wonderful staff at the Hotel Salammbo were waiting for me, and after a hot shower and a good night’s sleep, I was ready to rock the next day. I spent 2 days exploring Tunis, wandering the medina, checking out the fabulous mosaics at the Bardo Museum, and strolling around Sidi Bou Said, a picturesque village that almost looks like it was transplanted from one of the Greek islands. Well, with the exception of the doors. The doors in Tunisia are fabulously decorated, and you can’t help but notice them throughout the country.

I really wanted to explore South and Central Tunisia. Following the advice of someone that I had corresponded with through “ database of travel helpers”

http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/2442/database.html 

I flew to Djerba rather than traveling overland. The one hour flight only cost about USD40. I stayed at the youth hostel in Houmt Souk, an old funduq (caravanserai) for TD6 a night. Unfortunately for me, my only full day in Houmt Souk was a Friday and the fort and the museum were closed.

From Djerba, I was headed to Tataouine by louage. A louage is a shared taxi used for long distances. Basically, you go to the louage station, look for one that’s going where you want to go, and when it’s full, you’ll leave. Unlike a bus that travels on a specific timetable, the louage leaves as soon as it is full. Sometimes you’re the last passenger, and as soon as you’ve parked your rear in the seat, they leave, other times you wait….and wait…and wait… The longest I had to wait was about 50 minutes. Louages are usually little Peugeot station wagons (or similar) or vans. I found the vans to be more comfortable. I think the louages might be miserably hot in the middle of summer.

Tataouine was awesome. The region is known for its ksour, or fortified granaries that are really cool to look at and climb around in. I had met some Slovenian girls who had been there—they told me it was no problem to take the camionettes, covered pickup trucks that are the local transport, to go out to the various ksour. Well, I could get there all right, I just couldn’t get back….I ended up meeting some interesting locals on the camionettes, and had some interesting experiences hitchhiking back to town. (Don’t tell my Mom )

From Tatouine, I headed to Matmata, famous for its troglodyte (pit) dwellings and stayed at the Hotel Sidi Driss, famous for being the site of the bar scene in Star Wars. From Matmata, I headed to Douz with a couple of people that I met, and we went on an overnight camel trek from Douz. We slept under the stars on a beautiful, clear night…even saw a couple of shooting stars.

Getting from Douz to Tozeur was a bit of a challenge. On a map, it looks like no problem—there is a good road heading straight across the Chott (salt flat) but even though we had 6 of us, we had a difficult time getting a louage driver to take us there. After much negotiation and coughing up some extra dinars, we finally got our way.

Spent 3 days in Tozeur, and it was perhaps my favorite part of the trip. I hung out with an American couple that I met and a Canadian woman who was traveling alone. Tozeur has an enormous palmeraie (palm grove) that is quite pleasant and cool to walk, bicycle or take a horse drawn carriage through, a lovely old town with gorgeous brickwork, and really nice people despite Tozeur’s popularity with tourists. I stayed at the wonderful Residence Warda, which I can’t recommend enough! Tozeur was also a wonderful base for visiting the surrounding areas. I took a tour that went to neighboring Nefta and also to the Star Wars village. I also went by louage to the scenic mountain oases nearby.

From Tozeur, I headed up to Kairouan, the fourth holiest city in Islam. The Great Mosque within the medina walls is particularly noteworthy. I happened to wander by the Great Mosque as the Friday services were letting out—what an incredible sight—a Kodak Moment that I wished I could have taken advantage of, but at the time, it seemed a disrespectful thing to do.

Next stop was Sousse, a touristy town where I spent a couple of days at the spotless clean Hotel de Paris, located just inside the medina walls. Sousse was by far the most touristy place I stayed; it was disappointing that the “hassle factor” by the local male population was at a much higher volume here—elsewhere in the country it is minimal, especially compared to Egypt.

From Sousse, I took day trips to El-Jem, to see the wonderful Roman Coliseum, and to Monastir, home of the ribat where scenes from Zeffirelli’s “Life of Christ” and Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” J were filmed. One thing I learned on this trip is that Tunisia is a hotspot for filmmakers—all kinds of stuff was filmed here!

I headed back to Tunis, met a friend from home for dinner, and left the next morning….

I really enjoyed Tunisia and hope to return someday to see all the stuff in the north that I missed. I’m not a shopper, but for the first time in a long time, I saw some things that I actually wanted to buy. The only bona fide souvenir I returned with was a “Hand of Fatima” doorknocker, a common sight throughout the country. Cheap too! The weather in March was pleasant, although bad-hair-day-windy at times, and it did cool off quite a bit at night, especially that night in the desert!

Anyway, for those of you who want to try something different, consider Tunisia. It is a pleasant introduction to a Muslim country if you’ve never been to one before, the food is wonderfully fresh and good, (Mmmm…the oranges were fantastic! And the strawberries too!) and Tunisia is inexpensive—you can get a nice room of your own for European hostel prices. And for my fellow Yanks, there aren’t a lot of us traveling over there, so please do your best to make a good impression—they like us!