2008 June Tunisia Tunis

Tunisia is only 70 km off Sicily, Italy, but it never occurred to me that this country has some of the most exciting history.

*Ruby and Ellie cooling off in a fountain right outside the Medina, Tunis.

*Hannibal's hangout, Carthage

Hannibal... I guess I heard of him before somewhere along the line from the excruciatingly boring history lesson while I was at school. The Phoenicians were the people who came from today's Lebanon region across the Mediterranean Sea and the period is called Punic.

It was back in the time when the Romans were controlling most of the Med. The Punic period was flourishing even in Greek time before the romans as well. The Phoenicians went to war-the Punic War- with the Romans twice and the Hannibal is famous for climbing over the Alps on elephant back to give the Romans surprise attack. It is much better to learn about the history of a country while being there and learn from the things you can actually see for yourself, compared to having to learn by cramming in classroom. That's the beauty of travel, so educational as well as pleasurable. 

Ruby(4 yrs) : Mum, we have to get a metre taxi only!

It was the second time we travelled without a car since children came along.

The first was in the Gambia which was quite easy with well routed bush taxis(bus) everywhere.

This time in Tunis, we tried to take bus as well. But because of the location of hotel, there weren't many buses passing by.

Taxis are cheap compared to western standard, but tourist taxis cost a lot more.

Right outside the hotel, only tourist taxis await. Despite difficulty in communicating in French, we tried to negotiate with the drivers to go with metre. But every time we mention 'metre', the least favourable taxi out of all got to take us away. We don't mind well battered taxi, but soon found out that we could walk along the road few minutes to get ordinary metre taxis.

One day, we were trying to catch a taxi just outside the medina in Tunis town centre.

Ruby casually said "Mum, we have to get only metre taxi, dont' we?"

It made us laugh out loud but at the same time so proud of her.

You would think 4 yr old child would not take notice in adults' business of haggling much.

But here she was learning from us about the world she would soon enter.

I answered. "Mummy and Daddy are so proud of you learning so quick. You will one day go off on your own or with friends on backpacking trips around the world, and you are already ready for that!" But she got the wrong end of stick."I don't want to go anywhere on my own. I want Mummy and Daddy!".

Well, we will see...

People in Tunisia 

The Tunisians are so friendly towards children that they pinch the girls' cheeks and kiss on them spontaneously, though I am aware many parents would get quite uncomfortable, not us though. But as soon as we boarded the plane back to London, we had to warn children not to make noise because of other people wouldn't like it which is sad in a way. 

Hotel El Mouradi, Gammarth

It looks all good and comfortable. But it's not quite our cup of tea to be happy in a hotel like this, because it blocks us from having first hand experience with the locals. Though this was 5 star hotel, the service was more like 3 star. 

We were lucky enough to encounter friendly and considerate people but they were not from the hotel. One thing we got out of this though, our kids would never complain that they've never been to a 5 star hotel. One off experience, that's all we are happy with this hotel. When they were quite young, it felt more comfortable to know they wouldn't crawl around picking and eating dirty stuff from the floor if they were in clean and expwnsive hotel room. Now they both are big enough not to worry about it any more. But I have to admit to one thing about this hotel. The location.

There are so many resort type hotels in Sousse and Hammamet in near Tunis. Many people would be more than happy there, but we need more than just pretty beach and familiar food. The hotel we stayed was in Gammarth area on the beach, which takes less than an hour by train and car to Tunis city and a half an hour to Carthago. The beach is nice and pretty, full of local holiday makers which suits us much better.

Food

Sidi bu said

Restaurant Pizzeria Raies Labhaar(tel. 01.728.648),

*Harrisa(red). Tunisians dip bread here. * Tuna & Potato salad

*Salad Poulet. Chicken salad  *Ojja Merguez. Berber's omellet

*Brochette Mixte. Grilled Mixed Kebab *Tunisienne Salad

*The restaurant with stage for show at night.

* Sea Urchin on the beach. Lemon juice on it is so refreshing!

*Menu

Ruby and Ellie were not used fizzy drinks so didn't like it at first. But soon got used to it and were loving every drop of it,  though they keep calling 'spicy drink'.

Among local kids, there were quite a few children who were overweight, which is not a common scene in this part of the world, I imagine. Despite all the healthy traditional food here, they can't escape from the western style fast food which is growing quite fast here. 

*Market in Tunis                                           * Sidi Bu Said                               

*Local Trains

*Ellie being sad after losing Ice-cream