Tunis / Le Kef / Dougga
Pictire: Abdul Malek and Henda prepare couscous for us at their home in Nabeul
There were a few places we wanted to visit in Tunisia from Tunis. One trip would be to Tabarka where the mountain meets the sea and then up the mountain to Ain Drakhna but we figured that would need a few days for hiking and lazing by the beach, so a more do-able one day trip was to go to Le Kef, which Lonely Planet raved about, "not to be missed," and to Dougga, Roman ruins that Dusty had been eager to see midway between Le Kef and Tunis.
Sunday in Tunis we visited the Bardo Museum, full of mosaics and sculptures from Tunis's ancient past, and then went down to Nabeul. Neither trip was as straightforward as it could have been though the trip to the Bardo was a mere tram ride away. The tram was easy but finding the entrance to the museum from the station was not. There were no helpful signs so we ended up walking around a National Guard post (all the way around its wall) to return to the museum entrance not far from the tram station. From there we caught the tram a stop or two back to the louage station to check out the situation with transport to Le Kef next day and we worked up a thirst in the heat rehearsing our overnight escape for the following day.
We returned to our hotel in town and had a cold beer before setting off to Nabeul. Our reason to go there was to visit Abdul Malek and his wife Hadia, who had been in the sessions I'd given in Mahdia. He had invited me to visit him in Hammamet, but it turned out he lived in nearby Nabeul. We went to the train station, near our hotel, and were purchasing tickets to Nabeul when I asked about the departure time, which turned out to be not for two hours. It was by then after three, the train was at 5:30, and would not reach Nabeul for an hour after that. This didn't seem to be good timing at all. I told the salesman I needed to call my friend but he wanted me to pay for the ticket he'd already printed. He seemed very concerned about collecting the money, more than whether this was the right way for us to get to Nabeul. Fortunately I had only to walk away from where the salesman was caged and after calling Abdul Malek, we decided to take a louage. This meant we had to walk to the station about 1500 meters away, but once there it was easy to find transport to Nabeul, and I suppose we arrived around six.
Abdul Malek met us at the station and drove us up the corniche and then to his house. Consequently we didn't see much of the town, but we had a pleasant visit, and a marvelous couscous. Hadia had just been entertaining her relatives who had left that very day after a long stay, so it was very nice of her to prolong her hostess roll for us. She prepared couscous while we watched, explaining the steps, and what more can I say about the meal. It was excellent. Afterwards Abdul Malek drove us to the train station to catch the 8:45 train back to Tunis. On the drive through town, the street life of Nabeul seemed active with entertainment on stages set up for a sort of festival.
Next morning we changed money, Monday, our first chance in Tunis, and again we had problems. Changing money often was necessary since Tunisia was not all that cheap really, for three people living comfortably, but whenever we needed to do it, it was a two hour ordeal. The problem is that few banks in Tunisia will cash tc's unless you carry your original proof of purchase. This is the paper that you need in order to replace your checks if they are stolen, so you are never supposed to carry them with your checks. We used to have to go to bank after bank to find one that would do the transaction. At one of these, STB in Sousse, I signed two checks in front of the cashier and he decided the signatures didn't match. After a half hour brouhaha involving the manager we had to leave empty handed. I was even signing pieces of paper asking if this signature matched the one on this check, thinking to sign another check the manager would accept, but by then he was refusing to see any similarity even when I scrupulously tried to replicate my own signature. This created problems for us constantly and was probably the biggest down side to traveling in Tunisia.
Eating was not straightforward either. It rarely is when traveling. The problem is that if you want wine and beer with your meal this is usually possible in Tunisia but you might have to have a meal in a room full of men smoking cigarettes. We were standing outside such a restaurant in Tunis one evening, checking the menu posted outside, when a waiter from another restaurant suggested we follow him to a restaurant two blocks away. It was 'correspondent' to the one we were looking at he said, but 'pas des vagabondes'. When we arrived, all of us queasy of stomach on that particular night, we ordered wine and beer but to eat, only a plate of spaghetti fruit de la mare. The spaghetti turned out to be a huge plate full of clams and octopus and a fish called seiche. The best thing was the bill was only 23 dinars. We liked it so much we went back there for our last dinner in Tunis. The restaurant was called Le Forrestier an it was two streets to the east of Carthage St. near the ... Hached tram stop.
I was about to tell about Le Kef and Dougga. Le Kef was a three hour ride by louage on a hot day and when we arrived we wondered what the fuss was about. Hotels were not particularly nice or cheap. We wandered all over town with our light packs combining sight seeing with an unhurried search for accommodation. We climbed to the Kasbah, the fort which happened to be closed that day, but we walked the grounds and then came down through the steep streets of the old medina. One featured monument was an old synagogue there, which we found after dark, after it had closed. It was a nice town with friendly people, and deep ravine running through it, but not particularly exciting or impressive. In the end we had a meal with Magon red wine and beer and greasy turkey and entrecote at the best restaurant in town and went to bed, wondering if this side trip had been worth the trouble.
Click here to see our Ofoto album from Le Kef
Next day we caught a bus to Tebersouq, the town nearest Dougga, and we had the driver drop us on the road near the ruins. By near, I mean 5 km which we had to walk, uphill, in the heat, with our packs on. One interesting thing is that as we approached the ruins, we saw that there was nothing to prevent us from just leaving the road and striking out for them. Thus we missed the ticket booth, somehow. It was the course of least resistance. Other tourists there remarked about how 'courageous' we were to be traipsing around with our packs on in that heat. The ruins were fairly interesting, but we did pay with dehydration. There was fortunately a buvette there where we could get overpriced drinks, and then we had a 6 km walk back down the mountain to Tebersouk. We did the first half of this walk through open farmland to take the straight way and avoid the curves of the road. That part was fairly pleasant, but once we hit the tarmac it was a strain getting into the town. When we finally arrived it was at least easy to get a lift into Tunis, and beer back at our hotel never tasted so good.
Click here to see our Ofoto album from Dougga
There were a few places we wanted to visit in Tunisia from Tunis. One trip would be to Tabarka where the mountain meets the sea and then up the mountain to Ain Drakhna but we figured that would need a few days for hiking and lazing by the beach, so a more do-able one day trip was to go to Le Kef, which Lonely Planet raved about, "not to be missed," and to Dougga, Roman ruins that Dusty had been eager to see midway between Le Kef and Tunis.
Sunday in Tunis we visited the Bardo Museum, full of mosaics and sculptures from Tunis's ancient past, and then went down to Nabeul. Neither trip was as straightforward as it could have been though the trip to the Bardo was a mere tram ride away. The tram was easy but finding the entrance to the museum from the station was not. There were no helpful signs so we ended up walking around a National Guard post (all the way around its wall) to return to the museum entrance not far from the tram station. From there we caught the tram a stop or two back to the louage station to check out the situation with transport to Le Kef next day and we worked up a thirst in the heat rehearsing our overnight escape for the following day.
We returned to our hotel in town and had a cold beer before setting off to Nabeul. Our reason to go there was to visit Abdul Malek and his wife Hadia, who had been in the sessions I'd given in Mahdia. He had invited me to visit him in Hammamet, but it turned out he lived in nearby Nabeul. We went to the train station, near our hotel, and were purchasing tickets to Nabeul when I asked about the departure time, which turned out to be not for two hours. It was by then after three, the train was at 5:30, and would not reach Nabeul for an hour after that. This didn't seem to be good timing at all. I told the salesman I needed to call my friend but he wanted me to pay for the ticket he'd already printed. He seemed very concerned about collecting the money, more than whether this was the right way for us to get to Nabeul. Fortunately I had only to walk away from where the salesman was caged and after calling Abdul Malek, we decided to take a louage. This meant we had to walk to the station about 1500 meters away, but once there it was easy to find transport to Nabeul, and I suppose we arrived around six.
Abdul Malek met us at the station and drove us up the corniche and then to his house. Consequently we didn't see much of the town, but we had a pleasant visit, and a marvelous couscous. Hadia had just been entertaining her relatives who had left that very day after a long stay, so it was very nice of her to prolong her hostess roll for us. She prepared couscous while we watched, explaining the steps, and what more can I say about the meal. It was excellent. Afterwards Abdul Malek drove us to the train station to catch the 8:45 train back to Tunis. On the drive through town, the street life of Nabeul seemed active with entertainment on stages set up for a sort of festival.
Next morning we changed money, Monday, our first chance in Tunis, and again we had problems. Changing money often was necessary since Tunisia was not all that cheap really, for three people living comfortably, but whenever we needed to do it, it was a two hour ordeal. The problem is that few banks in Tunisia will cash tc's unless you carry your original proof of purchase. This is the paper that you need in order to replace your checks if they are stolen, so you are never supposed to carry them with your checks. We used to have to go to bank after bank to find one that would do the transaction. At one of these, STB in Sousse, I signed two checks in front of the cashier and he decided the signatures didn't match. After a half hour brouhaha involving the manager we had to leave empty handed. I was even signing pieces of paper asking if this signature matched the one on this check, thinking to sign another check the manager would accept, but by then he was refusing to see any similarity even when I scrupulously tried to replicate my own signature. This created problems for us constantly and was probably the biggest down side to traveling in Tunisia.
Eating was not straightforward either. It rarely is when traveling. The problem is that if you want wine and beer with your meal this is usually possible in Tunisia but you might have to have a meal in a room full of men smoking cigarettes. We were standing outside such a restaurant in Tunis one evening, checking the menu posted outside, when a waiter from another restaurant suggested we follow him to a restaurant two blocks away. It was 'correspondent' to the one we were looking at he said, but 'pas des vagabondes'. When we arrived, all of us queasy of stomach on that particular night, we ordered wine and beer but to eat, only a plate of spaghetti fruit de la mare. The spaghetti turned out to be a huge plate full of clams and octopus and a fish called seiche. The best thing was the bill was only 23 dinars. We liked it so much we went back there for our last dinner in Tunis. The restaurant was called Le Forrestier an it was two streets to the east of Carthage St. near the ... Hached tram stop.
I was about to tell about Le Kef and Dougga. Le Kef was a three hour ride by louage on a hot day and when we arrived we wondered what the fuss was about. Hotels were not particularly nice or cheap. We wandered all over town with our light packs combining sight seeing with an unhurried search for accommodation. We climbed to the Kasbah, the fort which happened to be closed that day, but we walked the grounds and then came down through the steep streets of the old medina. One featured monument was an old synagogue there, which we found after dark, after it had closed. It was a nice town with friendly people, and deep ravine running through it, but not particularly exciting or impressive. In the end we had a meal with Magon red wine and beer and greasy turkey and entrecote at the best restaurant in town and went to bed, wondering if this side trip had been worth the trouble.
Click here to see our Ofoto album from Le Kef
Next day we caught a bus to Tebersouq, the town nearest Dougga, and we had the driver drop us on the road near the ruins. By near, I mean 5 km which we had to walk, uphill, in the heat, with our packs on. One interesting thing is that as we approached the ruins, we saw that there was nothing to prevent us from just leaving the road and striking out for them. Thus we missed the ticket booth, somehow. It was the course of least resistance. Other tourists there remarked about how 'courageous' we were to be traipsing around with our packs on in that heat. The ruins were fairly interesting, but we did pay with dehydration. There was fortunately a buvette there where we could get overpriced drinks, and then we had a 6 km walk back down the mountain to Tebersouk. We did the first half of this walk through open farmland to take the straight way and avoid the curves of the road. That part was fairly pleasant, but once we hit the tarmac it was a strain getting into the town. When we finally arrived it was at least easy to get a lift into Tunis, and beer back at our hotel never tasted so good.
Click here to see our Ofoto album from Dougga
