Lovely, but cold Tunisia!
Trip Start
Dec 12, 2006
1
54
66
Trip End
Mar 15, 2007
Tunis,
Tunisia
Friday, February 23, 2007
Tunisian Passport control gave me a hard time for some odd reason and I didn't get a stamp in my passport at all. I suspect the Americans they come across are blond/brown haired and blue eyed. We'll see if the lack of an entry stamp gives me any problems when I leave later. Anyhow, my inability to speak any French or Arabic, but looking Asian has helped me tremendously. They assume I won't understand them, so they are all very patient!
Anyhow, Hotel Salammbo is a nice hotel. I got a single room without a shower and it seems I can't take a shit in there if I wanted to. No normal toilets... only one of those french pissing toilets... How interesting. In any case, it's in a central location and walking distance from the Medina, the Tourist office, the post office, banks, Metro, and train stations.
I took the Metro to Carthage earlier today and I'm very tired. Carthage is really a lovely town. I think lots of rich people there, because I walked by the Presidential Palace and had a wonderful talk with the head security guard about my impressions of Tunisia so far. So far, they are good. It's very clean and the people are very friendly. Of course, I haven't headed into the Medina yet, so we'll see how that goes.
Internet is pretty hard to find. I've only found one place on the main street and I only found it because Lonely planet told me where it was. They have nice new computers, but the place is packed. In any case, I'll have to keep my entries short and to the point.
I don't think I'll have time to visit the Star Wars stuff, since renting a driver and car will cost me about $200/day and I don't have that type of cash on me. If I had more time, I could take the buses to Tozeur and then arrange something from there. Here in Tunis, things seem very expensive, but you get what you pay for...
