Trippin' in Tripoli
Trip Start
Aug 23, 1996
1
308
451
Trip End
Ongoing
Tripoli,
Libya
Saturday, January 13, 2007
For once, Walid was going to be our guide, he had not manage to coerce anybody else, so we were stuck with each other. First up was a Volkswagon Beetle. But this was no ordinary Beetle. This belonged to the big Lab himself, Gadaffi. In we went. There were some mosaics, and Roman ruins. As far as the mosaics go, if you have not been to the Sousse Archiological Museum, or the Bardot Museum in Tunisia, you would be impressed. Sadly for our Lab, who by this stage was very excited, we have been to both, so we were quite bored. They just didn't cut it for us. Through all the different eras of Labyas history, until we came to the part of our glorious leader, Gadaffi himself. What a Lab. When I stop being a fuckwit, I want to be as big a Lab as him !!! We moved on and then exited out the door that said exit, well I think it said exit as it was written in Arabic as all signs in this country are.
Into the Souqs we went. The carpet souq was up first and there were some ok pieces, but they were way over priced. We were given a price in Arabic, we amazed all, when we said how much he had quoted and we walked. They yelled out some lower numbers, and once again Walid the Lab was looking shocked, so he asked us where we learnt this Arabic from, and we told him how in Egypt, they are all sleazy fuckers and the only way to stop yourself being ripped off is to learn to count. Lucy even demonstrated how she could write the numbers down. I think by this stage, our Lab was thinking, if only she could cook, I could have a new wife here !!! We had another wander around the Marcus Aurelius Arch, and it looked more eroded by daylight. Pity, because it is quite amazing. next doot was the Jame Gurgi Mosque. Outside, it was very plain, but inside, the tiles were nearly as good as some of the Mosques in Iran. Down the road, was an old church and then we had a look at the House of Yousef Karamanli. It has been restored, and they have used dummies, actually women dummies, and stuck beards on them to show what it looked like through the ages. We had a quick coffee, an Arabic one, one where your spoon stands up on its own, finished up and went to lunch. Walid the Lab said he would take us to a locals retaurant. In we went. He was disgusted. We ordered cous cous and legumes and camel on the side. This was more like it. I was loving it. He couldn't believe that we were enjoying it. After that, we then moved on to the largest Mosque in Tripoli. Once upon a time, there was a tiny Mosque here, then the Italians came in to protect the Labs, and they knocked it down and a huge fuck off Catholic Church was built in its place. Once the Italians left, the Labs converted it into a Mosque. Inside, it looked like a church that had been converted to a Mosque. We went back outside because our Lab was praying. They even had a Mirab set up outside !!! Whilst waiting for him to finish, an Asian looking guy came up ready to pray. He did his ablutions, then I looked at him and asked where he was from. He said Indonesia, so I said Salamut Pagi. He looked at me and asked if I was from Indonesia !!! I told him I was a dodgy Aussie, and he was most impressed with my Indonesian. He asked for more. I said Lima. This is all that I can remember from school 28 years ago. He hugged me, shook my hand, swapped email addresses and told me to visit him in Jakarta. I don't think I will tell him I am a Jew boy though !!!
Walid had one more surprise for us. We drove out for a while before we came to a fish restaurant where you choose your fish. There were so many different types to choose, even swordfish. There were also loads of little sharks. All I could think of was, no wonder the Med is being fished out. Still, we picked them, a guy butterflied the fish, and it was beautiful, but fuck me, it was way to big to finish. It was a good way to spend our last dinner, especially with the no salad and soup shit !!!
