Tunisia. Journey to the Sahara
Journey to the Sahara
It all started with the Bobrovitsa railway station. The mother-in-law is sitting and waiting for the train, two local women are sitting on the sides. Nina answers the phone.
- Hello, where, where, in Tunisia?
At this word, the women on both sides looked at each other in surprise. No, not even a little earlier. I googled and googled for a month and a half for the sake of interest, but I couldn’t find anything, and then in the evening, as the grace of spam falls into the mail. I immediately realized that someone was about to fly. Morning has come, rather to negotiate for a vacation. The boss gives you the go-ahead! Urgently buy a tour... did not have time. The promotion has ended. But vacation is on the way. Let's quickly sort through other offers. Everywhere there is some bullshit with prices and then a ray of light, here it is, another burning tour!
- Dad, dad, plane! Mishka woke me up in anticipation of the trip.
Tunisia turned out to be Misha's third country. Misha liked flying very much, he chose a place for himself in the aisle on the floor)
On the plane, the woman in front kept telling her friend that "I feel like we're going down. " An hour later, "Listen, I feel we're going down. " Another hour later, "I still feel like we're definitely going down. " Half an hour later, the pilot announces the start of landing. "O! I told you we were going down. " The plane has almost landed. “Listen, we are descending! » In general, all the way, Dasha and my mother-in-law listened to how the woman sitting in front was descending.
Welcome to Tunisia!! ! Some Arabs immediately grabbed the suitcases and dragged them onto the bus. Well, ok, drag it if you want. Having loaded our suitcases on the bus, the Arab says
-Money!
And in response it receives:
- Only visa card.
- Dollars or Euros? Asks in hope.
- Only visa card. Unfortunately, scammers did not accept card payments. I read on the Internet that someone was so ripped off $ 20 for a suitcase.
Since the tour was at a very cheap price, nothing supernatural was expected from the hotel. Nevertheless, four meals a day, a large water park and a liquor bar gave the hotel a significant plus. At the reception we were settled in 5 minutes, which is clearly included in all the records for the settlement. It seemed that the hotel could really be recommended, if not for the theft of money. But more on that later.
Looking forward to what's to come. Dawn in the desert.
Storm
Our vacation began with a strong storm at sea, the waves were like in the ocean. Dreadful clouds hung over the city. Mishka did not like this sea. Hmmm, then in Cyprus they flew into Hurricanes, then in Tunisia into a storm. The clouds became more and more menacing, it seemed as if the apocalypse would now fall on Nabeul. But then a ray of sun flashed, and a beautiful sunset descended on the city. From the balcony of our hotel, the Tunisian city was visible under the golden sky. From that moment on, we practically did not find even clouds.
Robbery
Part of the money 50$+100$ was missing from both of our numbers. At what it disappeared with an interval of one hour from personal belongings-nychek. Just the time of the loss clearly coincided with the cleaning. It seems to me that if the cleaning lady knew who she ran into, she would not have done this in her life.
At first, we cleaners staged a wild raid, like traffic cops who know for sure that there is heroin in the car. With her and the governesses, they sorted through all her inventory, all the rubbish, everything that was with her. There was no money anywhere, but she just smiled and shook her wallet, saying, look, there’s nothing here either. Dasha immediately set a simple condition for her: “Back money or lost jour job”. In response, they received something like “Oh habibi shish tavuk. ” Well, if you don’t want to, in an amicable way, now we will raise higher forces. The director flatly refused to pay compensation from the hotel account. We discussed all possible options with a representative of the tour operator, there was no way to steal money from the hotel. Okay, call the police. According to the laws of Tunisia, you can’t call the police, you need to go yourself and write a statement in Arabic in Arabic, but shit is a question, we’re going to write a statement in any language of the world. Then the cleaning lady said that she saw me come into the room while the money was stolen, but the problem is that she did not know which room I was from, and we had two rooms. When asked which room I was returning to, she did not guess, she named my mother-in-law's room. And then, as luck would have it, I have digital photos stamped with a date where I am on the beach at this time. Once she starts to lie, it’s like she is. Last Chinese warning. "Back our money and we cancel our complaint"? in response, again some kind of “Muchas graces”. As you want. Finally, we brought the cleaning staff to the point that they quarreled among themselves very strongly. We heard this at the door.
You can say that for $150 I got a tour of the police station, where I even managed to see how the truth is beaten out of people. A policeman with a machine gun greeted us joyfully and asked the guide "Which hotel is this time? " The guide answered "Cheops again. " Taxi, it's not the first time here. In the course of the conversation, I learn that there was already a robbery for $ 300 two weeks ago, then the cleaning lady was fired. During the conversation, the Arabic translator talked with some guys who were later taken out in handcuffs, he had interesting friends. The first investigator listened to us attentively, pausing in the conversation for several minutes, then he said, go tell another investigator. The guide explained to me that most likely he was expecting rape in this story, and here it was just a robbery. After we finished torturing some guy, he was taken away, and later we were invited there. It was kind of hard to go there. The second investigator drew up a protocol, and I signed. The guide told me that according to the experience of the previous robbery, the money could not be returned, and the strategy of the war needed to be slightly changed.
Meanwhile on the beach
During the showdown, I remembered the Egyptian tour of 2010, on which the guide said that three witnesses are already weighty evidence. When someone tried to intercede that we have no evidence of the fact, in response he received a detailed quote from their own laws. It’s a pity that I didn’t know the number of the article) During the showdown, one guy, having heard the conversation, says.
"It's good that we carry everything with us, " pointing to the purse around his neck. His wife, looking doomed, says, “But the mobile in the room remained on charge! ". And she said it so doomedly, as if she had already said goodbye to him.
The result of the showdown is this: The cleaning staff was fired, the police took the cleaning lady for investigation, we were compensated for an excursion for two, two bottles of wine and two safes from the hotel. And the nerves were so exhausted that the crime will not return to this hotel soon. Just do not describe the beauty of the showdown. Unfortunately, the money could not be returned. But to be honest, it was a little fun for me to arrange this for the hotel, I upgraded my skills)
Until the end of the tour, I was the most famous guest of the hotel, many unknown tourists approached me with respect and asked me how the process was going.
When we were supposed to be given a free tour, the tour manager tried to deceive us a little, for which he regretted it very much, since the mood was fighting, he shared part of the grief with the cleaner. It's a pity there was no time to run to the police again.
And now for what the whole trip to Tunisia was planned for.
Journey to the Sahara
At 03:40 at night the phone rang “Tour to Sahara! Wake up please! ". Oh yeah, it's all about to start. Having stocked up on provisions and a huge supply of water, we loaded into an air-conditioned bus. The excursion route is 1200 km, since the desert is not close and covers many cities, sights, excursions, including those that can be bought separately. According to the laws of Tunisia, it is forbidden to keep people on the bus for more than two hours, so that stops were relatively frequent.
Kairouan city
In this city, we were on the roof of the building, and watched one of the largest mosques in Tunisia. On the first floor, real Tunisian carpets soared to us, even better so - Tunisian Carpets, or even - Tunisian CARPETS !!!!
On the way, we passed just incredible groves of cacti that are used instead of fences. But the guide asked me not to use the Russian word "fence" in a civilized Arab society, they will not understand it that way.
By the way, we tasted the cacti themselves, their fruits look like an unripe pear. Outside the windows of greenery became less and less. The roads have already become such that only asphalt and plains on the sides.
Oasis Tour
We were taken to the largest oasis in the desert. There were really a lot of palm trees there - 140.000 pieces. First there was a tour of the park, then a visit to the local zoo with outlandish desert animals.
During the tour, the guide constantly tried to sting people from our crowd with reptiles, which made the zoo interesting. And at the end, the camel drank Coca-Cola from a bottle for an encore. After the zoo, we were taken on horse-drawn carts through a palm oasis. They took about 30 minutes.
While driving, you feel like some kind of colonialist. Lunch was fed relatively unpretentious, but the guide said, who will not be enough, will bring it for free. Let's go further inland. The temperature had already begun to rise, and there was already very little greenery. Soon the bus stopped and we got into jeeps for 6 people.
Sahara
First there was "rocky sugar", mostly hard surface. The jeep flew all the time at speed on the rocks and boulders of the dunes so that everyone inside was squealing in horror. One girl constantly grabbed the driver's hands in a panic on turns, which gave even more adrenaline to flying.
Rock sugar
But in the distance, the most exciting thing was waiting for us - a huge lake. It was so big that it was practically endless. Somewhere on the horizon a distant shore could be seen, beautiful islands peeking out of the water surface. But there are no plants, no greenery, no palm trees, no water… “Miraaazh!!! ! Dasha screamed, this mirage was just alluring and impressive. This immediately set off the excursions.
Next, a real sandy desert awaited us.
The sand seemed to float out of my hands. The grains of sand were so fine that after climbing the dune, it was only necessary to shake off and the weight of the sand crumbled. The next stop was in a decorative town where Star Wars was filmed. All the scenery remained intact and among them you can climb. The town itself is quite small and the stop was enough for literally ten minutes.
Under the influence of the wind, the dunes move, and often begin to “eat up” cities. On the way to the hotel, we were lucky to meet a dune that blocked part of the asphalt road. We were taken to a four-star hotel for the night and fed deliciously. In the pool, after the desert, there was still that relaxation. According to the tradition of Tunisia, if a guy is not married, he can wear a bunch of flowers behind his ear from a certain side, thereby hinting at kagbe. We saw a peasant on the street with such an indecently huge bouquet behind his ear that he may have been training his ear all his life.
At 02:20 the alarm clock rang, telling about the continuation of the tour. Once again I tried to sleep on the bus, but the Russian guide constantly told us various interesting things, probably in two days we literally learned the whole history of Tunisia.
Saline
The first stop was at dusk on the second largest salt marsh in the world, under a layer of sand there were layers of salt, so nothing grows on this endless plateau.
We will consider the salt marshes in more detail a little later.
Dawn was approaching, and we were driving to the next miracle of the desert - to the hard dunes, which, according to legend, were created by an evil genie. Jin is a girl and her name is Gul.
Realm of the Genie
Still the beauty. Each quickly borrowed a hard barkhanchik for himself. And we all together met the most beautiful sunrise in the desert. Seeing dunes of this type was quite mysterious, given that this is a natural phenomenon.
Summoning a Genie
Caravan
Next, we had a complete immersion in the spirit of Tunisia. Climbing on camels, we set off in a caravan to the heart of the Sahara. The truth is not very far, one might say in the liver or even the belly, but nevertheless! I got a real male even camel, Dasha got a tall average camel, and some Russian tourist got a crooked camel. I rode proudly sitting, Dasha was slightly bent balancing, but the Russian tourist was lying in an embrace. Nothing is perfect in nature, but it was very funny.
After stopping for a photo session and a walk along the dunes, Dasha camel decided that he would not carry anyone and tried in every possible way to throw Dasha off during the process of saddling. As a result, the camel was held with four arms and two legs, and then it turned out to saddle the second time. But the tourist had to completely spread out on a crooked camel so that it seemed as if a caravan of robbers was carrying an unconscious eastern hostage.
Berbers
And for a complete comme il faut, we were brought to the settlement of the indigenous troglodytes of the desert - the Berbers. Where you could wander through their caves and see their way of life.
When a resident asked for a dinar, the tourist proudly replied, “I make! and went with a sense of accomplishment. Further, we found out that she wanted to say “I take”, meaning “I took”, but in general, “I have given” is correct. It is not every day that a Berber is recognized as “I am a cake” instead of “I already gave you a dinar”))) We dined in a real cave restaurant in the rock. Our cave was number 6 where we were treated to real local food.
Next, we had a very long way to the city of El Jem
El Jem
The city is famous for having the third largest and best preserved amphitheater on earth. We climbed on it so that the Colosseum is probably not necessary to visit.
At 22:00 tired tourists were brought to their own hotel. The two-day mega excursion is over, I liked it very much.
Half day break
The whole next day we fooled around with Misha in the water park, swam in the sea, walked around the city and just enjoyed the all-inclusive. .
In the evening we went by local bus to see the neighboring town, an hour away.
Hammamet
The city has a beautiful embankment, some kind of unrealistically black piece of the sea in the literal sense.
In general, it is so cozy there that we lay on sunbeds and just enjoyed the view of the sea. We also decided to visit one expensive five-star hotel. Surprisingly, the color of our bracelets matched the bracelets of this hotel, it's a pity that it was not dinner time)))
On the way back, we got into a real Tunisian traffic jam and stood in it for as long as I have never been in traffic jams.
As a result, we did not have time for dinner at the hotel and had the opportunity to taste the local street food. With street food hygiene, there is almost the same problem as with India. I use my hand for money, I’m squeezing small things for the task, with the same hand I’m squeezing ground tuna into our Brik, in general, it’s sad, but unrealistically tasty and spicy)
At 23:00, local life begins to dawn in the city, families with children settle down in the clearings. Children run, squeal, swim. Everyone is having fun and talking. Local forbidden tea is sold everywhere. And most importantly, no one notices you in this crowd, they are not at all interested in you.
A piece of nightlife on a hidden camera)
What does forbidden tea mean?? ? This gull with herbs and unrealistic strength, which is forbidden to sell to tourists due to the fact that not everyone's health will allow him to drink. When I tasted tea for 0.5 dinars (3.50 UAH). I walked holding Dasha by the hand, otherwise you never know what will happen. I liked the taste of tea, but this is not a real barrier of chifir and the hardness of the stone. We liked the party so much that we then went for a walk every night.
Choosing a tastier cactus fruit)))
Tunisians are very pleasant and good and kind people. You walk through the streets, no one touches you at all, one Arab cafe visitor treated me to his hookah so that I could taste the real taste of Tunisia. They were very happy with the children and, as according to the law, everyone ruffled Mishka's hair on the way, they interrupted the conversation directly with their families in order to ruffle the child's hair. In general, after the Sahara, it turned out to be a busy day of rest.
An evil alarm clock at 05:20 in the morning woke us up for the next excursion. Even on vacation it is impossible to sleep.
Carthage
After Cyprus, of course, he no longer made much delight, but nevertheless, climbing the ruins of the legendary city is quite funny. Through the ruins they climbed into such a jungle that they met Tunisian boys with machine guns and had to retreat.
Sidi Bousaid
But we liked this town. Beautiful houses, narrow streets and gorgeous panoramas. Also visited someone's museum-cottage. In general, the spirit of Tunisia was especially felt in this city. And on the streets, expensive souvenirs were sold with prices that were three or four times higher than in other cities where you still had to bargain from those prices. Tourists swooped down on these shops as if there was a lot of extra money. You can simply ask the price near your hotel and understand how expensive everything is here.
In the country
One Russian tourist answered the question “What does a Tunisian sell T-shirts for”, proudly answered “It's like bargaining! So I bought it for 20 dinars (140 UAH) ”and said this in a proud whisper. Apparently she was not embarrassed that in the next tray on the same layout was the same T-shirt for 10 dinars (70 UAH). The main thing here is to bargain, the price does not matter) Expensive toy and completely oversized camels were in great demand. Such a camel cost a couple of hryvnias cheaper than a real one)))) Half the bus was stocked with them, and some of them took whole batches of 4 pieces. Friends of these tourists will soon be rewarded with souvenir dust collectors from Tunisia: )
At 7:00 the insidious alarm clock rang again. Alarm clock stop torturing me, what do you need from me, this is not a rest, but some kind of harsh working days) Okay, our cruiser will sail soon, now we will get up and start getting on board . . booort, thoughts were floating away somewhere again, and the alarm clock was lying continued to insist on the closet.
Our last excursion was a boat, but not a simple one, but a thousand devils, Pirate!! !
Now, apparently, this is becoming fashionable, the entire Mediterranean Sea is plied with solid "pirate" ships. What I liked the most was that due to the reduced security control, you could climb anywhere, even on the masts. There were so many people that when the free navigation was announced, from the side it seemed as if hundreds of passengers were jumping in panic from the sinking Titanic. Who cares to go down the stairs when you can jump straight from the highest point of the mast. After getting drunk in the sea there was a delicious lunch.
We became friends with a native Arab, I always put his child on the roof of some hold with me, and he organized an endless transfer of watermelons for me. It was also amusing to watch how local women in veils were sailing on the ship. First, they boarded the ship with an expressionless face, then the whole tour sat with an expressionless face, staring at the wall, and finally took a nap, naturally also with an expressionless face. Our boat was smaller than the others, and it was mistakenly thought that there would be more free space on other large boats. But when such a different ship sailed in the distance, it seemed that the entire population of Tunisia decided today to swim on it.
When our ship was moving at full speed, the animation started a big round dance, but due to the rocking of the ship on the waves, sometimes it seemed that some parts of the round dance would fly out into the open sea if they didn’t hold on to each other so tightly. The Arab, with whom we had a watermelon union, only at the end of the trip realized that I did not speak his language and was very surprised, because we communicated so well all the way.
Conclusion
Tunisia is very nice and cozy, but it's worth going there if you keep two conditions:
1) Last minute cheap tour
2) Mandatory visit to the Sahara
These two conditions will guarantee that Tunisia will definitely remain in the heart. True excursion to the Sahara cost $ 350 for two including all additional fees.
If you want to see absolutely the whole country, a seven-day trip is enough, but you will have to get enough sleep after returning home)
Theft in hotels in Tunisia is a standard procedure, so it is better to keep money in a hotel safe, because in the event of such a theft, and it is not excluded, you will have more powers in the police. The main element of the country - you will see the Arabs from a completely new, good side for themselves, they have nothing to do with the Egyptians, these are Tunisians with a capital letter. We recommend the country for a one-time visit.
Date of travel: 29.07. 2014 – 05.04. 20134
Tour type: Package (Air+Hotel+Transfers)
Hotel: Kheops 3+. Not recommended due to theft
Food and Drinks: All Inclusive
Duration: 7 nights (Nabeul)
Tour agency in Kyiv: Tasty travel
Ukraine operator: TPG
Tunisian operator: Biblio Globus+Carthage Travel+Oasis
Excursions: Sahara, Carthage+Sidi Busaid+Bardo Museum.
Purchasing a tour: 5 days in advance, hot tour
Trip difficulty: 0/10 (easiest)
Story writing time: 300 min
