Tunisia 2002

Galina and I stayed at the Marhaba Beach Hotel in Sousse, for 2 weeks. Most days were hot but unfortunately the beach had a wind (cooling breeze according to the staff) blowing from the north most days. When the wind/breeze came from the south or there was no wind then it was fine.

I, of course, managed to get sunburnt by the third day and, due to a certain lacking of hair on the top of my head, sunstroke. This meant I wore a straw hat for the remaining days. Fortunately there are no pictures of that.

The hotel was a nice 4 star place. We were on the fourth floor with a sea view. This was definitely worth paying the extra for,
even though the balconey got very breeezy when the wind started getting a lot fresher. There were 2 reasons why
this was a good ide. Firstly the early morning (and throughout the day) deliveries could keep you awake if your room
was at the front of the hotel and, secondly (as we found out), the lower floor rooms may have a cockroach or two.

This is a view from the beach, and unlike some of the other hotels, you could walk directly from the hotel, past the
hotel pool and onto the beach. Only twice in the 14 days was the sand too hot to be comfortable to walk on.

As already mentioned we had a sea view. And from this picture the view is towards Port El Kantaoui, which is a
purpose built holiday resort - and looks great IF you like golf (which I
don't). The view the other way is towards Sousse, the third largest town and about 2 Km
away. So Galina, in a desperate (and ultimately futile) attempt to get me fit and trim made me
walk to Sousse every morning. This was not as bad as it sounds. Firstly she came with me and secondly
there was always some topless Russian females walking on the beach at the same time.

The beach was nice and sand but there was always peddlars coming past every few minutes trying to
sell something. Believe me, hearing "cigarettes, half price cigarettes" every few moments can get
very tiring after a bit. The hotel did have waiters coming around with ice cold fruit drinks, at 3 dinars (£1.50) which was good.

As can be seen from this photo, the beach stretched along way.
From what I could judge it went at least from Sousse to Port El Kantaoui, which meant a walk along the beach
of at least 5 km. Fortunately I was not asked to do hat every day. 10 Km a day is more like punishment than
a holiday.

If you wanted to do something a little more dangerous you could go paragliding.

There were at least 3 place along the beach that you could do this (cost about 20 dinars or £10) and would take
about 15 minutes. At least one person had to be rescued from the sea when the parachute came down at the wrong time.

My insurance did not cover this (which gave me the excuse to wimp out).

There was also trips out to sea in fake pirate boats.
Because I feel sea sick even on a boat that is tied up to a river bank I
never went aboard one of these things. They did offer sea food meals (which
I am also allergic too) as well as a bath. I think they meant bathing.

If you didn't fancy the cold beach and Galina may be in the shade but the "breeze" was quite strong,
then there was ......

Which was warmer because of the trees and hotel building stopping the "breeze".
But neither Galina or I wanted to come on holiday and spend it around the pool. However
because of the temparature we spent more time here than we wished to do so.

There was a nice restuarant/cafe near the pool

where the food was quite nice. and an interesting pool sign. What is the 3rd paragraph?

I also went to the remains of Carthage (history books out now. Who was Hannibal 247 -182 B.C.?). Actually nothing really remains,
except a few stones used in worship which contained the ashes of the dead. But there is a really nice remains of a Roman Villa. All
around are signs warning you not to take pictures of the presidents palace which is right next to it. Unfortunately the Palace was built
before 1985, when the archaeological finds were made, and so they now have to have armed guards around the edge of a park where
there are masses of people taking photos. Obviously everyone ignored the signs.

The last picture is of a ceiling in the museum. The hotel had a moroccan bar with the same ornate ceiling. Fantastic.

Although Tunisia is nice there are too many people trying to get you money all the time (including the guides at the museum. I thought I
was in a restricted area when one guide pulled me over but next thing was he was trying to get money from me for "allowing" me to
take a picture of the mosque next door). I was also "mugged" in one of the market places. They are a maze of very (and I mean very) narrow
streets with stalls and shops on both sides. Whilst I was trying to find my way out a "stall" holder grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me
into the shop where I was surrounded by 4 Tunisian men trying to sell me "very good price" rubbish. By the time I had barged my way out
I found I had no watch. Remembering a phrase a friend off mine had told me "Tunisian men always carry knives". I decided not to protest.

After all it was a cheap watch and the battery was going anyway.

The last two pictures are a) from the roof of a house in Sidi Bou Said. A pretty town with all the houses painted white with blue shutters
and b) the Prime Minister house (from the back). It is only about 100 m from here that I lost my watch. There were police around
but as they were carrying machine pistols and did not look like they wanted to be involved in apetty robbery I decided to leave them alone.