The trip started with a delay of 2 hours at Gatwick Airport in London which was annoying as it was a night flight, any way so we arrived at Monastir airport after 2am Tunisian time, going through customs I knew I was going to be treated suspiciously, the same was done when I visited Tunisia 3 years ago, the same happened in Egypt & Jordon, if you carry a British passport and you are of Arab/Middle eastern origin then you are a suspect for some reason! the Que in front of me was moving so quick as everyone was a European, I felt sorry for the people behind me because I knew they were going to be delayed.
The custom officer looked at me and my family, looked at the passports then asked me what nationality I was, I told him British as the passport says, he wanted to know where from originally, I said I was originally Libyan, he started clicking away on his computer for about 5 minutes then looked at me and said what is your father's name? I thought I would test him so I gave him a wrong name, he started clicking away for another 5 minutes, he asked the same of my wife and her father's name, she gave the correct name, still too many clicks, then he asked what my kids father's name was, I was amazed! I said obviously its my name, any way after about 20 minutes of completely useless clicking on his precious computer he let us enter, of course the same procedure happened on leaving Tunisia but that is another story.
We caught the coach which took another 90 minutes to get to Hammamet, arriving there about 4 am, checked in, we were given good sized suite with 2 huge bedrooms and a bathroom.
After a short sleep, the kids were awake and very looking forward to the beach, after breakfast we went straight to the hotel's beach which was only a few minutes away.
kids still looking light skinned
a dying Jelly Fish at the beach, a bit worrying!
The beach was not very busy as the holiday season hadn't started yet, it was very clean, the water was clean & cold but the weather was quite hot. Many people pass through the beach trying to sell you tourists junk, food & fruits but never aggressively, if you say no then they leave you with a smile. The best surprise for me at the beach was a small stand selling SFINZ advertised as Donuts, I forgot what they called it but its exactly the same size as you get in Libya with the same taste, we had Sfinz everyday at mid morning.
In the afternoon the kids wanted to go to the swimming pool which again was very clean and not very busy, my kids love swimming too much that every day they start about 9 or 10 in the morning and carry on swimming until 5 in the afternoon.
The hotel was not very busy, most people there were German, Russian and French with very few English people, in the evenings we go and have dinner at the hotel which is served Buffet style, while there was plenty of choice it wasn't actually that good, sort of tasted like mass market food :o)
The head waiter took a shine to Amir because he has a son called Amir as well, he was a lovely man that took care of us at breakfast & dinner time, he never stopped fussing over us in a very friendly way, he even told us some secrets as how the Russians (men & women) usually eat a massive amount of food, more than anyone else, he think its because they get cheap package holidays here where they can have a lot of food which is usually very expensive to eat in Russia. The staff at this hotel were very nice indeed and when ever they found out that we are Libyan they always became extra nice but saying that, the Reception staff were quite grumpy and most of the time they don't even return Salams, the guy working at the money change desk was such a miserable git that I stopped saying hello to him because he always ignored me but funnily enough he would say hello with a big smile to any one else that was European looking, you get this type of person every where.
The next day (Friday) we decided to go to Nabul which is a small city about 10 miles away, they have a market there every Friday,we took a taxi and arrived early yet it was heaving with tourists and locals walking through the market.
In
Hammamet I only ever saw 1 mosque but as you enter
Nabul you notice that mosques are every where, the market is well stocked with pottery and leather goods, some of it can be very nice but its a shame because buying pottery then trying to bring it back to London is not practical because of weight restriction.
Of course I knew tortoises would be offered for sale at this market as I have been there before, these are
Tunisian tortoises which are of
similar size to the Libyan/Egyptian tortoises. They are rare and their sale is
illegal in Tunisia,
in fact sellers hide them very quickly if they see a policeman. They were being sold for few
Dinars, the problem again here is that these tortoises need special care in Europe where they do sell for a large amount of money, many tourists buy them then smuggle them to their countries where they usually die after a short period.
It was a very hot day so finding cool shade inside the old market was very welcome, the major problem I found in Tunisia was the
continuous hassle you get from market sellers, they
continuously hound you with every language on this earth to come in and look at their products which to me I find very
annoying and actually puts me off buying anything from them, saying that, you never actually feel unsafe or threatened in anyway as in some other countries, Tunisian tend to leave you alone if you say no firmly.
Above you can see 2 cats asleep in these big pottery dishes, cats are everywhere in Tunisia, many of them are stray cats but the good thing is that most of them are cared for by the people in markets or even in streets and old cities you find little dishes of water and bits of food next to the water. cute playful kittens were everywhere, the kids just kept playing with them.
After I took this picture of Aida, we stood in the shade by a post office, next to it was a public toilet, an old Tunisian woman was standing outside dressed in a cleaner uniform, she was the
attendant, I
didn't go inside but from the door I could see that the toilets seemed clean, a German couple went in the separate toilets, when they came out, the woman
attendant put her hand out to them which is
usual anywhere to pay the
attendants, both tourists looked at her then just walked away, she chased them speaking in Arabic, they almost ran off, she ran after them while shouting and swearing ينعن بوك وبو الي جابكم لي هالبر (God damn your father and the father of who ever brought you to this shore), I laughed so much as I
havent heard this sort of swearing in a long time and thought serve those tourists who now looked very scared right for being so mean :o)
The market was full of fake designer goods from Rolex watches, I bought one for 15
Dinars which I probably would never wear, I just wanted one, to
Prada sunglasses, Gucci handbags and
Versace wallets and belts, the leather fake goods were actually well made with real leather and everything sold for small amount of money but I suppose buying the stuff to wear, you know deep down that you are wearing fake stuff! although I
couldn't help but buy a Fake Ray Ban sunglasses, they look great :o)
In the afternoon we went back to the hotel, it was very hot and just stayed most of the time at the beach.
In the morning we went to visit
Hammamet old city which is
described as the best preserved old city in north Africa.
The place was breath taking, so beautiful and very clean, people still live inside the tiny streets, many shops for tourists are every where inside the old city and sometimes it gets difficult trying to walk and not step on the goods that are
displayed on the floor of the narrow streets.
The old city is quite small compared to Tripoli's old city but I bet it is much better preserved and looked after, I wish some people would take notice of how proud Tunisians are of their country.
We got lost walking inside but not once felt threatened, eventually after asking few people we found the way out.
Here they had a house offered for sale, I really wished I could buy it, you can see how clean the place is.
Outside the old city, you can see a pirate ship in the back ground, there are many of these ships sailing around the shore, at the hotel this poor guy was trying to sell me tickets to go on a mini cruise everyday but I kept refusing, he just never gave up but neither did I. The problem was you pay for a mini cruise and you get all drinks and snacks included, I saw some pictures and while the tourists looked happy and having a good time I felt it was not for us as all Alcoholic drinks were free
on board and tourists took
advantage of that, anyway good luck to them but it was not
appropriate for us.
I have more pictures and stories to tell but that's for another day as I have to get back to work now :o)
I woke up this morning to the disturbing news that a massive car bomb had been found and made safe by the police at 2am this morning in Haymarket which is in the heart of London, as I am writing this most of central London is closed to traffic including Piccadilly circus, Haymarket & Shaftsbury Avenue. London has been subjected to this type of terror attack (car bombs) many times in the past during the IRA terror campaign but as I am sure many would agree, I do not think its the IRA this time as the terror threat for the past few years has been from a different mad group, I will not speculate until more news is released but there will not be a surprise there. Alhamdulellah that the plot was foiled, imagine if that car bomb went off in that area which is always busy, the devastation to buildings and people would have been massive.
I took the kids to watch Shrek the Third which is number 3 in the Shrek movie series, it was good fun and the graphics are better than ever, I am glad as well that my favourite character in the Shrek films was there, it is of course the cute Ginger Bread Man :o)
Yesterday I had a discussion with friends about Monkeys and Humans! it happened after watching a program on TV to do with Big Brother , a question was asked to someone, Would you rather be a monkey with a human brain or a human with a monkey brain? (no offence meant here) I was with English & Scottish friends so religion did not come into the conversation, it was a difficult question a bit like who came first, the chicken or the egg?? but I decided that I would rather be a monkey with a human brain than the other way round! my reasons being, if I was a human with a monkey brain then what is the use, I would be hanging from trees, eating bananas all day long, messing myself and just living like an animal on the other hand if I am a monkey with a human brain then at least I can think and do things better, probably even become a big hit with the monkeys :o) my friends chose to be humans with monkey brains perhaps because they already do have monkey brains ...lol :oD
So.... when you're feeling sad & low
