Tunisia – January 9-24 2016
Tunis & Mediterranean Coast
West & South
East Coast & Kairouan
Why Go? It’s but a slim wedge of North Africa, but Tunisia has more than enough history, cultural diversity and extremes of landscape: a sand-fringed coast, Mediterranean sun holidays, Roman sites, Saharan dunes and mountain oases, all of which can be experienced in a few days.
The country’s tourist sector has struggled since the historic Jasmine Revolution of 2011. Isolated incidents of instability grab international headlines, but it’s essentially business as usual. Tunis, the capital, continues to offer an enthralling mix of tradition and modernity.
Travel Tips
1. Tunisia is safe and inexpensive with lots to see: Roman ruins, beaches, an active sidewalk life. However the economy is poor and the people are unhappy with the present government and want change. Things started to unravel with the revolution and got much worse after each terrorist attack in 2015. I was here in the non-tourism season (and saw NO other tourists), but it is poor year around.
2. Accommodation. Stay at Auberge de Medina (Auberge de Jeunesse) in Tunis. It is cheap, atmospheric and in the Medina, a vibrant part of Tunis.
3. Transportation. Bus. For bus schedules go to www.sntri.com.tn;. Buses have fixed time tables and tend to travel very early in the morning or in the evening. Seating is more comfortable than louages. Trains. For train schedules, use www.sncft.com.tn (only the french part has information). Louages. But most of the time, transportation around Tunisia is by louage, or shared taxis. As cheap as buses, this mini-van network goes everywhere and timing is not important. They leave when they are full (usually 7-8 passengers), and the wait is rarely long, usually just long enough to stretch your legs and grab something to eat. Unlike in Central Asia, where as many as 10 shared cars all going to the same destination compete with each other for passengers, here they take turns and only fill one vehicle at once. The louage stations are usually near the bus stations and serve as hubs to collect passengers efficiently. The ones in big places like Sfax and Sousse have hundreds of vehicles waiting.
3. Algerian Visa. Even though Tunisia shares a land border, it is not possible to get an Algerian visa in Tunis if you are not a Tunisian citizen. So get that visa somewhere else (Dubai if there?).
Population. 10.67 million
Capital. Tunis
Money. The unit of currency is the Tunisian dinar (TD), which is divided into 1000 millimes (mills). Exchange Rate: Jan 2016 – 2TD to the US$. It’s illegal to import or export dinars and they are not accepted in the duty-free shops at Tunis Airport.
You can re-exchange up to 30% of the amount you changed into dinar, up to a certain limit. You need bank receipts to prove you changed the money in the first place.
Major credit cards, such as Visa, American Express and MasterCard, are widely accepted at big shops, tourist hotels, car-rental agencies and banks. ATMs are common in major towns and resort areas.
Visa. Nationals of most Western European countries and Canada can stay up to three months without a visa – just collect a stamp in your passport at the point of entry. Those from the US can stay for up to four months. Australians and South Africans can get a visa at the airport; seven days costs TD10, a month TD35. Other nationalities, including Israelis, must apply before they arrive. It should take 14 to 21 days in person or via post, and the length of stay is up to the embassy.
Visa Extensions. Applications can be made at the Interior Ministry (Ave Habib Bourguiba) in Tunis and regional offices in Houmt Souq. They cost around TD10 per week (payable only in timbres fiscales – revenue stamps available from post offices) and take up to 10 days to issue. You’ll need two photos, and may need bank receipts and a facture (receipt) from your hotel. It’s a process to be avoided – far easier to leave the country and return instead.
Visas for Onward Travel. The Algerian and Libyan embassies in Tunis do not issue visas. If you want to visit either country from Tunisia, you should apply to the Algerian or Libyan representatives in your home country. Australians and New Zealanders can apply in London. It can be a lengthy process and you usually need an invitation, obtained from a citizen or through a travel agency.
When to Go. Mar–May Explore Roman ruins and hike. Wildflowers. Jun–Sep Balmy beach time and music festivals. Nov–Jan The Saharan south’s high season.
Terrorist Attacks in Tunisia
1. Ghriba synagogue bombing. On April 11, 2002, a natural gas truck fitted with explosives drove past security barriers at the ancient El Ghriba synagogue on the Tunisian island of Jerba. The truck detonated at the front of the synagogue, killing 14 German tourists, three Tunisians, and two French nationals. More than 30 others were wounded.
2. Sousse Beach. On October 30, 2013, a suicide bomber blew himself up on the beach at Sousse after attempting to enter the Riadh Palms Hotel with a suitcase. No one else was hurt.
3. Bardo National Museum attack. On March 13 2015, three jihadists attacked the Bardo National Museum in the Tunisian capital city of Tunis. Twenty-one people, mostly European tourists, were killed at the scene, while an additional victim died ten days later. Around fifty others were injured. Two of the gunmen, Tunisian citizens Yassine Labidi and Saber Khachnaoui, were killed by police, while the third attacker is currently at large. Police treated the event as a terrorist attack.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attack, and threatened to commit further attacks. However, the Tunisian government blamed a local splinter group of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, called the Okba Ibn Nafaa Brigade, for the attack. A police raid killed nine members on 28 March.
4. Sousse attacks. On 26 June 2015 the Spanish-owned five-star Riu Imperial Marhaba Hotel at Port El Kantaoui, ten kilometres north of Sousse, Tunisia, was hosting 565 guests mainly from Western Europe, 77% of its capacity. At around noon, Seifeddine Rezgui Yacoubi, disguised as a tourist, socialized with others, and then took out a Kalashnikov assault rifle concealed in a beach umbrella and fired at the tourists on the beach. He entered the hotel, shooting at people he came across. He was killed by security forces during an exchange of fire.
Thirty-eight people were killed, thirty of whom were British. Among the fatalities was Denis Thwaites, a former professional footballer for Birmingham City, and his wife, Elaine. Thirty-nine others were wounded.
The killer, Seifiddine Rezgui Yacoubi was a 23-year-old electrical engineering student at University of Kairouan from Gaafour, in northwest Tunisia. He did not have the typical traits of an Islamic extremist: he had a girlfriend, drank alcohol and was a local break-dancing star. He was also believed to be high on cocaine during his rampage. He is believed to have been radicalized over such issues as the Libyan Civil War and Western inaction against the savagery of the Assad government during the Syrian Civil War.
Hotels were targeted in attacks to undermine tourism and because they were considered “brothels” by ISIS. Both tourism and the related industries accounted for up to 14.9% of the Tunisian economy in 2014.
On 8 July, the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office changed the advised status of Tunisia to “Advise against all but essential travel”, resulting from 9 July in the planned return home of the estimated 3,000 British nationals in Tunisia at that time. ABTA and travel organizations First Choice, TUI and Thomson have stated that they plan to send no further British tourists to Tunisia until post 31 October 2015.
Four other Islamist attacks took place on the same day in France, Kuwait, Syria and Somalia. The attacks followed an audio message released three days earlier by ISIL senior leader Abu Mohammad al-Adnani encouraging militants everywhere to attack during the month of Ramadan. No definitive link between the attacks has yet been established. One attack, at a French factory, resulted in the beheading of one person; another bombing at a Shia mosque in Kuwait City killed at least 27; and the other attack on an African Union base in Somalia undertaken by Al-Shabaab, killed at least 70. Another attack on the day took place in Hasakeh in Syria. A suicide bomber blew himself up and killed 20 people.
5. 2015 Tunis Bombing. On suicide bomber attacked a bus carrying members of the Tunisian presidential guard, killing 12, on a principal road in Tunis. ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack.
My route in Tunisia
I took a very different route through Tunisia than obvious from the posts. I basically went in a figure eight.
The beginning:
I initially was off at 5am on January 15th to take the train 6hrs to the far south, to Gabas ($12). I love trains. Unlike buses where you are crammed into a seat, trains allow you to move around. And the seats are much more comfortable. I ensconced myself on a wide seat opposite two others so could sprawl. I brought along bananas and a wide variety of pastries so there was lots to snack on. Snack carts plied the aisle. And at $12.50 for six hours of travel, it is unbelievably cheap, although not as inexpensive as the $1/hour trains of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The toilets were easily the worst I have ever seen, but at least they existed. Unlike trains elsewhere, this one left 7 minutes late and arrived in Gabes 1¼ hours late.
On the surface, like so much of North Africa, one would surmise that Tunisia has oil, the black stuff, but little did I believe that it was more of the green variety – olive oil. The train moved through dead flat country for the entire 6 hours and the only sight out the window, apart from the occasional town, was olive trees, all planted in monotonous grids, going on forever. Furrowed tan earth formed wide swaths between the rows. Olive trees are given a lot of space – maybe there is a lot of space available in Tunisia? A few of the trees were leafless: apples or other fruit? but 99.9% looked like olive trees. It was dry country with light grass and low-lying bush, where that was allowed to subsist.
After a quick tour of the above, I caught a series of 2 louages (share taxis) to Matamata, 45 minutes and 3.7 TD away. It’s hard to believe that they make any money at these rates but gas in only 62¢ per litre. There was nothing cheap for accommodation in Temezrat (and I doubted any would be unbooked anyway), but Matmata was only 10kms away.
The End.
After the wonderful Kairouan medina, I shouldered my pack to go to the louage stand for El Kef. It is amazing how I can get turned around sometimes by making assumptions about direction (I actually believe I have wonderful direction sense), reading the LP incorrectly, paying no attention to the proper names of places, and being in a city laid out on an “Islamic” grid (that is no grid at all but confusing triangles and trapezoids). Anyway, I went on a walkabout looking for the louage stand and the below mosque/mausoleum and walked a long way to never find the mosque. But I did find a great mosque/mausoleum in the medina (wonderful geometric floor tiles, tiled walls and beautiful carved wood ceiling over the grave of someone.
The road gained altitude progressively as we drove NW of Kairouan, Much more interesting than most of flat eastern Tunisia, it was initially rolling hills, then some dramatic cliffs and finally a pine forest with patchy snow and completely snow-dusted mountains in the distance. Vistas were big.
I had a louage change at Makthar but the louage to Le Kef never did get enough passengers to leave. So I was in Makthar for the night. There was no hotel but a Maison de Jeunesse (Youth Center). When I arrived the place was filled with teenagers, some playing table tennis. So I played many games with some really nice kids and stayed in a room in the back, then woke up early to get the bus towards Tunis at 6am.
But after waiting for 2 hours in the cold (0°C?), I finally headed to the louage stand. Within 2 minutes, I was in a vehicle and on my way, or so I thought. The plan now was to skip Le Kef and go to Dogga directly. But the louage didn’t go to Dougga, but to Silyana, a town nearby and its bus depot. There I had another 3 ½ hour wait for the regional bus to Dougga. Silyana is much more of a transport hub than Mukthar which is best avoided.
But I didn’t go to Le Kef because of all the transportation problems, and got dropped off at Nouvell Dougga. The country north of Mukthar is a wide-open, flat valley planted with wheat, indicating the more abundant rainfall.
After Bulla Regia, I just missed the 10am bus back to Tunis and got a louage. The country side passed through was lovely – all green fields of winter wheat and rolling hills, quite the contrast to the dry east and south. Tunis was a welcome site when it first appeared. with its white buildings bordering the sea. Eager to stretch my legs, I walked the four kms from the north bus station back to the medina. I entered at an odd place and got unbelievable turned around. Tunisians are unable to read maps and nobody could tell me where I was. But it all turned out just to be some more exercise, and I got to see part of the medina I hadn’t been to before.
Such are the trials and tribulations of vagabonding. Not having everything arranged can be a blessing, but also a royal pain in the ass at other times.
SUMMARY OF TUNISIA
I very much enjoyed this country. Other than hiring vehicles to do tours, it is a very inexpensive place to visit. There is lots to see and a great sidewalk café scene where you can spend hours people watching. Using a combination of trains, buses and mostly louages, there were few problems getting around.
The people are lovely and helpful. It would help greatly if you could speak French or Arabic, but I had few real problems with neither. Even though I was here in mid January, outside of the tourist season, I felt like I had the country to myself. The only tourist I saw in the two weeks was a young Chinese man in Jem (there were also 4 expatriates working in Tunis on short holidays).
I found the people politically engaged but naïve. They blamed the poor economy on the government despite the world-wide recession, rock-bottom oil prices and the complete collapse of the tourism industry since independence and the 2015 terrorism attacks. Good education and hard work did not seem to be valued as a route to success. Free speech does not have much meaning when you are having difficulty putting food on the table. I think an Islamic government will be elected in the next election, not a step forward. If the number of men sitting around drinking espresso and smoking is any indication of the employment level, things look bad.
The brand of Sunni Islam practiced seems quite relaxed: alcohol and pork were widely available. Maybe half the women wore hijab, but almost no veils or
The places I enjoyed the most were: in Tunis, the Bardo, medina, food and café scene; Bulla Regia and Dougga, both great Roman sites, Kauraoan (Mosque, mausoleums, medina, crafts); the coliseum and museum in El-Jem, Matmata (troglodytic homes/hotels), and the Berber villages in the south with unusual architecture and Star Wars sites. The things I wish I had seen were Le Kef and the villages around Tozeur. Most tourists come for the beach scene, but it was cool and I don’t go to beaches anyway. But I did see a huge slice of the country.