TUNISIA December 29, 2011: Americans in Tunisia — Day 9 (No Carpet)

Greetings from Tozeur, Tunisia –

Just arrived in Tozeur after a long (and probably grueling — for Mike) drive from Djerba, made much more complicated by the difficulty of finding the hotel in Tozeur (another story — later in the note). I must say that the world of the Internet has certainly changed both my capacity to track news and feel in touch — no matter where we are… I had to laugh last night as I responded to the request for funds for Barbara Lee’s re-election from Djerba, Tunisia. A bit ironic, but good!

Last night’s dinner at Dar Dhiafa was the meal that we had to order a day in advance. We had a lamb dish that gets cooked inside a terra cotta urn-shaped container that is sealed at the top with a thick pastry dough. I think the lamb, along with the vegetables and sauce cooks in the vessel for many hours. Really tasty; a good choice. The second dish was a fish couscous, with a whole fish.. also great, but struggled with the bones. A fig dessert, a bottle of Tunisian wine. and we were happy campers.

Left Djerba after breakfast and headed toward Ajim where we caught the ferry to the “mainland.” It was pretty windy, but the ferry ride was fairly smooth. It’s a short ride, and it was cold, so we opted to sit in the car. But getting on the ferry required a really, really long wait, so we were off-schedule by about an hour from the get-go. The drive to Tozeur was to take about 4 hours, but door to door it really took us about 8 hours, including stops, getting lost, the ferry, finding the hotel, etc. We decided to get gas again because we had no idea what kind of “services” we would find on the route.

Initially, from the ferry we headed toward Mareth and then back toward (but not into) Gabes and then headed west (SW a bit) to Kbili and then south southwest to Tozeur. On the outskirts of Gabes, we stopped for lunch on the roadside. A typically Tunisian place — a guy grilling kebabs on the street, with the meat being tenderized with the pollution of cars and motorcycles whizzing by; a very small inside section (maybe 4 tables) and an exterior “porch-like” area behind the barbeque and in front of the inside area…with  views of traffic. But we’ve gotten used to these little “restaurants”.. and can probably do a little Zagats guide on them. It was a busy place, and there really wasn’t a table, but the enterprising young guy found a table in a storage area and then dug up two chairs.. and we were set. Ordered one mixed kebab and one chicken.. and then waited. As we sat waiting for the food we glanced around and realized that two tables were occupied by about 4-5 Islamists (long black beards, long grey coat-like outfits)… at each of the tables. The guy making the kebabs wanted his photo taken (multiple times), but I decided to avoid photographing the Islamist guys at the tables.  Anyway, we laughed because there was a sign saying that the restaurant was “fast food”… but I’d say more like “slow food”… Took more than 30 minutes to get our kebabs. They served a really good hummus with the kebab and also a tart yogurt with garlic. Yummy with the chicken. Total cost for lunch about $3 for the two of us.

Eventually we made our way to the smaller road that would get us to Kbili when we would start our way across the Chott, the salt lake bed that we had to cross for about 45 miles. Along the way, we saw herds of camels (Naturally we got out of the car to photograph and then met the camel herder who was happy to be photographed.)  The road to Kbili took us through many, many tiny villages.. where the men sat and played dominoes, smoked, and drank coffee.. and women were less visible (and when visible seemed always to be coming or going somewhere — always in small groups). We also passed a good number of “palmeries” which seem to pop up out of nowhere — hundreds of palm trees rising from the desert… We stopped a few times en route, but were determined to reach Tozeur before dark, which was a challenge.

We approached the Chott el Jend at about 4 pm.. It’s an eery landscape… driving just a foot or two above the “lake” which is dry in many places but has water in other areas close to the road. In all directions you see a mirror-like reflection that seems to go on forever. The view was made more spectacular (and also a bit more difficult for driving) because the sun was setting quickly. Along the road there were little “hut – cafes” made of reeds… They sort of “announce” themselves by having “sculptures” made of the salt from the lake.. sitting behind or adjacent to their shops — but out in the dry lake bed.. It looks a lot like the kind of mudflat art that used to be out on the Bay by Emeryville and Berkeley. Many of these “sculptures” are camels.

Followed the signs to Tozeur and then the fun began. Tozeur appears to be a pretty busy and lively town and a bit larger than we envisioned. Anyway, we roamed and roamed to find the hotel … without success. Stopped lots of people who gave contradictory directions, and next thing we knew we were on a street that was totally grid locked because there was some kind of fair going on. We stopped at another hotel and nearly checked into that one, but then asked the reception desk how to get to our hotel.. and he gave yet different directions. In any case, we made it here… just several hours later than we had anticipated and now have to decide how to deal with tomorrow (given that we had planned to stroll through Tozeur today and then again tomorrow morning… )

The hotel is quite modern. It even has a hair dryer! A big plus since my look has changed tremendously as I’ve been pretty much a curly headed person for the last five days. And we have a television in the room.. a big flat screen (well big for us, since we have such a small screen at home), and it has CNN! Speaking of television, I failed to mention in other emails that the Tunisians seem to have a lot of soap operas that are well watched. In many shops you can see shopkeepers watching intently.. easy to spot the over-dramatized acting.

One other observation of Djerba — lots of medical facilities and many that do “aesthetic surgery” which I take to be plastic surgery, so I’m thinking that Djerba may be one of those places that has embraced medical tourism as an economic driver. Just my observation; no facts to back it up.

Had dinner at a local restaurant — Le Petit Prince (rather than the hotel restaurant which looked pretty canned and filled with European tourists — a buffet, which I really despise)..

We had a brik that was called Fatima’s Fingers (brik with meat) and the chef’s couscous (which had chicken and lamb) and the leg of lamb.. Way too much food.. a bottle of Tunisian wine, sparkling water… all for about $40 in a very upscale restaurant… Many Europeans and some Tunisians. So far we have not run into any Americans (except for the suspected CIA guy in Tunis who actually lives in London and says he has a British passport.. so he probably doesn’t qualify as an American any more).

OK… that’s it for today.

Hope all is well.

Trying to keep up with news in the states — reading NY Times most days (at least the abbreviated version that comes daily to my Blackberry). Even read the article about Jean Quan.

Fern