Category: Tunisia

Last night as i was in my old place waiting for the owner to come so i can hand him his keys and get over with the move, i opened the door only to find a bunch of kids wearing masks and make-up, yes for halloween, they were trick-or-treating me…

I was shocked to say the least.
I mean, there never ever was halloween in Tunisia, so where did these kids come up from ?
These were kids ranging in age from maybe 4 to just a few years younger than me, and they were going around from house to house as if it was the most normal thing in the world.
I know i must sound like some old-fashioned guy, i’m not, but i can’t help but wonder how something that never existed in the Tunisian culture has been introduced into it like this.
Are the next generation being brainwashed by foreign television stations ?
I mean after all, i think it’s pretty weird for muslims in a muslim country to be celebrating Christmas and now Halloween, what next ? Hannukah ?.

Maybe i’m over-reacting, but i think this is worth thinking about. Maybe we should start thinking twice about what our children are seeing on TV and how much of an effect it is having on them.

The Medina Festival began last night in Tunis. This is a festival that takes place every Ramadan here, and i think it’s great. It’s a very culture rich festival with artists from many countries performing.

I just got the program for this year’s festival, and on first look, it seems great, but nothing that’s truly my style and that makes me jump off my chair and go running for a ticket.
Interesting stuff though, there are concerts by: Mayada Bsiliss, Marcel Khalifa, Son Cubano and Jos

One of my favourite sites and TV shows is Lonely Planet, it just hits the right spot for me, someone who’s in love with travel and discovering different new places.
So every once in a while, i drop by the Lonely Planet website to check out some new places i would love to visit.

Today, out of curiosity, i checked out Tunisia to see what they’ve written about it, here’s the beautiful introduction:

Tunisia’s list of visitor attractions would do justice to a country twice its size. From the stone-age settlements near the oasis at Kebili to the space-age sets of Star Wars (parts of which were filmed at Matmata), its lush-to-lunar landscapes have seen more action than the New World nations combined. Spend a few days here and you’ll agree: daydreaming at the famous Roman ruins of Carthage and El-Jem is almost as good as stepping into Virgil’s Aeneid and knocking one back with Dido, while a day’s dawdling on the north coast’s beaches will leave you wondering why Hannibal ever left.

Tourism remains very low-key throughout most of the country, though if you’re looking for resort life you can find that too. Be it Tunis’ French-Arab culture collage or the Sahara’s unthinkably massive expanse, you’re going to be impressed with what you find in Tunisia. After all, they’ve had 3000 years to prepare for your visit.

Just came across an annoying banner, lol, it says: 8 days / 7 nights in Tunisia, half board in a 3 star hotel for only 149 Euros.

Why the hell can’t i get prices like that in my own country ?
If i were to go somewhere for 8 days / 7 nights in Tunisia, it would cost me a fortune, and on top of all that i wouldn’t get treated as well as tourists do, lol…

Man, tourists are lucky in Tunisia, they get a beautiful country to visit at a really low price and they’re pampered and treated like royalty too.

I just read a post on AquaCool about the environment, and how we should try and take more care of it and all.

And well i totally agree with that, BUT there’s one little problem: the people themselves…

Tunisia is one of the countries that has really given so much importance to nature and the environment, and the government has been trying to get all sorts of programs going for ages, from recycling to creating more green areas to educating people to raising awareness of environment problems …etc, and initiative after initiative have passed with only minor success, and that’s because first of all the change has to come from within the people and their brains for anything to work.
You can’t do anything when some people are still throwing their garbage out of their windows or littering sidewalks with the remains of their snacks even though bins are only a meter away.
It’s a whole vision and we all have to be in it together, people and government.

I think the Tunisian government is doing a great job trying to educate people and coming up with great inititiatives, but until the Tunisians themselves rally behind these inititiatives and become more eco-aware, and until the new generations grow up with a strong eco-conscience we’re going nowhere.

For the last couple of days, there’s been a problem with dial-up internet access in Tunisia, rendering home users and small businesses unable to access a big number of websites.

There still is no known reason of why this has happened and when the problem will be solved. It’s still at the stage of blame throwing between the ISPs and the ATI.

It’s so weird how the internet has become so important to us and our everyday lives, one problem comes up, and we feel like we’re crippled.
Oh and when it happens to an internet junkie lke me, oh God, life just seems to stop, lol…

UPDATE: The problem has finally been solved. In the end, it turns out Tunisie Telecom were behind the problem.

A few days ago i read a topic on my friend Houssein’s blog in which he talked about the Berbers in Morocco, and how they won a very important fight to affirm their identity and got their language to be taught in schools.

Houssein went on to talk about Tunisia, and how people should start using arabic more.

I totally agree with Houssein, and i think that Tunisians should hold on to their arabic language, start using it more and even get to know it better, because language is one of the most important parts of one’s identity and if they let that go, then they’re losing part of who they are.

I see this problem even more than others maybe because i lived in another arab country, an eastern arab country which was Jordan, where arabic is used more than here and even the local dialect is more faithful to the arabic language than ours.

I think it’s great that the government is pushing for arabic in all domains and for all purposes, and i wish companies and people would follow.

We are arabs and arabic is our language, arabic is our identity, arabic is our history and culture, arabic is our heritage.
We should work hard not to let all that go, coz if we do then all we’re actually doing is losing sense of who we are, and losing the respect of everyone starting by our own respect for ourselves.

And people who think that talking another language is cool, then it’s not, what’s so cool about imitating someone and trying to be something you’re not ?
What is cool is to be yourself, be original and stick to who you are and what you believe.

Our language is one of the most beautiful languages ever, if not the most, so lets not let it go.

Just thought i’d post a few more pics from our trip to the south.

The following is of the Palm beach in Tozeur, which actually looks like a green sea from a distance:

This next one is of Chott Jerid, that we passed through on our way to Douz from Tozeur:

And this last one is of the mountains and landscape between Tamezret and Matmata:

Oh well, here’s another last one from Djerba Explore’s crocodile park:

We just got back from a trip to the south of Tunisia. My vacation started Saturday, and so i suggested we (My wife, her sister and I) pick ourselves up, get in the car and go for a little trip to the south.

My wife and I already went there earlier in the year and we loved it, so we thought this was a great chance to go again. So we got in the car, and i started driving.

Our first stop was Kairouan which was on our way, we just drove around quickly, then stopped and had lunch there. Then we were back on our way, and we kept on going till we got to Tozeur at 9:30PM, a beautiful city in the South West of Tunisia, with a unique architectural style and amazing natural beauty.

We spent the night there, and in the following morning, went in a tour in the city, then visited a close city called Nefta, then we were back on our way, this time towards Douz and its vast breath-taking Sahara.
Once in Douz we headed straight to camel-riding, and we got 3 camels and went into the desert for an hour or so, which was totally awesome. The desert sand is so pure and smooth and the air is so clean and energizing.

Later, we moved on towards Djerba passing by the amazing Matmata, the Star Wars city, where they actually filmed the scenes for the planet Tatooine, and it’s Berber houses that are built into the mountains.

Finally we got to Djerba (The island of dreams), spent the night there, and woke up today to go to Djerba Explore (A theme park that has a Crocodile park, hotel, restaurants, cafes, museums and more).
After that, we drove around in the island then went to Houmt Souk and spent some time there.

At 2PM or so, we started on our way back to Tunis, a continuous 7:30 hour drive, after which i find myself totally exhausted and dying for sleep and rest.

So i’ll end this post here with a pic i took of the desert in Douz.