6th to 7th December 2008 - Tunisia Part 1

The most painful part of the trip was the time spent at the airport waiting for our transit flight...

We took Turkish Airlines to Istanbul on 6th December 2008 which only took off around 11:30pm. It took us about 13 hours to fly to Istanbul, after which we had to adjust to the 6 hours time difference, and then wait for another 5-6 hours for our flight to Tunis!!!

Damn! There's only so much we could do at the duty free shops. After a while, we decided to find a cosy spot - Starbucks - and began to order some coffee and cakes, and take out our books to read. I had brought along a copy of Readers' Digest, as well as a book which I've borrowed from the library - a mandarin one, and the waiting thus began.

AT last it was time for boarding.... upon reaching Tunis, we were really very tired... It wasn't easy for me to fall asleep on the plane as the ride was quite bumpy, and we sat near the wing, so we could practically hear the engine 'roar'....

Anyways, that's beside the point. Maybe its the excitement that's keeping us awake!!!

Tunis is the capital of Tunisia, and it didn't feel like winter at all since the weather was about 16 degrees celsius in the day. Our local guide is Ahmed, and the drive is Mohamed.

We were immediately shuffled to lunch at this restaurant Le Phenix De Carthage and this was located near the Roman Aquaducts. As we arrived 1 day prior to the sacred day - Hari Raya Haji - where sacrifices were to be made, a lot of people were on holiday and we had to make some changes to our itinerary.

We went to Sidi Bou Said instead. Sidi Bou Said was a pretty sight and reminded me of the picturesque white houses with dome shaped ceilings in Santori Island which I've always wanted to go!!!! The doors to every household bore different designs and motifs, and the door knobs were also of various designs! How interesting and pretty the doors of Tunisia are!!

The black and white arches reflect the day and night. According to our tour guide, the reason behind the white walls was to reflect the sunlight, and blue was a symbol of good luck and warding off evil spirits. There was a famous cafe - Cafe des Nattes - in Sidi Bou Said and a lot of people actually visited this place for a fine cup of mint tea!

After visiting Sidi Bou Said, we need to take the coach and head down to Kairouan. We stayed at Kasbah Hotel for the night and it was pretty grand!!!