Day 2: Bangkok - Istanbul - Tunis - Ksour Essef

The transit in Bangkok was about an hour or so. The flight to Istanbul took us about 9 hours, passing over the Indian Ocean, India and Iran. We got very little sleep, because it was cramped and not very comfortable sitting in the middle. We also got woken up 1 or 2 hour after we just lift-off from Bangkok by the stewardesses for the cold-meat night snack. Tasted kind of weird but we wolfed it down just the same because we became awfully hungry all of a sudden.

So when we arrived in Istanbul circa 7 am (local Istanbul time), we were kind of dizzy but still wide awake because our bodies are still not accustomed to the local time and it's already 12 noon in Singapore. I was experiencing my first jet-lag. 7 am in Istanbul is like 9 am in Singapore because of the shorter nights and longer days in summer. There were also other incoming flights from Europe and Africa at the same we arrived, so there were many people in different shapes, sizes & colours.





We waited about 3-4 hours in the transit lounge, first looking around at the things sold in the duty-free shops. In the end we just find seats in the waiting area, joining the many sleeping travellers who were also in transit like us.


Security before boarding the plane was very tight, tighter than in Changi. I guess the metal detector was set to the most sensitive setting, so much so that most of the male passengers had to take off their belts and for some, even their shoes. But when I looked at the adjacent waiting lounge which was the flight to Chicago, each passenger had to undergo double security checks; in the first check they had to take out everything from their bags and purses and had to be body-searched, and the second one is the routine X-ray and metal-detector check. I just felt sorry for the people who had their undergarment taken out of their bags to be checked....

The flight to Tunis itself was uneventful, except that there was a cute blue-eyed blonde toddler was playing with his brother along the aisle. We also had a junior soccer team from Saudi Arabia in the same flight. We passed Greece (Olympics coming soon) and southern part of Italy,

and we landed safely in Tunis-Carthage International Airport at about 11.30 am (local Tunisian time). Immigration and custom clearance was almost a breeze; the 2 female immigration officers who were checking my Malaysian passport had to ask their superior or colleague whether I could enter without visa, and luckily, he said "yes", otherwise, I'd to stay in Tunis airport for 2 weeks...



After we went out of the arrival hall, we exchanged US dollars to Tunisian dinars. 1 US dollars gives about 1.25 dinars so that translates to 1 dinar being equivalent to 1.3-1.4 Singapore dollars. What amazed me (later on though) was that each currency exchange must be accompanied by an official computer-printed receipt and that you must show the receipt when you want to change back from dinar to other currencies too. It seemed that the Tunisian government control their currency and this I guess contributes to why the dinar currency is relatively stronger than ours.

Almost at once, we met Nidam and his eldest brother Adel. Nidam had came over from Singapore to France and then Tunisia about a week before us. As we zipped through the highway in Adel's French-registered white wagon(Tunisian roads are left-hand drive, opposite of Singapore), we saw neat rows of olive trees planted on both sides of the road as Nidam explained to us more about his country.


You may find more details on Tunisia in the following link:


But before we set off for Ksour Essef which is about 200 km from Tunis and 11km from Mahdia, we drove to Hammamet to meet Mufidah. Mufidah, I found out later, was the sister of Nidam's sister-in-law. She runs a tour agency, and with her help, the 3 of us could spend the days when we're not in Nidam's place, visiting places of interest all around Tunisia. Nidam gave 2 options, one where we rent a car and drive around, but it's going to be expensive and I don't think Azron or I could drive a left-hand-drive car (Azron tried to drive once but he couldn't even get into the reverse gear). The second plan was for us to go on guided tours with English-speaking guides of course but we had to tag along with other tourists as well. Naturally we chose the latter, because we've got limited budget and it would be better that way, I mean, to see Tunisia with reliable guides around, who could explain in a language we can understand. Azron and I can understand a little bit of Arabic (but it's Fusha Arabic or international standard Arabic: "qalil jiddan" - very little, but the Tunisians don't speak the standard Arabic), Azron learnt French for a few months while for my German which I learnt for 4 years for my O-Level, well let's just say that I last learnt it 7-8 years ago. Jefridin's stuck with English and Malay only (which is hopeless because it's already difficult to find Asians here, then what about Malays). So English is still our only hope.

The first tours we chose (or were chosen by Mufidah) were the Kairouan-El-Jem-Mahdia one-day tour (46 dinars per head) and the second day we're supposed to go for the Carthage-Sidi Bou Said- Bardo Musee-Tunis, also a one-day tour (56 dinars per head). Accomodation would be in Sousse in a hostel called Jeunesse 21 which cost 60 dinars per night for bed and breakfast included. So that settled it for our 3rd and 4th day in Tunisia (2nd & 3rd August). Since the wedding would only start on the night of 4th August (Wednesday) and end on Sunday (8th August), we still got another week to confirm. It's either a 2 or 3-day tour to the desert in the southern part of Tunisia or just plain free-and-easy-holiday, but that we would settle later.

So after that we continued our journey down Tunisia through the highway, passing through some toll-gates. One thing we did notice as we made our way was the frequency of policemen/ policewomen standing alongside the roads. There seemed to be at least one or two of them at every exit and every bridge and they had uniforms of different colours (green blue, brown - unfortunately we didn't take any pictures of them, didn't want to get in trouble). The weather was very hot, I tell you, much like Singapore only that you can feel it was not humid, but still it's hot, and I don't understand how these people could stand in their uniforms in the sun until sunset I guess.

Anyway, along the way we did stop at a drivers' rest-place, much like Machap or Pagoh along the Malaysian PLUS Highway, and had the first taste of the local food, something like tortilla or shawarma with meat and chilly inside, and it's really hot. I for one, do not like hot food; they make my scalp itchy. Need a big bottle of mineral water or Coke along.
Entry and usage of the public toilet there is like if-you-want-to-pay-then-pay-if-not-don't-pay-at-all.


We arrived in the town of Ksour Essef (pronounced in Arabic: Qasur As-Saff) after about 3 hours drive. It was almost 6pm local time when we reached the house of Nidam's father. Nidam's sisters were busy making plastic flowers as gifts for the the guests to the wedding. Nidam's family welcomed us mostly in French but they did attempt to speak English too. Usually the Arabs would greet guests with "kissing" two times on the cheek, "kissing" here implies just the touching of the cheeks. It seems normal even for two people of the opposite sexes to do that as a welcoming gesture. 2 "kisses" means that the 2 persons have known each other before and have not met for quite some time. I guess one of Nidam's niece wanted to do that when we first met and shook hands; but we're just not used to being "kissed" what more by a teenage girl, so she looked somewhat as shocked as us. Well I don't blame her, it's just their culture.

It was also quite a shock that we had to continue to wear our footwear even inside the house and inside the room, which is not common in a Muslim home in Southeast-Asia, but we adapted pretty well, taking care not to step on places where it is carpetted and where we want to perform our solat.



We rushed to perform our Zuhur & 'Asr at the corner of the house. Maghrib came soon after (no problem, because we can see the clear sky from the courtyard, and we can hear the adzan - the call to prayer, from the nearby Jami' or mosque/surau as we call it in Singapore). After we performed both Maghrib and Isyak (jama' qasr prayer - combine and shorten the solat), we had dinner, washed up and then started to unpack our bags before turning in to rest for the day.... It's been a long first day; I calculated that we had travelled non-stop for more than 24 hours and we've seen more than 15 hours of daylight. (We left home at 8pm Singapore time on 30th July and reached Ksour Essef at 6pm Tunisia time on 31st July or 1am Singapore time on 1st Aug). In addition to that, we didn't get proper sleep during the journey. We estimated that Subuh the next day would be around 3.30 to 4 am..... Well that would be story for the next day.....

Day 3