Day 3: Ksour Essef - Salakta
I woke up greeted by the dark surrounding of the room. It was still dark outside but I knew it was already Subuh. I fumbled across the room looking for the light-switch. Jefridin was already up, he said he heard the adzan at about 4.15 am.
Right after Subuh, we slept again until the sun was already fiercely shining. After wash-up, we savoured the first breakfast in Tunisia with thick coffee and milk. There was real sugar cubes (the first time I saw anything like it, though I knew they existed)
After breakfast, Nidam showed us the whole house. What we thought was a single house was actually 3 houses under the same roof. The ground floor was Nidam's father's house while the other 2 houses were on the 2nd floor, one was Adel's and the other one was Hisham's, another elder brother of Nidam.
Here just to introduce the host family (the Khanfous):
The couple in the centre (in black-&-white) are the parents; Mr Mohamad Khanfous & his late wife or mother of the 8 children. The families around this couple are their children with their respective families. On the top-right corner is the eldest, Adel with his wife Ahlam and their children: (can't remember the name of the eldest daughter), Salim and Qamra; the second is Hisham (top-left corner) with his wife and 1-year-old daughter Syrina, the third is Nidam who just got married with Amina (below Adel's family); fourth is Jalil the clown in the family (below the parents) ; fifth is the eldest sister (didn't catch her name) with her husband Mohamad (the couple on the left, right below Hisham's family, obliterated by the indoor light); sixth is Jalila with her husband Mohamad (below Nidam & Amina).
After Jalila (the one in white), comes Fatin (here the one in pink)and Widet the youngest (the one in purple) - these last two sisters are still not married yet. They also have a cousin who I can't remember her name (here the one in blue) who has been living so close with them that she's considered as one of the sisters. She's the one who spoke splendid Fusha Arabic with us, having been educated in Tunisia. One family member not included in the picture is Nidam's grandmother, who is an adorable lady.
Okay let's get back to my story: where were we? Okay, now I remember; the part about Nidam showing his father's place. As I had mentioned, it's actually 3 houses or apartments combined into a 2-storey building, here showing you the main door (or the only door besides the garage) of the house.
We also took a look at Adel's and Hisham's apartments, which were built on the second floor of the house facing each other, each with their own front door, own kitchen, own toilet/washroom and living room (here is the living room in Adel's apartment - we stayed in this room for a couple of days):
Then Nidam took us to see the Jami' (or mosque) nearby called Jami' Rahmah:
Unlike the mosques in Singapore, here they put the speakers on the minaret itself so that the adzan or call to prayer may be heard from far.
After this short visit to the Jami', Nidam took us to see the splendid beach near Ksour Essef, specifically in a place called Salakta. There was a beautiful blue lagoon further south the beach, and Nidam took us to see some of the beautiful houses and villas built lining along the beach. He said that this stretch is a non-tourist zone, meaning that there was no hotels and only the local people come here, so it was not so crowded with "ang-moh" ("European" in Mandarin) tourists.
Only after that, then Nidam took us to see his own house in Salakta, which was about 7-min drive from his father's place and of course much nearer to the beach and Mediterranean Sea. It would also be the venue where he would have his wedding celebrations later on Sunday:
It's actually the same concept as the father's house in Ksour Essef; it's 2 apartments combined into a 2-storey building - the apartment on the ground level is Nidam's and the one on top is his brother's (Jalil). We asked Nidam how much it cost to build this house and he simply replied: "A lot of money!". (We found out later from Jalil that it cost them US$60,000 altogether!)
Nidam explained that in order to get married, the man must first provide his wife-to-be with a house, hence the need to have his own house. But cool! He chose the location at a place so near to the beach which is just 3-min walk away.
After lunch in Ksour Essef, we (together with Nidam & Salim) took a taxi back to the Salakta beach to enjoy "the sun, the sand and the sea". As we walked down the beach, the local people stared at us, because we Malays have different set of facial features as the Arabs, African or European per se. In fact many might even think I'm a Chinese or Japanese. But that can be elaborated later.
It was a rough-sea day; the black flag was up.
But we swam anyway, shared the only snorkelling gear (which we lost after the swim), built sandcastles, and took turns burying ourselves in the sand.
It's a nice way to relax and pass the leisure time we had, and I personally hadn't had any opportunity in years to do so while in Singapore.
At night, after dinner, we went out again, this time to the coffee-shop nearby Nidam's father's house. Besides getting into the relaxed summer atmosphere, enjoying coffee, tea, Coke or Fanta, we played Domino too. And Salim made fools out of ourselves, and he won many of the games that we played.
Before we went to sleep, we prepared our bags for the next 2 days' package tour. We had got to be at Sahara Beach Hotel in Monastir (about 50 km away) at 7.00 am, the next morning. Nidam would drive us there, but we had to wait for the car to come back since his father and brother had to attend a wedding in Tunis that night. We can only hope the car would be back in Ksour Essef in time for the next morning.....
Thus ended our 3rd Day in Tunisia....
Day 4
Right after Subuh, we slept again until the sun was already fiercely shining. After wash-up, we savoured the first breakfast in Tunisia with thick coffee and milk. There was real sugar cubes (the first time I saw anything like it, though I knew they existed)
After breakfast, Nidam showed us the whole house. What we thought was a single house was actually 3 houses under the same roof. The ground floor was Nidam's father's house while the other 2 houses were on the 2nd floor, one was Adel's and the other one was Hisham's, another elder brother of Nidam.
Here just to introduce the host family (the Khanfous):
The couple in the centre (in black-&-white) are the parents; Mr Mohamad Khanfous & his late wife or mother of the 8 children. The families around this couple are their children with their respective families. On the top-right corner is the eldest, Adel with his wife Ahlam and their children: (can't remember the name of the eldest daughter), Salim and Qamra; the second is Hisham (top-left corner) with his wife and 1-year-old daughter Syrina, the third is Nidam who just got married with Amina (below Adel's family); fourth is Jalil the clown in the family (below the parents) ; fifth is the eldest sister (didn't catch her name) with her husband Mohamad (the couple on the left, right below Hisham's family, obliterated by the indoor light); sixth is Jalila with her husband Mohamad (below Nidam & Amina).
After Jalila (the one in white), comes Fatin (here the one in pink)and Widet the youngest (the one in purple) - these last two sisters are still not married yet. They also have a cousin who I can't remember her name (here the one in blue) who has been living so close with them that she's considered as one of the sisters. She's the one who spoke splendid Fusha Arabic with us, having been educated in Tunisia. One family member not included in the picture is Nidam's grandmother, who is an adorable lady.
Okay let's get back to my story: where were we? Okay, now I remember; the part about Nidam showing his father's place. As I had mentioned, it's actually 3 houses or apartments combined into a 2-storey building, here showing you the main door (or the only door besides the garage) of the house.
We also took a look at Adel's and Hisham's apartments, which were built on the second floor of the house facing each other, each with their own front door, own kitchen, own toilet/washroom and living room (here is the living room in Adel's apartment - we stayed in this room for a couple of days):
Then Nidam took us to see the Jami' (or mosque) nearby called Jami' Rahmah:
Unlike the mosques in Singapore, here they put the speakers on the minaret itself so that the adzan or call to prayer may be heard from far.
After this short visit to the Jami', Nidam took us to see the splendid beach near Ksour Essef, specifically in a place called Salakta. There was a beautiful blue lagoon further south the beach, and Nidam took us to see some of the beautiful houses and villas built lining along the beach. He said that this stretch is a non-tourist zone, meaning that there was no hotels and only the local people come here, so it was not so crowded with "ang-moh" ("European" in Mandarin) tourists.
Only after that, then Nidam took us to see his own house in Salakta, which was about 7-min drive from his father's place and of course much nearer to the beach and Mediterranean Sea. It would also be the venue where he would have his wedding celebrations later on Sunday:
It's actually the same concept as the father's house in Ksour Essef; it's 2 apartments combined into a 2-storey building - the apartment on the ground level is Nidam's and the one on top is his brother's (Jalil). We asked Nidam how much it cost to build this house and he simply replied: "A lot of money!". (We found out later from Jalil that it cost them US$60,000 altogether!)
Nidam explained that in order to get married, the man must first provide his wife-to-be with a house, hence the need to have his own house. But cool! He chose the location at a place so near to the beach which is just 3-min walk away.
After lunch in Ksour Essef, we (together with Nidam & Salim) took a taxi back to the Salakta beach to enjoy "the sun, the sand and the sea". As we walked down the beach, the local people stared at us, because we Malays have different set of facial features as the Arabs, African or European per se. In fact many might even think I'm a Chinese or Japanese. But that can be elaborated later.
It was a rough-sea day; the black flag was up.
But we swam anyway, shared the only snorkelling gear (which we lost after the swim), built sandcastles, and took turns burying ourselves in the sand.
It's a nice way to relax and pass the leisure time we had, and I personally hadn't had any opportunity in years to do so while in Singapore.
At night, after dinner, we went out again, this time to the coffee-shop nearby Nidam's father's house. Besides getting into the relaxed summer atmosphere, enjoying coffee, tea, Coke or Fanta, we played Domino too. And Salim made fools out of ourselves, and he won many of the games that we played.
Before we went to sleep, we prepared our bags for the next 2 days' package tour. We had got to be at Sahara Beach Hotel in Monastir (about 50 km away) at 7.00 am, the next morning. Nidam would drive us there, but we had to wait for the car to come back since his father and brother had to attend a wedding in Tunis that night. We can only hope the car would be back in Ksour Essef in time for the next morning.....
Thus ended our 3rd Day in Tunisia....
Day 4
living Tunisia at 10:07 AM
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