Bisou de partout: Tunisia Part 2

Port Yasmine is a tourist area surrounded by beaches and hotels, and as such, does not really have a shopping area. The closest area with a supermarket and other necessities is a 5 minute taxi ride away in Baraket Essahil. There are a number of ways to reach this destination, depending on your budget and your sense of adventure! A taxi is easiest for multiple shopping stops as for a small price (about EUR 7 for an hour) you can hire a taxi that will take you to the various stores for things like a SIM card for internet and phone calls; the fruit and vegetable vendors, a hardware store, a supermarket, etc. If, however, you are feeling adventurous and don’t mind walking a little, you can take a ‘louage’ (literally a ‘share’ in French) – this is a minivan which seats 8 people and costs about 30 cents per person. They have set routes (beginning and end) but will drop you anywhere along the way if you ask. Once you know where to catch these ‘louages’ and their destinations, they are a fun way to travel all around Tunisia and very inexpensive! We took a taxi the first time just in order to see where everything was –after that, the louage was the way to go!

The weather remained sunny and hot for most of the days and we tried to intersperse work with fun things as well. One morning we enjoyed an excursion on a pirate ship – these are replica galleons which take guests for a cruise around the area and entertain them with pirate ‘antics’ as well as the opportunity for a swim, looking for dolphins and a BBQ lunch. Tad got into the swing of things with his Captain Jack Swallow (inside joke) outfit which was very much appreciated by the ‘pirates’ on board the ship “Columbus” on which we were sailing.

I also experienced an authentic ‘hammam’ (thermal springs ) in the nearby hills – it was pretty basic and none too hygienic but the water was scalding and the loofah scrub and massage divine – all for the very respectable price of EUR 5!

One Friday we took the louage to Nabeul, a nearby city centre where we attended the Friday markets. It was chaos, colourful and an assault on the senses but a lot of fun. You had to penetrate the tourist area with the junk, souvenirs and hustlers to see the ‘genuine’ market stalls selling everything from second hand clothing to spices to fruit and vegetables to fabrics and so much more! We ended that day with a refreshing ‘citronade’ (fresh lemonade made from the whole fruit with sugar added which is delicious!) and I bought extra to take back to the boat.

The days slipped past all too quickly – we dismantled Bisou a little each day, starting with the helm station and the canvas covers around the cockpit, and working through the sails, lines, halyards and sheets. Although Tunisia has a mild winter climate, Port Yasmine is subject to some strong winds as well as red dust and we wanted to make sure that all moving parts (winches, blocks, etc.) were lubricated and covered to minimize potential clogging with dust. We also had a fantastic cover made for Bisou which goes over the boom, and covers the whole top deck as well as the cockpit area. It fits snugly, has air vents to minimize condensation and looks very smart. Tad wanted to make sure that as many parts of the boat were put away as possible to reduce the effect of UV rays and weather on them.

Finally it was down to the last couple of days – finishing up the food supplies and bagging up what was left to give away to the neighbouring yachties; cleaning and packing away bedding, clothing and everything else likely to get damp and mildewy; cleaning out cupboards, fridges and freezers; and of course packing our few things we were taking with us.

We spent the last night in Port Yasmine in a nearby hotel – Le Residence des Corails – which was clean, comfortable and very peaceful. The following morning we had organized our wonderful driver, Fawzi, to take us to Carthage and Sid Bou Saiid for some sightseeing and then drop us at our hotel in Tunis for our last night before flying out to Istanbul.

Visiting Carthage with its amphitheatre, Roman villas and temples was incredible. The area was home to 250,000 Phonecians in ancient times, 500,000 Carthaginians followed, and then finally a Roman city housing 750,000 people thrived until it was destroyed by the Vandals and Goths. There are several layers of building remains still visible today, and relics everywhere! Our guide said that because most of Carthage is now a residential suburb of Tunis (mostly inhabited by Embassy Residences and other well-to-do residents), people are forever finding pottery sherds, coins and other relics in their backyards when they go digging! In fact he said that there are so many relics at the sites, people are allowed to take anything found at the surface (they may not dig through the soil) and many visitors even bring metal detectors after rain washes the soil away, hoping to find coins and other treasures!

Sidi Bou Saiid is picturesque although touristy – famous for its white-washed buildings and bright blue doors and window shutters, the narrow streets lead to new vistas around every corner. You do have to run the gauntlet of market stalls-holders inviting you to “just come and look” at the junk they are trying to flog, but there are some interesting things to see as well. Tad managed to find an ice creamery and there was even a local vendor making fresh donut-type pastries that HAD to be sampled!

All too soon it was time to head to the busy city of Tunis for a night at the Ibis Hotel (clean, comfortable, quiet and well-priced with a 15 minute walk to the medina). We headed out to a nearby restaurant for a delicious dinner of grilled sea bass before heading to bed.

Our last morning we ventured into the medina for a look around – it was very busy being Friday and we wandered through the market stalls and the narrow laneways for just an hour before we not only had had enough of the chaos, but it was time to drive to the airport.

If we thought that the chaos and disorder would be less once we reached the airport at Tunis, we were destined to be disappointed. As mentioned earlier, I had been advised to arrive at the airport in plenty of time to pay for my additional two weeks’ worth of visas prior to exiting the country via the immigration counter. The check in desk for our flight had not yet opened (we had checked in online in any case and selected our seats so we were not concerned about this), so I left Tad with the luggage and I went in search of the customs official or immigration police who might assist me with my visa stamps. After a fruitless attempt at finding either of these two offices on my own, as well as enquiring at the information desk, the check in counters and ticket offices I went back to find Tad and get checked in for our flight formally. I decided I would just front up at the immigration counter and try to deal with the situation there.

We had treated ourselves to Business Class seats on this leg of our journey as we were using frequent flyer points to get us to Istanbul. As our original plans had been to fly home from Turkey, we had booked a return ticket with Singapore Airlines flying into Paris when we arrived, and home from Istanbul. This served two purposes – leaving from a non-Schengen country that would not question our time in Schengen Europe, but also having the opportunity to visit Istanbul for the first time.

There was just one queue for the Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul and as we were there so early it did not take long for us to complete the check-in, however, the baggage belt did not work so we had to take our bags to another area of the airport to drop them off. The drop-off area was unattended when we arrived and a couple of other people were waiting to drop off their bags as well – the belt was continually stopping due to suitcases being loaded incorrectly and triggering a blockage alarm. When an attendant finally arrived to oversee the drop off area, we loaded our suitcases onto the belt and waited until we saw them disappear into the abyss of the airport. I was not going to take any chances that our bags might not join us in Istanbul.

Although we had been issued with “fast track” vouchers for immigration, the queue was ridiculously long and slow. We were never certain whether it was because only one immigration official was overseeing the queue or it was something else, but we stood in the queue for almost an hour. Luckily we had plenty of time or we would have been very concerned. We saw a number of people being turned back and discovered that they had not bought their ‘solidarity stamp’. Tunisia introduced a new departure tax as of October 1^st this year which required all non-residents and non-Tunisian citizens to purchase a stamp for 30 TD prior to arriving at the airport. Fortunately I was aware of this from reading a flyer at the marina and had purchased our stamps there. People who had arrived at the immigration desk without the stamp were being turned back to go and purchase these at one of the shops in the airport area. At this point I was becoming a little nervous about my visa and wondering what would happen about my needing to pay for the additional two weeks. Perhaps due to the congested situation or perhaps because the officer was becoming weary, he did not pay any attention to my arrival date on my visa and simply processed my departure. Tad almost got into strife as the police had never stamped him in and the immigration officer was concerned that he couldn’t find the entry stamp. We explained that the police had not stamped Tad in on arrival but that he had completed the arrival formalities as shown by the visitor card in his passport. That seemed to satisfy the officer and he stamped Tad out. Breathing a sigh of relief we progressed to the security screening area and then through to the lounge to await our boarding call.

Our flight to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines was uneventful – it was a real treat to have the comfortable and spacious seating in Business Class, as well as delicious food (including some of the best Turkish delight I have ever tasted!) and our only regret was that the flight did not last longer!

We arrived into Istanbul airport, stamped in and collected our bags. The hotel we had booked included a free transfer from the airport and it was so nice to be met and chauffeured to our hotel after a long and rather overwhelming day. We missed the peace and quiet of being on Bisou already, but more adventures were in store for us.

Stay tuned for the next chapter on our stay in Istanbul….