Tuesday, April 15, 2008 - HAMMAMET

Our first stop this morning was the Roman amphitheater at El Jem. It's smaller than the Colliseum in Rome, but according to Mom it's more impressive. Parts of the amphitheater are partially restored so you can climb up to the top ramparts. You can also go underneath the amphitheater floor to see the rooms where animals and people were kept and the ramps they used to move them up to the surface for fights.

Views of the amphitheater at El Jem:












It wasn't on the itinerary but we also visited the museum of El Jem. It had the most amazing mosaics and backed onto the ruins of the old town. Like most of the museums we've visited in Tunisia, the museum at El Jem didn't contain any household or personal items recovered from the site. It's like they're not important enough to display. Either that or they were ransacked and are not available. It's sad because I always find the household and personal items the most fascinating.

From there we drove to Monastir, had lunch, and then toured the ancient fortress called the Ribat. I'd left my camera on the bus during lunch and didn't have it with me at the Ribat, which is too bad because it was really amazing. The highlight was climbing the narrow circular staircase of the watchtower to get a 360 degree view of the surrounding area.

Outside the Ribat:


We walked from the Ribat to Bourguiba's Mausoleum. Bourguiba led the country to independence in the 1950s. Three generations of his family are buried at the mausoleum, which tool over 30 years to build. It was beautiful, but also a little creepy.

Views of Bourguiba's Mausoleum:







Our next stop was the "prix fixe" tourist store in Sousse. Many of the ladies in the tour had complained that they didn't have enough time to shop, so Mohamed added a shopping stop in Sousse to the agenda. I could have done without it - imagine four floors of camel teddy bears, 6' tall houkhas, brass plates with camels on them, stinky perfumes, Tunisia t-shirts, ugly knock-off purses, gaudy scarves and dresses, and cheap rugs. I spent most of my time outside in the traditional medina fighting off the hawkers.

Our final stop before the hotel was a marina on the outskirts of Sousse. A few people walked to the marina but a large group of us followed Mohamed to the local supermarket to buy dates, harissa, olives, capers, and booze. It was the best decision, apparently - we learned afterwards that the hawkers at the marina were particularly aggressive and foul-mouthed.

Our hotel was located in the tourist area of Hammamet called Yasmine Hammamet. Some of the hotels in the strip have Vegas-style themes. One of them had a truly ugly Aladdin/Arabian Nights theme and we were happily mocking it, thinking we were going to stay in a classy hotel, when Sharif turned the bus into the entrance. Egads!

The entrance to the Lella Baya:


So, yes, we stayed in the ugly Vegas-themed Lella Baya hotel. In the rafters Aladdin was riding his magic carpet and below were belly dancer mannequins. You could sit and smoke sheesha from garish houkhas in the bar. Outside, next to the pool, was a South Pacific-style tiki bar. Go figure. I've included some pictures but they really don't do the garishness justice. As I said at the time, the owners paid a lot of money to make the hotel so ugly.

Inside the Lella Baya and the view of the pool from our room: