Ugh. I'm lying in bed typing this out on a notepad app because our "4-star" hotel does not have free Internet. Instead they want to charge 8 dinars per hour, which is like US$5/hour. That's crazy expensive. Even the Shangra-La in Singapore only charged SIN$15 for an entire day. Even better, there is no AC in the hotel. Wow... the hotel is near the Sahara Desert and during dinner it was like 30°C outside. I told the guy at the front desk that the AC wasn't working and he said there was no AC in the entire hotel. Then he pointed at an open window, and with a f*ck you smile said, "no need for AC, we have wind." I went back to the room, opened the sliding door, and was greeted with a occasional but warm breeze. Not good. Tour organizer said we'll try to change hotels tomorrow since we're here for two nights. You bet this is getting a one-star rating in TripAdvisor.
Beautiful room, n'est pas?
I just took a shower and I'm covered in sweat again.
We drove this morning from Le Kef to another Roman site with several large temples. Along the way, we stopped at a 17th century fort, now used by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs as an office and a Muslim mausoleum. Once again it was hot as an oven when we got to Sbeitla. We walked amongst the ruins and took some pictures. As an added bonus, we found a plastic fan tossed on the ground by Chinese tourists. I'm assuming they are Chinese since the fan was advertising for a Chinese tutoring school and it had a map of the Guangzhou subway system on the other side. Dang mainland tourists.
Fort of El Kef, built by the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire
View of Le Kef from the fort
I think this the mausoleum for the founder of the city
Arch of Diocletian at Sbeitla
More ruins... interestingly, on the road leading to the main temples, there appears to be a lot of shops lining each side of the road
Thanks to a mainland Chinese tour group, I now have a fan to relieve myself from the heat and humidity
Temples for Minerva, Jupiter, and Juno (L to R)
After lunch, we took a long car ride from the Roman site to Tozeur, home of my favorite (not!) hotel. Our driver also arranged a horse ride down to a date/fruit plantation for a tour. It was kinda dark when we arrived but since the horse was already there, we went on the tour even though we couldn't see anything. The dates were good. Now I'm tired but sweaty and trying to fall asleep. Double dang it.
Lots of mosques along the road
Another one... some look brand new
Poor horse... our hotel is at the end of a long hill climb and the horse was struggling to pull our cart back up the hill with six people
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