Hamanment

Lots of nice sandy beaches.There were quite a few tourists though mostly from Germany.
I had a brief swim on the first day in Hammamet.
The next day visited the fort and La Medina;good view from the top of the fort.

Laurie all cut up

To cut a long story short Laurie cut her foot on a broken bottle in the street while going to Andy's car(he as was giving us a lift back home).At first it seemed a small cut but when we saw the blood seeping out Andy's quickly administed first aid.
We went to the clinic in La Marsa and Laurie had to have stiches in her foot and later on a Tetanus injection.

Sidi Bou Said

Picnic on the beach,with Laurie and Janet at Sidi Bou Said.
A nice location but a shame about all the rubbish at the back of the beach.
Brief swim while Laurie swam for much longer enjoying the calmness and peacefulness of the sea.Janet stayed on the beach catching as much sun as she could.

Later walked up to the cafe/terrace overlooking the beach and port.
A great place to watch the sun set.

La Sousse

Had a great time last weekend in La Sousse,a seaside resort two hours by train.The hotel Majarba and Majarba Club was a great place to stay at,especially in terms of paying only 32 Dinars(15 pounds)a night(which also included breakfast).In the afternoon we went to the local port and went on a short cruise on a pirate ship.In the evening after dinner at'Trois Dauphins' we went to 'The Living Room' nightclub opposite the Bananas club.We were all under dressed in comparision to the local glitzy clientele.

Laurie,Janet(two new teachers) and I also went to El Jem and saw the impressive Colosseum.

As this was the holiday weekend the trains were jammed packed and as the train pulled in with the passengers getting off the train we ran up and down the platform desperately hoping to find a carriage with some seats.However,we ended up in the engine control room at the end of the train with some young soldiers (included two women)

Back at La Sousse the next day I had a swim in the sea;the water was a nice clear aqua blue colour and though the water was cold it was an invigorating swim.

After my swim,visited the Medina area which included:
a beautiful tiled Andalucian house with a good view of the town,the Ribat fortress,and also a quick walk through the Souks.
Later visited the Kasbah and the catacombs(not really worth the effort of finding this place;the people running the place needed some more skeltons and could also have included some information and also the mosaics could have been left inside the tunnels rather than be
put in a museum.)

In the late afternooon it was great to walk along the sandy beach listening to the waves gently crashing onto the shore before heading to the train station to return to Tunis.

Tunis

Well I'm now in the land of camels,though I haven't seen any yet.

The weather is a little wintry, sunny with lots of rain.

Looks like there are lots of interesting places to visit including Soussse on the East coast of Tunisia and Tatatouinne in the south of Tunisia.

09 09 09

Yesterday was an important day in Thailand,the ninth day of the ninth month of 2009.
With the belief that the number nine is very lucky and especially yesterday with the combination of all those nines the day could be deemed to be really lucky for any new babies born on that day or anyone wishing to start a new venture or business;Tata Young the Thai pop star launched her new album at the Don Muang Airport;which had been shut down especially for Tata.

There also was a celebration of the release of the remastered Beatles albums;and the number nine plays its part on the Beatles album 'Abbey Road'where the last ends with the number nine continually being repeated.

Krabi/Phi Phi Island

Last week with Alicia went to Krabi and also did a speedboat trip to Phi Phi Islands and Bamboo Island doing lots of swimming and snorkelling.It was nice to visit Maya Bay again but the place was over run with boats and tourists one of the beach was completely full of tourists.
Did the climb to the Viewpoint;it was woth the climb for the death defying view looking down on the island!However,the climb down to the Lagoon was more difficult because of the slippery muddy conditions and the jagged rocks that had be navigated so I only reached the second to last stage of getting to the Lagoo.About half the people who attempted the climb were brave enough to go all the way down to the Lagoon.Oh well! the next time;I was too tired from all the swimming and snorkelling to go right down to the end.