Tips from Tunisia

Wrapping up a couple of weeks in Tunisia, where, among other things, I took a Star Wars tour. Specifically, this one: https://www.tourradar.com/t/154446 through a company called Saraharansky, but more on that another day; just a few photos for now.

The tour covered quite a bit of the country, as the starting point is in the north and most filming locations are in the south. All told, it as six days and five nights and I had both a tour guide and a driver. The tour was billed as a group tour and the company told me it wouldn’t go unless there were at least two people. I wound up being the only one.

The dilemma became what to do about a tip. Americans are the biggest tippers in the world; for now 20 percent is minimum, but I’m not in America, or even a place frequented by American tourists. (When it becomes clear I speak no French, more times than not, I’m asked if I’m German.) Tipping 20 percent on a tour package is a freaking huge number, and it’s never clear if it’s that amount total or that amount for the guide and the driver.

In other parts of the world, tipping just isn’t done or is minimal, like if your taxi ride costs 19.80 taxi ride, you’d give a 20 and leave the change. I really didn’t know where Tunisia stood on the whole tipping thing, so I turned to internet searches. It didn’t help.

Here’s an example of the information out there. It’s from one site under the heading “Should you tip your tour guide?” Under it, there’s a huge headline that says “Don’t tip,” then there’s the following:

“Hotels and professional travel organisations arrange group tours for all tastes tipping tour guides is unnecessary. If, on the other hand, you’re the adventurous type and you want to hire your own driver come tour guide, then you’re going to have to negotiate prices directly. Your hotel is a good resource for estimates regarding what a particular trip might cost and, if all goes well, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t add an extra 20 to 50 dinar for the ride of your life.”

Otherwise, tipping isn’t necessary, but you can do it anyway. Other sites yielded equally unhelpful information. One would say don’t tip, another would say absolutely. Amounts varied. “Between 5-10 dinars a day or more.” Yeah, that’s helpful. “It’s not expected, but do it anyway.” One said only to pay in Tunisian currency and another suggested Euros.

One of the guides pointed out the daily salary for tour guides and then turned around and suggested tipping an amount that was more than that. This is what happens on the Internet – everyone’s an expert and in the end, no one knows what the heck is happening in real life. One site, I think it was the one linked above, clearly copied and pasted from a separate entry, because on the Tunisia page, one section started, “In Morocco …” Yeah, there’s credibility on the Internet

When you just want to do the right thing, it’s never easy. I also had the dilemma that I’d signed up for a group tour, so this poor guy normally would be making more tips had more people signed up. Do I compensate for that? OTOH, I paid extra because I was single (damn single supplement!). But from a different perspective, I got a private tour at a group rate. What to do?

The night before I left the last tour hotel, I sat down with a calculator and ran some numbers, putting aside two piles. I hope I did the right thing. The guide was amazing. The driver was nice but on the last drive back (which was after I’d set aside the tip money), he took a wrong turn, insisting a road was finished. The tour guide told him it wasn’t and not to go that way, but he did anyway, and guess what? The road was not finished. (Cue “Speed”: “It’s finished on the map!” “I guess they fell behind.”) We wound up off-roading in a minivan and had to double back more times than I cared to count. It probably added two hours to the total drive time.

Anyway, I’m parked at an AirBnB on La Marsa beach now and head back tomorrow. Yesterday was another full day on Cap Bon, meaning I’ve pretty much seen all of this country, which I really like. By the time we hit the medina yesterday, though, I was whipped. I’ve no room in my suitcase and just couldn’t handle all the “come into my store, no pressure to buy” from every single shop owner.

My days in Tunis – six days before the tour and four on the back end – have been spent on little day trips with a guide the hotel set me up with. (Since he was an independent contractor, I didn’t tip.) We did Carthage, Dougga and then Cap Bon. I’m done. Today is the dentist and tomorrow I’m headed out.

More on Star Wars later.

An R&R in ruins

 

It’s a great time to get a break from work. Since our people are mostly coming in on charter flights, we just got 10 of them, including my new bosses. The old bosses are still there, too, plus among the 10 there’s another senior person in my section and an additional deputy. Basically just layers and layers of people, and everyone has some kind of onboarding issue. That’s not their fault, of course, but trying to get one person lined up to receive a shipment while working on another’s email and yet another’s Teams account while simultaneously trying to get another couple of bosses out … it was just a good time to squeeze in R&R No. 2. I’m due three, but ran out of time.

But this time, I didn’t want to go far and opted for Tunis, which is a nonstop from Amman. Really, that’s how I landed on it. I just didn’t want to go more than four hours. It came down to this or London, which I figured would be far more expensive and a lot more lonely with just me. On this one, I am joining a tour on Monday and I’m also meeting a colleague tomorrow, so it’s not bad.

Today, I had a doctor appointment (gotta do these on R&R!) and just went to the mall afterwards. I wanted a real meal – I’m eating in the hotel lounge while I can – but couldn’t find a table to just park it and eat. I wound up finding a mostly empty table and kind of motioned to guy sitting there that I just wanted to sit and eat. He was too bewildered, I’m sure, to brush me off. I mean, some random tourist in a goofy hat just sits down and starts to eat. I’m sure he had no clue.

After I had been eating a fast-food meal from a Lebanese place – schwarma and hummus – for a little, a lady sat down with the guy. In broken English, she asked where I was from and I told her I was American. We wound up chatting – a little English, a little Arabic and a little French – for over an hour and a half! It was so much fun. She is from Libya and moved to Tunis for cancer treatment. The guy is her brother – one of three – and he has three kids; she married at 14 and has six! They were killing time before a doctor’s appointment and just hanging out. (It was maybe 1 p.m. and her appointment was at 4.) At one point, her mom called and I heard her say something about eating with an American, so I popped up behind her and photobombed the call. It made her day. Before that, they’d done a round of selfies.

It was just a totally random thing to do and was the absolute highlight of my day, and theirs, too. I mean, even if I hadn’t been coming from a doctor appointment and they hadn’t been heading to one, it would have still been the highlight. Something so insignificant as strangers sitting down together and talking. I had a great time.

Yesterday was more of a tourist day. I got a driver and did Carthage! Wow. I am so at home in ruins. I love this part of the world. I went to the amphitheater, which is still in use. The tour guide said he saw James Brown perform there, and there was some kind of event going on that evening. The “good seats” had cushions laid out – colorful rugs over a section of seats.

Oh man, the rugs. I do not need any more, but man, I love them. I already found one that I am still thinking about, which is not a good sign. It’s gray with Berber designs. Unfortunately, he has the same design in many shapes. I bet I could fit it in somewhere, but I don’t need to get another. I need to stay strong.

The Roman baths were phenomenal, too. Gosh, I wandered around forever. My driver guy probably thought I was insane. He was a great guide and I might see if he can take me somewhere else on Sunday. Saturday the plan is to visit the American cemetery – WWII – which I did not know existed until yesterday. The driver gave me a drive-by yesterday and it’s pretty moving. Tomorrow I’m headed to another set of Roman ruins, which are the largest in Africa.

Despite doing little to no planning, this is coming together all right.