I have just got back to the office so frustrated.
It is not often I get miffed but then I am getting a reputation in Bizerte as the English moaner (even though by UK standards I am patient). Today I had a wonderful example of how Tunisia can improve as a business destination which I hope will happen soon.
I posted myself a box from the UK which had a push-chair, modem, storage and a lens for my camera.
I put from Kristen Heavens to Kristen Heavens and the address as my office address as sitting in queues means that I am in my office till late most days (moan moan).
Ok so happily I go to the post office to get my parcel (I have never had an international one come the office lol even though I pay fed-ex courier). The lady tells me that as its a company I have to go to customs head office I say no as it is personal things and if this was the case then why did you waste my time and send me a note telling me to come here an alien concept in Tunisia is the value of peoples time it seems. The lady in the office said that maybe the manager could help me so to come back in 30 minutes. I asked for a definite time she will be back "no" and could I book a time as I am a busy person "no" lol so I guess if i want my push-chair I better come back.
Ok so i came back to the office that thanks be to god is round the corner and then returned half an hour later to complain to the post office manager where i was told again that I would have to go to the douane office arrrg!
So I go with my assistant (essential) to the customs and I go from person to person and after seeing 7 people and spending 40 minutes I am told that I will need to write a letter and wait for the Director of Bizerte customs to come back and stamp it and guess what come back in two days which is really good as I get paid to sit in queues lol
Lesson learned
Do not commit the crime of having personal parcels delivered to you work address and god help you if you do not live near the customs office.
----end of moan---
Hi All,
We finally got there and got the new website design up no doubt we will have to carry on changing things for a while as you can test and test but there are always the odd thing that comes up when you launch a new design.
I hope that you like it which so far most people say they do especially the menu which is a lot easier to use than they old one and it stays in the section you are in also so no more having to go up and down to get the menu!
The serious business starts now of updating the information and we have created a new section called "things to do" which is where we place the directories of hotels etc which replaces the old hotels directory. I hope that the MIT show this week will give us a head start updating this information as many operators will be there.
Speaking of the show we have been running about trying to get the stand ready which has been hindered by me being sick for the latter part of last week which was a real pain :-( the good news is I was sorted out right away by the local pharmacist who expertly understood my hand gestures and hooked me up with the requisite remedy that had me out of the toilet and on the road to recovery.
Car:
As you may remember I brought a car with me when i came over 2 months ago and guess what it still is not on Tunisian number plates. I finally gave up in Bizerte and headed to Tunis to sort out this and other papers for the company and I found the answer to everything (why I did not do this in the beginning). It seems to me that as a foreign investor it pays not to be clever and try and sort everything out locally your are better to go to the API in Tunis as boy it makes a difference as they have seen it all and speak English making the whole process a lot more understandable. I now have to have a load of paperwork redone which is a pain but it looks like i will be able to get to the bottom of my paperwork nightmares as i am allergic to papers especially in french/arabic.
Once this is completed I will add a guide to the site to sorting out car in Tunisia!
Property:
I am still no nearer buying or renting a place since I got here maybe I am just lazy and my mother in law is looking after me too much but i also have to have a little bit of a moan about the Bizerte rental market which to me seems very expensive and not really the standard it should be. I have looked at a few houses now and the rents are as much as Tunis especially when I am there as my face increases the price lol I have now been consigned to the car until the price has been stated. Another factor which is fair enough is that rents to nuts during the summer period and a house that is 400 goes to 700 during the summer months which though good for bizerte is a pain for us international businessmen (funny saying that) looking for a good quality rental for a reasonable price. Another couple of bug bears I have with the Bizerte real estate market are that people think of nothing of fibbing about the location of a property and will do everything to avoid telling you to location so you can drive passed (as you can usually say yey or nay from a drive by) what is described as corniche can be miles away. My personal fave which makes me go arrg is when I go to see a house and it is not finished ie no paint etc and the price is still high (500 d/m +) I mean do you want me to finish your house for you lol!
As you may now (I bang on about it all the time) I am a bear on UK property and sold up on exiting the UK feeling that things have to come down though not gloating as yet it seems that I was right and property is on the way down. I am now annoying my wife (who wants to buy whatever the cost) here as i get the same feeling about prices in Bizerte Corniche as I cannot justify buying here either lol I mean even at a nutty 1500 (681 GBP) dinars a month the house would still cost you 400,000 (181,000 GBP) dinars to buy which is well under 5% return (not including taxes etc) which when your getting over 6% in a savings account makes you feel like just sitting pretty or investing in a business which is what I am doing. I am sure this annoying the wife as I promised her a house and she cannot understand having money but not diving in there as the Tunisian tradition seems to be get a house first and then worry about money later but in my family we are tight fisted and pride ourselves on always being pragmatic (or loosing as little as possible LOL).
I can even see our next argument as we reached a semi compromise we would by a plot of land suitable for a nice house 1000m2 or so possibly in La Grotte which is the cove next to the corniche which is beautiful but undeveloped not permission, no utilities etc real green field.
The idea is to buy here and forget about it for a few years and then build when Bizerte expands out here but get this the price for this opportunity 250 dinars per m2 lol which means 250,000 (113,000 GBP) before you start your house LOL! At this rate I will have a UK house again sooner!
Hi All,
I am pleased to confirm that Tunisia.com has confirmed attendance at the 14th Edition of the MIT exhibition in Charguia in Tunis.
The exhibition is enjoying its 14th edition and is an excellent window to the Mediterranean tourism market featuring hundreds of exhibitors and features a wide spectrum of tourism businesses including Hotels, restaurants, car rental, tour operators and air sea and land transporters.
The exhibition itself has a history of being an excellent event with over 20,000 people coming to the last edition its growth has been on such a scale that it will be moving to the larger Kram exhibition centre next year for the 15th edition.
We are located at stand number 98 and we hope to see you there! the exhibition is open to the public and i am sure that you will have a great time seeing what the Tunisian and Med tourism has to offer!

12, rue Ibn Rachik- 1002 - Tunis
Tél. : + 216 71 893 215 - Fax : + 216 71 784 013
Email : tourisme.infomit @ gnet.tn
I hope you had a good week last week! My week was mostly taken up with the celebrations of my brother in law Mohammed's wedding.

The big man and his lovely wife Huda married and had their party in Ras Jebel which is a small town outside bizerte.
They are both in Hammamet on their honeymoon so if you see them say hello!
Today we booked Tunisia.com a booth at the important Meditour 2008 conference in Yasmine Hammamet.
This is thee place to be in the Tourism calendar and is where the movers and shakers of the Med Tourism Industry will be to discuss and to plan the future of the regions tourism.
This is not only an honor for Tunisia but shows that Tunisia is playing its part in regional affairs.
MEDITOUR 2008 will take place in Yasmine Hammamet (Tunisia) from 21st to 24 th May 2008. In the Medina Complex.
We should be in hall one and I will confirm our stand number so that if your attending the conference you can come and pay us a visit.
Naturally we will be showing the new design of the website and looking to meet and greet our visitors, sponsors and potential advertisers in the wonderful surroundings of the new medina complex see you there!

For those of you wanting further information please visit their website which is
http://www.meditour-2008.com/english
Day 2 the lizard train

We woke up early and quickly ate breakfast and headed off to Metloaui which took the best part of an hour. The station itself is very easy to find and on a busy day such as today you can simply follow the tour buses. The train leaves in the morning at 10:30 give or take 10 minutes as for prices it seems it is 20 dinars for tourists and 15 for Tunisians naturally ley tatakallem englise in such situations and the 15 dinar tickets were ours.


The train itself is a antiquated style train which i was told was a bey train and illogically was furnished with armchairs situated a meter of so apart so I recommend getting there early if you need a seat as they we where full when we got here but some good soul gave up their seat for Sara bless them.
It was a busy trip on the day we went with all of the train full but all seemed in good spirits and thankfully the train was not so full as to be uncomfortable.
The train itself is on a line to a phosphate mine and as such you can see around the station the hallmarks of heavy industry. As soon as all where on board the train horn sounded and we were off.
The train worked it's way through the town and into the hills giving us the chance to view some fantastic views on its way to the phosphate mine itself where it changed trucks and worked its way back. The train also took it's time and stopped so that everyone could take a photo though you had to be careful when jumping off and not to be left behind.
On a nice day like the day we had you had to be crazy not to enjoy the great views and the rid itself which was not too rickety my only complaint was the western music which I thought was tenuous as this was not the runaway mine train and i would much prefer Tunisian music as the vistas deserved a more authentic soundtrack.
I managed to get some half decent photos but with a zoom lens rather than the walk about one I have at the moment I would have managed to get some really good photos.
Once we finished on the train we got into the car and headed back on the long journey to Bizerte.
This was only a 3 day excursion and I will cover all locations in more detail in our travel guides section and also add further places soon starting with the north of Tunisia. I will be down south again for sure in december for the Sahara festival and god willing before.
Please hold in mind that if you intend to come down here to drink lots of water and plan ahead there is nothing you cannot do but make sure that you are ready for heat and if you have a hard time walking people to help you.
If you have any questions please either comment here or feel free to post in the forum.
Having worked on the new Tunisia.com design for a month or so we all thought we needed a break before the crunch next two weeks so we decided to nip down to Tozeur for a few days i say nip as Tozeur is a good 8-10 hours drive from Bizerte but we thought it would be worth it so that our friend Adam can see how Tunisia changes from the lush green to the Desert and so that he can get a snapshot of what the South of Tunisia has to offer.

We Started off at five in the morning and drove down firstly through Tunis and then down passed Hammamet/Nabeul and then on toward Kairouan (watch out for crazy drivers on the road there).
We stopped for a quick look at the large mosque but it was closed (opens around 8am) we then set off towards Gafsa. The road to Gafsa is lovely with trees lining the route and many small stands selling olives and olive oil (I will take more photos when I update the Gafsa travel guide later this year.
We pressed on through Gafsa and once the other side the landscape changed even more into desert and to Saras pleasure we saw our first group of camels by the road.

We arrived just after lunchtime in Tozeur (fast driving!) where we checked into the Dar Cherait Hotel which was lovely (I have posted a full review in the post before this one). This hotel was in the style of an old arabic house though to me it looked more Moroccan than Tunisian but that didn't matter as all agreed that the hotel looked great

The outside of the hotel

The main lobby of the hotel so large you need a wide angle lens!

We where all a bit knackered as you may expect so we headed out for a quick pizza outside the hotel which we found to be a bit expensive by Tunisian standards and not that nice however it was so hot and we where so past it by then we went back as soon as possible and hit the bed for some deserved rest.
After a nice evening meal which was a bit disturbed by Sara deciding she wanted to be the evenings entertainment we enjoyed the lovely gardens of the hotel. This hotel is apparently owned by a patron of the arts and you could tell as the hotel was like walking around a museum with a great selection of little cubby holes and lovely pieces of furniture which sara loved.
We decided to do the touristy thing and book a tour for the following day and we decided on the Termeraza, MIdes Chbika tour by Tozeur-Oasis-And-Sahara-Tours which cost 120 dinars for the one car which was for half a day. Excited about the tour we headed off to bed as we had a 8am kick off which as people married to Tunisians know means I was going to be raising the dead the following morning.
The next day

After a nice breakfast we managed an impressive 8:30 start (for us) and Amore the very nice guide from TOAST arrived in a new Land-cruser and we setoff to the first stop in our mini tour which was the famous mountain oasis of Tamerza.
Tamerza
We pressed on to the fantastic oasis of Tamerza which is supposedly the largest oasis of its type in Tunisia and on what was becoming an increasingly hot day a welcome stop.
We pulled into a stop where the abandoned village began (the locals lived in the new town at the bottom of the hill), and then walked passed the cafes and stalls onto the incline which lead to the top of the hill. The walk is like a circuit were thankfully everyone walks in the same direction as it is a pretty rough passage and I would ensure that if you have older people/disabled or small children with you that you have assistance so that you can enjoy the fantastic views.
Once you get to the top of the incline (marked by a strange stone goat) you have a small pass to walk through which reminded me how fat i have become and that I must warn those of you over 40" you will have a tight squeeze to get through this.
Once at the top I took a number of photos (in the slideshow) and then began the walk down into the oasis itself. This is a beautiful place and i loved the little channels cut so that the water was directed to the inhabitants showing that this was a lifeblood for the town when people lived here which considering the heat (mild apparently) would not be something that I would do. Amazingly there where a number of frogs living in the small pool in the oasis how did they get there?










