Trip to Tozeur (Part III)

Dinner at Dar Cheraït

After the visit to the Oasis, I pretty much would like to refresh myself by taking a shower. However, that's actually the beginning of how I found out the defect that I have in my room. I don't have any "COLD WATER" ran in my toilet. By the end, I finished up my shower by pouring the mineral water from the bottle, the most expensive shower I ever took in my life.

Based on the program, we should walked to Dar Cheraït for our first formal dinner which was just about 50 meters away from our hotel , Sofitel Palm Beach. (I still don't understand why they called it Palm Beach, there were no beach at Tozeur, not in the approximate of 100 kms, whatever). But since I had to spend more time with my "expensive" shower, I ended up a bit late to arrive at hotel's lobby, and almost everyone had gone.

Those 50 meters road was the longest 50 meters I ever did in my life. I almost took of my shoes (I wore high-heels) and ran if I didn't see the hotel's gate right away. People on the street was "over friendly" they shouted and teased you, which made me freak out.

Anyway, arrived at Dar Cheraït, this is another palace in the middle of the economy suffered country. It's too glamour considering what they prepared for us, and imagine what others had in their kitchen at the same day. It's sad :(

I didn't spend much time on the food, I felt like to walk around it's museum which is small ,and honestly, nothing was really interesting.

(to be continued....)

Trip to Tozeur (Part II)

Oasis Chebika

We leaved Tozeur to visit one of the famous Oasis - Chebika. It's an-hour something road trip, on a bumpy road, I even made a joke with my friend that I couldn't image if I was driving a Smart car instead sitting on the Toyota Land Cruiser LOL. Anyway, the view is magnificent, we even had chance to see the camel's feeding on the road side (without stopping our car).

Above is the picture of the Village of Chebika taken from the top of the hill, just behind it. It's one of the ancient village in Tozeur area, people lived in their traditional way of living, simple but interesting. Children ran around the street to waved hello to us when they say the line of about 60 4x4-car, what invaders we were.

Hike a bit left and right, we finally arrived in a passage which will led us to the real oasis. At the beginning, I was a bit disappointed when I arrived in a "sort of Oasis" place with dried canals. I was imagining what kind of scam was waiting for me after this, since I found more souvenir sellers than any drop of refreshing water. A bit more into the depth of the limestone wall, we arrived at the real Oasis, and this one is really a breathtaking one. It was WOW....awesome, paradise, reliefing...you name it.

Now I totally understand why in the history, they talked about Khalifa was desperate looking for Oasis in their cross-desert journey. It's a paradise in the middle of the dusty hell.

Leaving the Oasis, we were facing the rocky slope. Let me tell you a funny thing, there was a lady, worse of all, she was actually our guide, who wore a long skirt plus a high-heel boots, by the end, she had to took off her boots and walk bare feet until the parking LOL. Ok, back to business, so, according to the guide, we had to walk through the rocky slope, and passed a narrow pass to arrived at the Parking, what a complicated way. But look at the good side, we were actually arrived at the peak of the slope just in time for the sunset. It's one of the most beautiful sunset in mylife. The blend of colors contrast between sands, rocks, and sky.

(To be continued...)

Trip to Tozeur (Part I)

Since I am already back here, I think it's time for me to reveal what I visited during my 4-day trips to south of Tunisia, Tozeur.

First day, 19 November 2009, I left at 4.10 am to catch my plane at Geneva airport. After 30 mins ride on the trained, it announced that the train might be late to arrive at Geneva airport, couple of minutes later, it announced that we actually had to change train at Geneva due to the locomotive problem. Well, 5 minutes spare time wasn't bad at all.

Arriving at Geneva airport, I hurried up to check-in and met those unfamiliar eyes of my soon-to-be travel mates. But honestly, none of them looked very friendly to me, which I don't really care either. Got my seat, 4A, luggage checked, followed by a little visit at the airport. Wow....now they have Starbucks installed at the end of the 2nd floor which is awesome, I don't really think I could ever cure my addiction to Starbucks LOL, anyway, a wish of good luck for my trip with a cup of warm Caramel Machiatto :) With or without Starbucks, my luck wasn't close enough to me, the flight was 30 mins late than scheduled and I already desperate to get to the plane for my siesta.

Make the long story short, honestly I don't think any of you will interesting to hear how I got transported from Geneva Airport to Tozeur-Nefta Airport, it's quite a boring 2-hour so flight since I know nobody and the food they served were pretty stink, cold rolls and croissant, strange smell hot plate, none of the items on my tray was appetizing. Arrived at the Tunisia, the immigration person got very unfriendly with me, they hold me longer compare to other, what a shame. And worse, out from the airport, since I knew nobody, I just went to the main exit, and somebody put me straight away to the transport car with the destination of my hotel , Sofitel Palm Beach Tozeur. While I was entering the door, that's when I realized I got to the wrong car without any chance to change to the other car :( I was ended up sharing the car with 3 other Swiss-German people. Technically speaking, Swiss-German doesn't messing around with Swiss-French people, which is me, or versi versa.

The hotel itself wasn't too far from the airport, once got there, I looked for my room's key, and without patient, I went straight to it, skipped all the welcome cocktail and gathering. My room number is 343, located on the ground floor of the wing after the pool, to be exact, first room on the right after the enterance. It's a good-size room, with a quite standard 3/4 stars amenities, considering I am staying at the 5* hotel. My bathroom is big, but with now cold water, means, I couldn't even flushed my toilet, forgot about taking shower with a boiled water. The safety box was so tiny, I couldn't even put my whole camera inside. I gave up, just used it to put my ID cards, and 2 lenses. Worse of all, one of my window was unlockedable. Tell me if I was paranoid, luckily the minibar-tv cupboard was not too far from the window, I pushed it to right in front of the window, just in case someone tried to enter my room, he or she at least had to try to broke the TV first.

It was a huge lunch, with a big "local food" buffet, even so, I tried to be prudent with  my stomach. I skipped all fresh salad, eggs, and lambs (since I am allergic to it). When I came over a big BBQ place, I saw a big chuncked of meat, which looked very intriguing, when I asked for the name of the food, they told me, it was camel's leg, I was....hmmmm..., and that guy, I didn't know if he was tried to be nice or just being an idiot, he even reframed the phrase he told me earlier, "...it's not a big camel, it was actually baby camel". Basically, during that big lunch, only thing I ate was "BREAD", tell me how gourmet I was.

(To be continued...)

Inside my camera's bag (for trip to Tozeur)

Today, I would like to share with you what I carry with me for my trip to the dessert of Tunisia. Since the weather in the desert is fairly fine (clear sky with abundant of sunlight almost 12-hour per day), I could go easily with my standard wide-angle lenses plus a "not so powerful" zoom as a company.

So my Canon EOS 5D mark II will be accompanied by EF 16-35mm 2.8L USM, EF 24-70mm 2.8L USM, EF 70-300mm 4.5-5.6 IS DO USM,  Flash EX-430, and my mini companion (during the gala dinner) PowerShot S60. Other necessary things to be taken with is 4 x 32GB CF card, lens cleaner and of course don't forget battery chargers for both cameras.

For those who has been visited a dessert, you might realise there are two main nature component in this extreme part of the world, the sand and sky. Sand and sky sometimes could make a magnific lighting for your landscape picture, but sometimes, they could ruin all. That's why, for a little help, I will also carry with me my polarization filter.

I am not a big fans of flash, but I have to carry them with me just in case I have to take some in-door picture during the gathering (don't forget, this is not 100% leisure trip for me *wink*).

* Novita *

Next departure 19.11.09, destination : Tozeur, Tunisia

Next Thursday, 19 November 2009, I will be on my way to Tozeur, Tunisia. It won't be a total "vacation" trip, but will feel more like that, since the only working time will be on Friday morning, and it will only last for about 2 hours or so.

Tozeur is an oasis and a city in south west Tunisia. It's, also, a large oasis, which was important for the transportation through Sahara, where one can see fata morgana's. The average temprature for this particular area during the month of November is in between 8.5°C - 20°C, which at night it could be quite cold considering it's location in the middle of the dessert.

I won't reveal name of places I will visited for the moment, want to keep it as a secret for my reader :) But one thing I can promise, before I go, I will certainly sharing the inside of my camera bag.

Have a great weekend.

*Novita*

Greetings from the Alps

Hi, my name is Novita. I am making this special blog to share experiences and tips of traveling. I could say that I travelling quite a lot, and on the other hand, my family owns our own travel agent, which is a perfect combination in term of finding a destination and sharing tips with all of you guys. I regreted I didn't start it earlier, but, better late than never.

I live in Crans-Montana, which is located in on of the best ski-resort in Switzerland. My favorite destination, unlike my fellow Swiss who loves to do the sun-bathing, is cold-country a.k.a extreme northern hemisphere countries LOL, but since other member of my family love beaches, sometimes, we just went south.

My other passion is taking picture. I love to take artistic macro and landscape pictures, but while I am on inspection, I have no choice but taking the "detail reporter" pictures too :( More or less, I could also share a bit of my knowledge about camera, lenses, etc.

I am not only want to share idea, but also would love to listen from all of you. Feel free to left me a comment, but I do appreciate some courtesy since this is a public forum.

*Novita*