The Land of Star Wars (Tunisia)

I had read on Thorn Tree that at least 3 independent travellers had secured 7-day transit visas at an obscure Libyan consulate in the suburbs of Tunis. As I found out later, this was the only consulate in the entire Tunisia and possibly the only place in the world where one could apply for the special permit to enter Libya as a backpacker. The vast majority of travellers have to join expensive tour groups, paying at least $200/day, for the privilege of visiting Libya's impressive archaeological wonders. Independent traveling in the Jamahiriya is absolutely discouraged under official policy. As a Taiwanese American traveller, I knew for certain that my U.S. passport would not work. So I had to take chances on my Taiwanese passport, hoping the Libyans would not be too friendly with the Chinese as to deny my entry.

I crossed my fingers. Since the visa would take a week to process, I decided to venture south to Maztouria where my Tunisian friend Said's family resided, before returning to Tunis to retrieve my passport that would, hopefully, have obtained the desired permit.

Maztouria is a tiny, traditional Berber village with a population of 3,500 in the outskirts of Tataouine. In March 2006 I was lucky enough to be invited to stay at Said's home for 3 days and 2 nights. We didn't know each other beforehand; Said, 22, simply wanted to show me a part of his village life with typical Berber hospitality. This time around, Said told me to head straight to Maztouria, to which he would try to find a way to head home from Djerba where he was working.

I rang Said's sister when I arrived in the scorching hot Tataouine, a 40 degrees+"sauna" as Said's friendly sisters and mother laughingly described. I had forgotten about our language barriers: I could not speak Arabic and Said's sister could not understand French. But somehow this didn't matter. The public phone vendor quickly intervened to act as my interpreter, and kindly boarded a shared pickup-taxi to take me to Maztouria, located 10km from downtown Tataouine. En route, a young villager told me repeatedly that I must have a cup of mint tea with his family.

I was extremely happy to have come upon the familiar Berber hospitality that I fondly remembered from my last visit. And I was dying to see Said's big family.