Carthage must be destroyed (Tunisia 2025)

[kileskus]

Tunis - Sousse - Kerkouane


The view across the Gulf of Tunis that one would've had from Carthage

I got 3 weeks' leave in April/May, and given the NHL playoffs were on and I was overdue to see my eye surgeon in Montréal, I decided to take a trip back home. The whole trip belongs in the travel mistakes thread, starting from the extra $1.4k and one day I spent to bypass LAX (after the tariff threats and the comments about the 51st state, I've foresworn Jack Daniels and US lay/stopovers). Then I nearly missed check in, had to scramble for accommodation in Vancouver (!!) after realising at 6 p.m. that I'd forgotten to book anything, and then found out I'd booked my flight to Toronto the day after the Toronto-Florida playoff game I'd bought a $400 ticket to. I also had a job interview I forgot to schedule my travel around. And, I never managed to book in to see my busy surgeon.

To top it all off, after a couple of drunken phone calls to friends which I don't completely remember, I booked a 4-day trip-within-a-trip to Tunis from Montréal, redeeming 75k Qantas points (and $500 in fees) for a RAM business class flight to Tunis via Casablanca and then forked out for a flight back to Montréal. I had to present to ED during that trip so lost the good part of one of those four days.

Tunisia is not a country I'd consider visiting sober, as my interests lie in the post-Soviet sphere. But apart from Russia/the USSR, Carthage was the other part of history class that I didn't fall asleep learning about. I had looked at a map of the Phoenician empire 10 years ago and thought those cities in Lebanon and Tunisia were a long-off dream.



Phoenicia was a nation based out of Tyre (in modern-day Lebanon) that is credited for pioneering maritime trade. They traded all over the Mediterranean and pioneered financial and maritime developments. They built cities along the coast at points that roughly corresponded to how far their ships could travel at that time. One such city was Carthage, founded in 814 BC in what is now Tunis by the Phoenician princess Dido, as legend goes (she would later kill herself on a funeral pyre after her lover the Trojan prince Aeneus leaves her as he's too preoccupied with, I don't know, founding Rome).

Towards the 6th C BC Tyre began to decline and Carthage became an imperial metropole in its own right. It had three wars with Rome over a couple of centuries and while each had a different casus belli one could say that Rome felt threatened by Carthage's power. In the lead-up to the third war, Cato the elder (whose oratorial talents are much extolled in Plutarch) in front of the Senate shook out a fig from his robes and held it up, to symbolise both the moral decay and abundance of the land from which he'd took it, and proclaimed, "Carthage must be destroyed."

For inspiration, I looked to henleybeach's and RooFlyer's trip reports but there's not a lot on AFF on Tunisia. So I thought I'd make this report of my short trip there. It'll be full of whinges, misadventures, musings and inaccuracies probably, but hopefully some useful information for anyone planning to go there. Happy to be corrected or enlightened about anything I write (esp about Carthage or the Arab world). It'll be focused on Punic sites (Punic - related to the Phoenicians) and therefore southern Tunisia won't be touched, however there are a lot of interesting geographical and palaeontological sites (e.g. preserved dinosaur tracks) in the south that would be worth a visit.

 

[kileskus]

YUL - CMN - TUN (Royal Air Maroc)

This was my first international J experience (NZ doesn't count of course). RAM uses the Air France lounge at YUL. It had a little Concorde model and self-service bar with a decent selection of spirits, both features being pleasing to me. However showers cost $20 and I was feeling a bit grotty after what had been a bit of a Saturday night out on Saint-Laurent blvd.



The 1st floor of the lounge. There was a 2nd floor too but the sounds of children playing there kept me away

The 6-hour Transatlantic flight to Casablanca was on a 787-8. A non-alcoholic welcome drink and a canapé plate were provided, and orders for lunch taken, before take-off. The crew were friendly and efficient. We took off 45 mins behind schedule.





The seat wasn't completely lie-flat but it was close enough that I could snatch a few hours of broken sleep. An amenity kit, blanket, and pillow (mine was stained, but I don't use pillpws anyway) were provided. The cabin was hot even in t-shirt and shorts which made it hard to sleep.



The inflight entertainment had a limited selection of international movies and a handful of Arabic ones that didn't appeal to my preference for bangs, blasts and bombs. There was traditional Moroccan music in the audio section, but again overall limited selection. I opted for the flight map which I found to be one of the better flight maps I've experienced. There were views from port and starboard sides, as well as coughpit and overhead. The map had this feature where you could find basic information on some of the cities/towns that you passed:


Lunch was served shortly after take-off. I had the salmon starter and it was a more generous portion than I expected:



The chicken tajine as the main. It tasted better than it looks, tender and flavourful

This was followed by a cheese plate. I accepted it for the experience but personally don't understand how people can eat chunks of cheese like that in one sitting. I was already gaining a waistline from the combination of smoked meat sandwiches and gym-less accommodation from my trip so far.


A 'snack' was provided 2 hrs before landing.

Business class passengers got their own tarmac bus to the gate at CMN. We arrived at around midnight and I had a 7-hr transit so when I asked staff for directions to the lounge they kept directing me to the transit desk to book a hotel. They insisted it was free but with such zeal I got suspicious. I wasn't planning to sleep (had work to do and was deathly scared of missing the next leg - I'd recently had an experience of sleeping through boarding for a flight and wasn't keen to relive it) so wanted to hang in the lounge for the booze but couldn't find it and ended up at the transit desk anyway. I asked for the lounge there but they ignored me and printed out a hotel voucher instead.

My suspicion was unfounded. The room they put me in at the Sky airport hotel was indeed free and fairly nice, but it was hot.
I was able to have a good shower and then promptly checked out four hours later to find the Zénith lounge. The main entrance you find directed to on signage wasn't open when I went - there's another entrance on the floor below that I suspect is more used. Alcoholic drinks are on enquiry only and I didn't end up having much because of that extra barrier.




The pastry selection. They also had hot breakfast foods and some sandwiches, wraps and salads.

The plane to TUN was a 737 MAX with business class seats like VA. A welcome drink of Moroccan mint tea was provided, and a breakfast shortly after take-off.



I enjoyed looking out the window on this flight as this is my first time really seeing this region. We went over the farmland and mountains of Morocco and I could imagine the landscapes Antoine Saint-Exupéry must have seen on his flights over North Africa that inspired Wind, Sand and Stars:


Then it was over to the southern coast of Spain - thought I could spy, but probably not, the Strait of Gibraltor - and then over Sardinia (one of the key players in the First Punic War) and finally the Gulf of Tunis and then Tunis itself coming into view.

All in all, it was a pleasant trip and I would say I liked Royal Air Maroc. However, three things gave me pause: the high fees on redeeming an award flight ($500 on top of the 75k Qantas points), the lack of proactive offering of drinks and top-ups, and the fact that announcements were in Arabic and French only. This last wasn't an issue, but I found it surprising. For the 21st century, and from a major flag carrier, you would expect some English. I wasn't sure the FAs spoke it either since they didn't offer to despite my very bad accent, and as a good Montreal Anglo™ who's a bit traumatised by the language problem™, I didn't ask for it.

Immigration at TUN was a deathly long line rivalling YUL security. Taxi drivers at the arrivals area charged around 30 dinars (15 AUD) for a trip to the city centre, which was a complete rip-off by Tunisian standards. Walk a bit out of the airport onto the main autoroute and flag any taxi there and the trip will be around 6-10 dinars. We went to the hotel to drop off bags and then it was on to the first stop: the ruins of Carthage.