Day Trip Tataouine

The Day after we got here Christopher saw that there was a trip that we could take that would take us around in a air conditioned jeep and show us where the movie Star Wars The Phantom Menace was filmed. Having the star wars fan of the century in the family we thought that was a good deal so we booked it.

PS: Tripoli is the Capital of Libyan.

If you are a fan of Star Wars then you know that Tatouine was the Planet that Anakin Skywalker lived on.

It was a very tiring and extremely long trip and everybody was happy when we finally got back to the hotel.  We started out at the Salt Desert which was interesting but it was hotter then a hooker in church out there so we didn’t stay very long just long enough to learn that it used to be ocean and then it dried up but the Salt stayed. In some places it looked like ice which was neat and it stuck to your shoes and skin and dried there. 

Afterwards they took us to a little part of the desert to do a little off roading. Thank goodness it was only a little because I probably would have thrown up. It was neat to touch the sand that was really velvety soft but it was so fricken hot all I wanted to do was get back in the car. Besides what is there to do? Nada damn thing. Except this guy came walking over the sand dunes with a white camel. Oh Goodie.

After we oohed and aahhhd about the damn desert it was back in the jeep to go to a market that was weird. First of all it is dirty as all get out and second you are scared to cross the street because they will run your ass over. They drive like psychos here. They don’t care if you have to cross the street you better be faster then a car or you are up a creek. And for some odd reason they all like to touch Enya in the face which she hates and so do I.  We had 40 minutes at the market and it was too annoying to look at anything because as soon as you just look at something  they swoop down on you and badger the crap out of you.

Next stop was the Berber Village…….talk about a total joke.  I guess the idea behind it is to keep the old ways alive so they rebuilt the village and some crazy ass people supposedly live there. I don’t believe it I think that at 6pm they pack their bags and go home. I have never seen such filth in my life. They have a trash company that picks up the trash so it’s not like they have no system there but still they throw everything on the ground. It wouldn’t look half as bad if they didn’t .   We walked up the first part to look in the little hut that supposedly these people live in.

After that I was done with walking. I guess the rest of the group walked up to the Moschee where they were met with a couple of shops that tried to get you to buy overpriced stuff.  As we were walking down to go sit in the shade we were surrounded by kids begging which is a big no no. I hate it when they send their kids to do their begging. These kids were hanging on our bags and arms asking for money. And the parents were no where to be seen of course.  Inclusive in this little trip was a lunch that everybody was very happy to get because by now we have been traveling for hours and we were ready to eat.  The meal consisted of Soup with no taste and barley. I am really surprised about the  food here I was really expecting it to be spicy and rich but it is exactly the opposite it is really bland and tasteless, no matter what you order it all tastes the same.  The second course was a big dish filled with couscous, beef,pumpkin and carrots. That was alright I thought it wasn’t as bad as I though it would be and I put enough salt on it to choke a donkey so that was ok.  As we were leaving the guide that had taken us on a five minute tour was standing next to our jeep asking for a handout which I guess is the way it is here. Everybody has their hand open here and they do not take no for an answer. Christopher got mad and asked him what the hell he wanted money for.

And the next stop…….some grain silos. Oh yippee now remember the only reason we took this crazy ass trip was to see the Star Wars stuff.

While we were there the tour guide asked if we liked the Lunch and of course some French Fry had to say no so the guide calls the restaurant and puts him on speaker phone and tells him how sucky the food was. That went over like a ton of bricks let me tell you.

Finally……We get to where we have been wanting to go all along. The Star Wars site. If I was to say it was worth everything that we went through that day I would be lying but it was neat to see.