Wednesday 17 September 2014

The Tunisian louage experience

I have used many different kinds of public transport in my travels around the world: by train, bus, tram, cable car, ferry, taxi - but I have encountered something slightly different in Tunisia. I present to you: the Tunisian louage. Louage is a French word which translates as 'renting' and has often been explained as a 'collective taxi', a cross between a bus and a taxi. Certainly, I have not encountered this anywhere else in the world. I was slightly nervous trying it out but totally embraced it for all its quirky craziness! I am glad I did for it was certainly a very memorable experience indeed.
At the louage station in Tunis Bouchoucha

Here's how it works: louages serve most cities and towns in Tunisia, even relatively small ones. Bigger cities will have quite a big louage station that resembles a bus terminus - whilst in smaller towns, a louage station may be just a collection of minibuses parked at the side of a road or in a field. When you turn up at a bigger louage station, there will be a ticket counter where you will need to buy a ticket. You state your destination and you will be told how much it costs - after you have purchased your ticket, a member of staff will show you to the minibus that is headed to your destination. In smaller towns, you simply ask if there is a louage going to your destination: if so, you will buy your ticket in the minibus. If not, then you will probably be told, "the louage doesn't go all the way to where you want to go, but we can get you to this town which is in the right direction and you will be able to get another louage from there." 

There are no time tables for louages - the minibus they use for louages seats nine people (but if you're willing you squeeze, you can get one or two more in there). Once the louage is full, it will depart. So you can turn up and be the last person to board the louage and it will depart at once, or you could be shown to an empty minibus where you end up waiting for a painfully long time for it to fill up. Yes this formula does sound unpredictable at best and if you need to get to somewhere in a hurry, the louage is probably not the best option for you! Also, even though these minibuses do have air-con, they never ever turn it on, because they want to save fuel and cut costs. Bearing in mind that temperatures in Tunisia can exceed 50 degrees in summer, you may want to avoid this option if you don't want to face being cooped up in a minibus for hours without air-conditioning. This is far less of a problem during the cooler winter months. 
Tunisia can get very hot in summer!

Actually, I have been quite lucky with my louage experiences - yes it was stiflingly hot, but with the windows open, at least there was ample ventilation - I would be rocked to sleep like everyone else in the minibus. The louage is meant to take nine passengers, but when 10 people turned up for the louage from Utique to Tunis, everyone simply squeezed a little more so we could all get on and no one was left out waiting for the next louage. That was one rather bumpy journey back to Tunis but sure enough, I was eventually rocked to sleep by the heat and the rhythm of the louage and when I awoke, the elderly Tunisian man next to me was sleeping on my shoulder. Ah well...

However, the most memorable louage journey I took was from the inland city of Kairouan to the coastal town of Hammamet. Now Kairouan is not a rich place - it is considered a 'holy city' and it claims to be the fourth most holy place in the world for Muslims. Many Muslims visit Kairouan on holy pilgrimages, to visit the cities many mosques and most arrive by louage since Kairouan is not served by the rail network. This means that the moment you step out of the louage station, you are accosted by beggars who assume that since you are probably here on a holy pilgrimage, you will be generous. It is not a pretty sight that first greets you when you get there - beggars, rubbish, crowds of people, pollution... 
At Kairouan louage station, waiting for my louage to leave

After my visit to Kairouan, I got my louage ticket for Hammamet - a distance of 105 km at the price of just 6.45 TND (£2.29 or S$4.60). The ticket was entirely in Arabic, I had no idea what ticket I bought, but fortunately the local staff spoke enough French for us to communicate. Oh and if you don't speak French or Arabic and you're trying to do this entirely in English, you're probably going to struggle! I was shown to my louage and there was just one more space. Great, I thought, we can get going soon, we don't need to wait for long. Oh I was wrong. So wrong. 

It took 45 minutes for that one space to be filled, in the meantime, we just sat there, in the 39 degrees heat in a minibus, roasting away. The young soldier sitting in front of me declared that he wanted to go buy a drink and got out of the minibus. And as Sod's law would have it, just as he disappeared into the crowd to buy his drink, our final passenger turned up but now we had to go look for the young soldier. Our driver was getting very angry - he wanted to get going, we had all been waiting a very long time already. One of the passengers volunteered to go with the bus driver to look for the young soldier in the louage station and off they went. And as in a comedy of errors, the young soldier returned with his drink a few minutes later - but now we didn't have our driver and the passenger who went with our driver. 
Limpeh in Kairouan

Such is the chaos of the louage system. When the driver finally returned, he started arguing with the young soldier, blaming him for the delay but the soldier was having none of it. Now my Arabic isn't good enough to follow the conversation, but it was very heated indeed, no doubt fueled by the conditions in the minibus which had been parked in the sun. And all this time, I had been breathing in the exhaust fumes from the other minibuses in the station. It was unbearable. Finally this older woman said something that I understood, "Yalla, yalla!" (Let's go, let's go!)

Now this woman intrigued me for one bizarre reason. Did I mention it was very hot? Oh yes it was hot, Kairouan is just on the fringes of the Sahara desert and when you get a blast of hot, dry wind from the south, the temperatures can soar. But this woman was dressed as it was winter in Alaska: she was clearly a conservative Muslim woman who wore a hijab (a tightly worn headscarf, only exposing her face but covering all of her neck, chin and hair). Whilst she didn't wear an Abaya-like robe (that's more common in the Gulf states, less so in Tunisia), she wore a long sleeved jacket over a blouse and a long skirt that looked as if it was made of rather thick material. Ijust kept wondering, "how does she do it? Doesn't she feel hot? Isn't she feeling rather uncomfortable?" Sure I understand that she needs to cover up because of her religion, but I couldn't help but wonder how she was feeling. But then again, this lady was hardly unique - Tunisia is a very conservative, Muslim country and most women actually do cover up like that all the time, whether it is hot or cold. 
Tunisia can be frightfully hot in the summer

As the louage finally pulled out of Kairouan louage station, at least air started flowing through the minibus, through the open windows. Once again, I was gently rocked to sleep, only to be rudely awoken about 40 or 45 minutes later. There was a policeman searching the minibus, he checked the boot at the back then asked to see all our ID. The locals produced their identity cards, I produced my passport. It was all very civilized, no one panicked - well, apart from me, I was a bit confused as to why our minibus had been singled out but I was somewhat assured by the way everyone remained very calm throughout the search. I noticed a man in uniform with a rifle standing by the policeman's vehicle. The policeman searched the minibus thoroughly, took down some details and we were allowed to go on our way.

I asked the older lady (who spoke French very well) what that was all about and she explained that they are searching for illegal immigrants - Tunisia lies on the route for immigrants from the poorer sub-Saharan countries like Niger, Chad, Sudan and Mali en route to Europe. It is fairly easy for them to slip over the border from Libya or Algeria into Tunisia but they then need to get to the Mediterranean coast where they can get into a boat bound for Italy. Sicily is about 155 km away and the small island of Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost island, is just 113 km away. Some also try to reach the Italian island of Pantelleria, which is only 60 km from the Tunisian coast. Given that many of these migrants cram into vessels which are old, poorly maintained and often not seaworthy, there have been numerous tragedies where these boats bound for Italy have sunk before they have made the journey across the sea, resulting in many deaths.
This lady felt tried to justify why we were stopped and searched.

The Tunisian police and military are under pressure to stem the tide of migrants passing through their country en route to Italy - on one hand, Tunisia needs to maintain good relations with their neighbour Italy who are under great pressure from the huge amounts of African migrants turning up on their southern islands (as if Italy doesn't have enough problems of her own as it is right now). On the other hand, many of these illegal migrants are unaware of just how much danger they are facing when they put their lives in the hands of these human traffickers who pack them into unsafe boats for that very dangerous journey across the sea to Italy. Being arrested by the police may actually save their lives given what lies ahead for them once they do make it to the coast. So in principle, that's the reason why our louage was stopped and search as a matter of routine - she made it sound like a humanitarian gesture to help these poor Africans.

"Yeah that's what they all say," a man sitting behind piped up when he heard the reasons the older lady was giving me. "It doesn't always happen like that in practice. My friend was on a louage that was searched near Sidi Bouzid and they found some Africans who didn't have the right papers. Instead of arresting them, those Africans merely paid a bribe and they were allowed to be on their way to the coast. No paperwork, no forms, no record was made of what happened. They paid some money, a bribe and that was it." The older lady looked horrified at the suggestion that her fellow Tunisian was telling me, a foreign tourist, that there was corruption in her country. "Non. Cette type de chose n'arrive pas souvent." (No. This kind of thing doesn't happen often.) She claimed, with an embarrassed look and quickly changed the topic.
Many Tunisians wanted me to have a good impression of their country.

That's the thing about ordinary Tunisians - they do have a genuine desire to give foreigners a good impression of their country, so they are trying to give everything a positive spin, to portray something like being stopped and searched like that in the best possible light. Personally, I found it rather disconcerting to have the minibus I was traveling in pulled over and checked like that - but the older lady claims they are merely doing it to protect illegal immigrants from the unscrupulous human smugglers who don't care if they die of thirst in the Sahara desert or drown trying to cross the sea to Italy. In principle, she had a point, many do die attempting this journey. Sure enough, before we got to Hammamet, we got pulled over again at another police checkpoint and we went through the same routine calmly. 

The vast majority tourists in Tunisia would never use the louage - it can be chaotic, the service is irregular and there is no air-conditioning even in the hottest summer months. On the other hand, it is very cheap - the Tunis-Utique louage route costs just 2 TND, whilst a bus which makes several stops along the same route is only marginally cheaper at 1.8 TND. Louages go direct from A to B without making any stops, whilst a bus may make many stops - hence louages can be fairly quick if you don't waste too much time waiting for it to leave. Besides, if you can get over the language barrier, the locals tend to be quite helpful and at no point did I feel unsafe as I used the louage services in Tunisia. Most foreign tourists will join excursions with an English speaking guide and be driven around in air-conditioned buses. However, such a day trip/excursion usually costs around 80 to 100 TND whilst it costs me between 2 to 7 TND on each of my louage trips. And as a bonus, you get to mingle with the locals on the louages, which can be a very interesting experience!
Meeting a camel in El Jem

So there you go, that's it from me on this topic. I have plenty more stories from Tunisia up my sleeve, the next one would be a moment of culture shock that took me by surprise on the train back from Carthage, it was one of those priceless moments that one would have never experienced if one didn't use public transport in Tunisia. Thanks for reading!

8 comments:

  1. Quite an adventure, Alex. I found that the Chinese in China were the same in that they were eager to give a positive spin on anything negative about their country and culture. Granted many of them were rude and did not engage in conversations. However, those who did talk to us always came up with all kinds of excuses for the negative aspects of Chinese living. E.g., "We are not friendly on the streets because we are always busy ... Too many people, so we can't stand in line for the bus ... It's dirty because we have too many people ... We need to check your ID every time you get through the gates even though you had just stepped out 1 minute ago because we want to keep you safe ... And my favorite: "China is changing. We have 5000 years of history. It's hard to change ..." Blah, blah, blah.
    Sounds like your trip was eventful and certainly not boring. Tell us about the food. And I am still waiting for the love rats.

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    1. Hi Di. I will cover the issue of food in a later post - but the food was disappointing to say the least. Really nothing to write home about - that's why you get Turkish restaurants all over the world but not Tunisian ones.

      As for love rats - I saw a few but check out the very long exchange of comments between myself and Cristelle (a woman who has experience with love rats in Tunisia) in the original post. She makes a few fair points - but at the end of the day, whenever I saw a white woman with a Tunisian guy there, you kinda know what is going on there and the woman is always older. And I'm like, whatever you two wanna do is between two consenting adults and none of my business.

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  2. I just saw the long exchange, Alex. Wow.
    Come to think of it, I have never had Tunisian nor Turkish food. Love Greek, though. I had Char Ho Fan last night and leftovers this morning. Guilty pleasure --- leftover Chinese food in the morning. BTW, Alex, we are thinking of a trip back to Singapore in 2016. Will ask you one day about the latest attractions that are worth the heat and crowd. For hubby and I, we are quite blasé. For my son, it's a whole new world.

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    1. Tunisian food isn't that distinctive actually, I found it rather bland. They do this thing called 'grillade' which is effective BBQ - they slap pieces of meat on a grill and I thought, gee, that meat doesn't taste of much, did you even season it before slapping it on the grill? Thank goodness for Harissa - the local chilli sauce which I ended up putting on everything. Otherwise, the nature of the food reminded me of Indonesian food - ie. poor man's cuisine, designed to fill you up with the cheapest of ingredients. It is not like Chinese or Japanese food which can be so decadent and luxurious when they use the very best ingredients. Tunisian food isn't that far off Greek food (no pork, not halal) and you really MUST trek down a good Turkish restaurant for Turkish food is phenomena. Persian (Iranian) food is another cuisine that blows my mind.

      My army buddy Kelvin is visiting London in a week - he moved to NYC upon finishing his NS and I moved to Europe and I think we're gonna have so much Chinese food when he is here (I will cook - I can be quite the domestic goddess in the kitchen).

      As for your trip to SG, I will be going there in 2015 I think (possibly via Hong Kong methinks) so I will update you!

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    2. sorry typo: which is EFFECTIVELY BBQ

      How effective your barbecue is depends on your kitchen equipment.

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  3. Have you tried Lebanese? Very good.

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    1. I live relatively close (walking distance) to 'Little Beirut' (Edgware Road) in London, so I have plenty of Lebanese food at my doorstep, so yes I do have it often.

      You see, London is probably a LOT more mixed ethnically and culturally than most North American cities because of our proximity to Europe, Africa and the Middle East - whilst North America is isolated by two big oceans to the East and the West.

      That's why I love London - it is so culturally diverse.

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    2. PS. http://limpehft.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/my-tunisian-travels-q-on-alvinology.html Follow this link for my latest piece where I do talk about Tunisian food and how disappointing it was.

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