I am here in Tunisia in the low season. It is a fascinating time to be here.
It reminds me of an old battered up fairgrounds; where the garish neon lights try to make things seem festive but succeed only in casting enough light to see that the clown's make-up has run off and the house of horrors is fearful only in that it may fall apart at any moment. I've seen this before: in the French Quarter at 6am the day after Mardi Gras, in the vegas strip during daylight. And it often isn't pretty. There is a desperation among the people here that they should be vacationing but they just don't quite believe it. The magic disappears under the too close scrutiny.
But I have always liked these moments of seeing the truth behind the magic; seeing how the rabbit gets in the hat or how the girl is sawed in two. This picture serves to say a lot.
It is as though they turned off the fun until the warm weather brings back the Italian, Spanish, French tourists. And i can understand why. The beaches are beautiful, though with the number of jelly fish i saw on my walk today, perhaps they are better suited for sunning than for swimming. I am truly enjoying the emptiness, however. It is exactly what i needed as i finished recovering from my illness and planning my next adventure.
I believe that I will be heading to South East Africa shortly: Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique. Here I should start to see some of those big animals in the wild. I'll be desperately avoiding the small animals like mosquitos and tsetse flies.
1 comment:
I forget Josh, have you read Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes?" It does an excellent job of capturing the feeling of somewhat garish light cast on something of darkness.
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