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Today was day 3 of the 5 day conference, and I was sick of conference. Bored stupid. So I decided to skip today and head out to Kairoun, apparently the 4th most holy city in all of the world.<br/><br/><br />

Mosques and stuff

K.thambi
2006-01-06 15:38:44

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Today was day 3 of the 5 day conference, and I was sick of conference. Bored stupid. So I decided to skip today and head out to Kairoun, apparently the 4th most holy city in all of the world.

The trip to Kairoun was short and sweet - and uneventful 1.5h journey with none of the customary pleasantaries of Tunisian bus travel such as men with bad body odour or women who talk too loud. Women here (older women in particular) have no concept of volume - they just yell in their nasal annoying voices - just yell - I don't think they actually are talking to anybody - they just yell.

Now I was expecting everybody to be extra holy in this city, seeing as it is the 4th most holy city in all of the world. Thus I was expecting women in full perda (thats when they are completely covered up from head to toe except for their eyes - kind of like the snow stormtroopers in starwars). I also expected the whole population to stop and start praying everytime the mosque started blaring its call to prayer (Muslims pray 5 times a day - at these times, a dude in the mosque starts yelling into a loud speaker chanting stuff - I'm guessing prayers).

To my disappointment, Kairoun was just as non-holy as the rest of Tunisia. Young women wore jeans and little singlets, nobody stopped to pray at all (poor mosque guy just was ignored by everybody), and most of all, the shopkeepers were even more cut-throat and dishonest.

Upon getting to Kairoun, I headed to the Medina, the town centre that countains most of the important stuff. The medina was quite atmospheric - full of throngs of people (not many tourists), just wondering around aimlessly. Much of the Medina was white concrete, with most of the door and window panels painted a brilliant light blue. Rather quaint to wander through when the crowds weren't busy obstructing the views.

I did my usual thing that I do when wondering through ...