Qas Al Haj

I promised I'd post some photos of the most famous Berber fortified granary in Libya - the Qasr Al Haj.

Like the one at Nalut I posted photos of last year, this Qasr was used to store grain and oil for local tribes. It housed the stores of over 70 families, and was still in use until relatively recently. Nalut was a rabbit warren, whereas Qasr Al Haj is round and fort-like from the outside...

...and inside is a wide open space ringed with the little doors into the storage spaces.

There is also a little display of traditional tools and vessels.

In the Medina I once saw a fantasic 3d wall mural of this qasr taking up an entire wall of a shop. One of the interesting sights of Libya, within a few hours' drive of Tripoli.

The butchers...

I have a hard time with the butchers, I admit, because I generally don’t really like dealing with meat (ex-vegetarian who makes the Ambassador do all the meat-cutting and cooking bits of the evening meal), and there it is, in your face. This, of course, is why I'm not posting pictures. Just imagine large dead animals hanging in windows (sometimes with neck and head still attached to prove its freshness...).

According to our Arabic teacher, there are no words for cuts of meat – you have to ask for meat without bone if you want a steak-type thing, or you can ask for mince. Or of course you can point at the fresh carcass hanging from the ceiling to show which bit of the animal you want. Generally, expats have found that the English words ‘fillet’ and ‘chicken breast’ are understood. I tend to cheat and visit the butcher attached the big expat-favoured supermarket once a month or so, where everything is just a little bit further away and already cut up and laid out under glass and plastic.

There’s an Australian lamb butcher locally in Janzour. You can tell it’s Australian lamb because its logo is a map of Australia with a lamb in it. It’s all frozen stuff, not great, but one of the few places that does hamburger patties that don’t shrink to nothing.

Beef is cheaper than camel here – which I found out when I was earnestly warned that the camel was expensive, but with no warning about the price of beef – because beef is seen as an inferior meat, I was told. Which is a nice environmentally-friendly way of treating local vs imported meat, really.

Calling international

Here's an interesting phenomena that seems be becoming more and more common in the last few months. We try to dial home on our mobiles (the landline being of poor quality) and end up connected to random people around the world rather than the number we actually dialled. The Ambassador tried to call my roaming mobile while I was outside and got a family in the US - who happened to have someone there of my name, which you can imagine was quite confusing. Interestingly, it happened again, and he got the same family.

Another expat got a US family and asked for 'Mum', who was duly put on the phone...then there's the expat who is harressing some poor Chinese guy by dialling the mis-directed number 7 or 8 times in a row just to see what happens.

Since it usually appears to be going to the US, it appears that the network is sometimes randomly dropping our +61 code to +1, routing us to the US instead of Australia.

No posts for a few weeks.

Laziness

I'm going to celebrate the holiday period by being lazy and posting a link to someone else's photos...my friend recently visited Libya (and didn't officialdom make her feel welcome with a two hour wait at the airport while they pretended they were looking for the visa...) and here are photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stringy/collections/72157603444720766/

Desert trip - the rock art

First someone steals our bin - twice! - then someone tries to break in. Tsk Tsk.

Anyway, here's some photos of the ancient cave paintings and etchings scattered throughout the region in the south of Libya. The art shifts over time from depicting wild animals like giraffes, elephants and rhinoceroses, to cattle, to horses and finally to camels and date palms, reflecting the change in landscape from a savannah paradise, to plains, to semi-arid, to the desert of today.

Pictures posted in no particular dating order or theme...

Desert trip

Long absence. When I got back from the desert, our internet was naturally not working and then I went off to Africa for a month. I'll post photos of that some other time, but this week I want to show off some of our desert trip photos. This trip was a highlight of the sightseeing we have done within Libya itself. This week I'll post scenery shots of the various desert landscapes. Then I'll post some of the amazing rock art that can be found down there.

gold souk

Very quick entry this week, as I'm off on a desert tour, should be some very interesting photos to post when I get back.

Continuing the medina theme, this is a photo of the front window of one of the very very many gold stores in the gold souk. I believe this are generally catering the wedding jewellery requirement, and may or may not be Berber gold being sold off by the tribes.

This is close-up of two of the more elaborate necklaces.

I'm not much for gold myself so haven't bought it, but apparently it is very well-priced and is sold by weight.

The copper souk

There’s a variety of souks in the medina: the tourist souk right near the main entrance off Green Square (a collection of everything you can find in the medina plus a lot of imports from sub-Saharan Africa), the gold souk, the cloth souk, the rug bazaar, the copper souk etc.

The copper souk is in a short lane leading off from the Ottoman clock tower and is one of my favourite places in the medina. Nicknamed ‘tin pan alley’, it constantly echoes to the banging of hammer on metal, and is, like many of the little shops here, a treasure trove of potluck: you can rummage around the junk on the shelves and come up with some fantastic stuff. The alley outside the cave-like shops is lined with tarnished and broken metal pieces.

The woman in white on the edge of the photo is a widow and in general probably a beggar. I have been told the mosques support such women when their husbands die and leave them without resources. I often see them walking along the middle of the roads with their hand out, silently imploring the drivers. Sadly, sometimes they’re dragging their young kids along with them.

Begging seems to have increased here, or perhaps expats/foreigners are seen as soft targets and attract more of it. I personally don’t give to beggars as a general rule, particularly as my cross-cultural teacher swore blind that begging is not a necessity in this culture and that they should not need to do it. Not sure if she was being idealistic or not.

Anyway, enough of that diversion. This is my favourite copper souk purchase: when I found it, the lid was broken off and it was so tarnished none of the pattern was apparent, it looked like it was plain brass. I chose it solely because I liked the shape. The young boy manning the stall took it off to fix the lid for me, and when I came back he had also polished it. It looked so different I did not recognise it as the same piece. I did try using it as a vase but it’s not water-proof. Still pretty though.

Knitting: Finished the Doctor Who scarf! Hooray. No strength to start a new project just yet and it's not going to be a scarf, that's for sure.

Reading: Neal Stephenson.

Watching: nothing, our Sky box broke.

Medina

‘Medina’ simply means city, and medina here refers to the old city of Tripoli (not the old, old city, which was the Roman Oea, the only remnant of which is the arch I posted a picture of very early on and a few columns at a crossroads). It’s a rabbit warren of alleys and was, when we first arrived, very run down, as the photo evidences (I know I posted this one ages ago, it’s just a reminder as I start the medina series). Next time I’m there, I’ll get a photo of this same alley now – it’s been whitewashed, the road made even, the wiring tidied etc, quite the facelift and a bit of a relief in terms of the smell.

Like any city, the medina is made up of a collection of souks (markets), mosques, madrassa (schools), banks, restaurants and funduq (hotels), a prison (latest rumour: there are prison cells under the medina with people still in them), and residential areas, some grand and once used to house consulates, other less grand. You hardly ever to get to see beyond the doors into residential areas, but when you do get a glimpse, almost invariably the door opens into a lovely tiled open courtyard areas, with lots of doors coming off from there. This particular photo is of the interior of one of the consulates which now houses a science library for students and lets tourists look around for a nominal fee. It’s a pleasant two-storey building around this shady central courtyard, and could be another world from the hot and noisy alley outside.

Despite these photos, the medina is actually a busy, bustling, lively place, especially in the late afternoon/evening. I go out of my way to avoid getting people in the shots, easy to do in the early morning when everyone is still in bed. I don’t tend to go the medina often; despite its intrinsic appeal, women alone do get hassled (in the ‘oh so sexy’ way, not the getting-mugged way), making a casual wander low on the list of things-to-do.

Next time, I’ll take a look at the souks. Happy Eid everybody.

Stick in the Road

Been away to Australia for the last few weeks, where, aside from all the pleasures of home, I did find myself becoming irritated with the sheer number of traffic lights (Here, I can get from home to the Blue Sun office and go through precisely one set, and that’s a thirty minute drive), as well as being a little shocked at having to pay $17 for a day’s parking in town and paying about the same for a sandwich and drink for lunch...

Anyway I’ve had one of those weeks which make me wonder why I came back here, but let’s not dwell – here’s a photo of some typical lateral problem-solving skills. Hole in the road that’s not going to be fixed anytime in the next decade? Let’s make sure everyone notices it before they drive into it. Stick’s not enough? Hang some rubbish off it, that’ll help.

Just the one photo, I’m on dial-up now. Not much fun being on dial-up in a broadband world...

Reading: Lois McMaster Bujold

Watching: almost to the end of Season 1 Veronica Mars, regretting not getting Season 2 and 3 when I had the chance, hint hint...

Knitting: Well, I had (still!) been knitting that freaking 20 ft long Dr Who scarf. But then...oh, well, one more photo. Here’s the dog wearing his new knitted leash. Trè chic! It’s for when we’re jogging (hah! “jogging”...) and attaches around my waist for hand’s free dog control (hah! “control”).

I still intend to get to medina photos, but sloooooooooow internet is putting me off.

General observations

After a glorious few days of internet, we lost our phone line again. It did come back after a week, but can no longer connect to the net. Therefore, borrowed internet, therefore quick post and no photos.

The destruction continues apace. The authentic-tourist-experience of the fish market, which our two sets of visitors have thoroughly enjoyed, has been or is about to be demolished. This was the place where you could point at the fish you wanted and then point at the restaurant you wanted it cooked in (or of course take it home and cook it yourself if you really want to). The fish are being sold from the roundabout near the Blue Sun office (does wonders for traffic, I can tell you), but the restaurants can't relocate so easily.

Buildings along the coast road are also being demolished, and billboards of the startlingly futuristic complexes and towers meant to replace them have been erected. Near the airport - still standing - is a billboard announcing the grand new airport project, so part of that rumour is true, anyway. Walls are coming down everywhere, often replacing large expanses of empty wasteland, making you wonder what the wall was protecting.

I have now seen what at least a few Libyan women do when they want to swim - they go in fully clothed, right down to the robes and hijab. I say 'to swim' but they really just stand in the water up to their neck, I think if they tried to actually swim in soaked thick and clinging cloth they'd drown.

We got our scuba diving license during the week, from this company. Libya is about to become the next big diving spot, supposedly (note the article refers to billions of investment money to develop the beachfront, that explains the billboards I guess). Can't say I've seen much evidence of abundant underwater attractions so far (did see an octupus, Moray eel and stingray, however), but that was just the training site. We plan to have ourselves taken off to a 'real' dive site along the coast next weekend (mostly archaelogical or wreck sites rather than natural attractions). Also, you can go diving in a lake in the Sahara.

I have finally come round to liking dates, if only in cooking - date loaf and banana and date milkshakes are working well for me.

I intend to eventually get some proper photos of the medina up; it continues to change rapidly as with the rest of tourist-attracting areas. The giant rubbish tip that made the walk from the Blue Sun office to the Arch such a thick-air experience in summer has been cleared out, and the alleyways are being repaired and repainted. Prices remain decent, though given the abrupt demands of the tourists off the cruise ships (How much? -- Seven dinah, madam -- Three!), I do not expect that to last too much longer - why wouldn't you double your prices once you work out tourists will automatically offer half the asking price? It worked for swapmeet.

Continuing on the car theme, but still no photos

I had hoped to post photos of the various counterfeit car brands this week (Tayota etc; my favourite is GoNow) but my laptop's battery died and I'm working on a shared PC now, so no access to photos.

I have figured out why I have had so much trouble reversing here: I have kept the habit of looking behind over my left shoulder. Here, this means I'm looking down the side of the car rather than the centre as with a right-hand drive. Even having realised this, I still have to remind myself to look right instead. (Homer: lucky you got looks, Marge).

Anyhoo. In season: peaches, figs, grapes, excellent mangoes, plums, melon etc.

You might have gathered this place kind of runs on rumour. They knocked down Souk Thalat to build a park, a car park or a new train station for the trans-North Africa railway (hah). A woman got deported for complaining about jet-skiers who turned out to be more well-connected than she was. Certain hotels and restuarants have been invited to apply for a license to serve 'touristic' drinks (this is a rumour that pops up regularly, but then so did the rumour about 4WDs becoming legal, and then that happened). And the latest: the international airport is about to be demolished. But don't worry, the new one will be ready in 2009! In between, maybe they'll use the shiny new but very small domestic terminal, maybe they'll use the military airport...or maybe they'll use the existing site and check everyone in and out in...wait for it...tents. Yep.

Reading various books about Nice. On that note, no posts for a while, I'm off to Nice. Inshallah I will have a phone line again by the time I get back (they have fixed 4 of the 8 lines that are having troubles, we're just not one of them).

General blather - no photos

I forgot to mention last week that as we were passing through London on our way back from Iceland, we attended the Harry Potter premiere. Well, we didn't see the movie, but we were in the square to see the stars arrive. Well, we didn't actually get to see the stars live, but we did get to stand on the you-arrived-too-late-losers side of the square and watch them on a screen. That's just as good as the real thing judging by the number of people taking photos and footage of said screen with their mobile phones.

Anyway. Still no internet at home, obviously (or I'd be able to give you some photos). The public beach is even busier and more colourful than last summer, and this year they even have lifeguard towers - though frankly they're so rickety I wouldn't climb them if I was a lifeguard. I'm not even sure the men I see at the top of them are lifeguards, as opposed to random people who want to sit up there.

I've mentioned the new bus stops before - the other day I even saw one that had a full-sized pull-in bay too. Not that that stops the Iveco buses from stopping in traffic 100m further down the road. Using the pull-in bay would cost 20 seconds, you see. I also saw a street sign in both Arabic and English. So sometimes the rumours are true - I first heard they were going to re-erect the street signs around six months ago, I think, or longer. And now I know the real name of the coast road.

The retro Chrysler Cruisers have made a dramatic entry onto the roads here. Like swallows for summer, first there was one, then there was a handful, and now they're swarming, it's like an entire cargo-ship of the things were released overnight. I love these cars, but they're impractical and fuel-thirsty so I'd never get one. But hey, when fuel's cheaper than milk, why not? On the other hand, I have seen a single lonely Smart car.

Watching Ridicule, French period-comedy. Reading One Red Paperclip, enjoyable enough but doesn't match the master of the gimmick non-fiction genre, Danny Wallace. Eyeing off my Lord Peter short story collection for my next selection (I held out six months, that ain't bad).

No Internet

No post on Iceland for a while as our phone line at home was taken out while we were away. Not in the literal sense, but the 'there was a wedding in the area and now no one's phone line works anymore for some reason' sense.

I think have neglected to give appropriate kudos to whoever's in charge for the recent clean-up effort, and for the rather odd greening of the roundabouts - they tried that last year, planting lawn all over the roundabouts, and it all died, but this year they're watering it. The approach to Janzour actually looks clean and inviting right now. And extremely busy at night with young people hanging out in one of the only parks in the area, even if it is just a strip of lawn next to a main road.

By the way, Souk Thalat's gone, completely demolished. Some stores had a few days' notice, some had none. The vegie market moved to near the butcher street, but where do I get garden and hardware supplies now?

Iceland post with photos either when I get home internet again, or enough time and opportunity to plug my laptop in somewhere.

Green Square

Early entry this week and no entry for a few weeks, we're off to Iceland tomorrow.

Here's an interesting contrast. Modern Green Square. Look at all those 4WD in the photo, they must be a tourist desert troupe because when I took this photo over a year ago, 4WDs were illegal on the roads. Now they're everywhere.









And then old Green Square, though I'm guessing it was called something else back then.



Watching: Wordplay, a fantastic documentary about the New York Times crossword and its editor, Will Shortz; the fans, including some famous ones eg Bill Clinton; and the annual crossword tournament in the US. It also showed how a compiler comes up with a crossword, which was really interesting. Funniest bit was Shortz reading out letters from irate solvers, saddest bit was...

SPOILER SPOILER STOP READING IF YOU CARE





...was poor poor Al who should have taken 10 extra seconds to check over his work in the final (Always finished third in the final for years! Barely even made the final this year! Was five minutes ahead of young punk Tyler! Just had to look up and see he hadn't quite finished One Across before announcing he was done...). Poor, poor Al.


END OF SPOILER

Also watching: Thank You for Smoking, black comedy with very sly humour, right down to the three "merchants of death", lobbyists for cigarettes, guns and alcohol, arguing about which of them is most deserving of being kidnapped and punished by protest groups.

Trying to watch: Grendel. Turned it off in the first ten minutes due to incredibly awful acting and script-writing. The halls were mighty, the warriors were mighty, the ship was mighty...you know, we invented a mighty thesaurus of adjectives since Beowulf was written, maybe you should use it.

Reading: Memoirs of a Geisha. Solid research, interesting insight into this ancient sub-culture, very careful about presenting certain unpleasant aspects with too much comment.

Spices

I have been neglecting to give appropriate kudos to the Tripoli government - lots of orange-clad workers are out and about cleaning up rubbish from the coast road down Gargaresh and all the way through Janzour. And not just rubbish, I saw one poor group sweeping up sand from the side of the roads, why don't we just give them a giant rock and ask them to push it uphill for eternity? The city is looking much cleaner these days.

I also have another new cafe to plug, this one is Ca Cao opposite the Omega Centre on Gargaresh. Not as good as Cafe Marcus, but anyone who does ice coffee and hot chocolate is alright by me.

On to this week's entry, my local spice guy (though the main thing I buy from him is nuts and dried apricots rather than spices as such). These photos are very blurry I'm afraid, but it's just to give you an idea of what he sells in his little alcove in the grocery store.















Reading: Fragile Things, Neil Gaimon (collection of short stores after Smoke and Mirrors) and In Cold Blood, a classic of creative non-fiction.
Watching: The Seven-per-Cent Solution, a 1976 movie in which Sherlock Holmes and Siegmund Freud team up to solve a kidnap mystery in Vienna. Featuring killer white horses and the immortal line (uttered in a brothel), 'Don't look Watson, the queen wouldn't like it'...

Qasr

I already posted about the qasr (fortified granary) at Nalut, but that is not the only example to be found dotted about the landscape around Tripoli. The Lonely Planet lauds the Qasr Al Haj as the one to see, but we haven't been there yet (lazy, much? We'll get there eventually). These photos come from one about an hour or so closer to Tripoli. It's different from other granaries in that the caravans can drive right in because it's a huge circular fortification at the top of a hill. It's been rather clumsily restored in parts with copious application of concrete, and sections of it are unfortunately reduced to rubbish tip and toilet, but in general it's an interesting sight (and site).

The first photo is trying to show the scale of it, from one side to the other.



And then this next one is an example of the stark but grand landscape surrounding it, for context.








Here's a close-up of the smaller ones.












And a look at the larger ones, at the 'head' of the circle ie opposite the entrance (the other photos have been of one side of it.






And finally inside the larger ones so you can see the multiple levels. Remember, as I said with Nalut, an entire tribe would have stored their grain here, and the keeper would have had to memorise where each family's store was and what was in it. It would once have been roofed with the same domed construction as you saw in the earlier photos.


Weather has been unpredictable; poor Ambassador, every time he cleans the pool, a dusty wind kicks up and dirties in again. Reading We've got to talk about Kevin. Watching House, since we recently discovered we get three more channels than we thought we did (and yet only one more thing worth watching...).

The circus...

...is in town. And that's pretty darn amazing for this place.

Security at the Corinthia

Short and early post this week as I'm off to Paris tomorrow, yeah, it's a tough life, I know. No photos for this entry, the reason for which will become apparent.

Last week, Mr G met with the Egyptian president in the Corinthia Hotel. Either the Corinthia staff neglected to inform Blue Sun (based in the Corinthia's business centre next to the hotel) or they themselves were taken by surprise when a bunch of security people showed up and turfed everyone out of the hotel. The first the Ambassador knew about it was when he arrived at work and was not allowed to drive into the business centre carpark. No one was allowed to park anywhere within the complex for the day, and when the Ambassador left the office for lunch, it took some fast talking to be allowed back in (remember, his offices are based next to the hotel, not in it; they don't even share a common entrance).

One Blue Sunner snapped a photo of Mr G from his office window using his mobile phone. It turns out Mr G doesn't like candid photos; a security officer showed up a few minutes later and confiscated the phone. It's the second phone he's lost to officials here, the first being pinched by a police officer when he wouldn't hand over cash to pay a 'fine'.

Unrelated note: one of the pleasures of living here is how things you take for granted at home can just make your day here. My day was made today by: finding fresh mushroom and a decent brand of peanut butter, the appearance of my second cherry tomato seedling while the first one is thriving, and the opening of our first (so far, only) rose of the season; whatever the variety is, it's got the best scent I've ever encountered in a rose.

The weather, after a few weeks of random windy, overcast and/or humid days, has turned clear and hot, and I've taken my first swim of summer. Reading, and very much enjoying, The True History of the Kelly Gang. Watching 24, finally we're up the last few episodes of the season, which has felt very long and stupid. Knitting nothing at the moment.

No post next week.

Gharyan II, Take II

Tsk, tsk, Cafe Marcus, I plug you on my blog and the next time the Ambassador goes there, you can't do lattes, fresh fruit smoothies, or some of your paninis...end of the week supply problems, I see...


Anyway, on to what I tried to post last week, about the other major attraction up in Gharyan, the Berber underground houses, also known as troglodyte houses. These photos are of one up on the escarpment, which has been repaired, refurbished and decorated in traditional fashion. It's about two hundred years old according to a sign on the way in (the rest of the signs are in Arabic). It was, of course, created mostly as defense against the heat. This first photo is taken standing at the top looking down into the courtyard.


The first time I came here, I was finding my way by following signs, which petered out halfway through. I pulled over at some ruined ones (most have been abandoned now for modern homes), thinking they were what the signs referred to, only to have an old man come wandering down the road to beckon us on up to the end of the road, where he also had a young boy serve us tea in traditional Arabic fashion. The pit in the middle was for drainage; since this photo was taken, it's been covered up with decking and more tables and chairs have been arranged on it. It is a stop-off for tourists - we saw a busload arriving as we were leaving after our tea (it also has shiny, clean modern toilets).


You reach the courtyard level via a tunnel reminscent of Ghadames. This photo shows what one guide told the Ambassador is an escape tunnel, which leads to neighbouring underground houses should the occupants of this one fall under attack or otherwise need to visit without coming up to ground level. It would have been reached via a ladder arrangement.





Each arched doorway leads to living spaces, which appear to be combined living, dining and sleeping rooms - the sleeping area is the raised area at the back, with the cloth hanging up to act as screens when necessary. The kitchens/cooking fires were in separate, much smaller cubbyhole rooms; this house had two. I imagine each sub-unit of a larger kin-family had a room each, though I'm not entirely sure of that.



This house also has traditional handicrafts displayed, such as this loom. Since this visit, they've added the ultra-traditional sale of tourist t-shirts to their display...


The underground houses are of course not limited to Libya and most of you will recognise their general layout from Star Wars (filmed in Tunisia).


One interesting story the guide also told the Ambassador is that each Berber family is responsible for olive tree(s) and the health of the trees is directly related to the health of the tribe...apparantly this is a tradition dating back to when the olives trees were planted by the Italians - no, not the ones here last century, but the Roman ones from a couple of thousand years ago. This caused some scepticism, but it turns out olive trees really can live that long.

Knitting: a scarf in lovely Jo Sharp yarn. Reading: The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. Watching: Control Room, a documentary. Spacing a bit funky this week, not sure what's going on there...