Sabratha isn’t that far from the border. Perhaps 100kms? Pulled up to the Tunisian/Libyan border around noon; people seemed to be simply going through the motions of getting us thru. Was nice because we stayed on the truck, and as he looked at each passport, we just stuck our head out the window and waved. Couple more people inspected the truck, someone asked the group if anyone has anything to declare (of course not), and after about a 1/2 hour we’re off through no-man’s land. Spent about an hour waiting on the truck at the Libyan border for official tour people to do paperwork with each other, no need to talk to anyone, and we were off!
Sabratha was one of the ancient cities of “Tripolitania” (along with modern day Tripoli and “Leptis Magna”) so has a large set of ruins. Got gas for the truck when we arrived – 164 litres of diesel cost $24!! (a benefit of having lots of oil and apparently not having to listen to OPEC’s rules)
So far people seem to have a lot more money here compared to Tunisia; cars are nicer, buildings are quite modern, once in the cities they’re quite clean (but not the countryside)… no one seems to harass us to buy stuff (perhaps it’s because they’re not as poor, but maybe not).
Spent the night at the youth hostel; walked to the main drag and had shawarmas upon arrival. Chemistry within the tour group is very different as expected; not only are we now part of a tour with 11 other people, but we have 2 locals with us everywhere we go – one is a police officer name Mohammed (as is most people :), the other is the guide name Amir. He’s irritating the Drago leaders, the police officer is entirely unnecessary, and we have to pay their way through. (apparently some other tourists about a decade ago vandalised a rock carving and now we all have to pay for it!) Once we realized we had these guys with us, it set a weird tone as no one knew if we could stray fro the group, if it’s really dangerous, etc. We of course did go on our own and quickly realized how polite most people were to us; right away I noticed that people of course looked at us, but very few people STARED like in Tunisia. Everyone we came into contact with just seemed to want to personally welcome us to Libya.
On the way back to the hostel Jamie and I sprung for a travel-sized sheesha pipe which ended up treating us quite nicely throughout Libya 🙂
Up and at ’em at the buttcrack of dawn military style (still trying to work out why we’re always in such a rush), hit the ruins around sunrise. The ruins were great; similar to what eventually stood out at Leptis Magna, they’re right on the water which makes every picture look magazine worthy. Hardly a sole around, we hit the museum briefly then walked around the ruins for about 2 hours. The theatre was maybe the highlight; it was mostly pieced back together by the Italians in the 1920’s though… still trying to decide if I think that’s a good thing or not (the reassembling of ruins) – I’m leaning towards “yes”.
So far each site in Libya has been 2 or 3 dinar to get in, plus 5 if you want to take pictures. My only guess is it’s an indirect way of taxing the tourists since locals don’t likely take many pics. Either way I’ve been sneaking my camera in my pocket 😉
The Drago truck
View from the museum
The theater
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