travel iteneraries: tunisia

Among the places listed in recommendations:

1) The historic Lezard Rouge (Red Lizard) train is a not-to-be-missed journey for train-enthusiasts in Tunisia. The restored train carriages date from 1911 and the route, which runs three to five times weekly between Metlaoui and Redeyef, has spectacular views of Selja Gorge (tel: 076 241 469;www.lezard-rouge.com). Visitors who will be making regular use of the rail network should buy a 7-, 15- or 21-day carte bleue (blue card), allowing unlimited travel on all routes as well as entry to museums. See SNCFT (www.sncft.com.tn) for details. http://www.worldtravelguide.net/tunisia/getting-around

2) Bardo Museum, El Jem, Kariouan, Dougga, Djerba Island http://www.mosaicnorthafrica.com/travel-tips/tunisia/post/5-recommended-sites-on-your-tunisia-tour.html

3) Day 1 Tunis, Day 2 Sfax, Day 3 Tozeur, Day 4 Kairouan, Day 5 Sidi Bou Said
Wander through Monastir's ancient fort, Visit the home of Luke Skywalker, Try makhroud - a delicious honey and date cake, Catch a sea breeze along the Bay of Tunis, http://www.intrepidtravel.com/italy/carthage-rome-2000?source=aw&awc=2651_1361777228_1ac2bfeb7e8b92ad4f4101cd8e3c9bdd

4) Cap Bon Peninsula, Bardo Museum, Bulla Regia Roman ruins, Chott El Jerid, Desert safaris, Desert trekking, Djerba, Dougga, El-Jem, Kairouan, Lake Ichkeul, Matmata, Monastir, Sahara, Sidi Bou Saïd, Sousse, Tabarka, Tunis, Turkish baths http://www.worldtravelguide.net/tunisia/things-to-do

5) Tunisia is a gentle introduction to North Africa, with its friendly Berber people and temperate climate. We traverse this diverse country from the Mediterranean to the Sahara, visiting spectacular Roman sites, mountainous fortified kasbahs and the shady forests of the north. http://www.responsibletravel.com/holiday/4589/tunisia-holidays-roman-sahara
Day 2: Tour of Tunis medina and Bardo Museum; afternoon to explore UNESCO site of Carthage and pretty Sidi Bou Said.
Day 3: To Kairouan; visit the great mosque and drive to El Jem; visit impressive El Jem amphitheatre; night in Mahrès.
Day 4: Transfer to Matmata and visit troglodyte houses; to Douz, visit museum and overnight camping in desert.
Day 5: Drive to Tozeur at edge of Sahara; afternoon visit to medina.
Day 6: Visit palm filled oasis and travel on Red Lizard train through spectacular scenery.
Day 7: Drive to Sbeitla; visit Roman site of Makthar and continue to the mountain town of Le Kef.
Day 8: To Roman ruins at Dougga and Andalucian city of Testour; to Tunis for overnight stay.

6) Sahara Desert Track http://www.intrepidtravel.com/tunisia/sahara-desert-trek-66800
Day 1 Djerba
Day 2 Douz
Days 3-6 Sahara Trek

7) The best of Tunisia http://www.toursbylocals.com/privateguidebestofTunisia
Day 1 : Arrival/transfer to hotel in Tunis
Day2: Tunis-Carthage -Sidi Bousaid
Day 3 : Tunis- Dougga-El Kef
Day4: El Kef -Gafsa -Tozeur
Day5: Tozeur-Douz- Matmata
Day6 : Matmata -El Jem -Kairouan
Day7 : Kairouan-Hammamet-Tunis

8) oasis tour http://www.toursbylocals.com/Tour-of-Tunisia
Day 1: Tunis-Dougga-Gafsa (340kms)
Day 2: Gafsa-Mides-Tamrza-Chebika- Tozeur (150kms)
Day 3: Tozeur-chatt jrid (dry lake) Douz-Matmata-Gabes (255kms)
Day 4: Gabes-Eljem-Sousse-Tunis (350kms)

9) South and Sahara http://www.toursbylocals.com/Tunisia-private-guide
Day 1: Arrival/transfer to hotel in Tunis
Day 2: Tunis-Carthage -Sidi Bousaid
Day 3: Tunis-Kairouan-Gafsa
Day 4: Gafsa-chebika-Tozeur-
Day 5: Tozeur-Douz-Matmata -
Day 6: Matmata-Gabes-Sfax
Day 7:Sfax-El jem-Sousse-Tunis:

10) Roman Tunisia http://www.toursbylocals.com/BestRomanTunisia
Day 1-Carthage-Bardo museum
Day 2-Thuburbu Majus -Uthina-Tunis
Day 3-Bulla Regia /Dougga/El Kef
Day 4-El Kef/Mactaris/el Kef
Day5 -e l Kef /Ammaedara/ Cillium/Sufetula
Day 6-Sufetula-El Jem-Sousse
Day 7-Sousse -Tunis

Complete iteneraries, the first two are academically extensive

http://luc.edu/media/lucedu/studyabroad/pdfs/Tunisia%20Syllabus%20&%20Itinerary%202013.pdf
http://www.archaeologicaltrs.com/af_tunisia.html

http://www.pocketvillage.com/Tunisia/activity/48990/?md
http://www.intrepidtravel.com/italy/carthage-rome-2000?source=aw&awc=2651_1361777228_1ac2bfeb7e8b92ad4f4101cd8e3c9bdd
http://www.intrepidtravel.com/tunisia/sahara-desert-trek-66800
http://www.responsibletravel.com/holiday/4589/tunisia-holidays-roman-sahara
http://www.toursbylocals.com/Tunis-Tours?gclid=CIOMxLHc0LUCFQQb6wod_m8Ahw
http://www.travelshopturkey.com/tunisia_tours/8_days_tunisia_discovery_tour.asp
http://www.mosaicnorthafrica.com/tunisia/itineraries/tour-through-time-best-of-tunisian-history-7-day.html
http://www.mosaicnorthafrica.com/tunisia/itineraries/the-best-of-southern-tunisia-tour-8-day.html
http://www.mosaicnorthafrica.com/tunisia/itineraries/unforgettable-tunisia-12-day.html

And also check http://www.worldtravelguide.net/tunisia

Korea/winter travel essentials to be given away / sold!

Update February 2014: All items are not available anymore. ^_^

However, I advise muslims to get this book from KTO Kuala Lumpur, Wisma Han Seng:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My old post, and now all these are not available anymore ;-)

If you are travelling to Korea and want these T-money, brochures and maps for free
or you are going to a cold place and want these unused / worn-only-once-or-twice-for-trying winterwear sold for a lot less then the retail price

so please feel free to browse this collection

Korea-09_Tobegivenawayorsold

and contact me khadijahwmg - at - gmail.com

About the winter wear in this album
They were bought and tried for just a few minutes. They were bought to Korea during my trip, but were not worn (except those stated otherwise).

Want to save more money? If you don't mind wearing used items, the down jackets, gloves, and waterproof pants that I really did wear during the trip - I can sell them for RM10 each. The original price of each of them  was around RM30. They are all washed clean now :-) Pictures can be sent to email upon request, because I haven't taken pics of them yet.

Getting to Phoenix Park

Phoenix Park is a resort located about 2 hour away on road from Seoul. In winter, it becomes a ski and snowboarding park. In off-snow seasons, people go there for golfing. I went there for a conference during ski season in the middle of winter. The experience of planning and preparing to get there was well worth it upon arrival in Phoenix Park. Alhamdulillah I enjoyed the 2 days of thick powdery soft snow there.

The conference that I attended (icact.org) is held annually during skiing season in Phoenix Park, so there might be IT grad students or academics or anybody who need to present IT related paper in a conference who want to join this conference. Unfortunately the instructions on how to get to Phoenix Park in icact website does not include info about Phoenix Park's ski bus, although using the sky bus is a lot less of stress compared to using multiple buses as featured in icact website. 

So if you need to use public transportation to get there for work or just want to enjoy the snow, here are among the English websites I know that give info on how to get to Phoenix Park

1. Phoenix Park's ski bus - possibly during skiing season only, 2 months in a year. http://www.phoenixpark.co.kr/global/english/phoenixresort/contactus_transportation01.aspx

Click on the "bus booking" button for bus schedule and locations. Booking is not really necessary but may be done to secure a seat.

######## update 2015 #####
The link above has changed, as of now, they are

http://www.phoenixpark.co.kr/pp/intro/traffic_foreigner

http://www.phoenixpark.co.kr/pp/intro/skibus_1516_jamsil#

http://www.phoenixpark.co.kr/pp/intro/traffic_free

http://www.phoenixpark.co.kr/pp/intro/buspass

http://interface.phoenixpark.co.kr/global/english/phoenixresort/contactus_transportation01.aspx 

###################

2. If we depart from other places and time or outside the skiing season, we may use this general info from icact's website here. http://www.icact.org/VenueInfo/transportation.asp

3. As Phoenix Park can also be reached from Wonju, you may want to try the train to get to Wonju. Info and booking here http://www.korail.com/

My experience

When i decided to attend the conference, my SV asked "are you sure? it's not easy you know, this place is far from Seoul, and most Koreans do not speak English!" But the obstinate me said, insyaAllah, I'll make proper planning. I will follow the website instruction. And she said "but the real thing will not be as easy as  the website instruction, and I myself will be using taxi, although I have studied in Korea myself" 

Oh so demotivating. And when i studied the instruction in icact's website (link #2), it was actually not easy. I chose one route and plan the time that will be taken: half day. I googled to find tourist guides among malaysians in korea if they want to help me, some of them agree but requesting for a big payment. 

Alhamdulillah taking multiple buses and worrying about the right bus station was not the only way to get there. I found Phoenix Park website (link #1) which tells that they have one bus departing at 930am daily from the glass tower near Samseong station. So I booked a hotel that i think is the nearest possible to the glass tower, Samsung Casaville Residence.

When I got out of Samseong station on the evening I was supposed to check in at the Casaville, I was somewhat disoriented. Following my logic according to the google map in the handphone as well as Fadzlin's (muslimbackpackerseoul.com) map, I entered and exited some alleys. After about 10 minutes of confusion, I looked back and saw two men walking in the same direction. I approached them, asking "excuse me, do you speak English?" to get the reassuring answer of "of course we do" "do you know how to get to .." "yes, we are going to the same place!" Alhamdulillah. 

That night after coming back from sightseeing in Coex the biggest mall in Seoul which is just across the main road, we tried to locate the bus stop. Locating the exact spot as I remember shown in Phoenix Park's website, we saw a signboard with the symbol of a bus and some Korean wordings. We took photo of the signboard and get back to hotel. At the hotel's reception desk, I wanted to confirm what I saw. I asked the staff if he knows the exact location of the bus stop. He said that there's no bus stop for Phoenix Park here. I showed him the photo we just took, to which he said, "hey I am very sure that there's no such signboardat Glass Tower". Oh how shameful. I changed my question to "Ok no problem if this signboard does not exist. But can you please translate for me what it says?" And his answer was something like "board the bus for Phoenix Park here. Get ticket from the basement level, Glass Tower". So it confirmed the location of the bus stop. I wanted to show the staff the Phoenix Park's website which states that the bus stop is at the back of Glass Tower as he did not want to believe it, so I asked to open a website. He pointed me to the computer stationed opposite him so I opened Phoenix Park's website.

I was quite surprised to find a "book the bus" button already added to the page, which did not exist a few days before when I last checked the website. There were also no bus schedule in the last few days. I was quite unhappy why Phoenix Park did not do the update earlier and also worried if I could not board the bus because I could not book it, as the page said booking should be made two days earlier.

The next morning I went to the bus stop and proceed to go inside the Glass Tower to buy ticket like stated in the signboard. Apart of the empty lobby (it was Sunday) there was a man who greeted me. He was also heading for the same destination for the same conference. He told me that he also did not book the bus ticket. Then many others arrived, most of them maybe local people who wanted to go for ski. We managed to know other conference presenters from Hong Kong, India, and also Malaysian Saiful who brought along his wife, son, and parents in law to enjoy Korea for 10 days. (Incidentally Saiful's mom-in-law looked very much like my advisor) It seemed that they stayed in other hotels farther than the Casaville like Ibis Ambassador. So for those who need to take morning bus from the Glass Tower, i think Samsung Casaville is the nearest place to stay, although the hotel staff know nothing about this.

The bus finally arrived. I was relieved that the bus driver took everybody in without asking about booking. Only after reaching Phoenix Park that the bus driver started to ask to pay for the ticket. Upon getting in Phoenix Park area, Dr Lau from Hong Kong who came for this conference for the 3rd or 4th time showed us the ticketing counter for the bus to get back to Seoul. We bought the ticket the next day after choosing which bus to take based on the bus schedule in the website. It was good to have studied the schedule and chose earlier rather than asking the person at the ticketing counter. The guy seemed to understand the basic English that we said "two tickets for Seoul, 11am" and answered "Jamsil, twenty cheon" but could not answer when we asked where to take the bus. Luckily he had an English-speaking friend who came out and answered all our questions.

So to conclude, I thank Allah for making the trip easier for me. For those who need to get there by public transport like me, find (and read) the related info in websites, do not think that we can always rely on any local as they don't know everything and also because the language barrier. Also check the website often for updates.

Excellent interactive maps of Seoul - helpful for your planning

Some of them take time to load, and some other needs installation. But these are better maps compared to Google's map and visitseoul map.

http://gis.seoul.go.kr/SeoulGis/NewEnglishMap.jsp
http://emap.visitkorea.or.kr/Scripts/EngMap.aspx
http://maps4pc.com/download/
http://www.johomaps.com/as/korea/seoul/seoulmetro.html

How to choose a place to stay at an excellent location, if you rely on public transport

Bismillah. This is based on my experience staying in 4 different places during my recent trip to Korea. We backpacked, the two of us carried a total of 20+ kg of bags (two bags were attached with wheels), we used 100% public transportation and 0% taxi/cab.

1. Choose somewhere really close to the airport / direct transportation to airport. There's less hassle when there is no transferring process.

In Seoul, as the city is 55km away from the airport, the best place to stay is not around the airport unless if we want to take an early flight the next day or we have business around the airport.

If we are staying in the Seoul city, try to stay near the stations which offer direct express train to airport.
Reason: The airport railroad (AREX)  train fare is much cheaper than the airport buses, and they are traffic-jam proof, a very big plus for the heavy-traffic metropolitan.
As of today, the fare are as follows: airport bus w10k to w14k, AREX commuter w3750, AREX express w8k (discount until end of 2013, afterwards will be w13500).

So the best place to stay are:

a) near exit 8, 9, 10 of Seoul station, because these exits have escalators, and Seoul station is the only station where the express AREX train stops. http://disability.seoul.go.kr/en/transport/subway_view.jsp?no=224&idx=2&Depth=21&searchLine=1&searchWord=
Other reasons to stay near Seoul station: great if we want to try the superspeed KTX train or intercity trains to go to other part of Korea.

b) near the bus stops of Airport limousine buses. http://www.airport.kr/airport/traffic/bus/busList.iia?flag=E Click the "Detail" grey button, another page opens, and click the dot that represents each station to see a map of the bus stop.

c) near escalator exits of the stations in the airport railroad line (AREX). From these stations we can take AREX commuter train to the airport.This maps mark 3 stations in line 2, 5 and 6 that are in the AREX railroad line. http://www.johomaps.com/as/korea/seoul/seoulmetro.jpg However, all these stations are outside of Seoul downtown.

2) Choose somewhere really close to the stations connecting to the stations in airport railway line.

Seoul station, although is a great location, is not located right in the middle of downtown Seoul. If we want to stay in the middle of downtown Seoul, try these locations:

a) near escalator exits of subway stations in line 1 or line 4, because these lines connect directly to Seoul Station. From these stations we can go to Seoul station and take either the express or the commuter AREX train.
To see the location of escalators in subway stations, refer http://disability.seoul.go.kr/en/transport/subway_list.jsp?Depth=21&searchLine=1&searchWord=#contop

b) near escalator exits of subway stations lines 2, 5 or 6, because these lines connects to stations in the airport railway (AREX) line. From stations in these lines, transfer at any of the stations in the AREX line, and take AREX commuter to the airport.
An ideal location is Dongdaemun History and Culture Park (Dongdaemun Stadium) which connects line 2, 4 and 5, and is in the middle of downtown Seoul.

In conclusion, if we want to get to and from the airport easily, stay near subway stations in line 1, 2, 4, 5 or 6, near the escalator exits which are near to the airport bus stop. My personal ranking of choice will be
a) Exit 8, 9, 10 of Seoul station
b) Exit 4 of Dongdaemun History and Culture Park (Dongdaemun Stadium) station

These are very convenient locations and covered by airport limo buses to. For (b), the bus stop is Toyoko Inn http://www.airportlimousine.co.kr/route/routee02.htm.


To book hotel, I found out that it's the cheapest to book directly from the hotel website. Alternatively, use local agents such as travelnote.net and hotelwide.com in Korea. To identify hotels by location, it's good to use map provided by tripadvisor or hotelscombined. then, find the hotel's website then do booking directly or through local agents.