So we’ve spent the last 9 days in Libya, and it’s been quite an experience. We visited the Roman ruins of Sabratha and Leptis Magna, and the Greek/Roman ruins of Cyrene. These ruins put the ones we saw in Morocco and Tunisia to shame, especially Leptis Magna. The best part was that there was virtually no one apart from us at any of these sites. We also visited Ghadames, an Oasis town in southern Libya, close to the Algerian and Tunisian border. It too was pretty awesome, and unlike the old cities of the other North Africa countries, this one was uninhabited. People moved out about 20 years ago to the newly built government homes just outside the old city gates. Access to running water and electricity tend to be pretty good motivators to move. However they’ve maintained the old city quite nicely, and as a result we enjoyed a quiet guided walk through its streets. Again, we were basically the only tourists. You may ask why all these great tourist attractions are devoid of visitors; well the answer is Libya’s ruler Colonel Gaddaffi, and I’ll elaborate more on this in my next post. I was told by Libyans that he is not a fan of large amounts of tourists and thus makes it hard for them to get here. As I’ve said before, you need a visa and when you arrive you need to be part of an organized tour (and they are not cheap at all considering the country is not expensive). He had an argument with the Swiss a few months ago and decided to close the border to all Europeans for 3 months, just like that. However, by keeping tourists out he hasn’t jaded the population with the almighty tourist dollar which turned out to be awesome for us.
So on our 2nd day in Libya we went to the Roman city of Leptis Magna (the above picture was taken there). Basically the only other large group of tourists at this massive site were those same Dutch people we saw at the border. That was cool and we hung out for a while. We saw some of them climb to a really high vantage point above the amphitheatre and when they left we decided to do the same. When we got there we heard two Libyan men talking, and as they saw us poke our heads around the corner they invited us to sit with them. One spoke perfect French and the other spoke decent English. After small talk of about 10 minutes, the highly educated French speaker gave us the whole history of the city. Anyways, about 30 minutes of conversation later we had to leave to meet our driver, so we let them climb down first and then we followed. At the bottom they waited for us and insisted we have lunch with them. We politely declined but they wouldn’t take no for an answer and convinced our driver. They took us to a very nice restaurant and we ended up chatting for approximately 3 hours. The topics covered everything from culture, education, literature, politics, family and religion. A lot of heavy topics but all shared in a friendly and open manner. They did speak highly of Islam, but contrary to what you may think, they weren’t trying to convert us or anything, and they only had good things to say about the messages of Christianity and Buddhism as well. Personally I don’t think they’d speak so highly on atheism, but that was a subject I steered clear of. The one who spoke English, Hosin, was the most talkative and he was very funny, though when he got serious he had really good advice on life. He talked of the Arabic version of karma, and how when he was young people were generous to him and so he’s been the same, which has resulted in his great life. He also made it clear that you have to do good things for people and then forget about what you did, because if you always remember the good things you do for people you’ll start feeling like they in turn owe you, which will make you very jaded. To him it was fated that we met at Leptis Magna way up on a tower where no one else was, and as such he was extremely happy to treat us to lunch. Anytime we return or we have friends who go he wants us to send them his way. What a great start to our trip!
Now I thought we got lucky meeting these 2 guys and that would be that, but in all honesty we were invited to peoples houses for tea and coffee and cakes many times. The times we accepted, offers for dinner and a place to stay were given after! We had dinner at one families’ house, and their generosity and friendliness was overwhelming. I felt bad that the only thing I could really give in return was a bag of fruit for the matriarch of the family. These people don’t invite you with surreptitious intentions as they never want anything in return. They always tell us to look them if up if we ever come back insha’allah (that means God willing, and they use it a lot).
On our last night in Libya a childhood friend of our guide who was also the head of the tourist police wanted to take him and us out for a coffee to meet and chat. He asked if we were married and we joked around and stuff, but seriously by the end of our conversation he wanted to throw us a wedding party. He said that whenever we returned to Libya after we were married he would host a huge party for us, on him! I’m pretty sure he was serious too because he kept telling us to remember to come back for this celebration. So mom, I think we’re getting married in Libya. haha jk (that stands for ‘just kidding’ mom).
Speaking of our guide I have to leave a shout-out here because he was awesome. If you’re ever in Eastern Libya and need a guide, email Hadi Gebriel at
Gebriel_BS@yahoo.com. I can’t say enough good things about him. He was the top student in Libya in math in his year and as a result was given a scholarship to study in England, where he stayed for many years. He was super friendly and had good insight on the pros and cons of Libyan life since he was able to give a more western viewpoint as well.
I do have to talk about our one really really negative experience in Libya, and that would be the @$#&$* cockroaches in our hotel! We stayed in a really crappy hotel in Ghadames, and I killed 8 of them. EIGHT! And 5 of them were massive, and just writing about them right now is making my eyes search the ground nervously even though I’m in Alexandria in a beautiful hotel (we splurged here since we suffered for a few nights in Libya). There is something just not right about a bug that is hundreds of times smaller than you, yet after you injure it by slamming a flip-flop on it’s head it still chases YOU. If there was one massive complaint about Libya, it’s the standard of cleanliness in old hotels (of which we stayed in for 3 terrible nights out of 8). Every night we got into our sleeping bag liners (best idea ever for Libya) and wrapped ourselves up to the point of suffocation just in case a stupid cockroach was nearby. Argh, enough about that, just writing about it is making me forget the kindness we encountered. &*#$* cockroaches!
If only this country was open to independent travelers, they would love it here. It’s inexpensive, the infrastructure is relatively good, the sights are beautiful, and the people are some of the friendliest I’ve ever met.
fromwonderintowonder 
This blog is awesome. And further to the last post. I think a road trip through the maritimes is a good start!
Its really great to hear that locals are so friendly and open to tourists…makes everyone that wants to travel feel more at ease about taking that step. Keep up with the great adventure!btw…if you guys get married there…dont bank on dad being there…he hates cockroaches!!!
btw we played vball last night…saw everyone.Ryan calls me girly version of Eugene…cuz he misses you so im the closest thing hes got.Prit says you write too much. He wants stuff like…we in Libya…it is good experience. I think his brain just cant handle anything more than that.:)
That is really heartwarming to read! (not the cockroach part)I could say some corny or political things right now, but in a nutshell, I love humans 🙂
man… again… everyone you guys meet are all so nice… makes the trip so much better….
eug, glad to hear you kept your mouth shut and ears open to a possiblity of a higher being than yourself 😉