Egypt and Libya, March 19 - April 2, 2006 / 20060325a_TripoliFirstView
Ruth Milner, rmilner plus web at bookofmarvels dot net
This was our first
view of Tripoli, from
Dale and Matthew's room (Sarah and I had an interesting view of a
5-foot-square open-air shaft in the center of the building which
provided light to some of the rooms). You can see an eclectic mix of buildings,
probably covering at least a hundred years of construction if not more.
The beautiful blue Mediterranean is in the background. We spent just
the one night here as the tour had not officially started yet, and were
transferred to the main tour hotel in the afternoon. Dale nearly
missed the transfer: he went out for a walk after our breakfast at the
hotel and had a very hard time finding the Tebah again. We had a
pleasant, relaxing morning otherwise, and the kids caught up with some
homework.
Even in rural areas, Libya generally
appeared to be more affluent than Egypt; certainly there was better housing
and newer cars in better condition. This is
probably because a lot of the country's substantial income from selling
oil has gone into its infrastructure. As a result, Libyans overall enjoy
one of the
highest standards of living on the entire continent of Africa. And the
drivers were even sane.