Continuing our trek south, we took a train to Gabes. There isn’t much to do here. We stayed at Hotel Regina, because it was late and we couldn’t be bothered to find anywhere else (navigating this town is not an easy feat). The hotel was unheated except for a space heater we rented (that was way too small for the room, we should have saved our $2). The toilet leaked, the shower splashed everywhere, the taps were backward – the whole place was a plumber’s worst nightmare. The bathroom had a window that couldn’t be closed, etc. In the morning we got a cab to the far end of town (we’re glad we did, it would have been quite a hike) to the bus/louage station. It’s right next to the palmeraie. While we were waiting across the street in the sun for the bus that left an hour later than advertised, a kid (probably about 9) came up and started begging us for money. It was actually quite unusual – we didn’t see anywhere near as much of this as we saw in Morocco. There was no one else around, so the kid just kept whining at us for some money, pushing her hand into us. We could have just walked away from our little spot in the sun and lost the kid, but I was too cold. So we started talking back – but she didn’t understand a word of French or English. So out came our trusty phrasebook. I did my best to sound menacing, yelling “Go away, leave us alone! Shame!” in Arabic, while motioning to shoo her away. My wife just kept smiling, which didn’t really help our cause, but the kid finally took the hint and gave up 🙂