Smiling and Bargaining Over Berber Delights in Tripoli, Libya

If you somehow managed to jump through the right bureaucratic hoops to get in independently or if you stepped off one of the luxury cruise liners that now stop daily in Tripoli, you won’t be disappointed. A land where only the government can advertise and Gaddafi watches are the hot tourist item, the until-recently-forgotten Old City of Tripoli is a crumbling mix of Sub-Saharan migrants waiting for their chance to cross into Europe and petrodollar-fueled gentrification. Sleepy shop owners used to high-end tourists and diplomats, watch as you stroll by, offering tea and sharing their mutual curiosity. Treasures from the inner Sahara whose sands blow into the streets can be found, but for a price worthy of Aladdin… after the cave.

Also published on Trazzler.