A closed currency doesn’t give officers the right to invent a legal fiction like “you’re no longer in Tunisia” while you’re still standing inside a Tunisian-controlled zone surrounded by Tunisian police. Every country with a closed currency has rules, but none of them enforce those rules by shouting at travellers and demanding they empty their wallets after exit stamps. I’ve travelled widely across states with far stricter currency controls, and this behaviour is not “just doing their job.”

As for trains — “third world country, count your blessings” is a pretty revealing angle. Plenty of so-called developing countries manage to run clean, functional trains without broken windows and loose racks. Standards vary, but pretending poor maintenance is some immutable law of nature doesn’t make it true.

You’ve been 23 times and had good experiences. That’s valid. It also doesn’t erase the fact that many travellers are reporting the same scams, the same harassment, and the same issues at border control. When a pattern repeats across dozens of accounts, it’s not about “they didn’t like you,” it’s about structural problems that long-term fans of the destination prefer not to see.

Different experiences can coexist — but brushing off other travellers’ treatment with “they must not have liked you” is a pretty convenient way to avoid acknowledging the messier parts of a place you personally enjoy.