Kasbah Ellouze Ouarzazate

... eat properly, though hope you wil accept that this does not mean eating the amount that you serve up! Am starting to find looking for buses and hotels a lot more fun now, rather than stressful (which is good I suppose, given what I'll be doing for the next nine months- though do keep getting strange craving for christmas cake!) Oh and one more thing - talking off life's little luxuries, guess what greeted me on arrival to the hotel last night... coloured toilet paper (pink if you must know)!

... a battle ship, so we just got the fossil, which we're going to stick on the wall in the head.

After heading over the High Atlas pass at 2400 mtrs, we arrived at Ait Benhaddou, which is famous for it's 12 century Kasbar, which has been used for the filming of Jesus of Nazareth, Gladiator and Lawrence of Arabia. The whole place is built of mud bricks. Which don't appear to be kiln fired, there aren't ...

Ait Ben Haddou is one of the oldest Kasbahs in Morocco. Onthe way to the hotel we saw goats on the side of a maountain. And from the roof of the hotel I took pictures of the kasbah and the neighbors garden. We met 2 German girls the next morning and gave them a ride to Casablanca. They were lots of fun.

So a lot has happened in the past couple days but I dont have long to write about it all. I went on a three day trip with seven other people, all of which spoke english which I was thrilled about. This little excursion was definetely the highlight of this trip. We drove hundreds of miles through Eastern Morocco to visit some amazing sights. We went to Dades Gorge, a mini grand canyon with mountains all around ...

... first, we seem to be getting better at keeping control of situations here. Luckily some Polish travellers, some Berbers and turban wearing men shared the ride making up the six passengers we needed to get the good deal. In Rissani the driver tried it on for us to give him money for our bags but we had already negotiated an all inclusive deal and told him to get lost. We went to the grand taxi stand where an attendant was writing taxi trip information on a chalkboard and ...

... deviner la magnificience des lieux, construits au début du siècle dernier (mosaïque, stuc, marquetterie, etc). Il n'y avait sûrement rien à envier aux palais des grandes villes. C'est au sortir de Telouet que débute vraiment l'aventure. Nous quittons la route goudronnée pour suivre une piste caillouteuse pendant près de 3 heures, jusqu'à Aït Ben Haddou. 3 heures de secousses, mais 3 heures ...

... empty, some shabby looking, and then when you got near the camel areas, BAM there were tons of expensive and finely built Riads and Hotels in "Moroccan" style, that were obviously sucessful purely through the tourism industry(which Morocco is trying to develop more every day). Arriving in Zagora, we were apparently late, so we had to get our stuff ready for the night, change, and get, yes, headwraps put on us to protect our heads from the wind and ...

... 6:30pm, so I found a room at a simple and a bit shabby hotel there and decided I'd go and see the old citadel the next day. Just took it easy and had a traditional Moroccan dinner at the hotel's restaurant - some sort of yellow curry couscous with chicken and vegetables - and what a STACK of food! And was in deed yummie!! I had officially become a fan of Moroccan cuisine. The room with hot water shower, dinner and breakfast the morning after cost me 150 dirhams ($19 USD).

... of the desert. Back at camp, Tuareg musicians are playing to welcome us. We watch, clap, then join in their dance. Dinner is fresh salad of orange, tomatoes, pepper and onions, followed by lamb tagine and cinammon oranges for dessert. Over tea, we meet for an hour with the head of this tribe, and the son of the head of all 13 tribes. We are free to ask anything about nomad life, why they love it, whey they live it. After a ...

... his friends house for dinner that night. So we went first in the afternoon for tea and looked at some of the rugs that there family makes. Of course trying to sell them, one of the other couples bought one. That day in the afternoon around 4pm the guy took all of us to a local Hammam(bathhouse). These bathhouses are a weekly event for the moroccan men and women and is a place of social gatherings. The girls went to oneside and the guy to the other. The ...